Chapter 9 Outline – Civilization in Eastern Europe: Byzantium and Orthodox Europe
III. The Postclassical Era
D. Christian Civilizations in Eastern Europe: Byzantium and Orthodox Europe
1. Overview
- In postclassical era (Time Period 3 that we are studying, 500-1450), 2 Christian civilizations
emerged in Europe: Eastern Europe = Byzantine Empire, Western Europe = Catholics
 Byzantine Empire – advanced politically, economically, and culturally; considered themselves
as continuers of the Roman Empire (this was eastern part of old Roman Empire)
 Had many Roman traditions but was much different
- While Byzantine Empire kept Roman traditions alive, the Byzantines more important than just that
 Byzantine Empire lasted about 1,000 years
 Capital of Constantinople was one of greatest cities in the world
 Byzantine Empire represented one of the 2 major branches of Christianity, Orthodox Christian
- Byzantine Empire ruled areas never ruled by a major civilization (Balkans/western Russia)
- Byzantine Empire paved way for the rise of Russia, which modeled itself after Byzantines
- East Europe (Orthodox Christian) and West Europe (Catholic) had a lot in common:
 Both affected by Islam, but never became Muslim
 (Spread north through missionary activity (often converting ruling elites first)
 Both monotheistic, replacing polytheism
 Both had political problems in the north which prevented them from getting as strong as
Asian and north African states at the time
 Both saw trade increase
 Both influenced by Greco-Roman culture (same political ideas and artistic styles)
- East and West European had many differences:
 After Rome fell, they both developed separately of one another
 Different versions of Christianity (often hostile to one another)
 Had little contact until late in the postclassical period (traded north-south, not east-west)
 East Europe more advanced than West Europe at the time
2. The Byzantine Empire
a. Origins of the Empire (originally part of Roman Empire, as Rome fell and Byzantine Empire began)
- Constantinople w as eastern capital of Roman Empire (even had separate emperors)
 Emperor Constantine built great churches and buildings as city grew (as Rome was declining)
 This Eastern empire held off Germanic invasion (the Western Empire of Rome did not), and
the surviving Eastern empire became the Byzantine Empire (no more Roman Empire)
 Originally Latin was official language, but soon switched to Greek
 Reading Greek led Byzantine Empire to be influenced intellectually and culturally by Greek
(or Hellenistic) traditions, not so much Roman traditions
- Byzantine Empire helped further advanced civilization in the eastern Mediterranean region
 Trade increased but merchant class lost power as government began controlling trade
 Byzantines ruled by an emperor, who set up huge bureaucracy of trained well-trained
bureaucrats to help rule, whom along with emperor had most of the power (similar to China)
b. Justinian’s Achievements
- Early on, Byzantine Empire constantly threatened by invasions
 Fended off attacks from Sassanian Empire (in Persia) and by Germans
 Justinian = became emperor in 533, tried retaking land to the west to restore Roman Empire
 Theodora = Justinian’s wife, wanted power herself, influenced him to attempt expansion
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 Many people living in empire were against Justinian’s plans for expansion
Justinian’s had many accomplishments
 Constantinople had been destroyed by riots over high taxes, and he rebuilt it with structures
using Roman style of domes mixed with classical architecture
 Hagia Sophia = Huge new church built by Justinian, (had biggest dome in world at the time)
 He made a set of laws (or legal code) using traditional Roman laws that existed, and all states
in empire used these laws from then on (spread a uniform legal code to eastern Europe)
Justinian not as successful militarily (failed in his plan to recapture lands of old Roman Empire)
 Belisarius = great general for Justinian, gained land for Byzantines in north Africa and Italy
(Byzantines restored north Africa as grain producer for the Mediterranean world)
 Byzantines added land, but couldn’t hold it (lost Rome to Germans, soon lost north Africa)
Attempts to add territory by Justinian weakened the empire back at home where they were invaded
 Persians attacked northern Middle East and Slavic groups attacked from the Balkans
 The wars cost a lot, and led to extremely high taxes
Arab Pressure and the Empire’s Defense
After Justinian died, his successors main concern was defending the empire from invaders
Though Byzantines lost last to Arab expansion, it was able to survive the threat in the mid 600s
