-476 AD. Roman Emperor Romulus Augustlus (Romulus, the little Augustus) was overthrown and was replaced by Oduacer, first of non-roman Emperors & thus ending the Western Empire; however, the eastern Empire did not collapse until 1453 AD when it fell to the Ottoman Turks
-Byzantines always thought of themselves as part of the Roman Empire & Byzantine Emperors believed themselves to be direct heirs of emperors of Rome; however, by 7^th century its official language was Greek & the label Byzantine was made up by post-Renaissance historians and not by the Byzantines
-its capital was Constantinople, named for Roman Emperor Constantine I over the capital of the old Byzantium Empire from the name of the town’s original legendary founder, Byzas
-Constantinople sat on European side of Bosporus on narrow northern-section of the Seas of Marmara & the Dardanelles; the capital was perfectly positioned to control trade routes through the Straits & Bosporus
-throughout middle Ages, Constantinople was referred to as "The City"; its name Istanbul today is distortion of Greek phrase "to the City"; it once contained over 1 million people, 5 imperial palaces, 6 palaces for ladies of the court, 4400 mansions, 322 streets, etc…; it was soon rich from controlling trade and from rich farmlands of Asia Minor; it also produced metalwork, jewelry, fancy cloth… it also had the cities of Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria, each matching Rome in size and importance
-Constantinople kept copies of classical writings of Aristotle, Plato, Sophecles, Virgil, Ovid… Byzantine teachers would later provide much of the fuel that led the Renaissance in the West & Arab translations later made their way through though Muslim Spain & Europe
-the Byzantine Empire also served as protection against invaders who would have attacked the vulnerable West; invaders like the mongols chose to attack the Byzantine’s rich cities; the Byzantines were also forced to fight of Persians, Muslims, Bulgars, Avars, & Slavs yet the Empire lasted for over 1000 years
-Nov 11, 330 Constantine I declares it a national holiday and the birth of the Eastern Empire governed by New Rome; he built a wall on the left side of the old Greek city of Byzantium to keep out enemies and the other two sides of the triangular city were surrounded by water
-he built the city in just 5 years which began to show soon after when buildings started to crumble; Constantine moved the imperial capital to Constantinople because of political turmoil in Rome; many parties in Rome wanted to bring back the old Republic so the Emperor simply avoided the civil riots by moving away
-soon Rome’s monuments fell from lack of repair money and its population declined & its administrative power had been taken over by Milan; 364 AD, Emperor Valetinian I divided the Empire into Western & Eastern; there would be two emperors: Valentinian in the West and his brother Valens in the East; Constantinople would be the capital of the East, Milan the capital of the West (although this later switched to Ravenna on the Adriatic Coast)
-the border line was drawn between the Greek and Latin speaking parts of the Empire; the East controlled Asia Minor, the Balkans, Near East, & Egypt; the West controlled Italy, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and North Africa; the official religion of both halves was Christianity and the bishop of Rome was seen as the religious leader of both
-the split was not good for the West because it had smaller population and less money; to the East, the revitalized Persians fought many wars with the Byzantines but didn’t gain any land in doing so
-the second threat were Germanic tribes north of the Danube who constantly raided Roman borders; imperial gov’t let small numbers of Germans immigrate into Roman cities because small numbers at time were seen as harmless; Germanic people were often assaulted by the Roman citizens however & sold on the slave market but immigrants kept coming to wealthy Roman cities and soon the were integrated in both West & Eastern Empires
-Germany provided Romans were unlimited number of trained mercenary soldiers & by the 5^th century, both East & West armies were filled with Germans, some as high rank as General
-376 AD, 60000 Visigoth (West Goths) move across Danube into eastern Roman Empire because the East had given them permission to settle; however, the East soon stole and sold their children & tried to kill the Goth leader and the Goths soon turned hostile; 378 AD at Adrianople, the Roman army was sent to defeat the Visigoths but in the battle, the East Emperor Valens was killed; this shocked both East & West Empires
-the Visigoths soon attacked Constantinople but failed; they then chose to plunder the Balkans and still failed to conquer the East so they turned West towards the crumbling Western Empire; 410 AD, they looted Rome and headed South to attack Spain
-the loss at Rome shocked the Eastern Empire into fear; 16000 Byzantines volunteered to build a new city wall 15 feet thick, 40 feet high, & 5 miles long with 100 towers; they later stretched a chain across the mouth of the Golden Horn that could be raised to keep out enemy ships
-the barbarians in the West capitalized on the sacking of Rome and took over Spain, retook Gaul, invaded Britain, tribes took over Africa, and soon all that was left was half of Italy; however, the East soon felt pressure by the Huns from Mongolia led by Attila; after Emperor Theodosius II of the East lost to Attila’s army, he bought the Hun leader off with large sums of gold and the threat returned to Asia
-in first half of 5^th century, Byzantines were prosperous because of Pulcheria, sister of Theodosius II; she took care of day-to-day duties and did more emperor duties than her brother who chose to instead read & write manuscripts (books bound together before invention of the printing press); Pulcheria was 15 when she was named her brother’s regent; she was very religious and swore to never marry & dressed with simplicity
