Byzantium
Why is Byzantium called the “Second Rome”?
How did Byzantium flourish while fending off
Muslim and Barbarian invasions?
Beginnings
• It was Constantine the Great who began the re-building of
Byzantium in 324, naming the city Constantinople and dedicating
it in 330. This founding marks the early beginnings of the empire.
• Constantinople became the sole capital of the Eastern Roman
Empire
• The death of the complete Roman Empire in 476 AD marked the
birth of the new Roman Empire in Constantinople. Greek
influences resurfaced.
• Greek thus became primary language in the 6th C
• The empire was renamed Byzantine after the city Byzantium
which was renamed Constantinople.
• The empire benefited from being the focal point of trade from
east to west and vice versa
Justinian
• The greatest of all the eastern emperors
was clearly Justinian (c.482-565), who
reigned for thirty-eight years between
527 and 565.
• Justinian was a reformer in the fashion
of Augustus Caesar.
• It was Justinian's desire to restore the
Empire -- both East and West -- to all of
its former glory.
• In fact, it has been said that his desire to
restore the former Roman Empire was
an obsession (Nova Roma)
Justinian
• His greatest accomplishment toward this end was the revision
and codification of Roman law. Justinian understood that a
strong government could not exist without good laws.
• The Byzantine laws had grown too numerous and too confusing.
• Justinian created a commission of sixteen men to bring order
out of all the laws.
• These men worked for six years and studied more than 2000
texts.
• In 534, the commission produced the Corpus Juris Civilis – the
Body of Civil Law (Justinian Code).
– Contained laws pertaining to religion, anti-paganism, heresy crimes and
anti-Semitism
Theodora’s Influence
•
•
•
•
•
•
Justinian was aided by his wife, Theodora (c.500-547),
the daughter of a bearkeeper at the Hippodrome, and
was no less ambitious than her husband.
In 532, mob violence erupted in Constantinople. These
riots were called the Nika Riots ("Nika"= "Victory!"), and
grew from political unrest over the government's fiscal
measures.
Rival factions of Blues and Greens (admirers of rival
chariot-racing teams) fought in the streets over the
results of a chariot race (kinda like soccer hooligans).
Some Byzantine Senators saw this riot as an opportunity
to overthrow Justinian
Justinian wanted to leave the city during the riots, but
two of his generals (Belisarius and Narses) and his wife
Theodora, persuaded him to stay.
Theodora took it upon herself to raise a personal army,
an army that eventually killed 35,000 people in a single
day and expelled the plotting senators.
Arab Pressures
• Justinian’s successors began to concentrate on protecting the eastern
frontier from Muslim invasions
• The Byzantine Empire managed to withstand this threat, but not
without losses
• Byzantine control over the Mediterranean realm began to slip as the
Arabs built a strong navy
• Byzantium also held off a siege of
Arab ships by using a new weapon called “Greek fire”
• The empire lost key points in Phoenicia, Palestine and Egypt
The Bulgars
• The most serious challenge to
Byzantium was Bulgaria
• Bulgarian kings were feisty and
resisted Byzantine rule from
Constantinople’s founding all the
way thru the 11th century
• 1014 – Basil II finally defeated the
Bulgarian threat; he blinded their
captive soldiers and bribed as many
of their generals to gain their favor
Society/Politics
• Similar to early China
– Emperor ordained by God, was head of Orthodox church
• Women held considerable authority throughout the empire’s history
– Theodora (NOT Justianian’s wife) exerted her power as emperor
• An elaborate bureaucracy (China similarity again) supported the emperor,
one educated in Greek traditions/knowledge
– Members of this bureaucracy could come from any social classes,
though aristocrats dominated
– This bureaucracy regulated trade (Silk Road) and food prices as well as
taxed the peasants for resources
• Military organization similar to Roman organization
– Peasants served the army in return for land grants that could be
passed down via inheritance
Society/Politics
•
•
•
Empire depended on control over countryside
(rural base)
– A large controlled peasant class was
crucial to providing tax revenue to the
empire’s treasury
– The empire was not very urbanized;
Constantinople was only large city
Trade was crucial
– Held together the network of trade that
linked China/India to the newly emerging
European kingdoms
Life was centered on secular Greek traditions
– Orthodox Christian artwork was took
mosaic form, which even brought
controversy (icons were considered
graven idols)
Religious Influence and Issues
•
•
•
•
•
Little innovative artistic creativity emerged from
Byzantium save those in the forms of religious arts and
architecture (still influenced by Rome and Greece)
The construction of domed churches (ie. Haggia
Sophia) continued Roman architectural forms
The creation of mosaics and icon painting flourished,
enough to cause controversy…a brief clash over
iconoclasm ensued (concern that icons were
idols)…eventually it disappeared
What did occur was a rift between the West (Rome and
Catholicism) and the East (the Orthodox Church of
Byzantium)…the Greek Bible was translated into
Latin…popes got involved with the iconoclasm
issue…Charlemagne becomes declared the “true heir of
Rome”
In 1054, the schism was made official (thanks to an
argument over bread and sex) as pope and head of the
Orthodox church excommunicated each other
Spreading Byzantium
• Emperors realized they could gain
influence over other areas by
spreading Orthodox faith in Slavic
“Cyrillic” language translation to
various “barbaric” societies
• Missionaries like St. Cyril and
Methodius went into Eastern
Europe and Kievan Russia and
brought them a new language and
a new faith
• Each area was absorbed into the
Byzantine Empire through this
conversion