Justinian I 527AD Ancient Medieval Byzantine Coin i32618

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Seller: Top-Rated Plus Seller highrating_lowprice ✉️ (26,786) 100%, Location: Rego Park, New York, US, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 231007647738 Justinian I 527AD Ancient Medieval Byzantine Coin i32618 . Procopius provides the primary source for the history of Justinian's reign. Justinian I - Byzantine Emperor: 1 August 527 - 14 November 565 A.D. A devastating outbreak of bubonic plague (see Plague of Justinian ) in the early 540s marked the end of an age of splendor.

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Justinian I - Byzantine Emperor: 1 August 527 - 14 November 565 A.D. Bronze Decanummium 17mm (3.53 grams) Constantinople mint: 527-565 A.D. Reference: Sear 167 - D N IVSTINIANVS PP, Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right. Large I, surmounted by cross; to left, A / N / N / O; to right, numerals representing the regnal year, CON in exergue.

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Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus (Greek: Φλάβιος Πέτρος Σαββάτιος Ιουστινιανός , Phlābios Petros Sabbatios Ioustiniānos ); AD 483 – 13 or 14 November 565, known in English as Justinian I or Justinian the Great , was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty (after his uncle, Justin I ) and Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 until his death. He is considered a saint amongst Eastern Orthodox Christians , and is also commemorated by some Lutheran Churches [1]; at the other end of the scale, his contemporary, Procopius , viewed Justinian as a cruel, venal, and incompetent ruler.[2]

One of the most important figures of Late Antiquity , Justinian's rule constitutes a distinct epoch in the history of the Eastern Roman Empire . The impact of his administration extended far beyond the boundaries of his time and empire. Justinian's reign is marked by the ambitious but ultimately failed renovatio imperii , or "restoration of the empire".[3] This ambition was expressed in the partial recovery of the territories of the Western Roman Empire , including the city of Rome itself. A still more resonant aspect of his legacy was the uniform rewriting of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis , which is still the basis of civil law in many modern states. His reign also marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture, and his building programme yielded such masterpieces as the church of Hagia Sophia , which was to be the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity for many centuries.

A devastating outbreak of bubonic plague (see Plague of Justinian ) in the early 540s marked the end of an age of splendor. The empire entered a period of territorial decline not to be reversed until the ninth century.

Procopius provides the primary source for the history of Justinian's reign. The Syriac chronicle of John of Ephesus , which does not survive, was used as a source for later chronicles, contributing many additional details of value. Both historians became very bitter towards Justinian and his empress, Theodora . Procopius also wrote the Anekdota (the so-called Secret History ), which reports on various scandals at Justinian's court. Other sources include the histories of Agathias , Menander Protector , John Malalas , the Paschal Chronicle , the chronicles of Marcellinus Comes and Victor of Tunnuna .

The  Byzantine Empire   was the predominantly  Greek-speaking continuation of the  Roman Empire  during  Late Antiquity  and the  Middle Ages. Its capital city was  Constantinople  (modern-day  Istanbul), originally known as  Byzantium. Initially the eastern half of the Roman Empire (often called the  Eastern Roman Empire   in this context), it survived the 5th century  fragmentation and collapse  of the  Western Roman Empire  and continued to thrive, existing for an additional thousand years until it  fell  to the  Ottoman Turks  in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" are historiographical terms applied in later centuries; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the  Roman Empire   (Ancient Greek:  Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων ,  tr.Basileia Rhōmaiōn ;  Latin:  Imperium Romanum ),  and  Romania.

Several events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the transitional period during which the Roman Empire's  east and west  divided. In 285, theemperor  Diocletian  (r. 284–305) partitioned the Roman Empire's administration into eastern and western halves.[3]  Between 324 and 330,Constantine I  (r. 306–337) transferred the main capital from  Rome  to  Byzantium, later known as  Constantinople   ("City of Constantine") and  Nova Roma   ("New Rome").  Under  Theodosius I  (r. 379–395),  Christianity  became the Empire's official  state religion  and others such as  Roman polytheism  were  proscribed. And finally, under the reign of  Heraclius  (r. 610–641), the Empire's military and administration were restructured and adopted Greek for official use instead of Latin.  In summation, Byzantium is distinguished from  ancient Rome  proper insofar as it was oriented towards Greek rather than Latin culture, and characterised by  Orthodox Christianity  rather than  Roman polytheism.