-476 AD, Odovacar (or Oduacer – I learned to spell it this way) overthrew Emperor Romulus Augustulus and struck and deal with Zeno, the new Emperor of the East; Odovacar would name Zeno as ruler of all Roman empires if Zeno would declare him as imperial governor of Italy; although the Emperor life line was gone, life in Italy barely changed and Odovacar, although he was foreign, ruled the West much like the Emperors of old; life styles actually improved under the new emperor; the Senate even raised a statue in Zeno’s name for making such a wise choice
-Zeno soon complained that Odovacar was ruling by himself and not as governor but before he could remove him, he found another problem in the Upper Balkans; the Ostrogoths had pledged allegiance to the East Empire yet continually raided the outer towns; 488 AD, he invited the Ostrogoths to invade Italy and remove Odovacar; he felt that the leader of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric, was more controllable than Odovacar because Theodoric had been educated in Constantinople
-493 AD, the Ostrogoths capture Italy and kill Odovacar & Theodoric worked with Zeno to keep the West Roman at first; Theodoric the Great & Zeno stopped the corruption in civil services and lowered taxes; Theodoric cleaned harbours, aqueducts, & restored churches; but within 10 years, Theodoric began working on his own and Zeno simply sighed and lived with simply ruling his Eastern empire, his Byzantine Empire
-the emperor was also referred to as basileus (Greek for "king") and his decrees were instantly become law and no one could overturn them; imperial etiquette was essential for anyone who went near him; he was chief administrator and was briefed daily by officials and secretaries; he determined the tax amounts and how much would be spent to glorify Constantinople; the emperor presided in all major festivals, banquets, & religious events
-he had hand picked personal advisors who made the cabinet called the sacrum consistorium that is Latin for "to take a stand"; they met daily with the Emperor to discuss administrative appointments, proposed laws, & imperial affairs; the Emperor also had a Senate modeled after Rome’s that drew up legislation but had no power to pass laws of its own
-there were many lower layers of officials, including the magister officiorium (master of offices) who appointed administrators to gov’t departments & was in charge of foreign relations, postal system, & Emperor’s bodyguards; he also ran a network of 1200 spies to keep tabs on corrupt or ambitious officials
-Emperorship was not hereditary but the emperor did select their heir; often they chose their son or relative who best fit the job and if they chose someone that was not directly related, the emperor would adopt them; emperors selected heirs when they were near to death so for a time there would be co-rulers in order for the new Emperor to get used to imperial duties
-however, emperors could not crowned until they were they were elected by members of the Senate, army, and the citizens of the Empire; emperors could also be removed from office by the Senate, army, or a rebellion; often emperors were blinded to make them unable to stay on the throne; however, the citizens did not question the idea of having a supreme leader and whenever one emperor was overthrown, he would simply be replaced by another or 2 co-emperors
-although there was only one emperor at a time usually, there could be any amount of empresses; Pulcheria was co-empress along with her brother’s wife; empresses were rarely seen outside of the palace and sometimes lived in special women’s quarters in the palace; some empresses sat in council and took over day-to-day operations, and if the emperor died before naming an heir, that duty went to his queen; empresses also became regents (administrators for underage monarchs) and sometimes they were sole rulers, such as Empress Irene in the 8^th century
-the army was well-equipped with steel swords, spears, armour, Calvary, bows, and lances; emperors often led their 120000+ army of soldiers into battle and below him were 6 generals-in-chief who each controlled a military district
-each regiment had 2-4 thousand soldiers, each with a general; junior officers led smaller units within each regiment and signal corps used mirrors to flash messages back and forth; because the army was so powerful, Emperor Leo IV made sure his son was safe to become emperor by getting the written approval of every regiment in the army
-the navy had only 1 admiral-in-chief and the forces were divided into fleets, each with 1-3 hundred sailors; they had the special weapon of Greek fire which was probably burning petroleum; it was pumped into bronze lion heads and shot across water to enemy vessels; it was feared because it lighted in air and could not be put out by water
-imperial agents watched affairs outside of Byzantine borders and gave money to pro-Byzantine factions to encourage them to rebel against any ruler who threatened the Empire; Byzantines made sure that sons of foreign leaders were educated in Constantinople to give them taste of civilization and to teach them peace in Byzantine luxuries; Byzantines also often married non-Byzantine princesses to create bonds with other states
-Byzantine economy was sound because it was a major trader between Europe & Asia; the nosmisma, the Byzantine gold piece, was standard currency throughout Mediterranean for over 800 years; their industries included farms, cattle ranches, marble quarries, gold & silver mines, monopolies on silk, purple dye, gold embroidery, & religious clothing; they also taxed everything from property to inheritance
-majority of money rested in hands of the wealthy few; anyone with money could buy a title which was what landowners often did to join the aristocracy; they would then spend some of their time at gov’t positions, other times with their family, and sometimes presiding over their own smaller courts
-they often had summer homes but usually stayed in the cities; houses were built like Rome’s with an inward courtyard & with exterior walls blank except for the owner’s name; wooden or stone columns supported the second floor which was reached by stairway; older buildings had windows by the courtyard but later buildings looked onto the streets
-middle class was small & were usually merchants and shop owners who had 1 or 2 slaves; they could join aristocracy through education, business, marriage, or army; many high army & navy positions & civil service offices could only be held by eunuchs, men who have been castrated; however, there was a law that a eunuch could not become emperor so any high official plotting to kill the emperor would not be able to take the throne; yet many middle class families castrated their sons to help them get gov’t promotions
-repairs of aqueducts & parks was done by the large working class who never went hungry because they worked for food; the emperor also often supplied orphanages., poorhouses/shelters, & hospitals for the poor; most lived in small wooden tenements 9 stories high that surrounded the palaces of the rich
-the working poor were those who lived in the countryside on farms; they were drained by taxes and rent to landlords & could not leave land because they were serfs; although tenant farmers were not serfs, laws forbade them from leaving farm grounds as well because the gov’t needed to keep farmers on the farms to feed the cities; to leave their land, farmers must pay the total taxes that he and his son would have to pay in their lifetimes; also, neighbouring farmers resisted people from leaving because they would be forced to pay the leaving farmer’s taxes if he did leave
-gov’t slaves worked in mines or farms & lived short lives; privately owned slaves worked in houses and lived comfortable lives; only non-Christians were enslaved because it was against Christianity to enslave a Christian
-entertainment at the Hippodromes was free for all citizens; they were huge stadiums for chariot races that also hosted athletic contests, plays, comedies, animal shows, religious festivals, political rallies, & for torturing prisoners
-Constantinople’s Hippodrome held 40000 & had a circular course over ½ mile long; 10 chariots would race for 7 laps at a time & each day saw 8 competitions; not only were the races seen as heroes but their colours, Blues & Greens, became important political symbols
-the Blue & Green gov’t parties always opposed each other but they sometimes joined forces such as to fight unpopular wars; population of the parties was mad eof working poor but Blue’s leadership came from aristocracy while Green’s leadership came from merchants
-all Byzantine citizens took part in religious debates about whether Satan or God was more powerful on earth & so on; they talked about religion on the streets, meals, shops, taverns, & at home; they accepted Jesus Christ as saviour & saw self-discipline, moderation, denial, & charity as virtues & unlike the West who saw earth as a test for heaven, Byzantines tried to become one with God while on earth & did not care much about afterlife; it was taught that each person could find their own way to salvation if the church approved of it
-the Church structure consisted of priests at the bottom, then bishops, then the emperor; each bishop was seen as direct spiritual heir of Christ & was in charge of a bishopric containing several churches; archbishops resided over several bishoprics & formed religious councils that determined which Christian writings were divinely inspired & what practices should be accepted
-emperor was ambassador of God on earth & in battle was defender of Christianity; he left day-to-day Church operations to the patriarch of Constantinople who was a bishop elected by the other bishops; the emperor could remove a patriarch at any time or appoint one by saying: "this man is appointed Patriarch of Constantinople.. by my Imperial Authority"
-the church recognized monasticism (monk-ness) when people withdrew from society to devote themselves to prayer; first forms of this were practiced by hermits in deserts, swamps, mountains who thought the Church had become too concerned with money & world power; anchorites (hermits) went through all sorts of physical trials such as no sleep for a week & carrying weights for days & nights; devout believers known as stylites climbed columns and lived there for the rest of their lives
-soon monastic orders were formed which were monasteries for monks & convents for women; the gave up all possessions including money & clothing & took on strict rules; they spent their time in worship, study, & in the fields growing food; although monks & nuns had little contact with world, their leaders took active part in the Church; monks often served as priests in churches & were admired by majority of Byzantine citizens
-the East & Western Empires had a single Church until 11^th century; Rome was still seen as the centre of power for both the East & West & Pope had authority because it was believed that the first Pope of Rome was St. Peter; also, rulings before gave Rome authority over Constantinople because Rome was older; friction ensued when the Pope refused to see the emperor as head of the whole Church and the patriarch as second in the Church
-Syria & Alexandria had patriarchs that ranked right after that of Constantinople but all power was in the capital and fighting occurred over doctrines & church teachings; Arius of Alexandia in 4^th century had said God was superior to Christ because he was the father, but other church members later debated that all in the Holy Trinity were equal
-arguments were dealt with a church council in which bishops would listen to both sides & cast votes; the church voted in both 325 AD & 381 that Arius’ claims were wrong so the name Arius led to the word heresy (did it?)