 But Arabs built huge navy by mid 600s and constantly attacked Constantinople
 Greek fire – form of napalm (explosive chemicals) used to defend empire from Arab navy
 Constant Arab invasions hurt Byzantines financially, and taxes rose (hurting small farmers)
After stopping Arabs, Byzantine Empire at times strong and wealthy, at times weak and poor
 Arab pressure continued
 Bulgaria – Slavic kingdom in the north Balkans that often attacked Byzantines
 Basil II = Byzantine emperor, defeated Bulgaria in 1014, blinding as many as 15,000 captives
(Basil II known as slayer of the Bulgarians, and Bulgaria became part of Byzantine Empire)
Despite constant attacks, the Byzantine Empire was fairly large and successful
 Constantinople had beautiful buildings and popular entertainment that awed visitors
 For brief time at end of 900s, Byzantine emperor probably strongest monarch on earth
Byzantine Religion, Society, and Politics
Byzantine political system similar to earlier China
 Emperor head of church and state (no separation of church and state)
 Women had considerable influence, and actually held the throne at some points (example =
Empress Theodora, ruled 981-1056)
Byzantines had one of largest bureaucracies ever (in fact word Byzantine came to mean complex
institutional arrangements)
 Byzantine bureaucrats were highly educated in Greek classics, philosophy, and science
 From all social classes (like China they were mostly aristocrats, but talented poor could rise)
 Emperor appointed regional governors to rule, and had large system of spies to ensure loyalty
 This bureaucracy led the longest–lived single government ever in the Mediterranean
Byzantines had careful military organization
 Like Romans, they recruited local soldiers, rewarding them with land
 Overall military successful and prevented invaders from getting into Europe until the 1400s
The government in Constantinople had control socially and economically over the countryside
 Bureaucracy (government) regulated trade and food prices
 Food prices kept low to keep the poor living in cities happy, but empire had to tax the
peasants heavily (and those peasants were the ones who supplied the food for the empire)
 Byzantines created large trade network (Asia to the east and Russia and Scandinavia to north)
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Silk (got silkworms from China) and luxury products (cloth, carpets, and spices) sent north
(only China made luxury goods as well)
 Traded w/India, Arabs, and east Asia, and got simpler products from west Europe and Africa
 Though trade increased, bureaucracy too powerful and merchants never gained much political
power (similar to China, but unlike west Europe where merchants were gaining power)
Culture based on secular Hellenist (Greek) combined w/new Eastern (Orthodox) Christianity
 Byzantines had innovations in art and architecture, but overall had little innovation (instead
preserved old cultural forms)
 Byzantines had Roman styled domes, richly colored religious mosaics, and icon painting
 Icon = artistic representation of a religious figure
 Muslims called Byzantines icon worshippers, so emperor to attack icons and try to get rid of
them (led to huge backlash from the Church, so government decided to let icons remain)
Big social class gaps in Byzantine Empire
 Empire so big it had much diversity, which led to wide gaps in social classes (ex = orthodox
patriarch (leader) ordered biography of a saint destroyed b/c it was written by a peasant)
The Split Between East (Orthodox) and West (Catholic)
There was a growing split b/t east and west Europe over their different forms of Christianity
 Byzantine emperors (East) controlled church and state (government), so they disliked the
Pope, who threatened to limit Byzantine government’s control over the church
 Charlemagne (from the West) proclaimed himself a Roman emperor in the 800s, angering
Byzantines who saw themselves as the heirs to Rome
 Contact b/t East and West tailed off
 While Eastern (Byzantine) church recognized the pope, they didn’t follow his directives
 Argued over what bread was to be used during communion
 West (Catholic) priests had to be celibate, while Eastern (Byzantine) priests could marry
In 1054 a Byzantine church patriarch (leader) brought up these arguments and the pope
excommunicated him and his followers (kicked him out of the church) and the patriarch
excommunicated all Roman Catholics
 This was official split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church
But still, a common Christianity emerged w/frequent contact and trade b/t east and west Europe
