The Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire represented the continuation of the Roman Empire after a part of it collapsed. The Byzantine Empire experienced several cycles of growth and decay over the course of nearly a thousand years, including major losses during the Arab conquests of the 7th century. Byzantine Empire Questions 1. In addition, the imperial army was stretched too thin, and would struggle in vain to maintain the territory conquered during Justinian’s rule. The attitude to trade and commerce in the Byzantine Empire had changed very little since antiquity and the days of ancient Greece and Rome: the activity was not regarded highly and considered a little undignified for the general landed aristocrat to pursue. Though the western half of the Roman Empire crumbled and fell in 476 A.D., the eastern half survived for 1,000 more years, spawning a rich tradition of art, literature and learning and serving as a military buffer between Europe and Asia. Start studying Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire is also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, for it was in fact a continuation of the Roman Empire into its eastern part. Though Byzantium was ruled by Roman law and Roman political institutions, and its official language was Latin, Greek was also widely spoken, and students received education in Greek history, literature and culture. Byzantine society, as in that of later Roman society in the west, has been traditionally divided into two broad groups of citizens: the honestiores (the “privileged”) and the humiliores (the “humble”), that is, the rich, privileged, and titled as opposed to everyone else (except slaves who were an even lower category). Although initially Roman in nature, it comprised the heavily hellenized provinces of Egypt and Anatolia, as well as the Hellene hearthland of Greece and its surroundings, which makes some historians consider "Eastern Rome" as aGreek Christian empire. The fall of Constantinople marked the end of a glorious era for the Byzantine Empire. After Western and Byzantine forces recaptured Nicaea in Asia Minor from the Turks, Alexius and his army retreated, drawing accusations of betrayal from the Crusaders. The Byzantine Empire (395-1453) was the eastern half of the Roman Empire that survived through the entirety of the Middle Ages. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. They often feature flat and frontal figures floating on a golden background. Its a name modern historian use for the Eastern part of the Roman Empire that managed to survive to 1453. Justinian I, who took power in 527 and would rule until his death in 565, was the first great ruler of the Byzantine Empire. As armies from France, Germany and Italy poured into Byzantium, Alexius tried to force their leaders to swear an oath of loyalty to him in order to guarantee that land regained from the Turks would be restored to his empire. The Latin regime established in Constantinople existed on shaky ground due to the open hostility of the city’s population and its lack of money. With the Seijuk Turks of central Asia bearing down on Constantinople, Emperor Alexius I turned to the West for help, resulting in the declaration of “holy war” by Pope Urban II at Clermont, France, that began the First Crusade. Its history is marked by many important inventions that changed the world, including the concept ...read more, The Silk Road was a network of trade routes connecting China and the Far East with the Middle East and Europe. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The Greek name Byzantion and its Latinization Byzantium continued to be used as a name of Constantinople sporadically and to varying degrees during the thousand year existence of the Byzantine Empire. Help support true facts by becoming a member. Debts incurred through war had left the empire in dire financial straits, however, and his successors were forced to heavily tax Byzantine citizens in order to keep the empire afloat. Thus, it is sometimes referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, though historians did not use the aforementioned designations until long after the empire ceased to exist. In terms of religion, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 officially established the division of the Christian world into separate patriarchates, including Rome (where the patriarch would later call himself pope), Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. Start studying Chapt 10: The Byzantine Empire. Professor of History, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, 1968–79. Now, what we'll see is that the Byzantine Empire lasts for almost another 1,000 years, but its importance in the region diminishes for most of that period. As a result of these advantages, the Eastern Roman Empire, variously known as the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium, was able to survive for centuries after the fall of Rome. Its main characteristics were Roman state traditions, Greek culture and Christian faith. The Byzantine Empire is the Christian Eastern Roman Empire. Though Constantine ruled over a unified Roman Empire, this unity proved illusory after his death in 337. The events before the battle are steeped in legend, but Constantine is said to have had some sort of religious experience that resulted in his warming to Christianity. In the 4th century B.C. Christian in nature, it was perennially at war with the Muslims. Almost entirely concerned with religious expression, Byzantine art is known for the mosaics