-Christianity believed that Jesus was part man, part divine but debate started when monophysites declared that Jesus was completely divine because his divinity had swallowed his impurity; Alexandria was the center of monophysitism while Constantinople & Rome stayed with tradition; Pope Leo I sided with Flavian, the patriarch of Constantinople, because Dioscurus, the patriarch of Alexandria, was becoming too powerful; 449 AD, Leo calls a church council at Ephesus, Asia Minor & Dioscurus arrived with a large clergy group who were known to threaten people into joining Monophysitism; this tactic led to the meeting to be called the Robber Council & a new council was formed in 451 AD at Chalcedon near Constantinople & that council declared Jesus to be an equal mix of human and God
-Dioscurus was removed from office and Monophysitism was named a heresy; fanatics would kill anyone who believed in it & civil law was harsh for convicted heretics; under Theodosius I, heretics were heavily fined and lost their property & later emperors would use torture & execution; old Greek & Roman religion believers were also labeled heretics & fined; their temples were torn down & pagans were often attacked by mobs; Jews could only worship if they paid high taxes that sometimes forced them to sell their children; law forced any Jew who married a Christian to be executed & synagogues were often burned down
-Roman beliefs were nearly dead in 313 AD anyway when Christianity was adopted by Rome, but persecution did not work against Jews or heretic Christians; soon Monophysitism grew as symbol against central oppressive gov’t & Syria soon adopted Monophysitism as well
-13^th & 14^th centuries, writings of Aristotle shaped Western culture & luckily survived in Byzantine libraries; although Byzantines borrowed their culture mostly from Greeks & Romans, they also borrowed rituals from Persia; they wore Persian silk coats instead of togas; Byzantine clergy tried to outlaw the reading of classical works, though, because it was pagan but this practice was not very successful
-lack of education was seen as handicap; the most famous university in the world at the time was the imperial university at Constantinople; men got higher education from the government while women were often tutored; Byzantine children would learn reading & writing at home & learned grammar their first day of school; they had to memorize 50 lines of Homer by heart each day & were taught the 4 arts: arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy; although these are pagan subjects, the last pagan school, Platonic Academy in Athens, had been shut down in 6^th century to control what values were given priorities in all schools
-teachers were highly respected & one had to pass state examinations & possess a license in order to teach; a famous teacher was Hypathia of 5^th century who was a mathematician & a philosopher who read everything of Plato’s; she often lectured Plato & Aristotle ideas on the streets & she became so famous that children all over the empire went to seek her; however, because she was pagan she was brutally murdered by fanatics in Alexandria
-however, Byzantine’s dependence on Christianity & classical works restricted creative thought & little technology was invented; they did not produce many writers, but their historians such as Procopius were famous throughout the empire; people loved to read about the past glory of Rome & the old Greece; religious books & hymns were even more popular & books on religious theory, such as those written by Leontius of Byzantium & Maximus the Confessor, were best-sellers to the aristocracy; however, the common folk found theories boring & concentrated on the lives of anchorites, stylites, & saints
-saints’ lives described hardship, peril, suffering, but also victory for virtue & although many stories were known to be fictional, they were just as popular; real fiction barely existed except for some stories out of India & poetry was kept at a bare minimum of some imitations of old Roman work
-however, Byzantines were exceptional at architecture beginning in 6^th century with Emperor Justinian I; 532 AD after a riot left Constantinople in black ruins, Justinian ordered a massive rebuilding program; his chief architects ere Anthemius of Tralles & Isidorus of Miletuos who are famous for building the Hagia Sophia (Church of Santa Sophia); they modified the cross-shaped Roman basilica by combining it with a Persian-like dome; the central part covered 120 ft squared & in each corner a 100-foot pillar supported the dome ceiling
-10000 workers laboured on it for 5 years & after it was done, people awed at what they saw as the work of divine power; 1453 AD when Ottomans took over Constantinople, they soon copied the design of the Santa Sophia & built it into their mosques
-though Byzantines kept their outer walls simple, the interiors were elaborate with mosaics of coloured marble & glass tubes; the cubes were used for anything from a person’s eyes top a huge background; artists set each cube into damp plaster which held everything together until the composition dried; later, walls were decorated with paint instead but the religious symbols stayed the same; Byzantine portraits copy the middle east style in which they always face forward; their faces are distorted with large eyes much like Egyptian paintings; the Byzantines also used the Greek style of painting robes onto figures & covering the background with drapes
-other art included gold & silver workings, ivory carving, weaving, & sculpturing though sculptures made Byzantines uneasy because it seems like idolatry
-Emperor Justinian I was born in 482 AD to peasants near Sardica in Balkan peninsula which explains why any person, rich or poor, was given the liberty to approach & talk with him; after Emperor Anastasius I died in 518 AD, Justinian’s uncle Justin I became emperor & gave many of his emperor duties to his nephew Justinian who was training in a Constantinople military camp; Justin I died in 527 & by that time, the new Emperor Justinian was already a very capable imperial administrator; despite his long days at work, Justinian made time to study law, architecture, music, poetry, religion, & philosophy
-Justinian’s wife, Theodora, was not an aristocrat but rather a bear trainer, actress, and dancer; but she was intelligent and witty and was made the virtual ruler of the empire by her husband; however, Justinian was a Blues and Theodora was a Greens and they often worked for different ends; once when Anthemius, the patriarch of Constantinople refused to obey Justinian, he was sentenced to exile but Theodora chose to hide Anthemius in her apartment for 2 years while she tried to get the sentence canceled; when her pleading failed, she chose to exile Anthemius outside of Constantinople to her palace across the Bosporus
-532 AD, Justinian angered both the Greens and the Blues to start the Nike riot; citizens stormed the streets, killing gov’t officials while screaming "Nika" which means victory; Justinian wanted to flee but did not because his wife convinced him that if he did leave, he would later wish that he did die (regret, or just torture?…); Justinian then bribed a Blues leader to end the alliance and then Justinian’s general, Belisaurus, trapped most of the Green rebels in a Hippodrome and slaughtered 30000 of them to end the revolt
-after ordering the rebuilding of Constantinople, Justinian ordered for a reform in Byzantine law; imperial law was a combo of Roman civic and Church laws combined with judge rulings and imperial decrees and was simply too complicated for anyone to understand; the make a new official code of law, he hired the lawyer Tribonian and 10 legal experts to read 2000 books on the law
-the team produced a new legal code, the Codex Justinianus which replaced the old code in 529; to help understand the code, Tribonian also wrote a book on it, called the Institutes; Tribonian modified many judge rulings to give both the Church and the emperor more power; all of the new law was published as the Body of Civil Law, although it is now called the Code of Justinian
-the main premise of the new code was that all law comes from the emperor and all laws must be based on Orthodox Christianity; the code saw citizens as either commoners or persons of rank; slavery was recognized (not encouraged, although poor parents were encouraged to sell their newborns into slavery to save lives), created the serf class (if a farmer lives on a farm for 30 years, he and his children are not allowed to leave it), women could inherit property and guardianship of children, and women were no longer given the death penalty for adultery; divorce was allowed if a spouse wanted to join a monastery or convent, if a spouse was unfaithful, if one is falsely accused of adultery, if one is kept captive by the other, and after Justinian’s death, if both want a divorce
-under the new Code, people could only be thrown into court by order of a judge and trials followed within a set time after imprisonment; lawyers and clients had to swear on bibles to be honest and work hard; some punishments included: a writer may have their hand cut off, some had noses and eyes cut out, crimes resulted in beheading, crucifixion, burning alive, and gay men got tortured and mutilated in public; lesbians were not part of the code
-Justinian wanted to restore the full boundaries of the old Roman Empire but couldn’t; however, the Byzantine Empire reached its peak in 554 when it owned North Africa, the Holy Land, Asia Minor, Greece and parts of the Balkans, most of Italy, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and modern day Portugal; money was quickly used up and often mercenaries would not do their jobs from not being paid and armies would ignore fighting in exchange for looting villages; Justinian found himself a great general in Belisarius, a former peasant from Western Bulgaria; each of Belisarius’ soldiers had a lance, long sword, bow, and scale-mail coat
-after 5 years of stalemates against Persia, Justinian quickly made peace by promising Persia yearly payments of 11000 lbs of gold in 527 AD; after the Everlasting Peace with Persia in 532, Justinian had wars with them again in 540 and 549; June 533, Belisarius defeats the Vandals in Carthage, North Africa despite being vastly outnumbered; 536, Belisarius conquers Sicily and moved up north into Italy where the Ostrogoths were politically divided; Belisarius marched into Rome without a fight, but soon the Ostrogoth king Witigis surrounded Rome with 150 000 Goths to oppose Belisarius’ 5000 men; after a year of fighting, the Goths retreated to their capital, Ravenna; after another 3 years of fighting, Witigis surrendered; however, the Byzantine reinforcements were led by general Narses who feuded with Belisarius and their rivalry ended in the destruction of an imperial garrison and the town of Milan in 539; however, after Narses was called back to Constantinople, Belisarius conquered Ravenna by pretending to take the Goth’s offer to become their new king
