Chapter 11: Byzantines and Russian Empires
I.
A New Rome in a New Setting
 The Western Roman Empire crumbled in the 5th century as it was
overrun by invading Germanic tribes
 Divided into western and eastern parts and its capital had moved
from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium (Constantinople); 395
A.D.
 Byzantium (whole territory) and Constantinople would flourish
for nearly 1000 years after the fall of the West
 In 527, a high ranking Byzantine nobleman named Justinian
succeeded his uncle to the throne of the Eastern Empire
 In 533, he sent his best general, Belisarius, to recover North Africa
from the invading Germanic tribes; succeeds in taking back land
 Justinian’s armies won nearly all of Italy and parts of Spain; now
ruled all that Rome used to rule; new Caesar
 Absolute power; in charge of state and church as well; politics
were brutal and deadly—always the threat of assassination
II.
Life in the New Rome
 Byzantine Empire developed its own character, different from the
Western Empire
 Citizens thought of themselves as sharing Roman tradition, but
few spoke Latin anymore; Most Byzantines spoke Greek
 Having unified the two empires, Justinian set up a panel of legal
experts to regulate the complex Byzantium society
 The panel created a single, uniform code known as the Justinian
Code
 The code consisted of four works
i. The Code contained nearly 5,000 Roman laws that were
still considered useful for the Byzantine Empire
ii. The Digest quoted and summarized the opinions of
Rome’s greatest legal thinkers about the laws; ran 50
volumes
iii. The Institutes was a text book that told law students
how to use the laws
iv.
The Novellae (New Laws) presented legislation passed
after 534
 The Justinian Code decided legal questions that regulated whole
areas of the Byzantine life (Marriage, slavery, property, women’s
rights, criminal justice, etc.)
 Justinian died in 565, but his legal code served the Byzantine
Empire for 900 years
a) Creating the Imperial Capital
 Justinian launched a public building program, while the legal code
was being created

Rebuilt the crumbling fortifications of Constantinople, as workers
built a 14 mile stone wall along the city’s coastline and also
repaired fortifications along it western borders
 Church building was the emperor’s greatest passion; the most
visible sign of the close connection between church and state
 The crowning glory during his reign was the Hagia Sophia, which
means “Holy Wisdom” in Greek; many people hailed it as the most
splendid church in the universe
 Justinian enlarged his territory by building baths, aqueducts, law
courts, schools and hospitals; people were excited when it was all
finished
 Another important activity took place: the preservation of GrecoRoman culture
 Byzantine families valued education—specifically classical
learning
 Basic courses included Greek and Latin grammar, philosophy, and
the classics of Greek and Roman literature served as text books
 Students memorized Homer, learned geometry from Euclid, and
history from Herodotus; PRESERVATION
b) Constantinople’s Hectic Pace
 Citizens could enjoy free entertainment at the Hippodrome, which
offered chariot races and performance acts; held 60,000 people
 In 532, two groups of fans sparked city wide riots called the Nika
Rebellion (crowds chanted Nika or “victory!”)
 Both sides were angry with the government, had been too severe
in putting down a previous riot and demanded the overthrow of
Justinian; Belisarius and his troops slaughtered 30,000 rebels
c) The Plague of Justinian
 The empire would suffer countless setbacks; The first crisis
actually began before Justinian’s death
 A disease that resembled the bubonic plague hit Constantinople
during the later years of Justinian’s reign; rats from trade
ships/India
 It’s estimated that by 542, 10,000 people were dying everyday;
finally faded around 700 A.D.; destroyed large part of Byzantine
population
d) Attacks from East and West
 Challenges from foreign enemies was a constant problem from its
rise to power
 Lombards overran Justinian’s conquests from the west; Avars and
Slavs attacked from the north; Sassanid Persians attacked from the
east
 In 626, Persians and Avars attacked Constantinople; Arab armies
attacked in 674 and also 717; Russians invaded 3 times between
860-1043

The Byzantines used bribes, diplomacy, political marriages, and
military power to keep enemies at bay
 The empire is reorganized; provinces become military districts;
run by a general, who answered to the emperor
 Eventually empire began to shrink with each attack; by 1453
Turks had sacked Constantinople
III.
The Church Divides
 During the Byzantine Empire, Christianity underwent a drastic
development
 Developed differently in the east and the west due to lack of
contact/communication; Byzantine Empire flourished, Christian
Church split
 Eastern Christianity built its heritage on the works of early Church
fathers; St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom.
 A controversy tested the power of the emperor over religious
matters in the 8th century
 In 730, Emperor Leo III banned the use of icons, religious images
used by Eastern Christians to aid their devotions; the emperor
viewed the use of icons as idol worship
 People rioted and the clergy rebelled
 In the West, the pope became involved in this eastern dispute and
supported the use of icons
 One pope even ordered the excommunication of a Byzantine
emperor—declared the emperor to be an outcast of the Church
 In 843, Empress Theodora restored icons to Eastern Churches;
Differences between the East and West churches began to grow
e) A Religious Split
 In 1054, matters came to a head when the pope and the patriarch
excommunicated each other in a dispute over religious doctrine
 Christianity officially split into the Roman Catholic Church in the
West and the Orthodox Church in the East
 As East and West grew apart, the two traditions of Christianity
competed for converts
 The Orthodox Church took their form of Christianity to the Slavs
 They invented an alphabet for the Slavic languages; created the
Cyrillic Alphabet; Slavs would be able to read the bible in their
own tongue
IV.
The Russian Empire
f) Russia’s Birth
 In addition to sending its missionaries to the land of the Slavs
during the 9th century, Byzantium actively traded with its
neighbors to the north
 The interaction caused the Slavs to absorb many Greek Byzantine
ways; the blending of Slavic and Greek traditions eventually
brought forth the Russian culture

Russia’s first unified territory originated west of the Ural
Mountains in a region that runs from the Black Sea to the Baltic
Sea
 Three great rivers, the Dnieper, the Don, and the Volga, run from
the forests to the Black Sea or the Caspian Sea
 In the early days of the Byzantine Empire, the forests were
inhabited by tribes of Slavic farmers and traders
 Around 800, a small band of adventurers named the Rus (likely
Vikings) came down from the north
g) Slavs and Vikings
 Russian legends say that the Slavs invited the Viking chief Rurik to
be their king
 In 862, Rurik founded Novgorod, Russia’s first important city
 Around 880, a nobleman from Novgorod named Oleg moved south
to Kiev, a city on the Dnieper River; from Kiev, the Vikings could
sail by river and sea to Constantinople for trade
 The Viking nobles began to intermarry with their Slavic subjects
and adopted many aspects of their culture; line between Slavs and
Vikings vanished
h) Kiev Becomes Orthodox
 In 957, a member of the Kievan nobility, Princess Olga, went to
Constantinople and publicly converted to Christianity; governed
on behalf of her son. He resisted Christianity
 Her grandson, Vladimir, took the throne in 980 and considered a
conversion to Christianity; sent many people around the world to
observe the major religions
 Vladimir decided to convert to Byzantine Christianity and made all
of his subjects convert as well; In 989, a baptism of all the citizens
of Kiev
 The new traditions and beliefs flourished in Kiev
 Vladimir appreciated the Byzantine idea that the emperor was the
supreme ruler of the Church; close link between Church and state
took root in Russia
V.
Kiev’s Power and Decline
i) Kievan Russia
 The rise of Kiev marked the beginning of Russia’s first unified
territory; power extended into Poland in the west and north to the
Baltic Sea
 In 1019, Vladimir’s son, Yaroslav the Wise, came to the throne and
expanded on Kiev’s glory
 Married off his daughters and sisters to the kings and princes of
Western Europe; helped forge important trading alliances
 created a legal code tailored to Kiev’s commercial culture; dealt
mainly with crimes against property
 Built the first library in Kiev

Christianity prospered under his rule; by the 12th century, Kiev
was home to over 400 churches
j) Kiev’s Decline
 The decline of Kiev started with the death of Yaroslav in 1054;
made a crucial error when he reigned
 Instead of following custom and leaving his kingdom to his eldest
son, he divided his realm among all of his sons;
 His sons tore the state apart fighting for the best territories; each
new generation struggled with this issue
 The Crusades—the fight between Muslims and Christians—
disrupted Russian trade in 1095
VI.
The Mongol Invasions
 In the middle 1200s, a ferocious group of horsemen from central
Asia slashed their way into Russia, these were the Mongols
 They exploded into the scene under the rule of Genghis Khan, one
of the most feared warriors of all time
 Mongols had a reputation for savage killing and burning and
ruthless brutality
 When Genghis Khan died in 1227, his successors continued the
conquering—Yellow Sea to the Baltic Sea, the Himalayas to
Northern Russia
 In 1240, Kiev was attacked and destroyed by Batu Khan, Genghis’
grandson
 After the fall of Kiev, Mongols ruled all of southern Russia for 200
years; “Khanate of the Golden Horde”
k) Mongol Rule in Russia
 Under Mongol rule, Russians could follow all their usual customs,
as long as there was no rebellion; tolerated all religions
 Mongols demanded two things: absolute obedience and massive
amounts of tribute; Church often mediated between Mongols and
Russian people
 Novgorod’s prince, Alexander Nevsky, advised his fellow princes
to cooperate with the Mongols
 The Russian nobles often helped crush revolts against the Mongols
and collected taxes for their foreign rulers; Mongols isolated
Russia from Western Europe; little advancement
l) Russia Breaks Free
 The city of Moscow was founded in the 1100s; located near three
rivers: the Volga, Dnieper, and Don
 If you controlled the three rivers—you controlled European
Russia and could challenge the Mongols
m) Moscow’s Powerful Princes
 During the late 1320s, Moscow’s Prince Ivan I had earned the
gratitude of the Mongols for crushing a Russian revolt

The Mongols appointed Ivan I tax collector of all the Slavic lands
and gave him the title of “Grand Prince”; most powerful of the
Russian princes
 Ivan convinced the Patriarch of Kiev, leading bishop of Eastern
Europe, to move to Moscow
 Move improved the prestige of the city, and gave Moscow’s princes
a valuable ally, the Church; gained control of the small states
surrounding Moscow
n) An Empire Emerges
 The Russian state would become a genuine empire under the 43
year reign of Ivan III; when he became prince, openly challenged
the Mongols
 Took the name czar, the Russian version of Caesar, and publicly
claimed his intent to make Russia the “Third Rome”
 In 1480, Ivan III refused to pay his rulers any further tribute and
the Russian and Mongol armies met at the Ugra River, SW of
Moscow; neither side advanced so they went home
 This bloodless standoff is the moment that Russians claim as their
liberation from Mongol rule; now Russia would actively seek an
empire
VII. The Rise of the Turks
 To the east of Constantinople and to the south of Russia, the
Muslim empire of the Abbasids had ruled since the 8th century
 By the mid-10th century, their control of the region would end as a
powerful group called the Turks emerged
 After setting up their capital in Baghdad, the Abbasids lost their
grip on other parts of the empire: Morocco in 788, Tunisia in 800,
Persia in 809, and Egypt in 868
 In 945, Persian armies moved into Baghdad and put an end to the
power of the caliph, the religious and political leader
 The caliph continued as the religious leader of Islam, but he gave
up all political power to the new Persian ruler; Persians eventually
fell to another group
o) The Conquering Seljuks
 As early as 1300 B.C., Chinese records mention a people called the
Tu-Kiu living west of their borders; these people may have been
the Turks
 The Abbasids took note of the Turks for their military skills; began
buying Turkish children to raise as slaves, train as soldiers, and
employ as body guards
 Over time, Turkish military slaves, or mamelukes, became a
powerful force in the Abbasid Empire
 In the 10th century, a growing number of Turks began converting
to Islam and slowly migrating into the weakened Abbasid Empire;
the first of these migrating Turkish groups were the Seljuks

Growing in numbers, in 1055 they attacked and captured Baghdad
from the Persians
 20 years later, the Seljuk sultans marched on the Byzantine
Empire; Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Turkish forces crushed the
Byzantine defenders
 Within 10 years, the Seljuks occupied most of Anatolia; the eastern
part of Byzantium
p) The Turks Secure Persian Support
 Back in Baghdad, the Seljuks courted the support of their
conquered Persian subjects
 The Seljuk Dynasty under Toghril Beg, chose the Persian city of
Isfahan as the capital of the kingdom
 The favorable treatment made the Persians loyal supporters and
the Turks often appointed them as government officials; Nizam alMulk (Persian), served as the vizier, under the sultan, Malik Shah
 Great admiration of Persian learning; Seljuks were basically
illiterate
 Unfamiliar to the traditions of Islam, they looked to the Persian
subjects for cultural and religious guidance
 Adopted Persian as a language; Seljuk rulers were called shahs,
from the Persian word for king; supported Persian artists, poets,
and architects
 The Turks’ cultural preference for the Persians caused the almost
complete disappearance of the Arabic language from Persia
 Arabic was mainly kept alive by religious scholars studying the
Qur’an
VIII. Seljuks Confront Crusaders and Mongols
q) The Seljuks and the Crusaders
 Malik Shah was the last of the strong Seljuk leaders and after his
unexpected death in 1092, no capable shah replaced him; the
Seljuk Empire quickly disintegrated
 At this point, the West counterattacked against the Turks and
other Muslims for control of the Holy Land of the Middle East; this
was the start of The Crusades
 Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade in 1095; he called on all
Christians to drive the Turks out of Anatolia and recover
Jerusalem from Muslim rule
 In 1099, the Crusaders captured Jerusalem and massacred its
Jewish and Muslim inhabitants; a Latin Christian kingdom was
established and lasted for a century
 The Seljuk Empire gathered enough strength to fight back
 Under the Kurdish captain Saladin, the Muslims recovered
Jerusalem in 1187; signed a peace agreement with opponent King
Richard I of England

The agreement gave Jerusalem to the Muslims but granted
Western pilgrims access to Christian holy places
 Subsequent popes called for further Crusades, but each new
military expedition proved weaker than the last; by the 13th
century, the Western powers seemed to pose little problem for the
Turks
r) Seljuks Face the Mongols
 The Mongols were a group of nomadic clans along the Asian
steppes; led by Genghis Khan, in the early 1200s, they grew into a
unified force
 Eventually their concentration turned to the west and they leveled
any cities that resisted them; slaughtered whole populations
 In 1258, Genghis Khan’s grandson, Hulagu, led his troops to the
outskirts of Baghdad which was surrounded by a defensive wall
 After a siege of 50 days, he burned down the caliph’s palace and
thousands of people were killed
 With much brutality, Genghis Khan and his successors shaped the
biggest land empire in history; did not know how to administer
new territories and empire collapsed within a few generations
 Out of the rubble of the Mongols and the Turks rose the Ottomans,
which would be an empire that lasted until the 20th century