Byzantine Empire

and Civilization
(A.D. 410 – 1453)
Classical Civilization
Introduction
Location:
European side of the
Bosporus (the strait
linking the Black Sea to
the Mediterranean), the
site of Byzantium was
ideally located to serve
as a transit and trade
point between Europe
and Asia.
Introduction
 Term “Byzantine” derives from Byzantium, an ancient
Greek colony founded by a man named Byzas.
 Fierce barbaric tribes such as the Goths and Vandals
attacked from outside the empire
• In 285 – 293 AD, the empire had split into two – an
Eastern and Western empire
• Constantine, a converted Christian, changed the capital
of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330 AD
• The western empire based in Rome finally collapsed in
476 AD
• Eastern empire lasted another thousand years and was
known as the Byzantine empire.
Political Survival
 In 330 A.D., Roman Emperor
Constantine I chose Byzantium
as the site of a “New Rome”
with an eponymous capital
city, Constantinople.
 established Christianity—as
Rome’s official religion.
 rebuilt the old Greek port of
Byzantium, at the entrance to
the Black Sea.

Constantine I
 Political Survival

Reasons for Survival

• Higher level of civilization
• Fewer nomadic invasions
• Prosperous commerce
• Stronger military

Constantine I
Source:
https://www.history.com/topics
/ancient-middle-Political
Survivaleast/byzantine-empire
Political Survival
 Byzantine empire reached
greatest size under Justinian I
(527-565)
 who took power in 527 and
would rule until his death in
565, was the first great ruler of
the Byzantine Empire
 Wanted to rebuild Roman
Empire
 Temporarily regained North
Africa, Italy and southern Spain
 Wife, Theodora, had
considerable power
 Rebuilt Constantinople
Justinian I Hagia Sophia
Political Survival
 Justinian’s Code
 which organized all the laws of
ancient Rome.
 Laws were fairer to women.
They could own property and
raise their own children after
their husbands died.
 Children allowed to choose
their own marriage partners.
 Slavery was legal and slaves
must obey their masters.
Justinian Code
Political Survival

 Justinian’s Code
 Punishments were detailed
and fit the crime.
 His work inspired the modern
concept and, indeed, the very
spelling of “justice”
 At the time of Justinian’s death,
the Byzantine Empire reigned
supreme as the largest and
most powerful state in Europe.
Justinian Code
Political Survival
 Most decisive of all was the persistence of a money
economy, which made it possible for the government to
gather taxes in coin and so pay soldiers and officials in
money.
 Political history of the Byzantine empire is one of many
vicissitudes, and time and again it seemed that foreign
attack would overthrow the state.
 However, each time the empire rallied its forces,
elevated a capable general to the imperial throne, and
beat off the enemy.
Political Survival
 634 A.D. a new danger to Byzantine power emerged:
the Arabs, stimulated by the teachings of Mohammed
 Thereafter the Byzantine Empire was restricted to
Western Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula.
 Groups that attacked the Byzantine Empire:
the Bulgars and Hungarians (Magyars)
Asiatic (Central Asia)
Seljuk Turks (Central Asia)
 the Rus
Political Survival
 The End of the Byzantine Empire,
The Byzantine empire drew to a
close in 1453 when forces from
the Muslim Ottoman Empire
surrounded and conquered
Constantinople.
 The ancient Christian city was
renamed Istanbul and became
the capital of the Ottoman
Empire.
Social Economic
 Byzantine coins were the
standard currency of Eastern
Europe for 500 years
 Manufacturing center
 Glassware & mosaics
 Thriving silk industry
Process spread from
China
Government regulated
production of silk
 Established banks and
business partnerships
 Taxed merchandise that
passed through empire
Social Economic
 Byzantine society was in many respects a continuation
of the elaborately organized semicase society of the
late Roman Empire.
 Most significant fact: the Byzantine society was the
survival of cities, with their industrial and mercantile
populations.
 From these classes:
 the government was able to draw money taxes
 through trading connections, the Byzantine culture, ideas,
and attitudes penetrated into south-central and eastern
Europe.
Social Economic
 Self cultivation of great estates was the predominant
form of agriculture.
 Technology:
 Chemical preparation known as Greek fire was
discovered which was used with great effect as an
incendiary agent in warfare to burn enemy ships and
terrify hostile armies.
Cultural
 Byzantines evolved a distinctive
style of art.
Cultural Foundations
 Christian beliefs
 Greek learning
 Roman engineering
Chariot Races
Riot of 532
 Cultural
 Hagia Sophia "divine or holy
wisdom“
 The Hagia Sophia is part of
the UNESCO World Heritage
site in Istanbul.
 Built by Justinian, designed by
Anthemius of Tralles and
Isidorus of Miletus
 Rose on the site of 2
successive Basilican churches
of the same name
Hagia Sophia  Perfection of Byzantine style
 Cultural
 The interior, with great central
dome and walls richly decorated
with mosaics was and remains a
triumph of ecclesiastical
architecture.
 it was the largest cathedral in all of
Christendom.
 served as a center of religious,
political, and artistic life for
the Byzantine world and has
Hagia Sophia provided us with many useful
scholarly insights into the period.
 Cultural
 was also an important site of
Muslim worship after
Sultan Mehmed II conquered
Constantinople in 1453 and
designated the structure a
mosque.
 It would remain a mosque until
being converted into a museum in
the 1930s.

