Story of Monarchy: The Byzantine Empire
Although it is a subject of great interest to me, I have been put off
from talking about the Byzantine Empire because, in the past, it has
invariably aroused bitter partisan vitriol that is completely unhelpful
at best and detrimental at worst. Nonetheless, I can refrain no longer
because this is an extremely important subject that people really need
to know more about.
Obviously, this post will only be a very general
overview of the Byzantine Empire but I think it is necessary and anyone
can look up particular items in greater detail on your own. Western
civilization would likely not exist at all were it not for the Byzantine
Empire and an important point to make at the outset is to emphasize
that the Byzantine Empire is simply another word for the continuation of
the East Roman Empire and the Roman Empire is absolutely essential and
foundational for the entirety of western civilization. Certainly,
Eastern Europe owes the most to the Byzantine Empire but Western Europe
likewise owes an immense debt to the Eastern Roman Empire and neither
would be what they are today without it.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG_wx05e6WD956gKC9gqKiKFnQXzyks4VJrsjca9yzCrdUbxhKfRs5ZBsargJnYhX-eyVxNI9oW1E1UmV4SVOIAt_6od2OHzDoWHmRyu6eEOSoLAC3XcQKTsFs_48sysUoCyGFeW7tW48b/s320/byzantine_throne2.jpg) |
Byzantine throne room |
The Byzantine Empire, formally the East Roman Empire, was also known as
the Later Roman Empire and, occasionally, the Greek Empire but it is
important to note that the Byzantines themselves did not refer to
themselves as “Byzantines” but as “Romans”. The name comes from the city
of Byzantium on the Bosporus which dates to the 500’s BC. Originally
Greek, when it was conquered by the Romans in the 100’s BC it became a
relatively prosperous trading center until it was leveled and partially
rebuilt by Emperor Septimius Severus. One could date the birth of the
Byzantine Empire as far back as 293 AD when Emperor Diocletian first
divided the Roman Empire into eastern and western halves, making his
capital in the east at Nicomedia in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). However,
the “Founding Father” of the Byzantine Empire is not usually considered
to be Diocletian but Emperor Constantine the Great, the first Christian
Roman emperor, who moved the imperial capital to Byzantium, renaming it
Constantinople. Although the city of Rome would remain important for
some time to come, from this point on Rome was eclipsed by
Constantinople as the center of Roman wealth and power.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCSSpAJ4pFmFelyJ-YxWU73s5KbN4sMNbDatjFaXimU-vazr-9j_G225cN0CUQzkh-0iQW6r25iPzD5fC6Z7fgWe-s7odyk9kHEm-9HFMgYmOGbPjDdrP7d8yb7uf2z6S9Zd6jjrKRqXzw/s320/tim_curry_theodosius2.jpg) |
Tim Curry as Emperor Theodosius II |
Emperor Constantine I ruled the entire Roman Empire and was succeeded by
his three sons but the division between east and west returned.
However, Emperor Theodosius I again ruled the whole empire himself, the
last monarch to do so. It was also Emperor Theodosius who made
Christianity the sole and official religion of the empire. After his
death, Emperor Honorius ruled the west and Emperor Arcadius ruled the
east. During this period, the West Roman Empire was repeatedly attacked
by barbarian tribes, Alaric the Goth sacking Rome itself in 410 but the
East Roman Empire carried on secure and prosperous by comparison.
Emperor Arcadius was not the best monarch one could hope for but he was
succeeded by a more able man, his son Emperor Theodosius II. From 408 to
450 Emperor Theodosius II ruled and ruled quite well, all things
considered. He had wars in the east and rampaging Huns to deal with but
he built immensely strong fortifications around Constantinople that
proved invaluable, built a university there and established the
Theodosian Code by reforming the existing laws. In his reign the East
Roman Empire began to look like the united Roman Empire of old and
seemed the more worthy successor to it than the battered west. Not long
after his time, in 476, the West Roman Empire ceased to exist
altogether, leaving the Byzantine Empire as the last Roman Empire
standing.
This is important to remember, particularly for people in the west,
because so many of the east-west, Catholic-Orthodox problems really date
back to this point in history. People in the west need to understand,
setting aside the religious disputes, that it was at this point that the
Pope in Rome became much more significant and eventually a political as
well as religious figure. However, all too often religion was used as
cover for what were basically political disputes and the fact is that
the Byzantine Emperors understandably considered themselves the
legitimate rulers of the entire Roman world once the last Western Roman
Emperor was forced from power. The religious differences between the
Catholic and Orthodox Churches are what they are but people in the west
really should understand that it was not an illegitimate or unreasonable
position for the Eastern Roman Emperor to consider himself the rightful
monarch of the west as well once the west no longer had an emperor at
all (in fact the Byzantines regarded Julius Nepos as the last Western
Emperor as they had never recognized Romulus Augustulus). Many of the
east-west tensions really come down to this basic, political and
non-religious point; that there were people in the west with newly
conquered lands and subjects who did not want the Emperor in
Constantinople telling them what to do.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMaSpx6OUjqzFteW596o3hDnbg9lvV1s3lNuMKd7QmL4rrlgtUMdqeOm4J86yJaCa4El0t6u9w8LkprVWbV5dDXT7eLW0CbNuoOQFxedUeEi75op8os3c37Cp_lODA_vhbw8caieoMabZ0/s320/justinian1.jpg) |
Emperor Justinian |
The final, east-west religious break would not happen for some time,
which is well enough as the religious situation was, by all accounts,
frankly, a confusing mess with both sides having plenty of fashionable
heresies to deal with. However, what is generally recognized as the
“Golden Age” of the Byzantine Empire came with the ambitious reign of
Emperor Justinian I, starting in 527. He was an able man and determined
to see the Roman Empire restored to its former glory even if that mean
reconquering the west entirely. It helped that he was an able military
leader and it helped even more that he had one of the greatest military
geniuses of the time to call upon in the person of his general
Belisarius. Ever present threats remained to the east such as the
Persians and the Arabs but Emperor Justinian fought battles to re-take
the western empire, winning against the Vandals in Africa, the
Ostrogoths in Italy and the Visigoths in Spain. Emperor Justinian had
just about made the Mediterranean a ‘Roman lake’ once again while at the
same time driving back the Persians on the eastern frontier.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZvy64-MnVvKt1pHs8TL0IPqAHOIYNUWp_QSfbiKHuVSWc0wJp0nVOaa7J-eSCsQO4StSyYjQr1S_JNjTo6ZFxpYjtedtj_io6pc7YZ_GyfeMzhEa4xKSCoOXoYSIFTS_pAMt1OMkxJLg4/s320/justinian_theodora.jpg) |
Justinian & Theodora |
Emperor Justinian had his problems with the Church of course but, in all
fairness, the Church was having plenty of problems with itself at this
time, the empire was wealthy and prosperous and the Emperor published a
new, more complete, edition of the Roman law code which has since been
known as the Justinian Code. The Emperor also oversaw the construction
of the magnificent Church of Saint Sophia or Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople which was one of the architectural wonders of
Christendom. It may not seem quite so impressive from the outside but
the interior, particularly in its former glory days, was astonishingly
magnificent. There had never been a church like it before.
Unfortunately, such building projects and unending military campaigns
also left the Byzantine treasury basically empty by the end of the reign
of Justinian. His passing was, in a way, the end of an era as he was
the last Byzantine emperor to speak Latin and this, as well as his
preservation of many old, Roman traditions, has caused some in the east
to take a rather negative view of him as their hatred for anything
western, Latin and/or Roman dominates their entire thinking. Justinian
was not perfect as no mere mortal can be but he undoubtedly came closer
than any other Eastern Emperor to restoring the entirety of the Western
Roman Empire to Byzantine rule. Nonetheless, by the time he died, the
government was bankrupt and the public rather put off, particularly
regarding the many schemes of his ambitious wife Empress Theodora.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdzK9mnuCdMQuqZiXgpqYoSRb8G_DXhvIsrJIYxRAjvXqRbq7Jx_zwa_BBuzNiJgzVKy9_bMYy1Ap4OVzcYPfOrL4fj60u2VAo2PcfXB1W8nqTfEE5SfyT9Hj2sAOB2X2cyvkd46yXn9k7/s320/maurice.jpg) |
Emperor Maurice |
The period which followed was one of seemingly constant crisis for the
Empire. From 565 to 578 Emperor Justin II had to deal with barbarian
invasions from practically every direction. The Germans were invading in
the west, the Lombards were charging into Italy, the Avars, Slavs and
Bulgars were attacking into the Balkans while in the east the Persians
were back on the offensive as well. However, internal power struggles
would remain a problem and this is why the very word “Byzantine” has
become synonymous with devious plots and palace intrigue. Emperor
Maurice, for example, had great success in fighting back against the
Persians and against the Avars in the Balkans, pushing beyond the Danube
for the first time in centuries and took steps to maintain footholds in
Italy and Africa. However, he was assassinated in 602 along with all
six of his sons by an ambitious general after which disastrous war with
Persia broke out anew. They made repeated advances until finally being
stopped by Emperor Heraclius who reigned from 610 to 641. However, a new
threat arose which changed everything when Islam sprang up among the
Arabs and a wave of Muslim conquests assailed the Byzantine Empire.
