BYZANTINE HISTORY SUBTITLES
•Byzantion Land (Constantinople)
•Byzantine People and History Time-lines
•Crusades
•Empires influenced by Byzantine
•Latin Empire
•Nicaea Empire
•Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
•Trebizond Kingdom
•Turks on Byzantine Land.
•Fall of Constantinople (Multivision show)
THE FIRST CIVILIZATION ON BYZANTINE LAND
‘OPPOSITE THE BLIND’
The origins of Byzantium are shrouded in legend. The traditional legend has it that Byzas from
Megara (a town near Athens), founded Byzantium in 667 BC, when he sailed northeast across
the Aegean Sea. Byzas had consulted the Oracle at Delphi to ask where to make his new city.
The Oracle told him to found it "opposite the blind." At the time, he did not know what this
meant. But when he came upon the Bosporus he realized what it meant: on the east shore was a
Greek city, Chalcedon. However, according to legend, they had not noticed the land that lay a
half-mile away.
Byzas founded his city here on the European coast and named it
Byzantion after himself. It was mainly a trading city due to its strategic
location at the Black Sea's only entrance. Byzantion later conquered
Chalcedon, across the Bosporus on the Asiatic side.
On the other hand reality is different
that ,in 2008, during the construction
works of the Yenikapı subway station
and the Marmaray tunnel at the
historic peninsula on the European
side, a previously unknown Neolithic
settlement dating from circa 6500 BC
was discovered. The first human
settlement on the Anatolian side, the
Fikirtepe mound, is from the Copper
Age period, with artifacts dating
from 5500–3500 BC
If the Earth were a single state, Constantinople would be its
capital.—Napoleon Bonaparte
The location of Byzantium attracted
Constantine I in 324 after a prophetic dream
was said to have identified the location of the
city; but the true reason behind this prophecy
was probably Constantine's final victory over
Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis (Üsküdar)
on the Bosporus, on 18 September, 324, which
ended the civil war between the Roman CoEmperors, and brought an end to the final
vestiges of the Tetrarch system, during which
Nicomedia (present-day İzmit, 100 km (62 mi)
east of Istanbul) was the most senior Roman
capital city. Byzantium (now renamed as Nova
Roma which eventually became
Constantinopolis, i.e. "The City of Constantine")
was officially proclaimed the new capital of the
Roman Empire six years later
THE IDENTITY OF BYZANTINE
The name Byzantine Empire is a modern term
and would have been alien to its
•In the centuries following the
contemporaries. The Empire's native Greek
Arab and Lombard conquests in
name was Basileía Romaíon, a direct translation
the 7th century, its multi-ethnic
of the Latin name of the Roman Empire,
(not multi-national) nature
Imperium Romanorum. The term Byzantine
remained even though its
Empire was invented in 1557, about a century
constituent parts in the Balkans
after the fall of Constantinople by German
and Asia Minor contained an
historian Hieronymus Wolf, who introduced a
overwhelmingly Greek
system of Byzantine historiography in his work
population. Ethnic minorities
Corpus Historiae Byzantinae in order to
and sizeable communities of
distinguish ancient Roman from medieval
religious heretics often lived on
Greek history without drawing attention to their
or near the borderlands. The
ancient predecessors. Then in 17th century,
Armenians were the only
French authors such as Montesquieu began to
sizeable one.
popularize it. So this was the real story of
Byzantine…
THE IDENTITY OF BYZANTINE
•Byzantines identified themselves as
Romaioi (Romans) which had already
become a synonym for a Hellene
(Greek), and more than ever before were
developing a national consciousness, as
residents of Romania, as the Byzantine
state and its world were called. This
nationalist awareness is reflected in
literature, particularly in the arctic
songs, where frontiersmen are praised
for defending their country against
invaders, of which most famous is the
heroic or epic poem Digenis Akritas.
People of Byzantine Empire
Saint Basileus,
Caesarea
329-379
St John Chrysostomus,
Antiochea
347-407
Theodora,
Constantinople
497-548
Theodore Studites,
Constantinople
759-826
Leo the Philosopher,
Thessaly
790-869
Saint Photius,
Constantinople
820-891
Cyrilus,
.
