Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire (also called the Eastern Roman Empire), was the eastern part of the Roman Empire that survived into the Middle Ages. The capital of the empire was Constantinople, which was renamed to Istanbul after an Ottoman invasion. Greek was the most important language in the Byzantine Empire since Heraclius. Greek culture and identity were a very important part of the Byzantine Empire.

Byzantine Empire Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων Basileía Rhōmaíōna Imperium Romanum
285–1453c
Imperial banner of the Palaiologos dynasty Emblem of the Palaiologos dynasty
The Empire at its greatest extent in 555 CE under Justinian the Great (its vassals in pink)
Status	Eastern division of the Roman Empire (285–480)b
Capital	Constantinople
Official languages	Latin (until 610) Greek (after 610)
Religion	Christianity (Eastern Orthodox) (tolerated after the Edict of Milan in 313; state religion after 380)
Government	Theocratic monarchy (with Byzantine senate as advisory body)
Notable emperors
• 285–305	Diocletian
• 324–337	Constantine I
• 457–474	Leo I
• 527–565	Justinian I
• 610–641	Heraclius
• 717–741	Leo III
• 976–1025	Basil II
• 1081–1118	Alexios I
• 1449–1453	Constantine XI
Historical era	Late Antiquity to Late Middle Ages
• Partition of the Roman Empire	285
• Founding of Constantinople	330
• Death of Theodosius I	395
• Nominal end of the Western Roman Empire	476
• Fourth Crusade; establishment of Latin Empire	1204
• Reconquest of Constantinople by Palaiologos	1261
• Fall of Constantinople	29 May 1453c
• Fall of Trebizond	15 August 1461
Population
• 565 CE	26,000,000d
• 780 CE	7,000,000
• 1025	12,000,000
Currency	Solidus, hyperpyron and follis
Preceded by Succeeded by Roman Empire Ottoman Empire
^ Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων may be transliterated in Latin as Basileia Rhōmaiōn, meaning Roman Empire. ^ Theodosius I was the last emperor to rule over both the Eastern and Western Roman Empire. He died in 395 AD after making Christianity the official religion of the empire. ^ Between 1204 and 1261 there was an interregnum when the Empire was divided into the Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond and the Despotate of Epirus, which were all contenders for rule of the Empire. The Empire of Nicaea is considered the legitimate continuation of the Byzantine Empire because they managed to re-take Constantinople. ^ See Population of the Byzantine Empire for more detailed figures taken provided by McEvedy and Jones, Atlas of World Population History, 1978, as well as Angeliki E. Laiou, The Economic History of Byzantium, 2002.

In 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne the Emperor of the Romans. This angered the Byzantine Emperor. He believed that he was the rightful Roman Emperor. The relationship between the pope in Rome and the patriarch in Constantinople became very tense.

In 1054, the Great Schism divided Christianity into two main factions. These were the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Byzantines promoted Orthodoxy in the Balkans and East Slavic lands while Catholicism gained popularity in the British Isles and Scandinavia.

Name

The Byzantine Empire did not get its name until 100 years after its fall. It was known at the time as the following:

• the "Roman Empire" or the "Empire of the Romans" (Latin: Imperium Romanum, Imperium Romanorum; Greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων Basileia tōn Rhōmaiōn, Ἀρχὴ τῶν Ῥωμαίων Archē tōn Rhōmaiōn),
• "Romania" (Latin: Romania; Greek: Ῥωμανία Rhōmania),
• the "Roman Republic" (Latin: Res Publica Romana; Greek: Πολιτεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Politeia tōn Rhōmaiōn),
• "Graecia" (Greek: Γραικία meaning "land of the Greeks"),
• "Rhōmais" (Greek: Ῥωμαΐς).

Beginning (330–476 AD)

Main article: Fall of the Western Roman Empire

Western and Eastern Roman Empire

In 324, Roman Emperor Constantine I moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople. By the 5th century, the Roman Empire had lost its territories in the west, and the Western Roman Empire had been taken over by Germanic people during the Migration period. The surviving parts of the Roman Empire became known as the Byzantine Empire or "Eastern Roman Empire".