The borders of the Empire evolved a great deal over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Justinian I   (r. 527–565), the Empire reached its greatest extent after reconquering much of the historically Roman western  Mediterranean  coast, including north Africa, Italy, and Rome itself, which it held for two more centuries. During the reign of  Maurice  (r. 582–602), the Empire's eastern frontier was expanded and north stabilised. However, his assassination caused a  two-decade-long war  with  Sassanid Persia  which exhausted the Empire's resources and contributed to major territorial losses during the  Muslim conquests  of the 7th century. During the 10th-centuryMacedonian dynasty, the Empire experienced a  golden age, which culminated in the reign of  Emperor Basil II "the Bulgar-Slayer". However, shortly after Basil's death, a neglect of the vast military built up during the Late  Macedonian dynasty  caused the Empire to begin to lose territory in Asia Minor to the  Seljuk TurksEmperor Romanos IV Diogenes  and several of his predecessors had attempted to rid  Eastern Anatolia  of the Turkish menace, but this endeavor proved ultimately untenable - especially after the disastrous  Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

Despite a prominent  period of revival (1081-1180)  under the steady leadership of the  Komnenos family, who played an instrumental role in theFirst  and  Second Crusades, the final centuries of the Empire exhibit a general trend of decline. In 1204, after a  period of strife  following the downfall of the  Komnenos dynasty, the Empire was delivered a mortal blow by the forces of the  Fourth Crusade, when Constantinople was sacked and the Empire  dissolved and divided  into competing Byzantine Greek and  Latin realms. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople and  re-establishment of the Empire in 1261, Byzantium remained only one of a number of small rival states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. This volatile period lead to its  progressive annexation by the Ottomans  over the 15th century and the  Fall of Constantinople  in 1453.

Early history    

The  Roman army  succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in  southwestern Europe  and north Africa. These territories were home to many different cultural groups, ranging from primitive to highly sophisticated. Generally speaking, the eastern Mediterranean provinces were more urbanised than the western, having previously been united under the  Macedonian Empire  and  Hellenisedby the influence of Greek culture.

The west also suffered more heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD. This distinction between the established Hellenised East and the younger Latinised West persisted and became increasingly important in later centuries, leading to a gradual estrangement of the two worlds.

Divisions of the Roman Empire

In order to maintain control and improve administration, various schemes to divide the work of the Roman Emperor by sharing it between individuals were tried between 285 and 324, from 337 to 350, from 364 to 392, and again between 395 and 480. Although the administrative subdivisions varied, they generally involved a division of labour between East and West. Each division was a form of power-sharing (or even job-sharing), for the ultimateimperium   was not divisible and therefore the empire remained legally one state—although the co-emperors often saw each other as rivals or enemies rather than partners.

In 293, emperor  Diocletian  created a new administrative system (the  tetrarchy), in order to guarantee security in all endangered regions of his Empire. He associated himself with a co-emperor (Augustus ), and each co-emperor then adopted a young colleague given the title of  Caesar , to share in their rule and eventually to succeed the senior partner. The tetrarchy collapsed, however, in 313 and a few years later Constantine I reunited the two administrative divisions of the Empire as sole Augustus.

Loss of the western Roman Empire

After the fall of Attila, the Eastern Empire enjoyed a period of peace, while the Western Empire deteriorated in continuing migration and expansion byGermanic nations  (its end is usually dated in 476 when the Germanic Roman general  Odoacer  deposed the titular Western Emperor  Romulus Augustulus). In 480 Emperor  Zeno  abolished the division of the Empire making himself sole Emperor. Odoacer, now ruler of Italy, was nominally Zeno's subordinate but acted with complete autonomy, eventually providing support of a rebellion against the Emperor.

Zeno negotiated with the conquering  Ostrogoths, who had settled in  Moesia, convincing the Gothic king  Theodoric  to depart for Italy as  magister militum per Italiam   ("commander in chief for Italy") with the aim to depose Odoacer. By urging Theodoric into conquering Italy, Zeno rid the Eastern Empire of an unruly subordinate (Odoacer) and moved another (Theodoric) further from the heart of the Empire. After Odoacer's defeat in 493, Theodoric ruled Italy on his own, although he was never recognised by the eastern emperors as "king" (rex ).

