Byzantine Empire
•
Middle Ages / Medieval
Period
All the empires we
•
have studied to this
point have been
referred to as ancient
civilizations.
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Mesopotamia
Fertile Crescent
Egypt
India
China
Greece
Rome
Ancient history is the study
of the written past from
the beginning of recorded
human history until the
Early Middle Ages in
Europe.
• The Middle Ages or
Medieval Period began
with the fall of the Roman
Empire in 476 A.D. and
lasts to about 1500.
3
The New Rome
395—Roman Empire split Roman
Empire (West) & Byzantine Empire
(East)
 Greeks=most of Byzantine Empire’s
population
 Wealthy families moved to
Constantinople when barbarians
invaded Rome

 Constantinople
(crossroads of Europe &
Asia)
 Bosporus & Dardanelles—
2 important waterways
Emperor
Justinian
 527-
565
 Nicknamed
“Emperor who
never sleeps”
Justinian’s Code
code: Corpus of Civil
Law (Justinian’s Code)
Law
–Based on Roman laws
http://www.fordham.e
du/halsall/basis/535in
stitutes.html#XV.%20
Agnate%20Tutorship.
Theodora
Justinian’s wife & advisor
 Allowed women to own land
 532: Nika Revolt
– Theodora talked him into staying
– General Belisarius- put down
revolt & won back Roman lands

Hippodrome- Chariot races
(like Rome’s Circus Maximus)
http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Hippodrome_of_Constantinople/
http://www.livius.org/a/1/maps/istanbul_hippodrome_map.gif
Justinian wanted strength of old
Roman Empire
 By 554— reclaimed Italy, North
Africa, & Spain from Germanic tribes
– Chemical weapon “Greek fire”
– After Justinian’s death, Germanic
tribes reclaimed lands

Christian Church
 Emperors
crowned by
Patriarch of Constantinople
–Defend Christianity
–Appoint Church officials
Icons (religious images)
– Iconoclasts believed having
icons was idol worship
 726: Byzantine Emperor Leo III–
destroyed icons
– 787: Pope in Rome-- heresy not
to allow icons (some couldn’t
read & icons helped them learn
Christianity)
– Church council threatened
iconoclasts with
excommunication


Pope and Patriarch
excommunicated each other
– 700s: Lombards invaded Italy,
Byzantine emperor refused to
help Pope
– Frankish leader helped--Pepin
the Short—Pope gives him title
“emperor”
– 1054: SPLIT---WEST (Roman
Catholic Church) EAST (Eastern
Orthodox Church)
Church supported marriage (sacred
institution) – Roman Catholic Priests not
allowed to marry
 Divorce - difficult to get

 Trade:
–Goods from Asia & Europe
–Silk Road
–2 Orthodox monk
missionaries brought
silkworms from China

Art- religious subjects
– Icons- displayed saints
– Mosaics- pieces of tile
or glass
– Religious scholars used
art in books
– Illuminated
manuscripts (decorated
books)
Literature
focused on
salvation, obedience
to God, & preserving
Greek & Roman works
Architecture
 532:
Church of
Hagia Sophia
(meaning “holy
wisdom”) in
Constantinople
Cyril
& Methodius-missionaries
–860: Cyril created
alphabet for Slavic
people
–Cyrillic Alphabetused by Russia today
 AD
1071—Seljuk Turks
threaten Constantinople
 Byzantine emperor asked
Pope to help “defend
Christianity”
 Europeans went to Palestine
to fight Muslims-Crusades
(holy wars)
 1204—Venetians
looted
Constantinople
 1453—Ottoman Turks
attacked
–Byzantine emperor killed
–End of Byzantine Empire
The Slavs
 Steppe-
treeless grassland
 Taiga- thick forests
 Long, cold winters
 3 major rivers
–Dnieper
All flow North to South
–Dniester
–Volga
The Eastern Slavs
Setting and People
 3 major ethnic groups
lived in the area north of
the Black Sea
 1.) Western Slavs

– Poles, Czechs, Slovaks
– Close ties to Roman
Catholic Church and
Western Europe

2.) Southern Slavs
– Serbs, Croats, Slovenes
– Located on the northern
part of the Balkan
Peninsula
– Lots of contact with the
Byzantines

3.) Eastern Slavs
– Largest group
– Ukranians, Russians,
Belarussians
– Lived between the
Dnieper and Dniester
Rivers
Kievan Rus
 800s AD- Vikings from
Scandinavia (Norway,
Denmark, Sweden) settled
town of Novgorod
 Vikings=Ruotsi=Rus=Russia
 Kiev (major trading village)
 Kiev grew into group of
principalities called Kievan
Rus
 Principalities
ruled by princes
–Grand Prince—like emperor
–Princes—paid tribute to GP
–Boyars—landowners
–Artisans & merchants
–Peasants
 988
AD—Grand Prince
Vladimir I adopted
Christianity & Cyrillic
Alphabet
 Yaroslav the Wise (10191054)
–1st library of Kiev
–Built churches, created
1st law code
http://z.about.com/d/goeasteurope/1/5/T/3/-/-/UkraineStSophia.jpg
 1240—Mongols
invaded
 1240—Alexander “Nevsky”
defeated Swedes at Neva River
 1380—Mucovites (people of
Moscow) defeated Mongols at
Battle of Kulikovo
1493—Ivan
III ruler of
Moscow refused to pay
Mongol taxes, made
himself sovereign of all
Russia— “Ivan the Great”
Orthodox Church called
rd
Russia the “3 Rome”
Ivan IV “the terrible”
Paranoid- mentally
unstable
Killed his own son
Massacre at Novgorod
Took title czar “caesar”
http://www.uoregon.edu/~alayne/Images/stbasil-cathedral-exterior.jpg
http://www.uoregon.edu/~kimball/images/repin%20I-4%20ssn.jpg