Thessalonika
Methodius, Thessalonika
827-869
826-884
Anna Comnena,
Constantinople
1083-1148
George Pachymeres,
Nicaea
13th c.
Theodore Metochites,
Nicaea
1261-1332
Gregorius Palamas,
--------
1296-?
Demetrius Cydones,
Thessalonica
1324-1398
Manuel Chrysoloras,
Constantinople
1353-1415
George Gemistos or Plethon,
Constantinople
1360-1452
BYZANTINE TIMELINE :
Early fourth
century
Early Byzantine Period
The Armenians adopt Christianity as their state religion; they develop their own alphabet in the fifth
century.
330
The pro-Christian Roman emperor Constantine I dedicates the city of Constantinople (in Greek "the city
of Constantine"), established on the site of the Greek city Byzantium, as the NEW CAPITAL OF THE
ROMAN EMPIRE.
337
Saint Nina converts the Georgians to Orthodox Christianity.
395
The empire is divided into EASTERN and WESTERN portions under Arkadios and Honorius, the sons
of Emperor Theodosius I.
410
Rome is sacked by the Visigoths.
476
Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman emperor, is deposed by the German Odoacer.
527
Justinian becomes Eastern Roman emperor. Constantinople covers eight square miles with at least
500,000 inhabitants.
532-37
JUSTINIAN builds the church of HAGİA SOPHIA in Constantinople.
548-65
Justinian builds a monastery dedicated to the Virgin on Mount Sinai; in the ninth century it is renamed
for Saint Catherine.
639
Muslim armies conquer the southern territories of the Byzantine Empire (Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt,
and Jordan). Crusades started to get back the holy Land.
726
Byzantine Emperor Leo III orders all icons in the Byzantine Empire destroyed.
800
Charlemagne, king of the Franks, is crowned "Emperor of the West" by Pope Leo III in Rome.
Ninth century
Saint Constantine the Philosopher and Saint Methodios create a writing system for the Slavs; the Cyrillic
alphabet will follow.
BYZANTINE TIMELINE :
MIDDLE BYZANTINE PERIOD
GOLDEN AGE
843
Icons are restored to Orthodox worship; this is a triumph of the Byzantine church over the
emperor.
864
Khan Boris of the Bulgarians is baptized as an Orthodox Christian; the Bulgarians adopt Christianity
from Constantinople.
867
Basil I becomes the Byzantine emperor and establishes the Macedonian dynasty; until 1025, Byzantine
emperors are at least part Armenian.
Late ninth
century
Caliphs and the powerful elite of the Islamic 'Abbasid court in Baghdad begin commissioning
translations of a major portion of ancient Greek texts into Arabic.
945-59
Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, a guiding spirit of the so-called Macedonian Renaissance,
encourages the creation of encyclopedic works and the compilation of historical writings.
976
Basil II (d. 1025), the last great ruler in the Macedonian dynasty, ascends the throne and later conquers
Bulgaria, earning the title of the Boulgaroktomos (Bulgar-slayer).
988
Grand Prince Volodymyr adopts Byzantine Christianity as the official state religion of Kievan Rus'
(located in modern-day Ukraine, Belarus', and the Russian Federation).
ca. 1000
Beowulf and the Song of Roland are recorded in writing in Europe.
1018
Bulgaria becomes part of the Byzantine Empire, obtaining its independence in 1188.
1054
The patriarch of Constantinople and the pope in Rome excommunicate one another, causing the Great
Schism between the Byzantine and Latin churches.
1071
Battle between Muslim Seljuk Turks under Alp Arslan and the Byzantine army under Romanus IV
Diogenes at Mantzikert (near Lake Van in modern Turkey); Seljuks win and in time take most of Asia
Minor, including Armenia, from the Byzantines.
BYZANTINE TIMELINE :
Middle Byzantine Period
1081
Alexius I Komnenos becomes emperor, establishing the Komnenos dynasty; the following year, to gain
the support of the Venetian navy against the Normans in South Italy, he grants Venice legal, political, and
economic concessions, eventually leading to Venetian commercial and economic domination in much of
the Byzantine Empire.
1081
The empire repulses the new Norman kingdom of South Italy, which has launched a devastating invasion
of the Byzantine Empire from the west; the Norman goal was to destroy Byzantium and make
Constantinople the capital of the Norman state.
1088
Christodoulos of Patmos, supported by Emperor Alexius I Komnenos, founds the monastery of Saint John
the Theologian on Patmos.
1099
The FIRST CRUSADE (1095-99) captures JERUSALEM; the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem begins.
1143-51
Workshops of Byzantine mosaicists from Constantinople are invited to decorate churches in the Norman
kingdom of Sicily (Palace Chapel and the church of Saint Mary of the Admiral in Palermo; the cathedral
in Cefal).
1187
Saladin's defeat of crusaders at the Horn of Hittin and his capture of Jerusalem, followed by the Islamic
conquest of most of the Crusader states.
1204
The Fourth Crusade leads to a Latin occupation of Constantinople, with the Byzantine Empire reduced to
several contending states in outlying regions of its territories; as a result, for much of the next fifty years,
vast amounts of artistic booty are sent to western Europe from the city and the lands of Frankish Greece.
1215
King John of England and rebelling English nobles sign the Magna Carta.
122158
1260
The Mongols ravage Persia, conquer the Chin empire in China, conquer the Armenians and Georgians,
capture Moscow and Kiev, are victorious at Liegnitz (Silesia) and Mohl (Hungary), conquer Nan-Chao
and eastern Tibet in the Far East, and capture Baghdad in the Middle East, ending the 'Abbasid caliphate.
Mamluk sultanate in Egypt and Syria defeats the Mongols.
Late Byzantine Period
1261
127192
Constantinople is recaptured by the Byzantine emperor Michael Palaeologus.
Travels of Marco Polo.
Fourteenth and early Byzantine defenses in Asia and Europe gradually collapse as the Ottoman
fifteenth centuries
Turks advance. Constantinople, now essentially all that remains of the empire,
continues to stand against them.
1453
The Ottoman Turks capture Constantinople and the last of the imperial
lands; in 1930, Constantinople is renamed Istanbul (in Turkish, "the
city").
CRUSADES
This Holy Land was conquered by Islam in the A.D. 600s, and would remain in
their control for many centuries to come. In A.D. 1095 Pope Leo III called for
volunteers to travel to Jerusalem and fight to take it back from the Muslims. He
called their mission a crusade. The word “crusade” comes from the word Crux,
which means “cross” in Latin. Those who volunteered for the crusade would be
called crusaders, meaning that they took the cross of Jesus upon them.
This crusade would be the first of nine total crusades, that Christians would carry
out as they attempted to control Israel territory.
These crusaders were promised that they would receive eternal life if they died
while fighting non-Christians. As a result of the rhetoric these Christians killed
thousands of non-Christians, including Jews, and Muslims, as they traveled to
Jerusalem. In some cases the slaughtered entire Jewish communities.
After two years of traveling in the desert, the crusaders finally reached Jerusalem.
They laid siege upon the city, surrounding it for two months. Finally the city fell,
and the crusaders entered, killing almost all of the non-Christians who inhabited the
city, men, women, and children.
Europeans would control many parts of Israel and the surrounding regions for a
little over 200 years. During this time, Muslims made slow but steady efforts to
regain control over Jerusalem. Eight more crusades would follow, in an effort to
keep control over the city in the hands of the Europeans. In A.D. 1291 the Muslims
capture the last European stronghold in the area. European leaders lost interest in
the area, and the crusades came to an end.
Pope Leo III
The Goals of Crusades
Causes:
•
To ensure safety of pilgrims
•
To save Byzantium from threat of Turks
•
To get squabbling lords to focus aggression outward
•
Idea of actually freeing the Holy Land seems to be an afterthought
Empires influenced by Byzantine
1- Latin Empire
" Empire of Romania" is the name given by historians to
The feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the
Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine
Empire. It was established after the capture of
Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261. The Latin
Empire was intended to supplant the Byzantine Empire as
titular successor to the Roman Empire in the east, with a
Western Catholic emperor enthroned in place of the
Capture of Constantinople
Orthodox Byzantine emperors.
during the Fourth Crusade in
• The Latin Empire failed to attain political or
1204.
economic dominance over the other Latin powers
that had been established in former Byzantine
territories in the wake of the Fourth Crusade
Baldwin II
(1217-1273)
• Weakened by constant warfare with the
was the last
Bulgarians and the Greek successor states, it
Latin emperor
eventually fell to the Empire of Nicaea under
of
Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261
Constantinople.