 At time of split Byzantines more advanced, but western Europeans soon passed the East
The Empire’s Decline
Shortly after the religious split from the West, Byzantine Empire began long period of decline
 Turkish invaders (who had converted to Islam) invaded from the east
 In late 1000s, the Seljuk Turks gained most of Byzantine Empire’s land in Asia (hurt
Byzantines b/c that’s where peasants, who provided tax base and grew food, lived)
 Battle of Manzikert (1071) – Byzantine army annihilated by Seljuk Turks and never recovered
(Byzantine Empire lasted another 400 years, but was weaker and its fate was sealed)
 Byzantines pleaded for help from west Europe for help against Turks, but they never helped
(it motivated western Europe to fight Crusades in Middle East, but that didn’t help Byzantines
 Slavic states, like Serbia, broke away from the Empire, showing Byzantine’s crumbling power
 Italian cities with powerful navies were gaining trade advantages over Byzantines, a sign of
the shifting power from Byzantines in east to the West
 During Crusades, western Europeans (Venice) attacked and conquered Constantinople (1204),
but Byzantines able to retake the land (West Europe not yet strong enough to totally hold
them off), and a weakened Byzantine Empire survived another 200 years
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In 1453 Turks invaded and conquered Constantinople, and by 1461, they conquered the entire
Byzantine Empire (fall of Byzantine Empire one of biggest events in world history)
 Byzantines greatest contribution was to stop Muslim attacks, protecting Europe before the
Europeans were strong enough to defend themselves
 Empire increased trade and preserved classical and Christian learning
 After it fell, it’s influence affected later societies, including new Ottoman Empire
3. The Spread of Civilization and Christianity in Eastern Europe
- Byzantines spread Christianity north to the Balkans and Russia through missionary activities
 Cyril and Methodius = missionaries sent by Byzantine government to eastern Europe and the
Balkans to convert people to Orthodox Christianity
 The two missionaries created written language for the Slavs, derived from Greek letters,
which is called Cyrillic
 So, literature and literacy spread, along with Christianity, outside the Byzantine Empire
 Byzantine missionaries willing to have local languages used in church ceremonies (different
than Western Catholicism which insisted on Latin)
a. The Eastern Central Borderlands
- Roman Catholic missionaries had also been sent to eastern Europe
 Roman Catholics converted western part of East Europe (Czech, Poland, and Hungary)
 Hungary always bone of contention, but Catholics got it (though lost to Turks in 800s)
 After converting to Christianity, eastern Europe became a bunch of local kingdoms, with
powerful aristocratic classes (many grew bigger than kingdoms in western Europe)
 Area active in trade and industry (ex: ironworking more advanced here than in West Europe)
 Jews fled to eastern Europe (from Middle East and west Europe), the most settled in Poland
 Jews barred from agriculture, and often resented by Christian majority, but gained strength
through local commerce (local businesses) and maintained religious traditions
 Jews stressed education (for males), different than rest of world at the time which didn’t
b. The Emergence of Kievan Rus’
- Russia had a lot in common with northeastern Europe up until the 1400s
 Byzantines rule in the area for centuries and heavily influenced Russia’s development
 Many Slavs (ethnic group in east Europe) moved into Russian plains and mixed with some
people already there to form the start of the Russian people
 Slavs already had iron, and spread farming into what is now Ukraine and western Russia
 Politically Slavs = family tribes and villages held the power, though small kingdoms emerged
 Religiously Slavs = animism, with gods for the sun, thunder, wind, and fire
 Culturally Slavs = had tradition of folk music and oral legends
- 500s-600s = Russia along trade route between Scandinavians and Byzantine Empire, so it grew
 Scandinavians went through west Russia to Constantinople to trade w/Byzantine Empire
 Byzantines sent luxury goods north to Scandinavia for furs and other crude products
 Kiev = south Russian trade city formed by Scandinavians/Vikings (start of Russian kingdom)
 Rurik = Denmark native who became first prince of what became called Kievan Rus’ in 855
 Kievan Rus’ = Kingdom based out of Kiev, predecessor to later Russia (Russia comes from
Scandinavian word for red, which was color of most Norse traders’ hair)
- Contact between Kievan Rus’ and Byzantine Empire grew steadily