Problems (476–717 AD)

Wars in the west

The Eastern Roman Empire tried to take back Rome and the rest of Italian Peninsula from the Germanic people. Between 530 and 555 AD, the Byzantines won many battles and took back Rome.

The Byzantines were not able to control Rome for a long time. Eventually, more Germanic people came and Italy was lost again. Later, Avars and Slavs took parts of southeast Europe from the Byzantines. After the 560s, invaders slowly conquered the Balkans, except for parts of modern Greece and Albania. Bulgars from the steppes formed the First Bulgarian Empire, north of the Byzantine Empire. At first, both the Avars and the Bulgars were Turkic peoples. They ruled over Slavic people, called Sklavinai, and slowly absorbed Slavic language and culture.

Wars in the east

After Rome had been captured by Germanic people, the empire continued to control what is now Egypt, Greece, Palestine, Syria and Turkey. However, another empire, known as the Persian or the Sassanid Empire, tried to take these lands for itself. Between 224 and 628, the Greco-Romans and the Persians fought many battles, and many men were killed in the fighting. Eventually, the Persians were defeated in 627 by emperor Heraclius in what is now Iraq, near the ancient city of Nineveh, which allowed the Byzantines to keep those lands.

Heraclius called himself "basileus" and no more "augustus" since 629: he changed the "eastern roman empire" (partially latinised) into the "bizantine empire" (fully greek).

Then, another enemy appeared, the Arabs. The Byzantines did not have much money to spend on war because of their battles with the Persians, so they could not withstand the Arabs. Palestine, Syria and Egypt were lost between 635 and 645 by Heraclius. However, the Byzantines defended Asia Minor (now in Turkey), and the Arab advance stopped. Heraclius ordered the use of Greek as the only language of the empire, erasing forever the name "eastern roman empire" and cutting the last links with Rome.

Recovery of empire (717–1025 AD)

In 718, the Arabs were defeated but it left the Byzantines very weak. In the west, the Byzantines fought the Bulgarians many times. Some battles were successful, but others were not. Many emperors had died fighting. Over time, the Byzantine Empire weakened as it lose land to outside invaders.

Recovery in the west

Between 1007 and 1014, Emperor Basil II ambitiously attacked Bulgaria many times and eventually won a great victory. Later, he fully recaptured Greece and recovered it for the empire. He then went on to take over Bulgaria. It was fully conquered in 1018.

Recovery in the east

In the east, the Arabs once again became a threat to the Byzantines. However, Basil II kept attacking and won many more victories. Much of Syria was restored to the empire, and Turkey and Armenia were secured. After 1025, the Arabs were no longer a threat to the Byzantines.

Decline of empire (1025–1453 AD)

Start of decline (1025–1071)

After Basil II died, many unskilled emperors came to the throne, wasted the empire's money and reduced its army. This meant that it could not defend itself well against enemies if they attacked. Later, the Byzantines relied on mercenaries. These were soldiers who fought for money, not for their country, so were less loyal and reliable and more expensive. The mercenaries allowed military generals to come to power and to grab it from the elaborate bureaucracy, a system of administration where tasks are divided by departments.

Rise of Turks (1071–1091)

A large number of people, known as the Turks, rode on horseback from central Asia and attacked the Byzantine Empire. The Seljuk Empire took most of Anatolia from the Byzantines by 1091. However, the Byzantines received help from people in Europe, which is known as the First Crusade. Many knights and soldiers left to help the Byzantines and to secure Jerusalem for Christians, which was then controlled by Muslims.

Survival (1091–1185)

The Byzantine Empire survived and, with the help of the Europeans, took back half of Turkey from the Turks, who kept the other half. The Byzantines survived because three good emperors in a row allowed the empire to recover.

Another weakening (1185-1261)

The next emperors ruled badly and wasted a lot of money and soldiers again.

In the west, the Europeans betrayed the Byzantines and attacked their capital, Constantinople. The Byzantines lost their capital in 1204 and did not take it back until 1261. They were then divided into many smaller Greek states, which fought one another for control.

