The empire was strategically located for control of trade between Europe, Asia, and Africa and was vastly wealthy during most of its history. Heir to both Greece and Rome, Byzantium preserved ancient culture; it also served as an exchange point between West and East. The Byzantine Empire shone with intellectual and artistic brilliance during the so-called Dark Ages in Western Europe. Gradually its heritage was shared with the West and became one of the wellsprings of the European Renaissance.
“Byzantine Empire” and “Byzantium” are modern names for the empire, taken from the ancient community, Byzantium, which had occupied the site of Constantinople. The Byzantines themselves called their empire the Roman Empire, or Romania. The empire is also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, to distinguish it from the Western Roman Empire (centered on Rome and later Ravenna), which came to an end in 476, and from the Holy Roman Empire, which was established in 962. Since the empire was originally the eastern part of the Roman Empire, Latin was the language used at first in government, for church rites, and at the royal court. Greek, however, was the language most widely spoken in the domain; by the mid-seventh century it was the official language, and western Europeans came to call Byzantium the Greek Empire.
Character and Influence
Because of the extension of the Roman Empire into Asia, the emperors since Diocletian, 284-305, had considered it necessary to have an eastern as well as a western capital. Before Constantine, various cities had been used. One of Constantine's apparent reasons for building a new capital was to create a powerful center for the Christian religion, to which he had been converted. This would have been difficult to accomplish in the older cities, filled as they were with worshipers of the old pagan gods. Centering around the first great city to be founded on Christianity, Byzantium developed the Eastern Orthodox branch of the religion and converted the Slavic peoples. In defending itself against Muslim attackers for almost 800 years, Byzantium served as the protector of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean region. The head of the Eastern church was the patriarch. The emperor, however, chose the bishop to be named patriarch and often held supreme authority in religious matters. From the time of Constantine the Eastern emperor was regarded as God's deputy, chosen by divine decree. Men came to the Byzantine throne from even the humblest origins and by the most diverse means—inheritance, marriage, political intrigue, military success, and murder—but each was accepted as God's choice and his pronouncements as God's word. However, if an emperor was deposed or assassinated, that also was accepted as God's will.
Many scholars see Eastern influence in the idea of a monarch with such exalted rank and authority, and also in Byzantine indulgence in luxury and ostentation, in striking contrast to the rough way of life in medieval Western Europe. The Byzantine court bedazzled visitors with its lavish display of gold, jewels, and silks. Despite Eastern influences, however, the empire was basically Greek. The heritage of Greek classicism was blended with Christian and Middle Eastern, especially Armenian, influences to give Byzantium a unique character.
The Byzantine Empire had a profound influence on other peoples and countries, especially on the barbarian hordes migrating from the north and west who for centuries threatened the empire. As they subdued each new wave of barbarians, the Byzantines taught them patterns of government and converted them to Christianity. The Cyrillic alphabet was created by Byzantine missionaries to teach Christianity to the Slavs. Even the Turks, who conquered the empire and converted it to Islam, borrowed some of their culture from the Byzantines.
In Western Europe, where much of the Greek and even much of the Roman cultural heritage was lost with the coming of the barbarians, contact with the Byzantine Empire was an intellectual and artistic stimulation. In the case of Italy, the contact was fairly continuous, and Byzantine influence was especially apparent in art and architecture. The early Byzantine style was indeed one of the sources of Romanesque architecture. In the field of law, the sixth-century Corpus juris civilis (Body of Civil Law), a codification of Roman and Byzantine law compiled under Justinian, was taught in Italian universities to scholars from all parts of Western Europe; it is the foundation of modern civil law.
The Crusaders, who during the 12th century passed through the empire on their way to the Holy Land, were awed by and envied the grandeur and wealth of the Byzantine nobility. When they returned to their homes, they carried with them not only new ideas and knowledge but a new taste for the refinements of life.
The Early Centuries
Roman Emperor Constantine the Great dedicated his new capital city, New Rome or Constantinople, in 330 A.D. It was to be a Christian city; no public pagan worship was allowed. Some of the capital's greatest treasures were Christian relics, many brought from the Holy Land by (Saint) Helena, Constantine's mother.
Germanic peoples migrating from the north made many attempts to cross the Danube River, northern boundary of the empire in the east. Valens, emperor of the East, was killed in battle against the Visigoths at Adrianople in 378. Theodosius, a Roman general who had successfully subdued some of the barbarian intruders, became emperor of the East and, later, of the West also. He came to be called the Great because he made Christianity the sole legal religion in the empire. After Theodosius the empire usually had two emperors. The Byzantine Empire was able to repulse or control the Germans, who developed a great admiration for it. Many warriors joined the imperial forces; the chieftains often held titles given them by the emperor. The Germans fought fiercely to defend the empire against the Huns, savage Asian invaders, but Emperor Theodosius II was defeated by Attila, the Hunnish king, in 447 and forced to pay tribute.
The German general Odoacer abolished the office of emperor of the West in 476 and acknowledged Zeno, emperor of the East, as his nominal overlord. At that time the East was being threatened by the Ostrogoths. Zeno, who considered Odoacer too independent, convinced Theodoric, the Ostrogoth king, that Italy offered richer plunder than Byzantium. The Ostrogoths attacked and defeated Odoacer's armies, killed Odoacer, and established a kingdom in Italy. Meanwhile, the Roman provinces in North Africa had fallen to the Vandals.
In 518 Justin, a commander of the guard had himself elected to the throne. He was succeeded in 527 by his nephew Justinian, an ambitious ruler who in his 38-year reign regained the Roman provinces in Africa; reestablished imperial authority in Italy; and conquered southeastern Spain. Justinian's success was due in part to his astute empress, Theodora. To accomplish the conquest of the West, Justinian bought peace with Persia, the empire's perpetual enemy in the east, by paying a vast annual tribute. However, seeing the Byzantines engaged elsewhere, the Persian ruler Khosrau I soon invaded Syria and the Caucasus. Another peace agreement was reached in 562. Meanwhile, Slavs and Bulgars were penetrating the northern border. The empire could not hold them back, and they, especially the Slavs, began settling in the Balkan Peninsula.
Justinian's campaigns left the empire exhausted and impoverished. He is remembered mainly, however, for his positive accomplishments—his magnificent buildings in Ravenna (his capital in Italy) and Constantinople and for the codification of the law.
Decline and Revival
Soon after Justinian's death in 565, the Persian war was resumed. The southward migration of the Slavs, accompanied by the Avars, continued. A German tribe, the Lombards, occupied most of Italy; Byzantium retained control only of Ravenna and parts of the south.
Within a decade the Muslim Arabs had begun their conquests. Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were taken from the empire by 642, the rest of North Africa by the end of the century. Coming by sea, the Arabs besieged Constantinople-from 674 to 678, but the city's defenses held. Then the Bulgars invaded the empire in force, and in 680 part of what is now Bulgaria was ceded to them.
In 717 Arab land forces, already in possession of much of Asia Minor, were approaching the Byzantine capital. To meet the emergency, an energetic provincial governor, Leo (III), was elevated to the throne. Well prepared by Leo, Constantinople withstood a long siege by both land and sea forces. In 741 Leo finally expelled the Arabs from western Asia Minor. Within the empire Leo started a long religious conflict by his policy of iconoclasm—banning the use of icons (sacred images)—in the Eastern Church. The policy antagonized the Roman Church, widening the religious division between the East and the West.
East Asia Minor was recovered from the Arabs, but Ravenna fell to the Lombards in 751. In 780 the widowed Empress Irene became regent for her young son, Constantine VI. In 787 Irene called the seventh ecumenical council of the Christian Church, at Nicaea, and had image-worship restored. Ten years later she deposed her son, had him blinded, and took the throne herself.
Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, king of the Franks, as Roman emperor in 800. The Byzantines ignored the implication that Charlemagne had authority in the East, but in 812 they recognized him as Western emperor, thereby acknowledging that the pope was no longer a subject of the Eastern emperor.
Leo V ascended the Byzantine throne in 813 and reinstated the policy of iconoclasm. It was not until 843, during the regency of the Empress Theodora, that image-worship was permanently restored. In the 860's a bitter disagreement over the appointment of Photius as patriarch arose between the Roman and Eastern churches and Emperor Michael III repudiated the pope's claims of religious supremacy in the East.