Hagia Sophia
 Cultural
 Hippodrome of Constantinople -
a circus that was the sporting and
social centre of Constantinople,
capital of the Byzantine Empire.
 hippodrome comes from the
Greek hippos(horse), and dromos
(path or way).
 Horse racing and chariot racing
were popular pastimes in the
ancient world and hippodromes.

Hippodrome of Constantinople
 Cultural
 Today it is a square named
Sultanahmet Meydanı (Sultan Ahmet
Square) in the Turkish city of Istanbul
 Monuments decorating the
Hippodrome include the 3500-year-
old Egyptian granite Obelisk of
Theodosius, brought to
Constantinople by Emperor
Theodosius in 390 AD.
 The spiral bronze base of a three-
headed serpent sculpture brought
Hippodrome of Constantinople
from Delphi in Greece (the serpents'
heads are in the Archeological
Museum
Cultural
 Iconoclasm
literally “the smashing of
images”
 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.
Decay and
Overthrow
 Begins to decline in 1085
 Expansion by rising European
powers
 The Crusades
• The Fourth Crusade (1204)
 Turkish Muslims – Seljuks

 Empire falls in 1453

 Constantinople conquered
by Ottoman Turks
Decay and Overthrow
 The Crusades
The series of holy wars waged by European Christians
against Muslims in the Near East from 1095 to 1291.
Seljuk 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.
Decay and Overthrow
 The Crusades
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.
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.
Decay and Overthrow
 The Crusades
1204 A.D. Crusaders from the West attacked
Constantinople.
They besieged and captured the city.
1261 A.D. a Greek emperor once more ruled in
Constantinople, however, the Byzantine empire never
recovered from the war.
Decay and Overthrow
 Turkish Muslims – Seljuks
 tribe of Tartars from Central Asia who established a
powerful empire in Persia in the 11th century
captured Baghdad in 1055
The Caliph of Baghdad was so impressed with their
strength and skill that he made their leader, Tugrul Bey
his deputy and conferred on him the title of "King of
East and West".
The Seljuk Turks were the first people to invade
Anatolia completely.
Decay and Overthrow
 Turkish Muslims – Seljuks
 During the Seljuk period, cities prospered in wealth
and population.
had a well-organized system of international trade
and for the first time introduced insurances for the
losses of traders.
Realizing the importance of transit trade, they
developed caravanserais for the needs of the
tradesmen on the account of the state.
Decay and Overthrow
 Turkish Muslims – Seljuks
played a major role in the Middle Ages in defending
the Islamic world against the Crusaders, creating a
barrier to Europe against the Mongol invaders from
the East, and conquering large parts of the Byzantine
Empire
On June 26th, 1243, the Seljuk army was defeated at
Kose Dagi, outside the city of Siva by the Mongol
descendants of Cengiz Khan.
Decay and Overthrow
 Empire falls in 1453
 Ottoman Turks
In the 14th century a new people, the Ottoman Turks,
began to extend their power, starting from a small
principality in northwestern Asia Minor.
Subdued most of the Balkan peninsula before
besieging Constantinople itself
On May 29, 1453, after an Ottoman army stormed
Constantinople, Mehmed triumphantly entered the
Hagia Sophia, which would soon be converted to the
city’s leading mosque.
Decay and Overthrow
 Ottoman Turks
1453 A.D. Constantinople was captured
The fall of Constantinople marked the end of a
glorious era for the Byzantine Empire.
 Emperor Constantine XI died in battle that day
 The Byzantine Empire collapsed, ushering in the long
reign of the Ottoman Empire.