covering the interior of domed churches. Justinian also reformed and codified Roman law, establishing a Byzantine legal code that would endure for centuries and help shape the modern concept of the state. The Byzantine Empire was a vast and powerful civilization with origins that can be traced to 330 A.D., when the Roman emperor Constantine I dedicated a “New Rome” on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Its capital was Constantinople, which today is in Turkey and is now called Istanbul. As a result of these advantages, the Eastern Roman Empire, variously known as the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium, was able to survive for centuries after the fall of Rome.Though Byzantium was ruled by Roman law and Roman political institutions, and its official language was Latin, Greek was also widely spoken, and students received education in Greek history, literature and culture. For them, Byzantium was a continuation of the Roman ...read more, The Goths were a nomadic Germanic people who fought against Roman rule in the late 300s and early 400s A.D., helping to bring about the downfall of the Roman Empire, which had controlled much of Europe for centuries. At its greatest size, during the 500's AD, Byzantine included parts of southern and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa. In 476, the barbarian Odoacer overthrew the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, and Rome had fallen. Emperors listed below up to Theodosius I in 395 were sole or joint rulers of the entire Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire was founded by Emperor Constantine the Great in 330 when he moved the Roman Empire to the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium and declared it New Rome. His wife was named Theodora and she was extremely influential out of all of the Byzantine empresses. The Byzantine Empire, often called the Eastern Roman Empire or simply Byzantium, existed from 330 to 1453 CE. There were two broad groups of citizens: the honestiores (the “privileged”) and the humiliores (the “humble”), that is, the rich, privileged, and titled as opposed to everyone else. With Constantinople located on a strait, it was extremely difficult to breach the capital’s defenses; in addition, the eastern empire had a much smaller common frontier with Europe. Under John’s successors, the empire gained sporadic relief from Ottoman oppression, but the rise of Murad II as sultan in 1421 marked the end of the final respite. The ascendancy of the Goths is said to have marked the ...read more, Attila the Hun was the leader of the Hunnic Empire from 434 to 453 A.D. Also called Flagellum Dei, or the “scourge of God,” Attila was known to Romans for his brutality and a penchant for sacking and pillaging Roman cities. Byzantine architecture, particularly in religious buildings, can be found in diverse regions from Egypt to Russia. Did you know? Coauthor of. At the time of Justinian’s death, the Byzantine Empire reigned supreme as the largest and most powerful state in Europe. Who was his wife and how influential was she? As a vassal state, Byzantium paid tribute to the sultan and provided him with military support. Rulers also began restoring churches, palaces and other cultural institutions and promoting the study of ancient Greek history and literature. ​​The architecture of the Byzantine Empire was based on the great legacy of Roman formal and technical achievements. Established when the Han Dynasty in China officially opened trade with the West in 130 B.C., the Silk Road routes remained in use until 1453 A.D., when the Ottoman ...read more, Petra is an ancient city that lies in present-day Jordan and dates back to the fourth century B.C. Byzantium was colonized by the Greeks from Megara in 657 BC, and remained primarily Greek-speaking until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in AD 1453. (This process would continue after 1453, when many of these scholars fled from Constantinople to Italy.). Originally founded near a fertile natural oasis, it was established sometime during the third millennium B.C. Its formation came from the decision of the Emper… Long after its end, Byzantine culture and civilization continued to exercise an influence on countries that practiced its Eastern Orthodox religion, including Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, among others. Many refugees from Constantinople fled to Nicaea, site of a Byzantine government-in-exile that would retake the capital and overthrow Latin rule in 1261. The eastern emperors were able to exert more control over the empire’s economic resources and more effectively muster sufficient manpower to combat invasion. The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople (modern Istanbul, formerly Byzantium).It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for … The Western Roman Empire continued until 476. At Four years later, he was forced–like the Serbian princes and the ruler of Bulgaria–to become a vassal of the mighty Turks. Thus, in many ways the Byzantine Empire had insulated Europe and given it the time it needed to recover from its chaotic medieval period. Legal punishments were more lenient for the honestiores, in most cases being composed of fines rather than corporal punishment. By the 4th century CE, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts: the Latin West, governed from Rome, and the Greek East, governed from Constantinople. Known as Iconoclasm—literally “the smashing of images”—the movement waxed and waned under various rulers, but did not end definitively until 843, when a Church council under Emperor Michael III ruled in favor of the display of religious images. Byzantine art, the visual arts and architecture produced during the Middle Ages in the Byzantine Empire. Petra is located about 150 miles south ...read more. The Byzantine Empire. The honestiores traditionally included senators, equestrians, decurions, and veterans, and their treatment in terms of legal punishments was … In the centuries leading up to the final Ottoman conquest in 1453, the culture of the Byzantine Empire–including literature, art, architecture, law and theology–flourished even as the empire itself faltered. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Alexander the Great made both worlds part of his Hellenistic universe, and later Byzantium became an increasingly important city within the Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire was one of the longest-running empires In 312 AD, Constantine the Great (Constantine I) rose to power after securing a resounding win at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. In 634, Muslim armies began their assault on the Byzantine Empire by storming into Syria. Constantinople had been purposely founded as the Christian counterpart and successor to the leadership of the old pagan city of Rome. Even after the Islamic empire absorbed Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem in the seventh century, the Byzantine emperor would remain the spiritual leader of most eastern Christians. The Empire's native Greek name was Ῥωμανία Romanía or Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων Basileía Romaíon, a direct translation of the Latin name of the Roman Empire, Imperium Romanorum. Ruins of the once-great metropolis and trading center now serve as an important archeologic site and tourist attraction. During the eighth and early ninth centuries, Byzantine emperors (beginning with Leo III in 730) spearheaded a movement that denied the holiness of icons, or religious images, and prohibited their worship or veneration. The relationship between the Roman (not Byzantine until after its death) and Persian Empires was the original example for the word “frenemies”. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Byzantium or Byzantion (Greek: Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. Flogging and mutilation, most commonly having one’s nose cu… One of the most extraordinary aspects of the Byzantine Empire was its longevity: It was the only organized state west of China to survive without interruption from ancient times until the beginning of the modern age. For example, emperor Theophilos (r. 829-842 CE) famously burned an entire ship and its cargo when he found out that his wife Theodora had been dabbling in commerce and h… The Persian Empire is the name given to a series of dynasties centered in modern-day Iran that spanned several centuries—from the sixth century B.C. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Greek became the official language of the state, and a flourishing culture of monasticism was centered on Mount Athos in northeastern Greece. By the end of the century, Byzantium would lose Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt and North Africa (among other territories) to Islamic forces. Constantine I took control of the Roman Empire after winning the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in October of A.D. 312. During the seventh and eighth centuries, attacks from the Persian Empire and from Slavs, combined with internal political instability and economic regression, threatened the vast empire. The Byzantine Empire had also acted as a buffer between western Europe and the conquering armies of Islam. Byzantine Empire: the continuation of the Roman Empire in the Greek-speaking, eastern part of the Mediterranean. The strong imperial government patronized Byzantine art, including now-cherished Byzantine mosaics. In 364, Emperor Valentinian I again divided the empire into western and eastern sections, putting himself in power in the west and his brother Valens in the east. All Rights Reserved. The name Byzantine Empire is a modern term and would have been alien to its contemporaries. Unlike the Western Roman Empire, the most important language was Greek, not Latin, and Greek culture and identity dominated. Byzantine culture would exert a great influence on the Western intellectual tradition, as scholars of the Italian Renaissance sought help from Byzantine scholars in translating Greek pagan and Christian writings. During the late 10th and early 11th centuries, under the rule of the Macedonian dynasty founded by Michael III’s successor, Basil, the Byzantine Empire enjoyed a golden age. The end of the 11th century saw the beginning of the Crusades, the series of holy wars waged by European Christians against Muslims in the Near East from 1095 to 1291. The modern-day Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian church in the world. The name would later change to Constantinople, in his name, and then again to Istanbul when the Ottomans toppled the Byzantine Empire In 1453. In 330 A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine I chose Byzantium as the site of a “New Rome” with an eponymous capital city, Constantinople. The eastern half of the Roman Empire proved less vulnerable to external attack, thanks in part to its geographic location. The term “Byzantine” derives from Byzantium, an ancient Greek colony founded by a man named Byzas. 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