Palestine and Syria fell in 636, Egypt in 640 and Armenia in 654. Muslim
forces besieged Constantinople itself from 673 to 678 and from 717 to
718 but were held off thanks to the immense fortifications ringing the
city which previous emperors had wisely invested in. Around
Constantinople, however, Muslim conquests continued with Crete and
Sicily falling in the 820’s.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQsvMZr0LWUqQuCSiRrk7hJSIynpZW0aK37ukdi3A9vI_OLadr5_GefncQaBbkRPBdkC8cpzWuv4eR-93D-WXSWYQvL5n-UCjBaV389YHu4WfdiJVFtMQTWYdoMFPDHJrMEaJGU1NrODrf/s320/saint_olga_enters_churchofholywisdom.jpg) |
St Olga enters the Church of Holy Wisdom |
Constantinople remained the center of classical culture but these
setbacks have also given rise to some confusion with many of the
medical, scientific and other advances often attributed to the Arabs
actually being the product of classical Greek and Roman scholars
preserved by the Byzantines but seized by the Muslims during their
conquests of East Roman centers of learning such as Alexandria, Egypt.
Even in these troubled times, the Byzantine Empire also still had a
civilizing, cultural influence in the east, just as the West Roman
Empire had done on barbarians in their neighborhood. Christianity as
today practiced in the Eastern Orthodox Churches was the most visible
part of the East Roman culture spread by the Byzantine Empire throughout
Eastern Europe. The South Slavs and Bulgarians were converted but the
most significant was the conversion of Russia in the 800’s. St Olga,
Princess and Regent of the Kievan-Rus converted to Christianity and was
received into the church in Constantinople during the reign of Emperor
Constantine VII. She took the faith back to her home and her grandson,
Vladimir the Great, would make Christianity the official religion of the
Russians which it remained up until the downfall of the Romanov dynasty
in 1917.
The Byzantine Empire stands as rather persuasive proof that the fall of
the Western Roman Empire was not inevitable as the Eastern Roman Empire
carried on, seemed more than once on the brink of collapse but revived
again. This occurred in the 800’s as the Byzantine Empire started to
recover its old prosperity, fighting spirit and began to take back her
conquered territories. The Muslim invaders were driven back, the Balkans
was brought back under imperial rule and Constantinople was once again
the center of great wealth and opportunity. Trade boomed and Italian
merchants began making alliances with the Byzantine Empire because
friendship and trade with them was so much more profitable than in the
west. The peak was probably reached under Emperor Basil II, known as
“the Bulgar-Slayer” who made a marriage alliance with the Russians,
conquered Bulgaria, recovered Armenia and halted Muslim incursions. Art,
religion, learning all seemed to have their best flowerings in
Constantinople during this time. It was a sad occasion when Basil II
passed away in 1025. Leadership problems followed, fights over the
throne and this, of course, gave an opportunity for the enemies of the
empire to advance. Some measure of stability was recovered with the rise
of the Komnenos Dynasty but they had huge problems to deal with.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaIPO6WPK6u3hEhC3NKYJ4t58tK9DORDVSbq282s_UOpMx4QF5nTDOAs0iFYeiTYgPqMsR1PVpSNjjjjqt9I-xRF-CHu6ISSYVLqnM3H-SGugKheT08kEpHSTWWAjFXrWc4EpIBf-vjxxv/s320/godfreybouillon_alexius.jpg) |
Godfrey de Bouillon pledges allegiance to Emp. Alexius |
A major new problem, that ultimately would never go away, was the
appearance of the Seljuk Turks riding in from central Asia. They quickly
surpassed the Arabs as the primary Islamic threat to the Byzantine
Empire. In 1071 at the pivotal Battle of Manzikert the Byzantine army
was smashed by the Turks and Asia Minor completely laid open to them.
Faced with overwhelming enemy forces, Emperor Alexius decided to look to
the west and call on the Latin Christians for help. Pope Urban II
answered by calling the First Crusade for the knights of western Europe
to rush to the defense of Christendom against the Muslim invaders. The
primary leader of the First Crusade was Godfrey de Bouillon and, while
passing through Constantinople, Emperor Alexius had Godfrey and the
leaders of the other crusader armies as they came, pledge allegiance to
him and to reiterate than all lands they took back from the Muslims
would belong to the Byzantine Empire. Not all of the Crusaders took
kindly to this, which is understandable as they did the fighting and so
expected to receive something in return for their efforts. The result
was the establishment of Crusader states, primarily the Latin Kingdom of
Jerusalem, who might nominally do obeisance to the Byzantine Emperor
and who tended to adopt Byzantine style for their court life but who
basically operated according to the western, feudal system as masters of
their own lands with plenty of acrimony and accusations between the
Latin Crusaders and their nominal Byzantine overseers.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzo-8Dt6HyppJvIifY5dXLIXYTGnRFWtA1BRV_pxc6p_mNJ1BY9h6rjlDioDilfFWW_E7g8kb80pTFF1KHudmqHn1fN6eh4Wbgk8o7byP8_vWlIbwegOTuCWhqaw6FfzO6Qful2lRtfUQ8/s320/john2_and_irene.jpg) |
Emp. John II & Irene of Hungary |
The truth is that neither side was perfect in keeping their agreements
but this period did see the most east-west cooperation in years. Emperor
Alexius was succeeded, in 1118, by his son Emperor John II who married
Princess Irene of Hungary. His reign was dominated with trying to repair
the damage inflicted on the empire since the disaster at Manzikert. He
dealt with the Serbs and Hungarians to the north, part of the settlement
of which was his marriage to Irene who converted to the Orthodox Church
and has since been recognized as a saint. He was known for his
patronage of the church and for taking to the field himself to deal with
the Turkish threat from the east, fighting and winning many battles and
establishing fortified towns and outposts along the way to prevent
future incursions. He succeeded in taking back the initiative in this
war, reaching as far as Tarsus. The empire prospered during his reign
and the population grew remarkably. However, when he determined to march
into the Islamic occupied area of Syria he met only frustration as
cooperation with the western Crusader forces failed to materialize. He
also had problems with the Italians of Venice and all of these problems
were to reemerge as far larger problems in the future.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuAttWyzw8G6MD1stzoAsqxvM1qy_1pVsJajOI7SvQ4Um7piVkVY8S1chJ7A8pM41FFD-DrvZbWZ1sfkJvP0NUiRR6JCELwKUFlurN1YAEubqsc98qhl6WJ0b4PpejN03Y6ktzRcJgkzmy/s320/manuel1_stefannemanjaprostrate.jpg) |
Emperor Manuel I |
For the time being, however, things seemed to be going much better. John
II was succeeded by his youngest son Emperor Manuel I in 1143. He made
an alliance with the Pope, oversaw the passage of the Second Crusade,
joined them in an invasion of Egypt, managed to keep control of the
Balkans and made Hungary and the Crusader states Byzantine
protectorates. In that regard, he had succeeded where his father had
failed, was referred to as “Manuel the Great” by the Greek population
and even earned considerable praise from the Latin west as the “most
blessed emperor of Constantinople”. This is, again, important to keep in
mind because it shows that the Byzantine Empire was not just hanging by
a thread or stumbling toward its inevitable doom after the western
collapse. It had its periods of crisis but, under able leadership, was
shown repeatedly to be capable of coming back and rising again to
prominence. The reign of Emperor Manuel also shows that the introduction
of the Crusaders into the equation was not something that was
completely unmanageable and that the Latins and the Byzantines were
capable of putting aside their differences and making common cause for
the greater good of Christendom. Emperor Manuel took advantage of the
rebellions against the Normans in Sicily to launch an invasion of
southern Italy which initially had great success despite being too late
to take part in a joint venture with German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa
as he had planned. He made an alliance with Pope Adrian IV against the
Normans and for a time saw hope of restoring the old Roman Empire,
reuniting east and west. Unfortunately, this did not happen as the
Emperor would not agree to accept papal supremacy over the eastern
Christians nor would the Pope accept imperial political control over the