Fall to Turks (1261–1453)

After the Byzantines had taken back Constantinople, they were too busy fighting the Europeans who had betrayed them, so could not find enough soldiers or money to fight the Turks' new Ottoman Empire. All of Asia Minor had been lost by 1331, and in 1369, the Turks crossed over from Turkey and into Greece. They took over much of Greece between 1354 and 1450.

The Byzantines lost so much land, money and soldiers that they became very weak and begged for help from the Europeans. Italy and the Pope sent soldiers and ships to help the Byzantines when the Turks attacked Constantinople in April 1453. They were badly outnumbered, however, and the walls of Constantinople were very damaged by cannons used by the Turks. At the end of May 1453, the Turks captured Constantinople by entering through one of the gates along the walls, and the empire came to an end.

The city was plundered for three days. At the end, the people that had not been able to escape was deported to Edirne, Bursa and other Ottoman cities. There was nobody in the city except for the Jews of Balat and the Genoese of Pera. Constantinople was later renamed to Istanbul, and became the capital of the Ottoman Empire. After the empire fell in the 1900s, the Turkish capital was moved to Ankara, a city in Asia Minor.

Legacy

The Byzantine Empire had many achievements:

• They protected Europe from eastern invasions.
• They blocked the moslem conquest of christian Europe by the Arabs.
• They initially blocked the second moslem tentative to conquer christian Europe by the Turks (until 1453).
• They preserved the Greek language and culture.
• They preserved many Roman political traditions that had been lost by Western Europe.
• They kept a lot of knowledge that can be read about today.
• They produced much fine art with a distinctive style.
• They were the protectors and sponsors of the Eastern Church, which later becomes the Orthodox Church.
• They used good architecture that is still used.
• They had cities that used plumbing, which is still in use.
• They built many beautiful churches, some of which are now mosques, in what are now Turkey and Greece are made from Byzantine buildings or inspired by them.
• They made several inventions like the flamethrower and "Greek fire", a kind of napalm.
• They made advances in many fields like political studies, diplomacy and military sciences.

Related pages

• Byzantine art
• Byzantine Greeks

References

Sources

• Ahrweiler, Helene (1975). L'Ideologie Politique de l'Empire Byzantine [The Political Ideology of the Byzantine Empire] (in French). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
• Baynes, Norman Hepburn; Moss, Henry St. Lawrence Beaufort (1948). Byzantium: An Introduction to East Roman Civilization. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Cartwright, Mark (13 April 2018). "Byzantine Government". Ancient History Encyclopedia.
• Cinnamus, Ioannes (1976). Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus. New York and West Sussex: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-04080-6.
• Clover, F. M.; Humphreys, R. S. (1989). Tradition and Innovation in Late Antiquity. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299120009.
• Constantelos, Demetrios I. (2001–2002). "Μαρτυρίες για την Ταυτότητα των Βυζαντινών και των Ρωμιών σε Ελληνικές Πηγές". Πεμπτουσία (in Greek).
• Fossier, Robert; Sondheimer, Janet (1997). The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-26644-0.
• Lemerle, Paul (1971). Le Premier Humanisme Byzantin [The First Byzantine Humanism] (in French). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
• Linnér, Sture (1994). Bysantinsk kulturhistoria [History of Byzantine Culture] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt. ISBN 978-9-11-941512-7.

Other websites

• World History Encyclopedia: Byzantine Empire
• Roman Emperors (De Imperatoribus Romanis)
• 18 Centuries of Roman Empire: A Cartography by Howard Wiseman
• 12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of the Byzantine Empire (Lars Brownworth)
• 18 centuries of Roman Empire by Howard Wiseman (Maps of the Roman/Byzantine Empire throughout its lifetime).
• Byzantine & Christian Museum
• Dumbarton Oaks: Byzantine Studies
• Byzantium: Byzantine Studies on the Internet
• Translations from Byzantine Sources: The Imperial Centuries, c. 700–1204
• De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History
• Medieval Sourcebook: Byzantium
• Bibliography on Byzantine Material Culture and Daily Life (University of Vienna)
• Constantinople Home Page
• Byzantium in Crimea: Political History, Art and Culture.
• Byzanzforschung: Institute for Byzantine Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences