BYZANTINEThe Return of the Roman Empire

Review

What had happened to the old Roman Empire?

Why had the Western part crumbled? Where was the new center of the Roman

Empire?

3. New Emperor

527 C.E. (A.D.) Justinian ascended to the throne

He was not only the head of state, but head of the church

Had absolute power He decided to reclaim

Rome from the German tribes, notably the Ostrogoths

4. Differences in New Rome

Byzantine had a hard time communicating with the West (where Rome was)

The capital was Constantinople People spoke Greek, not Latin Citizens felt as thought they were sharing

the Roman traditions still even though they weren’t in Rome

5. New Law

Justinian ordered the laws of Rome to be combed through

Outdated laws were removed; new laws created

New code known as Justinian’s Code

6. New Law

Dealt with marriage, slavery, property, inheritance, women’s rights, and criminal justice

Combination of the Twelve Tables from the West, and Hammurabi’s Code from the East.

7. Building a New Capital

Justinian worked to rebuild Constantinople Built a 14 mile stone wall on the coast Repaired the Western wall

Crowning glory was the Hagia Sophia “Holy Wisdom” Had been a church and been destroyed in 532 Was considered the most splendid church

The Hagia Sophia

The exterior of the church, which still stands today

Interior View

10. Retaining Culture

Byzantine kept the Roman-Greco cultures alive by teaching the classics

Children learned the Greek and Latin grammar

Students learned about Homer Preserved the culture for the world

11. Answer the ?s

Why was the Eastern Empire important? What did Justinian do to improve the new

capital city? How did Justinian keep order? In what ways did Byzantine keep Greco-

Roman culture?

12. Religious Split

Christianity developed differently between the Western and Eastern Roman Empires

In the West, the Pope became the central figure

In the East, Christianity developed from works of early church fathers, like St. Basil.

A dispute arose over icons- East banned it, West approved

13. Differences

West- Roman Catholicism Pope is the head

over all others Services are done

in Latin Priests can’t marry No Divorce

East- Eastern Orthodoxy Emperor heads all

patriarchs and bishops

Services done in Greek

Priests can marry Divorce is allowed

under certain conditions

14. Excommunication

The Pope excommunicated the Byzantine emperor

1054- got even worse The patriarch, the head of the Eastern

Church, and the pope, head of the Western Church, excommunicated one another from the church

Led to the official split of the church: Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox

15. East Converts Slavs

The Eastern church converted Slavs, who lived near the Black Sea

St. Methodius and St. Cyril worked with the Slavs

They invented an alphabet for the Slavic languages

Known as the Cyrillic alphabet

16. Answer the ?s

Why was there a split in the church? What is excommunication? What were the two religions of the

empire? Who helped develop a new alphabet for

Slavic languages?

17. Fall of the Empire

A series of setbacks would occur The plague came through and destroyed

a huge part of the population Foreign enemies attacked the Byzantine

Empire constantly Islamic armies rose and began attacking

from the Arabian peninsula It would finally fall to the Ottoman Turks

in 1453

18. Answer the ?s

Compare and contrast the Western Roman and Eastern Byzantine empires

Draw a Venn diagram