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How did Byzantium grow rich?
 Trading made them richer & richer
 Farm goods, fur, honey & slaves for spices,
gems, metals & cloth
 major Byzantine industry was weaving
silk…smuggled silk worms from China in
bamboo sticks!
What made all this possible?
 Location, location, location!...
Constantinople in the perfect geographical
spot 4 trade
 Btwn Black & Aegean Seas and btwn Europe
Asia trade routes
 Heavily taxed all trade goods
 Constantinople surrounded on 3 sides by
H2O & one side by a huge wall…easily
protected!
 Good, safe harbors for trade boats &
warships
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What were some cultural achievements of
Byzantium?
 Gave the world new methods in the arts
 Preserved & passed on Greek & Roman
culture
 Highly educated & creative
 Built 100’s of churches & palaces
 Justinian built the Hagia Sophia…religious
center of Byzantium…still
stands…converted to a mosque when the
Turks defeated Byzantium…now a museum
 Mosaics=picture made of tiny pieces of glass
…usually pictures of saints or Christian holy
figures…found inside churches &
monasteries…very expensive!! Emperors
paid for them…takes a LOOOOONG time to
make one!
 Several women served as regents=stand in
for a leader who is too young or ill to lead
 Divorce was rare
 Women gained rights b/c of Empress
Theodora
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 Women expected to stay home & care for
kids, not lead independent lives
 Family life was important and stressed.
 Education was respected &
encouraged…supported by gov’t…boys went
to school, girls taught at home
 Byzantine authors wrote about & stressed
religion…copied & passed on the writings of
ancient Greece & Rome
 Byzantine civilization became a “grab-bag”
of cultures w/ Greek, Egyptian, Slav,
Persian, and Roman influences
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What were the policies & reforms of Justinian
& Theodora?
 Justinian was a strong leader from CE527565
 Theodora was co-leader who advised
Justinian & encouraged him to give women
++rights like owning land
 Theodora told J to stay instead of flee an
uprising which saved the throne &
strengthened J’s power
 T & J had no children…she died of cancer in
CE548…many artworks w/her portrait b/c
of his deep love for her
 J wanted to regain lost Roman lands to
bring back “Rome”
 Gained Italy, N. Africa, some of Persia & tiny
bit of Spain
 Reorganized the army to strengthen it…put
soldiers on horses=cavalry
 Used Greek Fire=Byzantine flame thrower
secret weapon! (grenades of GF
too!)…highly feared!!
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 Too big, too fast & too expensive to control,
so lands gained were lost after J died
 cause
Justinian’s Code
effects
Laws were too
difficult to
understand &
disorganized
Ordered the law
code to be
reformed
Influenced modern
European law &
laws are easier to
understand so laws
are followed
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What did I learn from the video?
 30,000 people died during riots re: heavy
taxes @ hippodrome b/c J ordered it…took
only minutes. CE532
 J was born as a Slavic peasant
 Basil II was a great military leader…CE
1000ish
 20 yrs after Hagia Sophia was finished an eq
destroyed the center dome
 Isadora & Ingenus were Hagia Sophia
architects
 Under J, the BE was as big as it would ever
get
 CE 1453, Turks used gunpowder & cannon to
bring down the wall around Constantinople
 J did not have a lot of fans b/c he was harsh
to those who did not believe the way he did
 Byzantium was a cultural power
 J believed his legacy was to bring back Rome
 Hippodrome could hold 100,000 & held
chariot race
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How did Byzantine gov’t & church work together?
 Emperor crowned in religious ceremony
 Emperor in control of church &
gov’t…spiritual & political leader
 United in goal of spreading & preserving
Christianity…worked closely together to
achieve this goal
What were the religious conflicts btwn
Christian church in BE & Christian church
in West Europe?
1) Use of icons= picture or image of holy
people used in worship
 BE NO icons in CE700’s
 iconoclasts=image breakers destroyed
all icons in BE
 WE icons are okay
 By mid 800’s icons okay in BE
2) Who is the top leader
 Pope= leader in WE (Rome)
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 Patriarch= leader in BE
(Constantiople)
 Both claimed to be the supreme leader
of the Church, but only one can be the
supreme leader
3) Refused to help each other in times of
need; when getting attacked & can’t help
themselves
 Pope crowned Charlemagne Holy
Roman Emperor b/c he helped Rome
defeat an invader
 Angered the BE
4) Differences in opinion on who had the
most power, gov’t or church
 BE: gov’t over church
 WE: church over gov’t
**CE 1054 The Great Schism= permanent split
of the Catholic church into:
Roman Catholic w/pope
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Byzantine Catholic w/patriarch
Central city
Leader
Byzantine
Roman
Catholic
Catholic
Church
Church
Constantinople Rome
Patriarch
Help defend no
each other
Relationship Gov’t over
w/ gov’t
church-worked
together
Use of icons Yes, NO!!!, yes
Pope
no
Church over
gov’t-often
fought
YEAH!
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