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Download 10.2 The Byzantine Empire
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The Byzantine Empire Three new civilizations based on religion emerged from the ruins of the Roman Empire: Byzantium, Islam, and Latin Christendom. Though the Roman Empire in the west fell to the German tribes, the eastern provinces survived because they were wealthier and more populous and because they did not bear the brunt of barbarian invasions. Therefore, with a capital city at Constantinople, the eastern remnant of the Roman Empire became a new entity. While its inhabitants still called themselves Roman, Byzantium created a new culture that was for 1,000 years far more advanced than Christendom in Europe. The Byzantine Empire’s religion was Christianity, its culture Greek, and its governing mechanisms Roman. At a time when few Latin Christians could read or write, Byzantine scholars studied the literature, philosophy, science, and law of ancient Greece and Rome. Constantinople was a magnificent walled city of schools, libraries, open squares (forums), and bustling markets. Over the centuries the two severed halves of the old Roman Empire grew apart culturally and theologically. The popes in Rome resisted domination by the Byzantine emperors, and the Byzantines would not accept the pope as head of their churches. Quarrels erupted over holy days, the display of images (called icons) in worship, and the rights of the clergy. A final break came in 1054, and ever since Roman Catholics and Eastern (Greek) Orthodox churches have been split. Even though it would have been convenient to unify in the face of outside aggression and the arrival of a whole new religion (Islam) on the scene, European Christians refused to recognize the Byzantine emperors’ claims that they were the successors to the Roman emperors. Furthermore, in Byzantium Greek was the language of religious and other intellectual discourse; in Latin Christendom they used, well, Latin. Even Augustine had said he never learned Greek. The Byzantine Empire played a crucial role in world history. We shall go back and trace its history to its high point, and then we’ll mark its slow demise under great pressure from all sides in the course of studying its opponents. As we begin, however, note that Byzantium did stop Islam from spreading into Europe. Had Constantine not placed his namesake city in such a critical geographical location, Arabs would likely have penetrated far into Eastern Europe and found it unable to resist being made a part of the Muslim Empire. A Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, also rescued the broad legacy of Roman law which in its principles of reason and justice became the foundation for much of today’s legal codes wherever the feet of Europeans have trod. Byzantine culture inspired even Muslim scholars to preserve the philosophy, science, mathematics, and literature of ancient Greece. When it came to conflict with barbarians, Byzantium converted several Germanic and Slavic tribes to Orthodox Christianity and also transmitted law, art, and other high ideas to what amounted to hordes of forest-dwellers, i.e. Russians. Assailed on all sides by fellow Christians, Persians, Russians, Ottoman Turks, and Arabs, the Byzantine Empire not only survived for a millennium but transmitted to all these other rivals a measure of culture which otherwise would have been lost forever. Among other ideas, Byzantium forged the concept of the Christian king, a powerful notion that would eventually help Europe out of the Middle Ages toward the creation of modern nation-states. Unfortunately, this idea would persist long after rulers dispensed with sincere Christianity and merely became absolutists claiming the divine right to rule. Now to the history of this cultural gemstone set in the crown of antiquity. “Byzantium” was an old Greek polis of no significance through ancient times, but all that changed when Constantine the Great renewed it in 324 as his capital city, Constantinople. He envisioned the city as the new Rome from where he could keep an eye on the frontiers along the Danube and Euphrates rivers, not to mention the Bosporus, the narrow channel into the trade routes of the Black Sea. He hoped that this move would cause his city to become the focus of a new unity in decrepit Rome, but not until over two hundred years later would a Byzantine emperor come even close to making this vision a reality. In founding his new city, Constantine tapped into an ideal within the Christian Scriptures of the New Jerusalem. Byzantine civilization was permeated with a belief in divine favor and the resulting duty of vigilance. At its core was the interaction among imperial capital, emperor, and church. The patterns formed built on Christian, Roman, and Hellenistic foundations. Thus Byzantine civilization was imperial, Christian, and urban. By the time Constantine died in 337, however, his city was only half finished. His son, Constantius ruled as emperor of the east from 337-361, and his two brothers were given the central and western portions of the Roman Empire. Civil war broke out among the heirs of Constantine, but Constantius won. In celebration he gave Constantinople a senate on the Roman model and a church, the first Church of St. Sophia, to serve as its cathedral. The Christian church grew suspicious of Consantius, however, because he leaned near the end of his life toward the Arian heresy, the series of beliefs that diminished if not removed the doctrine of the full divinity of Christ. His cousin and successor, Julian, was not any better because he was overtly pagan. He died, however, trying to play at being Alexander the Great while fighting the Persians from his preferred capital city of Antioch. His successor was named Valens and also operated out of Antioch. Valens was thus too focused on the frontier to stop an uprising of Visigoths until it was too late. The Visigoths met Valens and his army at Adrianople in 378 and killed the emperor in battle. To the rescue came a man of whom you have heard before. None other than Theodosius took the throne. Theodosius was a Spaniard, a devout Roman