1
How did Byzantium grow so rich?
 Because of ++++trade w/Asia & Europe
 Spices, gems, metal & cloth for furs, honey,
slaves, silk cloth & other farm goods
 Silk weaving was major industry…smuggled
silkworm eggs into Byzantium in bamboo
sticks
 Constantinople in the perfect
location…where Asia meets Europe,
between two seas, large & safe harbor,
 Constantinople was easily defended b/c had
H2O on 3 sides & huge wall on the 4th!
 Collected taxes on the goods brought in to
trade.
2
What are some cultural achievements of the
BE?
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Preserved Roman & Greek culture
Highly educated & creative people
gave the world new methods in the arts
built the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom)
Church…Justinian ordered it
emperors ordered the building of churches &
works of art
Hagia Sophia still exists!...Muslims changed
it to a mosque when they defeated BE I 1500
CE…now a museum
Mosaics=art work made of colored glass
pieces…emperors
ordered
them…very
expensive to make!!... often pictures of
religious or political figures (saints, etc.)
Stressed marriage and family life…center of
social life
Some
women
helped
young
emperors=regent= rules in place of a very
young king/emperor
Learning was very important… Boys went to
school, girls were taught @ home
3
 Writers wrote about religion, stressing the
need to obey God…copied & preserved Greek
& Roman writings
 Byzantine civilization was a mixture of
cultures: Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Slavic,
Persian…More Greek, less Latin/Roman
than the Roman Empire
4
What made the Byzantine Empire strong?
 Justinian was a strong leader from CE527565 (the beginning of the Empire)
 Empress
Theodora
was
his
coleader…advised J to give women more rights
(own
land!)…helped
choose
gov’t
officials…convinced J to not leave during an
uprising which made his rule more powerful
 J wanted to reconquer lost Roman
lands…did get Italy, N Africa, S Spain & parts
of Persia
J
strengthened
&
reorganized
the
army…used
cavalry=soldiers
on
horses…secret
weapon
of
Greek
Fire=flamethrower that horrified enemies
 Most of what J gained was lost after he died
b/c too big too fast & no $ to control it
 cause
Justinian’s Code
effects
Laws were too
complicated &
disorganized
Rewrote laws,
made them easier
to understand
= laws of the BE
Influenced laws in
Europe b/c spread
everywhere…easier
to understand=more
people follow them!
5
How did Byzantine gov’t & church work together?
 Emperor controlled the church & gov’t
 Emperor chose the Patriarch=head of the
Byzantine Church
 Gov’t & church united in belief that God
wanted them to preserve & spread
Christianity
What were the arguments btwn the two churches?
**Christianity(catholic)in W. Europe VS. Christianity in BE**
1)
Fought over icons in
church…icon=picture of Christian holy
people…use them or not
 CE 700’s BE Leo ordered destruction of all
icons…iconoclasm=time period of
destruction of beliefs…iconoclast= person
who destroys icons/beliefs
 Pope=head of the Roman Church (W.
Europe) wanted icons
 Over time icons became okay again in BE
2) Fought over control of the church…Pope
VS. Patriarch…who is the true head of the
Christian church?
3) Refused to help e@ other when attacked
6
 Pope crowned Charlemagne as Holy
Roman Emperor b/c he helped when
Italy was attacked instead of the
Patriarch
 Angered the Byzantines!!!
4) Disagreed about the relationship btwn
gov’t & church
 In B emperor chooses patriarch…gov’t,
then church
 In W pope chooses emperor…church
then gov’t
**CE 1054, The Great Schism=spilt of the
Christian Church into:
 Roman Catholic in the West (Pope)
 Eastern Orthodox/Byzantine Catholic in the
East (Patriarch)
7
Central city
Leader
Help defend
each other
Relationship
w/ gov’t
Use of icons
Byzantine
Roman
Catholic
Catholic
Church
Church
Constantinople Rome
Patriarch
Pope
refused
refused
Ruler choose
Pope choose
Patriarch
ruler
Yes…NO!...yes YES!!!
8
What did I learn from the video?
 Hagia Sophia is 32ft taller than Statue of
Liberty
 Rebels ambushed in hippodrome &
massacred
 Hagia Sophia’s original dome destroyed in
eq
 Byzantine princess MAY have introduced
 Byzantium was a cultural power, not a
military one, therefore it is sometimes
called the “lost empire”
 Basil II cut out the eyes of enemy soldiers
and sent them back as a warning
 J ruled during the golden age of Byzantium
 J remembered as a builder
 Nephew of the original Hagia Sophia
architect raised the dome when he fixed it
after the eq
 Hippodrome was the center of public life
 J almost bankrupted the empire b/c he
spent so much on his army & conquests
 J did not build hippodrome, Constantine did
9
 1453 Ottoman Turks (Muslim) used cannons
to destroy Constantinople
 Several 1000 people tried to overthrow J b/c
of his high taxes…massacred in hippodrome
 Hagia Sophia was built as a competition to
speed up the process…finished in ≈6 yrs
 Basil II improved the trebuchet…made it a
super-duper catapult!