In 491,  Anastasius I, an aged civil officer of Roman origin, became Emperor, but it was not until 497 that the forces of the new emperor effectively took the measure of  Isaurian resistance.[29]Anastasius revealed himself as an energetic reformer and an able administrator. He perfected Constantine I's coinage system by definitively setting the weight of the copper  follis , the coin used in most everyday transactions.[30]  He also reformed the tax system and permanently abolished the  chrysargyron  tax. The State Treasury contained the enormous sum of 320,000 lb (150,000 kg) of gold when Anastasius died in 518.

Reconquest of the western provinces Justinian I   depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the  Basilica of San VitaleRavenna.

Justinian I , the son of an  Illyrian  peasant, may already have exerted effective control during the reign of his uncle,  Justin I  (518–527).  He assumed the throne in 527, and oversaw a period of recovery of former territories. In 532, attempting to secure his eastern frontier, he signed a peace treaty with  Khosrau I of Persia  agreeing to pay a large annual tribute to the  Sassanids. In the same year, he survived a revolt in Constantinople (the  Nika riots), which solidified his power but ended with the deaths of a reported 30,000 to 35,000 rioters on his orders.

In 529, a ten-man commission chaired by  John the Cappadocian  revised the Roman law and created a new  codification   of laws and jurists' extracts. In 534, the  Code   was updated and, along with the  enactements promulgated by Justinian after 534, it formed the system of law used for most of the rest of the Byzantine era.

The western conquests began in 533, as Justinian sent his general  Belisarius  to reclaim the former province of  Africa  from the  Vandals  who had been in control since 429 with their capital at Carthage.  Their success came with surprising ease, but it was not until 548 that the major local tribes were subdued.  In  Ostrogothic Italy, the deaths of Theodoric, his nephew and heir  Athalaric, and his daughter  Amalasuntha  had left her murderer,Theodahad  (r. 534–536), on the throne despite his weakened authority.

Heraclian dynasty   The Byzantine Empire in 650 - by this year it lost all of its southern provinces except the  Exarchate of Africa.

After Maurice's murder by  Phocas, Khosrau used the pretext to reconquer the  Roman province of Mesopotamia.Phocas, an unpopular ruler invariably described in Byzantine sources as a "tyrant", was the target of a number of Senate-led plots. He was eventually deposed in 610 by Heraclius, who sailed to Constantinople from  Carthage  with an icon affixed to the prow of his ship.

Following the ascension of Heraclius, the Sassanid advance pushed deep into Asia Minor, occupying  Damascus  andJerusalem  and removing the  True Cross  to  Ctesiphon.  The counter-attack launched by Heraclius took on the character of a holy war, and an  acheiropoietos  image of Christ was carried as a military standard  (similarly, when Constantinople was saved from an Avar siege in 626, the victory was attributed to the icons of the Virgin that were led in procession byPatriarch Sergius  about the walls of the city).

The main Sassanid force was destroyed at  Nineveh  in 627, and in 629 Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in a majestic ceremony.  The war had exhausted both the Byzantines and Sassanids, however, and left them extremely vulnerable to the  Muslim forces  that emerged in the following years.  The Byzantines suffered a crushing defeat by the Arabs at the  Battle of Yarmouk  in 636, while Ctesiphon fell in 634.

Siege of Constantinople (674–678)

The Arabs, now firmly in  control of Syria and the Levant, sent frequent raiding parties deep into Asia Minor, and in  674–678 laid siege to Constantinople  itself. The Arab fleet was finally repulsed through the use of  Greek fire, and a thirty-years' truce was signed between the Empire and the  Umayyad Caliphate.  However, the  Anatolian  raids continued unabated, and accelerated the demise of classical urban culture, with the inhabitants of many cities either refortifying much smaller areas within the old city walls, or relocating entirely to nearby fortresses.  Constantinople itself dropped substantially in size, from 500,000 inhabitants to just 40,000–70,000, and, like other urban centres, it was partly ruralised. The city also lost the free grain shipments in 618, after Egypt fell first to the Persians and then to the Arabs, and public wheat distribution ceased.