-3 years after Belisarius returned to Constantinople, he found that the Ostrogoths had regrouped and retaken Rome; Rome was reconquered by Belisarius twice until Narses finally drove every Goth out of Italy; Rome was destroyed more by these wars than any Ostrogoth conquering, and Gaul was no longer a Byzantine target due to a lack of money; ironically, the reconquering of Rome in 552 resulted in its complete demise until the Renaissance
-Justinian feared that Belisarius may take the throne due to his popularity so in 548, he forced him to retire; however, Belisarius never showed any signs of disloyalty and he even volunteered to lead 100 troop into battle against thousands of Huns in 559; however, he was against charged with treachery for not chasing the fleeing Huns and half of the general’s property was confiscated in 565; Justinian died of old age a few months later
-when Justinian died in 565, the Empire was in financial trouble due to Justinian’s war expenses and the rebuilding of Constantinople; the Santa Sophia alone costed 320 000 lbs of gold, equal to the royal treasury at the time Justinian took the throne; the next 3 emperors, Justin II, Tiberius II, and Maurice, kept the empire alive by heavily taxing the citizens; the Byzantine army was at constant war with the Berbers in Africa and against the Germanic Lombards in Italy
-north of Constantinople, the Balkan territory was being invaded by slavs; in 550, Byzantine allied with the Avars (who were related to Huns) to counterattack the Slavs and get them out of Byzantine territory; however, the Avars made the Slavs run right into Byzantine territory where they often looted for supplies; 582, the Avars turn on the Empire and use conquered Slavs to attack the Balkans; Maurice could not make a large army because most citizens left for the monasteries to escape military service; 602, Maurice ordered the closing of monasteries until the Avar threat was over, but the monks got so enraged that they started a rebellion; in Constantinople, the rebels took Phocas, an illiterate junior officer, as their leader and together, they joined forces with the Blues and Greens, killed Maurice and his family, and Phocas was put on the throne
-602, the Persians decide to attack the weak Byzantines and easily conquered Syria and Egypt; Phocas sent troops to counter the Persians, which left the Balkans undefended and the Avars moved right next to Constantinople’s walls; 610, Heraclius, son of the Byzantine commander in Africa, killed Phocas and took the throne; he soon established military districts in Asia Minor called themes; each theme was led by the governor and each soldier was also a farmer and made no use of unreliable mercenaries
-622, Heraclius decided to push the Persians back so he first went to Asia Minor and trained the themes there; 626, the Avars sieged Constantinople and the Persians attacked from the Bosporus, but the Empire managed to push back both; 2 years later, neither the Avars or the Persians were a threat; 627, Byzantines nearly wiped out the entire Persian army and 629, the Persian ruler was overthrown to end the war; the royal treasury soon was refilled by yearly tributes
-however in 634, the Arabs who were just converted to Islam attacked the reconquered Syria; Muslims had already taken Arabia in their jihad and was attacking both the Byzantines and Persians; the Empire suffered major defeats in Syria 635 and Palestine 637; 641 Heraclius died and the Arabs take Egypt away from the Empire forever; 641, Persia is conquered by the Arabs and the Byzantines lost North Africa in 698; these invasions were aided because Jews and monophysites saw Islam as a saviour because they did not persecute them and often rebelled against the Empire
-674, the Arabs attack Constantinople by sea but was defeated by Greek fire; 717, the Arabs attacked Constantinople again, this time with 80 000 troops and 2000 ships, but was repelled by Emperor Leo III; the Byzantines saved the Western Empire by preventing the Avars from spreading west and wars with Constantinople ended the golden age of Islam; Muslims could conquer nothing of Europe except for Visigothic Spain
-although most Slavs accepted the emperor as their authority, there was still on and off fighting with them; the Bulgarian kingdom northeast of the Balkans were settled by Asian nomads in 680 and over the next 100 years, Bulgars and Slavs mixed together until there were no completely Bulgar people left
-811, the Bulgarians launch attacks against the Empire and Emperor Nicephorus I counterattacked; the Bulgars destroyed the imperial troops and killed Nicephorus; 813, the Bulgars attack Constantinople but are defeated; afterwards, peace returned and Byzantine traders found the Bulgars to be a good market for crop seeds, plows, silk, and gold; Byzantine teachers brought architecture, traditions, and religion and the Bulgars soon became a copy of the Empire; 893, Sumeon copied the Byzantine Empire by calling himself emperor and declaring Bulgaria to be an empire