 Kiev (Russians) and Byzantines trade even more, and many Russians visit Constantinople,
leading the Slavs (eastern Europeans including Russians) to learn more about Christianity
 Vladimir I – Ruled Kiev (980-1015) and converted it to Christianity (forced conversion)
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Vladimir I didn’t want Roman Catholicism (Pope too much influence) and didn’t want Islam
(not allowed alcohol)
 Splendor of Orthodox services in Constantinople a reason many Russians wanted to convert
 Church leaders were brought in from Byzantium to train a new Russian priesthood
 Like in Byzantine Empire, king made appointments to the church (controlled it)
 Russian Orthodox = New form of Christianity in Russia, similar to Orthodox in Byzantium
- As Kievan Rus’ became Christian, it was largest single state in Europe, but highly decentralized
 Rurik’s successors able to avoid fights over who would take the throne, helped it grow
 Like Byzantines, they had formal law code (had courts, and reduced severity of punishments)
 Yaroslav = last great Kievan prince, made a legal code (laws) while building many churches,
and had religious literature translated from Greek to Slavic
c. Institutions and Culture in Kievan Rus’
- Kievan Rus’ borrowed from Byzantium, but couldn’t copy huge bureaucracy or education system
 Russian princes liked Byzantine ceremonies, luxury, and idea that ruler had great power
 Many aspects of Orthodox Christianity (Byzantine religion) made way into Russian culture
 Churches were ornate (fancily decorated) and filled with icons and smell of incense
 Many monasteries built, stressed prayer and charity
 Polygamy was replaced with monogamy
- Russian literature (using Cyrillic alphabet) described religious and royal events
 West Europe (Catholic) literature also very religious, but in Russia it was a bigger part of the
overall culture, and new scientific and philosophical thought didn’t emerge as it did in West
 Disasters seen as punishment by God and success in war as reward from God
- Russian and Ukrainian (western Russia) art also very religious (example = icon painting)
 Russians built domed churches similar in style to Byzantines, but with wood instead of stone
 Popular entertainment emerged, combining music, street performances, and some theater
 Church tried censoring these forms of culture (called them pagan) they continued anyway
- Socially and economically, Russia was different than western Europe
 Boyars = Russian aristocrats, had less political power than those in western Europe
d. Kievan Decline
- In the 1100s, Kiev began to fade for several reasons
 Royal family began fighting over succession
 Invaders from Asia began taking territory
 Byzantine Empire fading which hurt Russia b/c it lost trade with them
 Rival princes set up different regional governments
 New kingdom emerged near Moscow by 1200, but Russia was weak and not united
 Mongols invaded (1237- 1241) and conquered Russia, ended 1st chapter of Russian history
 Tatars = Russian term for Mongol invaders, they were despised but feared by Russians
 Tatars controlled Russia for next 200 years, further separating Russia from western Europe
 Under Tatar rule, Russian literature suffered, trade went down
 Christianity survived lenient Tatar rule (if paid taxes, Russians left alone)
 Under Tatar control, more harmony among social classes in Russia
 When Tatars lost Russia in 1400s, enough Russian culture had survived for it to reemerge
- Russian leaders maintained active memory of Byzantine glory days
 When Byzantine Empire fell in 1453, Russia was reemerging from Mongol rule, and took the
mantle as the leaders of eastern Europe
4. Conclusion: The Legacy of the Abbasid Age
- East Europe faced hard times at end of postclassical era (1450) - Byzantines and Russians attacked
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 When eastern Europe remerged later, western Europe had surpassed them
While eastern Europe (Byzantines and Russians) captured, there was some continuity that
remained from those societies to the later Russian society that would eventually reemerge
 Christianity remained
 Idea that political rulers also controlled the church
 Pride in lively artistic culture
Byzantine Empire was one of greatest centers of civilization during postclassical era, though
smaller than the other 3 (Middle East + North Africa, India, and China)
 Unlike the others, Byzantines didn’t just decline, they disappeared
 But, Byzantine Empire had major lasting impacts
a) shaped a major form of Christianity
b) its effort to spread religion and commerce helped lead to the rise of Russia and other
eastern European civilizations