Catholic, and a good general. As emperor he called the Constantinople Council where leaders of the church rejected the Arian heresy once and for all. With this impetus Theodosius, as you have seen, then enacted the step that made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Since Theodosius returned his administration to Constantinople, that city became at once the new Rome and the New Jerusalem. Theodosius ruled from Constantine’s city where Constantine had left a giant stone sculptured head of himself. Theodosius took an obelisk from the temple at Karnak in Egypt and moved it to the hippodrome of Constantinople. Upon this ancient monument Theodosius had relief sculptures carved of himself and his family watching the games. Theodosius began expansions of his growing capital which were completed by his grandson. In 412 the new line of walls was built nearly a mile west of where Constantine the Great had left off. Constantinople’s greatness lay not only in its walls, which still stand, but in its fixation on relics that attracted huge crowds of pilgrims. Constantine’s own mother had started the process. This woman, Helena, traveled the Holy Land and named sites of events recorded in the New Testament. History cannot tell where these events happened, but Helena thought she could. She is also reported as having found the true cross upon which Christ was crucified which Byzantine armies brought back by force form Persia. That relic certainly drew crowds. Other relics were stockpiled in Constantinople along with a plethora of images of saints and even of Jesus decorating the city and its buildings with either frescoes or mosaics. The word byzantine implies now a level of complexity in government or in art just for the sake of having complexity. In this regard, your ideal notebook entries could be said to be byzantine. The other great attraction to living in Constantinople was bread. In what was known as the corn dole, each free citizen was given a ration of six loaves of bread a day. Emperors of Byzantium kept their citizens happy and submissive in the time-honored practice of issuing bread and circuses. The public buildings of the city were carefully planned masterpieces arranged for grandeur and convenience. The city itself was built along the crest of a peninsula, so as one moved about there were 117 stairways built to either ascend or descend. Apart from this planning, however, private construction was haphazard and created a maze of alleys that led off the city’s main streets. From the reign of Theodosius on, the city was also a center for monastic life. Unlike the reclusive monks of say, Egypt, Byzantine monks did not wish to lead lives separated from everyday life. Their goal instead was to keep alive a Christian ethic within a secular society, mainly through acts of charity. Monasteries were often founded and/or funded by rich and powerful families. Both social and economic power coupled with the power of piety caused the monasteries to attain great influence in a Christian society. Leading monasteries at times opposed both emperors and the highest bishops in Orthodox Church government known as patriarchs. An interesting realization must be noted that while contemporary and modern historians accused Christianity of bringing down the western Roman Empire, the religion founded by Jesus of Nazareth most assuredly built up the eastern portion. By the middle of the fifth century, Constantinople had emerged as a great city—in size and influence the last powerful center of the Roman world. One early attempt was made to unite the old Roman Empire under Byzantine leadership. Leo I, who reigned from 457-74, sent an army to attack the Vandals in North Africa while sending another army to Italy to place one of his men on the throne of the western empire. When both campaigns failed, Constantinople turned its back on the west seemingly forever. The emperor Athanasius (r. 491-518) is also noteworthy mainly because he left behind the largest treasure of any Roman emperor, but he also held heretical views about the nature of Christ after a Church Council had settled the issue. When wrangling with the patriarch of Constantinople led to the emperor’s issuing a public theological statement that smacked of the heresy, rioting broke out in the streets. Even though Athanasius was 80 years old, he summoned the courage to enter the hippodrome in front of the assembled crowds and offered to resign the throne in the face of such public displeasure. This act caused the crowd to embrace him again for his humility and courage. As they began to disperse, Athanasius sent in his guard and massacred the crowd. One might think at that point that all hell would break lose. Instead, a bear-trainer’s daughter and a nearly illiterate soldier’s nephew rose up to stabilize the Byzantine Empire and to become one of the most powerful husband/wife teams in history. No, I am not making this up. Justin was the Latin-speaking soldier who could barely write his name. He had risen through the army to be in command of palace security and when Athanasius died he was made emperor. He had given his nephew, Justinian, the best education, and in return Justinian had bribed the circus performers running the entertainments in the hippodrome to support his uncle for emperor. The circus performers had immense influence over the crowd, and factions among them functioned as rival political parties. Justinian then fell deeply in love with Theodora, the bear-trainer’s daughter who turned out to be a genius at governing despite her reputation as a loose woman. The two of them used their knowledge of the literal political circus (you thought our politics a circus) to curb the circus factions’ power, their first step in restoring order to the capital of the civilized world. Justinian at first tried to make peace with European Germanic rulers, but when they balked he simply sent over armies. These newer Roman armies swept all before them, Vandals and Ostrogoths alike. With his masterful general, Belisarius, leading the way Justinian reclaimed control of nearly all the Mediterranean Sea coastal territories. After restoring the largest territory of what might