Chapter 13: Byzantine Empire
What is the significance of the story of the monks smuggling the silkworm eggs to Byzantium? ______
What elements did Byzantium inherit from the Roman Empire that helped it to survive? ______
Describe the Byzantine form of government. ______
What was the significance of Justinian's Body of Civil Law? ______
What were the consequences of the rise of the Islamic empire for Byzantium? ______
What was the theme system? How did it work? Why was it so successful? What led to its demise? ______
What economic advantages did the Byzantine empire possess? ______
Trace the development of the Byzantine church to the schism. What caused the schism? ______
What kinds of problems eventually led to the constriction and fall of the Byzantine empire? ______
What was the relationship between the Byzantines and the Slavic people, including the Russians? ______
Vocabulary
Justinian ______
Theodora______
Justinian Code______
St. Cyril______
Iconoclasm______
1) The only classical society that survived in the centuries after 400 C.E. was the p. 314
a. Han dynasty. b. Byzantine Empire. c. Hellenistic Empire. d. Mauryan dynasty. e. Achaemenid dynasty.
2) Byzantium’s major advantage was
a. its position as the greatest trading center of the Greek world.
b. its huge army.
c. its strategic position on the Bosporus.
d. its magnificent library, which contained the cultural treasures of the Hellenistic world.
e. its status as the most populous city in the Mediterranean basin.
3) Which of the following statements about Constantinople is not true?
a. It was built in an attempt to revitalize the impoverished eastern half of the Roman Empire.
b. It was constructed by Constantine.
c. It allowed the imperial court to keep watch on the Sasanid Empire in Persia.
d. It was built because the eastern half was the wealthier and more productive part of the empire.
e. It allowed the imperial court to keep watch on Germanic tribes on the Danube.
4) Up through the eighth century, the chief foreign threat to the eastern Roman Empire was p 315
a. the resurgence of power by the Ptolemies in Egypt.
b. the Germanic tribes.
c. the Guptas in India.
d. the Sasanid emperors.
e. neo-Greek military generals.
5) The most important political feature of the Byzantine state was
a. its docile acceptance of Rome’s superiority.
b. its republican governmental structure that resembled early Rome.
c. its tightly centralized rule under a powerful emperor.
d. its division of power under the tetrarchs.
e. its reliance on Achaemenid ruling principles.
6) Hagia Sophia was p. 317
a. the wife of Justinian who proved to be a wise adviser.
b. the magnificent church at Constantinople.
c. the legal foundation for Justinian’s Code.
d. Justinian’s most dangerous political enemy.
e. the central trading city on the silk roads.
7) Justinian’s most important and long-lasting political achievement was
a. his reconquest of the western half of the Roman Empire.
b. his democratic reforms.
c. his religious compromise between the Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox churches.
d. his codification of Roman law.
e. his establishment of a lasting peace with the Islamic world.
8) Constantinople withstood sieges in 674–678 and 717–718 by p. 319
a. the Sasanids. b. the Gauls. c. the Russians. d. the Greeks. e. Arabic forces.
9) From the sixth century on, the official language of Constantinople was
a. Latin. b. Turkish. c. Aramaic. d. Greek. e. French.
10) By the late sixth century, Byzantium became the Mediterranean world’s leading producer of
a. silk. b. cotton. c. tobacco. d. gold. e. steel.