The Byzantine Empire was the eastern half of the Roman Empire, outliving its collapse in the West by nearly a millennium. Although its inhabitants would have self-identified as Romans, we currently use the term Byzantine to distinguish it from the western portion of the Roman Empire. The name refers to Byzantium, an ancient Greek city ideally located as a transit trade point between Europe and Asia.
Constantine the Great and the Founding of Constantinople
In fact, in 330, Roman Emperor Constantine the Great moved the Roman Empire’s capital from Rome to “Byzantium”, renaming it “Constantinople” after himself. Constantine was the first emperor to legalize Christianity, which was previously persecuted throughout the pagan Roman Empire and summoned the First Council of Nicaea in an effort to reach consensus in the church. Emperor Theodosius I then went further by making Christianity the official religion of the Roman state and punished the practice of pagan rituals.
The Golden Age of Byzantium and Justinian’s Reforms
The Byzantine Empire existed from approximately 395—when the Roman Empire was split: About eighty years later, the Western Roman Empire fell, while its Eastern counterpart, Byzantium, remained a powerful, thriving empire. The reign of Justinian the Great is usually considered the “Golden Age of Byzantium”. He wished to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory and was responsible for many re-conquests, including North Africa, Spain, and most of Italy. (One of Justinian’s most important acts was legal reform: Originally, Roman laws differed from region to region, but Justinian created a single code that eventually served as the basis for civil law across medieval Europe and holds major influence upon public international law today.
Empress Theodora and the Hagia Sophia
His wife Theodora was powerful and often referred to as his co-regent:
She was heavily involved with the legal reforms specifically regarding women’s rights, such as prohibiting forced prostitution and expanding the rights of women in divorce.
Many great monuments were built under Justinian, none greater than the Hagia Sophia, the center of Christianity in Constantinople and the largest church in the world for nearly a millennium.
However, a plague swept throughout the Empire, killing Theodora, almost the Emperor himself, and devastating the whole Empire.
Heraclius and the Theme System
After Justinian, the Empire continuously lost lands to Persian forces during the Byzantine–Sasanian Wars, some of the longest wars in history. But Emperor Heraclius finally led Byzantium to victory against their Persian rivals: He restructured the military and administration and adopted Greek for official use instead of Latin. Under the constant threat of invasion, the emperor developed the theme system: small regions were placed under the control of a general responsible for its defense and civil administration, strengthening the empire overall, which was a step away from the traditional Roman practice of centralized recruitment.
Islamic Conquests and the Isaurian Dynasty
| Event/Change | Description |
|---|---|
| Islamic prophet Muhammad’s death | The rising Muslim Arab armies conquered the rich provinces of Egypt and Syria and almost destroyed the Byzantine Empire in the Byzantine-Arab wars. |
| Transition to “Medieval Byzantium” | The empire had gone from being the urbanized and cosmopolitan “Eastern Roman Empire” into “Medieval Byzantium”, a predominantly agrarian, Greek-speaking society. |
| The Isaurian Dynasty and Iconoclasm | The Isaurian Dynasty saw rising Iconoclasm, banning image-veneration. |
| Conflict with the West | This furthered conflict with the West, as the Roman Pope remained in favor of religious images throughout the medieval period. |
The Macedonian Dynasty and the Great Schism
Although it stretched over less territory, from the 8th to the 11th century, the Byzantine Empire enjoyed another Golden Age under the Macedonian Dynasty. The empire patronized art including Byzantine mosaics, had more control over trade and more international prestige than under Justinian. East-West religious relations became increasingly strained, and centuries of theological and political differences culminated in the “Great Schism” of 1054. This created two separate branches of Christianity: the Roman Catholic Church in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine East.
Seljuk Turks, the Fourth Crusade, and the Fall of Constantinople
In 1064, The Seljuk Turks, Rising Muslim nomadic warriors from central Asia were able to invade, the disputed frontier region of Armenia. Latin armies also invaded parts of Byzantium, but emperor Komnenos, forced soldiers’ loyalty in the hope of defeating the Turks. The combined Western-Byzantine forces recaptured Asia Minor, but the events ultimately exacerbated East-West animosity. Violent tensions between East and West culminated during the Fourth Crusade, when Catholic crusaders sacked Constantinople, looted the Hagia Sophia, and instated a short-lived line of “Latin” kings from the West. Under the Palaiologan emperors, Byzantium was economically crippled; and failed to seek aid from the West again this time against the Ottomans, nomadic Turkic tribes named after their leader Osman I. Ultimately in 1453, the Ottomans were able to breach the strong walls of Constantinople marking the end of the Byzantine Empire and the beginning of the long reign of the Ottoman Empire.
The Byzantine Legacy
Nevertheless, Byzantine legacy lives on through its influence on countries that practiced its Eastern Orthodox religion. Also, the writings of ancient Greek thinkers such as Plato were slowly vanishing in the west and might have been lost to history if not for the Byzantine Empire: Its libraries safeguarded these Greek and Roman texts that provided the foundation of the Renaissance.