2- Empire of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek states founded
by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was
conquered during the Fourth Crusade. Founded by the Lascaris family, it lasted from
1204 to 1261.
Empire of Nicaea
Coin issued by Michael
VIII Palaeologus to
celebrate the liberation of
Constantinople from the
Latin army, and the
restoration of the Byzantine
Empire.
Military
The Nicaean Empire consisted of
Byzantium's most highly populated Greek
region. As such, the Empire was able to raise
a reasonably numerous military force of
around 20,000 soldiers at its height - numbers
recorded as participating in its numerous wars
against the Crusader states. The Nicaeans
continued some aspects of the Komnenian
army, but without the resources available to
the Komnenian emperors the Nicaean
Byzantines could not match the numbers, nor
the quality, of the armies that the emperor
Manuel and his predecessors had fielded.
Western Asia Minor had access to the sea,
making it wealthier than most of the splinter
states around and in time became the most
powerful state in the region, if only for a
short duration.
3- Armenian Kingdom
MASS ARMENIAN MIGRATION TO
CILICIA UNDER THE BYZANTINES
Cilicia was reconquered from the Arabs by
the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas
around 965. He expelled the Muslims living
there, and Christians from Syria and Armenia
were encouraged to settle in the region.
Emperor Basil II (976-1025) attempted to
expand into Armenian Vaspurakan in the East
and Arab-held Syria towards the south. As a
result of the Byzantine military campaigns,
the Armenians spread into Cappadocia and
eastward from Cilicia into the mountainous
areas of northern Syria and Mesopotamia
Foundation of Armenian power in
Cilicia
The Armenians came to serve the
Byzantines as military officers and
governors; they were given control of
important cities on the Byzantine
Empire's eastern frontier. When
Imperial power in the region
weakened in the chaotic years after
the Battle of Manzikert, some of
them seized the opportunity to set
themselves up as sovereign Lords,
while others remained, at least in
name, loyal to the Empire.
4- THE EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND
(Trapezous – Euxenus Pontus)
The Empire of Trebizond was a
successor state of the Byzantine Empire
founded in 1204 immediately before the
fall of Constantinople. Queen Tamar of
Georgia provided troops to Alexius I for
the conquest of Trabzon, Sinope and Empire of Trebizond, Silver Asper. St.
Paphlagonia
Eugenius facing / emperor holding standard.
A grandson of Byzantine emperor Andronicus I
Comnenus and a descendant of King David the
Builder of Georgia through his great
grandmother Katay (daughter of David the
Builder), made Trebizond his capital and
asserted a claim to be the legitimate successor
of the Byzantine Empire.
SUMELA MONASTERY
(built in 5th century)
Byzantines and Turks: AD
1064-1071
Under the Byzantine rule, Anatolia
was the scene of continuous wars and
eleven crusades. The Empire
succeeded in driving back the Arab
attacks in the 7th cell. and the
Pecheneks in the 11th, but could not
resist the Latin invasion of the 13th
cell.. The defeat of Emperor Romallus
Diogenes by the Seldjuk Turks in the
battle of Manzikert (1071) marks the
beginning of decline that lasted till the
conquest of Constantinople in 1453;
thus, the end of the Byzantine Empire.
THE KEY OF ANATOLIA FOR TURKS
THE BATTLE OF MANZİKERT (1071)
In 1064 the Seljuk Turks, under their sultan
Alp Arslan, invade Armenia - for many
centuries a disputed frontier region between
the Byzantine empire and neighbours to the
east. Alp Arslan follows his success here
with an attack on Georgia, in 1068. These
acts of aggression prompt a response from
the Byzantine emperor, Romanus IV
Diogenes.
The armies meet in 1071 at Manzikert, near
Lake Van. The battle, a resounding victory
for the Seljuks, is a turning point in the
story of the Byzantine empire. Within a
few years there are Turkish tribes in many
parts of Anatolia. Some of them are bitter
enemies of the Seljuks, but the Seljuks are
now the main power in this borderland
between Islam and Christianity.
