Eastern Christendom after the fall of Rome

WHAP/Napp

Cues: / Notes:
  1. Eastern Christendom
  1. With collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, its eastern half, now known as the ______Empire or Byzantium, continued traditions of Roman Empire on smaller scale until conquest by Ottoman Turks in 1453
  2. Centered on the magnificent city of Constantinople
  1. Great location for tradeBetween Asia and Eastern Europe
  1. Has no clear starting point as an empire
  1. Historians date330 C.E. Roman emperor ______established new capital, Constantinople, on ancient Greek city called Byzantium
  1. Although western empirecollapsed, eastern half persisted – thousand years
  2. Eastern Roman Empire was wealthier, urbanized, and more cosmopolitan
  1. Possessed a much more defensible capital-a shorter frontier to guard
  2. Access to the Black Sea and command of the eastern ______Sea
  3. Stronger army and navy – able to deflect Germanic and Hun invaders
  1. Like Tang dynasty seeking to restore the glory of Han era, Byzantium sought to preserve legacy of classical civilization and the Roman Empire
  1. Constantinople was to be a “New Rome” and Byzantines referred to themselves as “______”
  2. Fearing contamination by “barbarian” customs, emperors forbade the residents of Constantinople from wearing boots, trousers, clothing made from animal skins, and ____ hairstyles-Only Roman-style robes/sandals
  3. But western Roman Empire was lost to Byzantium, despite the Emperor Justinian’s (reigned 527-565) short-lived attempt to reconquer West
  4. Rapid Arab/Islamic expansion in the seventh century resulted in the loss of Syria/Palestine, Egypt, and North ______
  5. Yet until the 1200s, a more compact Byzantine Empire remained in eastern Mediterranean, controlling Greece, much of Balkans, Anatolia
  1. The Emperor
  1. Political authority remained tightly centralized in Constantinople, where emperor claimed to govern all creation as God’s worldly ______
  2. Focused on collecting taxes, maintaining order, and suppressing revolts
  3. The end came in 1453 when the Turkic Ottoman Empire, then known as the “sword of ______,” finally took Constantinople
  1. The Church
  1. Caesaropapismthe emperor assumed something of the role of both “Caesar,” as head of state, and the pope, as ______of the Church
  2. Emperor appointed the patriarch, or leader, of the Orthodox Church and generally treated the Church as a “government department”
  3. Byzantine churches were filled with icons – religious ______of Jesus,

Summaries:
Cues: / Mary, and other saintsbelieved to convey divine presence to believers
  1. Religious Differences: East and West
  1. Disagreements about the nature of Trinity or importance of faith/reason
  2. Between 726 and 843, Eastern Orthodox Church, on orders from Byzantine emperors, took offensive against use of icons, arguing that they became “idols,” distracting believers from adoration of _____
a)This effort, known as iconoclasm, involved the destruction of icons and generated opposition within Byzantium until it was ended
b)But while it lasted, iconoclasm was offensive within Roman Catholic circles for most Roman Popes were supporters of icon ______
  1. Priests in West shavedafter 1050, to remain celibate, while in Byzantiumallowed beards to grow long-permitted to _____ Eastern leaders rejected claims of Roman popes to be sole authority for all
  2. By 1054, representatives of both churches mutually excommunicated each other (Great Schism)
  3. The Crusades, launched in 1095 by the Catholic pope against the forces of Islam, made things worse as Crusaders passing through the Byzantine Empire engaged in frequent ______with local people
  4. But remarkable growth of the Arab Empire threatened the Byzantines
a)Able to hold off for a time with their military innovation known as “Greek _____”- a combination of oil, sulfur, and lime
  1. Byzantine Legacy
  1. Preserved Greek and ______learning
  2. Transmitted classical learning to the Islamic world and Christian West
  3. Byzantine religious culture spread among Slavic-speaking peoples
a)Byzantine missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, developed an alphabet, based on Greek _____, with which Slavic languages could be written
b)The most significant expansion of Orthodox Christianity occurred among the Slavic peoples of what is now Ukraine and western Russia
c)A modest state known as Kievan Rus - named after the most prominent city, ____ - emerged in the ninth century CE
  1. In Contrast: Western Christendom
  1. After fall of RomeDisease and warfare reduced Western Europe’s population by more than 25 percentUrban life ______as Europeans reverted to a largely rural existence
  2. Germanic peoples, whom the Romans viewed as barbarians emerged as the dominant ______of Western Europe
  3. Charlemagne (reigned 768-814), ruler of the Carolingian Empire, erected an imperial bureaucracy and began to act like an imperial ruler
a)On Christmas Day of the year 800, he was ______as a new Roman emperor by the pope, although his realm splintered shortly after his death
  1. Otto I of Saxony (reigned 936-973) gathered much of Germany under control and was likewise invested with the title of emperor by the _____
a)His realm became known as the Holy Roman Empire
Summaries:

StrayerQuestions:

  • In what respects did Byzantium continue the patterns of the classical Roman Empire? In what ways did it diverge from those patterns?
  • How did Eastern Orthodox Christianity differ from Roman Catholicism?
  • In what ways was the Byzantine Empire linked to a wider world?
  • How did links to Byzantium transform the new civilization of Kievan Rus?
  • How did the historical development of the European West differ from that of Byzantium in the postclassical era?

  1. Which of the following European regions felt the influence of Byzantine civilization in the postclassical era?
(A)Russia
(B)The Balkans
(C)Ukraine
(D)Belarus
(E)All of the above
  1. After the fall of the western portion of the Roman Empire, the official tongue of Constantinople shifted from Latin to which of the following?
(A)Turkish
(B)Persian
(C)Chinese
(D)Arabic
(E)Greek
  1. The Byzantine Empire flourished as a crossroads of trade from which regions?
(A)Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Asia
(B)India, Mediterranean, and Asia
(C)Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and the Middle East
(D)The Middle East, Asia, and Scandinavia
(E)Scandinavia, Mediterranean, and India
/
  1. Which early Byzantine emperor had the longest lasting impact on civilization in the eastern Mediterranean and beyond?
(A)Diocletian
(B)Constantine
(C)Justinian
(D)Osman
(E)Muhammad
  1. Russian civilization emerged nearest to what modern-day city?
(A)St. Petersburg
(B)Kiev
(C)Moscow
(D)Warsaw
(E)Paris
  1. Throughout most of its history the capital of the Byzantine Empire was
(A)Baghdad
(B)Constantinople
(C)Rome
(D)Mecca
(E)Damascus

Excerpt from fordham.edu/halsall

Corupus Iurus Civilis or the Justinian Code was the result of Emperor Justinian. Justinian desired that existing Roman law be collected into a simple and clear system of laws, or "code." Tribonian, a legal minister under Justinian, led a group of scholars in a 14-month effort to codify existing Roman law. The result was the first Justinian Code, completed in 529. This code was later expanded to include Justinian's own laws, as well as two additional books on areas of the law. In 534, the Justinian Code, made up of the Code, the Digest, and the Institutes, was completed.

From the Justinian Code:

Book I. Of Persons

I.Justice and Law.

JUSTICE is the constant and perpetual wish to render every one his due.

  1. Jurisprudence is the knowledge of things divine and human; the science of the just and the unjust.
  1. Having explained these general terms, we think we shall commence our exposition of the law of the Roman people most advantageously, if we pursue at first a plain and easy path, and then proceed to explain particular details with the utmost care and exactness. For, if at the outset we overload the mind of the student, while yet new to the subject and unable to bear much, with a multitude and variety of topics, one of two things will happen---we shall either cause him wholly to abandon his studies, or, after great toil, and often after great distrust to himself (the most frequent stumbling block in the way of youth), we shall at last conduct him to the point, to which, if he had been led by an easier road, he might, without great labor, and without any distrust of his own powers, have been sooner conducted.
  1. The maxims of law are these: to live honesty, to hurt no one, to give every one his due.
  1. The study of law is divided into two branches; that of public and that of private law. Public law regards the government of the Roman Empire; private law, the interest of the individuals. We are now to treat of the latter, which is composed of three elements, and consists of precepts belonging to the natural law, to the law of nations, and to the civil law.

Thesis Statement: Comparative: Eastern and Western Christendom after the Fall

______