-the Eastern Church provided the Slavs with an alphabet known as Cyrillic lettering after the Byzantine missionary,, Cyril; 864, missionaries from the west competed against those from the east and soon, Bulgaria was half Roman Catholic, half Orthodox; 2 Slavic kingdoms, Serbia and Croatia, were divided from each other due to religion
-iconoclasm, which means the breaking of images, saw the worship of statues, images, and icons as sinful and pagan-like; iconoclast were upset that people did not follow the law that "thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images"; 726, emperor Leo III forbade the use or display of icons; angry monks mobbed soldiers who were ordered to take down icons from all buildings; civil war began when rebels who favoured icons declared their independence; both sides of the war called the other heretics
-Leo’s son, Constantine V, was an iconoclast and 754, he ruled against the veneration of icons, and then began a reign of terror that destroyed thousands of icons and tortured and killed their owners; 787, Empress Irene who was a regent for her son Constantine VI, approved of icon veneration and reversed the laws against it in 754; 15, Leo V restored iconoclasm but in 843, Emperor Michael III ruled in favour of icons and ended iconoclasm
-a new class known as the Powerful, soon arose; they were landowners with huge estates and tried to take control of the Empire; the first Macedonian emperor was Basil I, a peasant and former Bulgar slave; he was co-emperor with Michael III and in 867, he assassinated Michael to take the throne; Basil made the Empire richer than it ever was under Justinian, but he soon lost much of his army when the Powerful grabbed military themes with their soldiers; the only Byzantine army left was that of Constantinople’s which defended the city from numerous Powerful uprisings and attacks; 976, Basil II took the throne and in 996, passed laws that broke apart the Powerful’s land; however, after his death in 1025, the Powerful soon got the laws repealed
-the throne was then given to Zoe and Theodora, daughters of Constantine VIII who was Basil II’s co-emperor; the two women were famous for their fair rulings as judges and were good at finding corrupt officials; they even found 100000 lbs of silver in the Constantinople Patriarch’s bedroom; 1042, Zoe became so jealous that she exiled Theodora to a convent; 13 years later, when Zoe died, Theodora left the convent and reigned until her death 1 year later
-another religious debate soon arose: the eastern church thought priests should be able to marry while the Roman Catholics disagreed; the West thought the Holy Spirit came from both God and Christ, while the east believed that it only came from God; 1052, Constantinople Patriarch Michael Cerularius discovered that Pope Leo IX had made leavened bread illegal in southern Italy, and leavened bread was the eucharist of the east; Cerularius responded by shutting down Western churches in the Byzantine empire; 1054, Cardinal Humbert met with Cerularius and ordered Michael to give in to the demands of the West; when the patriarch refused, Humbert excommunicated him and Cerularius excommunicated Humbert and the Great Schism between the Churches began
-between 1060 and 1071, the Normans took Northern Italy, Sicily and other western part of the Byzantine Empire, finishing by capturing the seaport of Bari; also in 1071, the Muslim Seljuk Turks invaded Asia Minor, defeated the Byzantines at Manzikert, and captured the emperor, Romanos IV
-1081, a Powerful seized the throne to become Alexius I and inherited an empire that was being attacked by Normans from the shores of the Balkans and Muslims moving towards Constantinople; he took money from the Church to build an army and in 1082, he gave trading rights to Venice in exchange for ships to use against the Normans; he also sent agents to Sicily that stirred trouble between the Italians and the Norman overlords that eventually sent the Normans back to France; Alexius then asked the West for help against the Muslims
-the Seljuks soon conquered the Arabs and took Jerusalem in 1087; 1095, Alexius proposes that the East and West churches should ally against the non-Christians; Pope Urban II of the West agreed to help in hope of reuniting the Churches and to take Palestine from Muslim control; Alexius I expected to be sent a few hundred soldiers but soon found over 30000 French, Germans, and Italians surrounding his city; Alexius wanted the Holy Land to return to the Empire while the West wanted the loot and to carve out kingdoms; to assure loyalty to him, Alexius forced the Crusaders to swear an oath of loyalty to him or else they would not be allowed to cross the Bosporus; Alexius used bribes and withheld food to get these oaths
-1097, the combined army took Nicaea in Asia Minor but the Byzantines retreated when they heard a large Seljuk force was coming their way; feeling betrayed, the Crusaders trudged on and retook Jerusalem in 1099; Asia Minor was given to the Byzantines while Palestine was carved into Near Eastern Kingdoms centered on Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli, and Jerusalem; however in 1144, the Muslims regrouped under Saladin and retook Edessa; 1187, Jersualem was lost to the Muslims again
