The Byzantine Empire (450 CE)
One God, One Empire, One Religion
Remember…
The Eastern Empire
As Western Europe
succumbed (gave in) to
the Germanic invasions,
imperial power shifted to
the Byzantine Empire
(the eastern part of the
Roman Empire).
ConstantinopleConstantinople became
the sole capitol of the
empire and remained so
until the successful revival
of the western empire in
the 8th century by
Charlemagne.
The city is named after the
Emperor Constantine
Constantine announced
the end to all persecution
of Christians
The Reign of Justinian
The height of the first period of Byzantine history (324-632) was the
reign of Emperor Justinian (r. 537-565) and his wife Empress
Theodora (d. 548)
First things first…
Justinian’s objectives as a ruler:
– Justinian wanted to regain Rome’s fading glory by
expanding it’s territories
• And he set out to take on the task of reforming the
Roman Law
• Laws came first
How did he do it
Justinian appointed
a jurist friend to
lead a committee to
go through all the
laws, put them in
order, and get rid of
those that were
contradictory.
One GodOne Empire
One Religion
New Law
The panel created a single uniform code known as Justinian Code.
This became the official law of the empire.
The code consisted of four works
Justinian’s Code
The Code contained nearly 5,000
Roman laws that were still considered
useful for the Byzantine Empire
Hagia Sophia
The crowning glory
of his reign
“Holy Wisdom” in
Greek
It was one of the
largest building in
Europe for 6
Centuries
Efforts to preserve the West
Families valued education- specifically classical learning– Latin
– Philosophy
– Geometry (Euclid)
– History (Herodotus)
– Literature (Homer)
They helped to preserve many of the great works of Greece and Rome
Empress Theodora
The most powerful women in Byzantine history
As empress she met with foreign envoys, wrote to foreign leaders, passed laws, and built churches.
After she died, Justinian was so depressed that he passed no major laws for the rest of his reign.
The Empire at Its Height
The empire was at its height In 565, during Justinian’s reign. It
included most of the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
The Great Divide
During the Byzantine Empire Christianity
underwent a dramatic development
It had begun to develop differently in the Eastern
and Western halves of the Roman Empire.
Due largely to the distance and lack of contact
between the two regions.
East Side
Eastern Christianity built its heritage on the
works of early Church fathers.
In 730, Emperor Leo III banned the use of
icons, religious images used by Eastern
Christians to aid their devotions.
The emperor viewed the use of icons as idol
worship
West Side
In the west, the Pope became involved in the
eastern dispute and supported the use of
icons
One Pope even ordered the excommunication of
a Byzantine emperor (he declared the emperor
to be an outcast from the Church)
The Great Schism
The great split in Christianity. The western
church became the Roman Catholic Church,
and the eastern church became the Eastern
Orthodox Church.
Recovery of Territory
The Byzantines called upon
the European states to push
back the Muslim
conquerors. The European
states complied,
successfully pushed back
the Seljuks, returned territory
to the Byzantines, and
carved out kingdoms of their
own in Syria and Palestine.
Conquered by the Ottoman Turks
In 1453, Constantinople
was finally and
permanently
conquered by the
Ottoman Turks and
renamed Istanbul.
Byzantine culture, law,
and administration came
to its final end.
Contribution to Western Civilization
Throughout the early Middle Ages, the Byzantine
Empire remained a protective barrier between
western Europe and hostile Persian, Arab, and
Turkish armies.
The Byzantines were also a major conduit of
classical learning and science into the West down
to the Renaissance. While western Europeans were
fumbling to create a culture of their own, the cities of
the Byzantine Empire provided them a model of a
civilized society.