conceivably be called the Roman empire, Belisarius returned in triumph to Constantinople just in time to rescue his master. An event called the Nika Riots broke out in 532 as those darn circus people attempted to reassert their control. In doing so they had burned the Cathedral of St. Sophia and destroyed much of the heart of the city. At one point, Justinian despaired so that he told Theodora they should flee. She responded: I hold that now if ever flight is inexpedient, even if it brings safety. When a man has once been born into the light, it is inevitable that he should meet death. But for an emperor to become a fugitive is a thing not to be endured. . . .If you wish to flee to safety, Emperor, it can easily be done. . .there is the sea; here are the ships. But as for me, I hold with the saying that royalty makes a fine winding-sheet [funeral garment]. With a woman like that, who needs an army? Well, it wasn’t Theodora but Belisarius who led the palace guard into the hippodrome and slaughtered 30,000 people (in a city of only 250,000) once Justinian found the courage to give the command, said courage having been borrowed from his wife. He also had his most prominent political opponents executed and confiscated the property of other pesky senators. As a result of the Nika Riots, Justinian had a Nero-like opportunity to build in the destroyed city center. When he came to power there had hardly been a dome in sight, but by his death in 565, Constantinople’s skyline was dominated by domed buildings, the most magnificent of which was the Church of St. Sophia, or the Hagia Sophia. Mathematicians helped design the curious but impressive structure that was made by placing a dome over a Roman-style basilica. One contemporary historian said that the dome seemed, “somehow to hover in the air on no firm basis.” Justinian’s greatest achievement, however, was his codification of Roman law. He assembled a panel of lawyers and actually studied law himself as a part of his daily regimen of light eating, frequent fasting, long work hours, and late-night studying. By 534 they had compiled every Roman law they could get their hands on and then wrote the Digest and Institutes which served as legal textbooks. While this task was presented as a return to the roots of classical Roman law, Justinian reshaped the law to solidify the notion of a Christian monarch. He personally drafted most of the legislation relating to the Church and religion in general. He insisted that the emperor, by virtue of his office, was the law. An absolutist Christian monarch defined law for his people and was appointed by God to do so just as the patriarch was appointed to lead the Church. Outside the Hagia Sophia Justinian had erected an equestrian statue of himself in which in his left hand he held an orb surmounted by a cross, the symbol of his universal authority and its divine origin. When his armies entered Carthage and Rome he seemed on the verge of restoring the entire Roman world. At the dedication of the new cathedral in 537 he is said to have whispered, “Solomon, I have surpassed you.” Maybe that wasn’t a good thing to have said. In 542 the bubonic plague struck Constantinople and at its height killed 5,000 people a day. Still, Justinian devised ingenious ways to deal with the plague’s wrath. In 548, however, Theodora died at 72 (reportedly still beautiful). Justinian took years to recover from this loss. In that time the plague reoccurred at regular intervals. Doctors despaired saying they could do nothing to stop the disease. People crowded into churches as their best hope of protection. Justinian announced that God was punishing Constantinople for its sins and passed new laws making homosexuality a crime punishable by death. He believed his empire was about to be destroyed just as had Sodom and Gomorrah and for the same reason. After accomplishing almost as much as any living man could, toward the end of his life he seemed unable to offer more. He faced the fate of all rulers who outlived his popularity; his death in 565 was considered a relief. He was replaced by his nephew, Justin, who tried to distance himself from his uncle’s legacy by making new aggressive foreign policy statements that merely destroyed the balance Justinian had created. With neighbors invading and citizens revolting, much of Justinian’s work was undone. Successors to Justin stumbled on for another 100 years. One emperor despaired so much under the threat of the advance of Islam as to abandon Constantinople for the west in 662. After a visit to Rome, Constans (r. 641-68) actually settled in Sicily. Constantinople refused to let his sons come to him at Sicily in disgust for Constans’s having taken much of the army with him and abandoning the city of Constantine as indefensible. One of his many enemies assassinated him in his bath. His son, Constantine IV (r. 668-685), was left to face an attempt on the part of a caliph to conquer Constantinople. A Muslim navy blockaded the city for seven years. The final assault in 678 failed, however, because of the Byzantine use of “Greek fire,” a substance similar to napalm. Flammable materials mixed with petroleum were pumped under pressure and ignited through tubes mounted on the front and back of ships. A refugee from Syria invented this new mechanism which gave the Byzantine navy a distinct advantage in both offense and defense. As the Muslim navy burned, the Muslim army tried to flee and the Byzantine army gave chase, mauling the Muslims badly. The Muslim ships that survived to escape the fire were destroyed in a storm. This complete defeat of an Islamic advance restored Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire to renown. Rulers in the west and the Avars, a nomadic tribe from central Asia that had been harassing the Byzantine frontier, sent envoys asking for peace. Christians in Lebanon actually mounted a rebellion against the caliph which threatened his capital city of Damascus. Constantinople then enjoyed several centuries of peace interspersed with periodic attacks that proved it was still a desirable gem on the border between Europe and Asia. Here’s a hint about its future—it is now known as Istanbul.