Conflict with the Arabs and the Bulgarians was almost continuous and was interspersed with Slavic uprisings. Beginning in 827 the Arabs occupied Sicily and then southern Italy. In spite of the constant warfare, the empire regained its prosperity, learning revived, and a new era of magnificence developed. Under Basil I, 867-86, gains were made against the Arabs. New enemies, the Russians and Magyars, appeared to the north, but were successfully dealt with.
Nicephorus Phocas, a Byzantine general who became emperor by marrying the widowed empress, regained much imperial territory. Conquests continued under his successors. Basil II subdued the Bulgarians, 1004-18, and annexed their kingdom. Friendly relations were established with the Arabs in the Holy Land.
The Seljuk Turks and the Crusaders
The mid-11th century was a period of frequent changes in rulers and of general decline. The beginning of a decisive break between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches (the Great Schism) took place in 1054.
For some time the empire had had Turkic peoples as neighbors—the friendly Khazars and the aggressive Petchenegs. In the 1060's a new menace, the Seljuk Turks, approached from the east. The Byzantines met them at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 and suffered a crushing defeat. In the same year the empire's last holdings in Italy were taken by Normans.
A strong and able emperor, Alexius I Comnenus, came to the throne in 1081. The Normans were then threatening the west coast of Greece. To help defend it, Alexius engaged the aid of the Venetian fleet, in return for special trade privileges. Meanwhile, the Seljuk Turks had captured Jerusalem and had advanced across Asia Minor, where they established the Sultanate of Rum (Rome), or Iconium. In 1090-91 the Seljuks and Petchenegs formed an alliance and threatened Constantinople. Alexius appealed to the West for troops to assist him. There was no immediate reply. By inciting one Turkish group against another, however, Alexius saved the capital and came to an agreement with the sultan of Rum.
In Western Europe, where life had become centered on religion, there was already grave concern about the Turks. Pilgrims to the Holy Land—who had numbered about 700 in 1026-27 and 7,000 in 1064-65—found the Turks more dangerous to deal with than the Arabs. The West, especially France, responded to Alexius' plea by deciding to free Jerusalem from the Muslims. The Crusades to the Holy Land began in 1096.
The Crusader armies, living off the land and taking all possible loot as was the custom, were a terrible affliction to the Byzantine Empire. Alexius spent vast sums moving them through his domain, and in return he extracted a promise that former Byzantine lands recovered by the Crusaders would be returned to the empire. The promise was only partially kept, and animosity between the “Latins,” as the Westerners called themselves, and the Greeks grew rapidly.
Some Latins considered the Greeks to be heretics, little better than the infidel Muslims. The Byzantines, in addition to their fury against the marauding Western armies, resented Venice's virtual control of their economy. In 1182 there was a great massacre of Latins in Constantinople.
Two decades later rivalry for the Byzantine throne caused one contender to ask Western assistance. The Fourth Crusade was being undertaken at the time, and the Venetians were providing ships for it. In 1204 the Crusaders used the dynastic struggle as an excuse to enter Constantinople. Prompted by their desire for loot and for new lands to rule and by Venice's greed for commerce, they seized the city and the empire. The capital was ruthlessly sacked. Latin kingdoms were established to rule the conquered Byzantine lands.
The Final Centuries
During the period of Latin dominance, members of Byzantine royal families managed to hold three small domains—Trebizond and Nicaea in Asia Minor and Epirus in western Greece. Nicaea, Epirus, and Bulgaria aspired to conquer the Latin kingdoms, and each had some successes. Finally, the conquests all fell to Nicaea. In 1261, under Michael Palaeologus, the Nicaeans captured Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire. Michael was aided by Genoa, a commercial rival of Venice.
The empire was much smaller than it had been in 1204, as much of the territory gained in the early Crusades had been retaken by the Turks, and the Latins still held most of southern Greece. Genoa largely replaced Venice in controlling the empire's trade. Constantinople, robbed of its treasure, remained partly in ruins. Nevertheless, in its final period the Byzantine Empire produced brilliant works of art and scholarship.