-after the first and second Crusades, Latins were found everywhere in the Empire, doing business and serving in the imperial army; during the reign of Emperor Manuel I, Latins held administrative and diplomatic posts; Latins saw Byzantines as soft and treacherous, Byzantines saw Latins as savage barbarians ignorant of culture, and both saw the other as heretics; the trade alliance with Venice gave Venetians the right to import and export goods without paying custom duties; Venice took over many parts of the Empire’s trade routes and most of the Empire’s profit went to Venice instead of the treasury
-1171, to combat the power of the Venetians, Emperor Mauel I arrested 10000 Europeans and seized their property, shipped them back to Venice and ended the Venetians’ trading rights; 1182, Andronicus Commenus, cousin of Emperor Alexius II, sent angry mobs through Constantinople that killed every Latin they found; Adronicus then strangled Alexius II to take the throne as Andronicus I
-1185, the angry Normans plundered Thessalonica, the second largest city in the Empire; to save Constantinople, Andronicus made a new deal with the Venetians to give their trading roots back to the Venetians; however, the citizens of Constantinople were not very happy and showed it by killing Andronicus
-on the 4^th Crusade, the crusaders planned to take Egypt and move northward through Palestine; Enrico Dandolo, the duke of Venice, promised the crusaders transports and ships for a very high price; when they got to Venice, they met Alexius Angelus, nephew of the Byzantine emperor Alexius III, who offered to pay the crusaders debt if they helped him become emperor; Venice persuaded the crusaders to take the offer because they had a secret trade alliance with Egypt and were hoping that the new Alexius would give Byzantine trade control back to the Venetians (who had lost it again).; summer of 1203, the crusaders and Venetians attack Constantinople and Alexius III flees, taking most of the treasury with him; Alexius marched into Constantinople and called himself Emperor Alexius IV, but as soon as the people discovered that he had made a deal with the Crusaders, they were outraged; Alexius IV was quickly strangled, and an anti-latin emperor took his place; spring 1204 when the crusaders realized that they would not be paid, they attacked Constantinople, a city that no longer had any great generals or military emperors; when the walls opened, Constantinople was sacked for 3 days; libraries and manuscripts were burned, statues were smashed and relics were hauled away; although most original manuscripts were burnt, many copies of them were brought by Byzantine teachers to Italy to start the Renaissance; also, many Arabs who had visited Constantinople had Arab translations of lots of Greek work, and all of it was available in Muslim libraries in Spain
-the Latins named Baldwin of Flanders as the empire’s new emperor and Venice took possession of most of the empire’s coastal towns and islands; 1204, the Latin rulers faced numerous revolts in Constantinople and attacks by Muslims; 1205, the Bulgarians attack and killed Baldwin
-1205, the Empire of Nicaea grew in power; it was located in Asia Minor and run by Theodore Lascaris, a relative of the Byzantine royalty; he and many Byzantine refugees began a gov’t in exile with a strong economy modeled after the gov’ts of Justinian I and Basil I; there was even a Patriach of Nicaea; 1214, Nicaea declared war on Latin Byzantine Empire, but nothing was accomplished; 1259, the Nicaeans under Emperor Michael VIII won a major battle against the Latins and in July 1261, the Byzantines found Constantinople undefended and simply walked in; the Latin armies were fighting near the Black Sea when they heard this and quickly fled back to Europe; August 15, Michael entered Constantinople to restore the Byzantine Empire
-however, the empire no longer had money for a fleet or army and had to rely on Italians for troops and defence; Constantinople was soon attacked by Charles of Anjou, ruler of the Kingdom of 2 Sicilies, but Michael started a revolt in Sicily that led to Charle’s overthrow; Michael ended Venice’s trade monopoly by giving trade control over to Genoa which began a fierce competition between Venice and Genoa; Michael was unable to reconquer any land except for fragments surrounding Constantinople
-1354, the new Ottoman Turks conquered the Empire’s city of Gallipoli in Asia Minor, then Adrianople; they soon moved their capital to Adrianople and began capturing all of the empire’s land except for Constantinople; the emperors asked for help from the West but none came
-Byzantines prevented the Turks from taking Constantinople by making deals; Emperor John V actually lent his army to the Turks from 1350 to around 1400; 1453, the Turks under Mehmet II decided to take the only city left in the Byzantine Empire; the emperor was Constantine XI who fought hard against the Turks in 1449 but to no avail; he repeatedly asked for help from the West but few soldiers came; his 5000 troops had to stand against over 100000 Ottoman Turks
-the Turks sieged the city walls with cannons and ships for over a month, then on May 29, 1453, the Turks attacked the city from 3 sides and after hours of fighting, the Turks got enough ladders up that they scaled the walls and invaded Constantinople; thousands were slaughtered, including Constantine XI
-the Ottomans admired the Byzantine gov’t and modeled their own after it; they renamed Constantinople to Istanbul and the Ottoman Turks remained a powerful force in Europe until World War 1