west.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGEqLhV_q4J9KKAAlTu8za79I06BoZKW6SikglcZT63M8jCBXF70P66uBRWQz4zjsRMJmPwY4vuz-airAjfldxEPPAc0EYVoC9l5XaPVaOyGuHgHkVmN2WVq5h8dxDyVI4tpOs-nmS5QG3/s320/hagia_sophia_richard1.jpg) |
Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia |
By the time of his death, the Byzantine Empire was prosperous, larger
than before, more respected than before and one of the major world
powers of the time. However, factions and conspiracies at court
remained, enemies on the frontier looked for their chance and relations
with Venice, the most important Byzantine ally in the west, had again
broken down. It would take a strong monarch to carry on and,
unfortunately, his son was a minor when raised to the throne, the
regency was unpopular and soon court intrigue brought about the downfall
of the boy and another period of political instability followed. The
next seven emperors all met unhappy ends, six being murdered and one
dying in captivity. Everything came to ruin with the Fourth Crusade of
1203, called by Pope Innocent III who wanted to invade Egypt, seeing it
as the ‘soft underbelly’ of the Islamic domains. However, the Crusaders
were diverted to retake a city on the Adriatic by the Republic of Venice
as payment for ferrying them to Africa. Unfortunately, they never made
it to Africa as they met with the deposed Byzantine Emperor Alexius IV
Angelus who promised to pay for their ships, religiously reunite east
and west and contribute large forces to the Crusade if they would
restore him to his throne. They agreed and instead of going to Egypt
attacked Constantinople.
This turned out to be a very brutal affair, partly because of the
earlier “Massacre of the Latins”, longstanding east-west disputes and
the discovery that none of the money or men the Crusaders had been
promised existed. In 1204 Constantinople was ransacked on a large scale
and quite devastated. Baldwin of Flanders was chosen to be Latin Emperor
of the East by his fellow Crusaders, the east-west schism was declared
over and the lands of Asia Minor were divided among various Greek rulers
with the Crusaders becoming feudal lords of the more choice remnants of
the Byzantine Empire. This was a very traumatic event and something
that many if not most Eastern Orthodox Christians have yet to get over.
The Latin Empire of Constantinople did not last too long with the
Greeks, Turks and Bulgars all rising up against it on various fronts. It
is, frankly, rather remarkable that it lasted for 57 years under such
circumstances. The ideal of the Byzantine Empire as it had been was also
not forgotten and in 1261 the last Imperial Dynasty came to power when
Michael Palaeologus, a general and imperial relative in the employ of
the Greek ruler at Nicaea, overthrew the Latin Empire and reclaimed
Constantinople, banning all Latin and restoring the previous Byzantine
traditions and ceremonies. Efforts by the Crusaders to restore their
domains failed and the Byzantine Empire was once again a force to be
reckoned with.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ6kzg3QX3R0qdM9DeNNZj0evQWqbXYzgafVxWhk2EfkW9zrC8WHSHnin2brXngB_XlzXxyGdXaPZoXVHzcY8UOjvO3hm3kts3rHl83S8xY-dB2gb3h9iGHVxG0qTCmF-CV4E1qNW5KJk6/s320/5p3ajk.jpg) |
Emperor Constantine XI |
Unfortunately, though Emperor Michael VIII, began to rebuild and
repopulate Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire, having been broken up,
was hard to put back together and would never be as strong as it had
been before. Likewise, once the western enemy was gone, the eastern
Christians soon began warring against each other again as well, all of
which served the interests of the Turks quite nicely. In Asia Minor the
Turks were on the advance while in the Balkans the Serbians were
attacking and taking ground. The fact that the Christians did not stick
together allowed the Turks to gain their own foothold in the Balkans and
soon the city of Constantinople was an island in a Turkish sea. It was
only thanks to the impressive, monumental, double fortifications around
the city and her ingenious naval defenses that kept Constantinople out
of enemy hands even though, eventually, the Byzantine Empire included
very little beyond the walls of the city itself. There was also a sense
of apathy that seemed to take hold of the populace as when the city was
again besieged by massive Islamic armies led by Sultan Mehmed II,
nicknamed “the Blood Drinker” which doesn’t make him sound like the
nicest fellow, only 5,000 men, about 5% of the population could bestir
themselves to take up arms in their own defense. This meant that nearly
half of the defenders, about 3,000 of them, were western mercenaries,
predominately Italian and Spanish with Giovanni Giustiniani (an Italian
obviously) named top military commander by Emperor Constantine XI.