•1071 Manzikert
Seljuks break Byzantine line of defense
in Eastern Anatolia; Turkish-speaking
Muslims raid and settle in area now
known as ”Turkey”; much of the Greek/
Christian veneer of indigenous
Anatolian population gradually replaced
by a Turkish/Muslim veneer
•1204 , Byzantium fatally
weakened by 4th. Crusade and
Latin occupation
•1200 , high point of Seljuks of Rum; by
absorption of smaller Turkish principalities
(beyliks),
•1324-1360 , orhan ı ghazi.
Crosses into Balkans in 1345
as ally of byzantine emperor,
john cantacuzenus, against
Serbs
•Sultan Murat moves
Ottoman capital to Edirne in
1366; origins of Janissary
Corps and the devshirme
probably date to Murat’s
reign
•Expansion of Ottoman rule
eastward over Anatolian
principalities through combination
of diplomacy, dynastic marriages,
and military expeditions brings
Ottomans into conflict with Timur
Leak (Tamerlane) who invades
Anatolia and challenges Bayezit
at battle of Ankara in 1402.
•1403-1413, dynastic struggle; civil
war among Bayezit’s sons; Suleiman
and Musa eventually killed; Mehmet
emerges as victor; Christians fail to
take advantage of this opportunity to
throw off Ottoman rule.
•1413-1421, Mehmet I, the
Restorer. Devotes his energy to
reunification of Ottoman lands
and reconsolidation of sultan’s
authority
THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE -- MEHMET II THE CONQUEROR
SAHI: THE FIRST AND BIGGEST HOWITZER CANNON OF THE WORLD
URBAN (Hungarian Emperor) suggested it to Byzantine Empire but the emperor
refused and thought to rent some more soldiers instead of spending money for it. But this
prepared Byzantines’ end because Mehmet II accepted the offer and conquered Constantinople
with the help of this cannon
THE WORLD’S INITIALS BY THE FALL
OF CONSTANTINOPLE
•AGES ENDED AND STARTED
(MIDDLE AGE – NEW AGE)
•ROMAN EMPIRE LOST THE MOST IMPORTANT
REGION AFTER 1100 YEARS
•FOR THE FIRST TIME A NAVY TRANSPORTED ON
THE LAND.
•THE BIGGEST HOWITZER CANNON OF THE
WORLD (SAHI) WAS USED
•WORLD LEARNED RELIGIOUS TOLERATION
(THE EMPEROR LET THEM EXIST MORE EASILY
THAN BEFORE)
•Mehmet II, Fatih (The Conqueror).
Fall of Constantinople in 1453 only
the beginning of an aggressive policy
of conquest; capital moved from
Edirne to Istanbul; shift of political
power from provincial notables and
feudal lords to the sultan’s slaves
(kapikullari); the Palace School and
the organization of religious education
through the madrasa system; elaborate
court and expanded bureaucracy; the
imperial tradition is firmly established
and the classical age of the Ottoman
Empire has begun.
Mehmed II, the Conqueror
BYZANTINE INFLUENCE ON OTTOMAN EMPIRE
•‘The Ottoman Empire was an Islamized version of the Byzantine Empire.’ historians
in Europe had argued that the entire institutional culture of the Ottoman Empire, from
military offices to palace banquets to methods of public humiliation, was carried over
directly from the Byzantine Empire.
• Court ceremonial and central administrative practices were effected by Byzantine
patterns.
•Beginning in Seljuk times and continuing into the 14th century Byzantine and other
Christian women were taken into the harems of Seljuk, Turkoman and early Ottoman
Rulers
•Portions of conquered territories were cut into mukata’s to which the name ‘timar’
was given. The existing tax structure as well as feudal practices developed under
Byzantine rule were retained with little change.
•Byzantine scribal traditions were influential at first but later these and other areas of
government and life were submerged by the legacy of the old Islamic Empire
•Finally there was Byzantine tradition in Ottoman Empire. By assimilating a living
Byzantine society in Anatolia and Europe the Ottomans inevitably inherited
Byzantine ways of doing things.
THANKS FOR LISTENING OUR
PRESENTATION OF BYZANTINE HISTORY
ENJOY THE MULTIVISION SHOW
PREPARED BY:
DIDEM
DILAN
HILAL
SHEYDA
AKGUN
OGUZ
KARABIBER
OZDEN