Emperor Constantine XI did the best he could under the most hopeless of
circumstances. When the Turkish artillery finally breached the walls on
May 29, 1453 and the end was eminent, he hurled himself into the enemy
ranks and was never seen again, giving rise to a popular legend that he
was rescued by an angel, turned to stone and hidden away to be brought
back to life later and retake the city for Christendom. It is a story
reminiscent of those of King Arthur in England or Frederick Barbarossa
in Germany and shows just how much of an impact his heroic sacrifice had
on his people. Despite repeated calls for a crusade to retake the city
by a number of popes, this proved to be the end of the Byzantine Empire.
The Turks turned the Hagia Sophia into a mosque and, initially, made
the city the capital of their Ottoman Empire. Eventually, the Ottoman
Empire would fall as well but the Turks still maintain control of Asia
Minor, the “Golden Horn” and the city of Constantine. Today this is so
taken for granted that few even think about it.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3JZnfym-7luVMH4QUVu06pqO73ZIRje3JiuQwdIcLY_WenvC2Zb7MIkUJ6iWJkR8HQIyqcECexflXJou0hhxeK6bHmzfOSz41S72VjC1rFex5nlGjkek43BL2qVDZwDIj1a9OmaZKbZMH/s320/503px-Byzantine_imperial_flag%252C_14th_century.svg.png) |
14th Century Byzantine flag |
The Eastern Roman Empire, however, is something everyone should think
about, in the west as well as the east. It certainly had many problems
and was notorious for its conspiracies and palace intrigues, however,
while the Western Roman Empire fell in 476, the Eastern Roman Empire
survived until 1453 and that is something that cannot be shrugged off or
dismissed out of hand. For Eastern Europe, the Byzantine Empire was the
source of faith, culture and, originally at least, royal legitimacy.
For the west, it was the bulwark on the frontier of Christendom that
kept very powerful and highly organized enemies from ravaging the
continent. Does anyone think that the Persians would not have continued
on into Greece as their ancient forefathers had done if the Byzantine
Empire had not stopped them? The initial Arab Islamic conquests that
swept across north Africa could have easily reached Germany, even
Britain or Scandinavia if the Byzantines had not stood in the way. The
Turks ultimately gained control of much of the Balkans in their
conquests but consider how much more they could have gained without
Constantinople blocking their path.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCDhNxpXaL9EqYssZh1DTFRCN4j1wf0Gpbz5DSz9PaYaUjsi64YsY1bsBlUMEFZKrI5P_D2TBbmrDiSNWgj2I9MxTtVidMTaKDHyjt5DGiJhrUNXE7O_EknYyTdfhyFrSj33J4p1FewbFA/s320/constantinople-reconstructed-4th-13th-century_4.jpg) |
Constantinople as an imperial capital |
Western Civilization would likely not exist without the Byzantine Empire
and not only because it stood as a barrier against invasion. The
Christian religion of the empire, the Roman laws, the Greek culture that
came together there served as a gateway from the classical world to the
modern world. The Eastern Orthodox Churches and those of the
Byzantine-rite of the Catholic Church come down to us from the empire,
its learning and the learning it preserved was rediscovered during the
Renaissance leading to many advances and its famous artistic style was
copied early on and into the Italian Renaissance with numerous churches
in Ravenna, Italy and St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice as obvious examples.
Byzantine art and architecture also had a tremendous impact on Russia
which can still be seen today. The Byzantine Empire was one half and the
longer lived half of the Roman Empire which was the foundation of
European civilization as we know it. As the kingdoms of France, Spain or
Germany looked to Rome, so too did those of Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria
and Russia look to Constantinople. We cannot allow it to be forgotten.
SOURCE
Superb article!
ReplyDeleteLatin did not disappear from the Eastern Roman Empire. It was used in the military by a percentage of its population.
We still have today Aromanians in Greece and elsewhere in the Balkans which are their descendants.