The void left by the disappearance of the old semi-autonomous civic institutions was filled by the theme system, which entailed dividing Asia Minor into "provinces" occupied by distinct armies that assumed civil authority and answered directly to the imperial administration. This system may have had its roots in certain  ad hoc   measures taken by Heraclius, but over the course of the 7th century it developed into an entirely new system of imperial governance.[59]  The massive cultural and institutional restructuring of the Empire consequent on the loss of territory in the 7th century has been said to have caused a decisive break in east Mediterranean  Romanness   and that the Byzantine state is subsequently best understood as another successor state rather than a real continuation of the Roman Empire.

The Greek fire was first used by the  Byzantine Navy  during the Byzantine-Arab Wars (from theMadrid SkylitzesBiblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid).

Isaurian dynasty to the ascension of Basil I

Leo III the Isaurian   turned back the Muslim assault in 718 and addressed himself to the task of reorganising and consolidating the themes in Asia Minor. His successor,  Constantine V, won noteworthy victories in northern Syria and thoroughly undermined Bulgarian strength.

Taking advantage of the Empire's weakness after the  Revolt of Thomas the Slav  in the early 820s, the Arabs reemerged andcaptured Crete. They also successfully attacked Sicily, but in 863 general  Petronas  gained a  huge victory  against  Umar al-Aqta, the  emir  of  Melitene. Under the leadership of emperor  Krum, the Bulgarian threat also reemerged, but in 815–816 Krum's son,  Omurtag, signed a  peace treaty  with  Leo V.

Macedonian dynasty and resurgence (867–1025)   The Byzantine Empire, c. 867.

The accession of  Basil I  to the throne in 867 marks the beginning of the  Macedonian dynasty, which would rule for the next two and a half centuries. This dynasty included some of the most able emperors in Byzantium's history, and the period is one of revival and resurgence. The Empire moved from defending against external enemies to reconquest of territories formerly lost.[70]

In addition to a reassertion of Byzantine military power and political authority, the period under the Macedonian dynasty is characterised by a cultural revival in spheres such as philosophy and the arts. There was a conscious effort to restore the brilliance of the period before the  Slavic  and subsequent  Arab invasions, and the Macedonian era has been dubbed the "Golden Age" of Byzantium.  Though the Empire was significantly smaller than during the reign of Justinian, it had regained significant strength, as the remaining territories were less geographically dispersed and more politically, economically, and culturally integrated.

Wars against the Arabs The general  Leo Phokas  defeats the Arabs atAndrassos  in 960, from the  Madrid Skylitzes .

In the early years of Basil I's reign, Arab raids on the coasts of Dalmatia were successfully repelled, and the region once again came under secure Byzantine control. This enabled Byzantine missionaries to penetrate to the interior and convert the Serbs and the principalities of modern-dayHerzegovina  and  Montenegro  to Orthodox Christianity.  An attempt to retake  Malta  ended disastrously, however, when the local population sided with the Arabs and massacred the Byzantine garrison.

By contrast, the Byzantine position in  Southern Italy  was gradually consolidated so that by 873  Bari  had once again come under Byzantine rule,and most of Southern Italy would remain in the Empire for the next 200 years.On the more important eastern front, the Empire rebuilt its defences and went on the offensive. The  Paulicians  were defeated and their capital of Tephrike (Divrigi) taken, while the offensive against the  Abbasid Caliphatebegan with the recapture of  Samosata.

The military successes of the 10th century were coupled with a major cultural revival, the so-called  Macedonian Renaissance. Miniature from the  Paris Psalter, an example of Hellenistic-influenced art.

Under Michael's son and successor,  Leo VI the Wise, the gains in the east against the now weak Abbasid Caliphate continued. However, Sicily was lost to the Arabs in 902, and in 904  Thessaloniki, the Empire's second city, was sacked by an Arab fleet. The weakness of the Empire in the naval sphere was quickly rectified, so that a few years later a Byzantine fleet had re-occupied  Cyprus, lost in the 7th century, and also stormed  Laodicea  in Syria. Despite this revenge, the Byzantines were still unable to strike a decisive blow against the Muslims, who inflicted a crushing defeat on the imperial forces when they attempted to regain  Crete  in 911.

Wars against the Bulgarian Empire Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025).

The traditional struggle with the  See of Rome  continued through the Macedonian period, spurred by the question of religious supremacy over the newly Christianised state of Bulgaria.  Ending eighty years of peace between the two states, the powerful Bulgarian tsar Simeon I invaded in 894 but was pushed back by the Byzantines, who used their fleet to sail up the  Black Sea  to attack the Bulgarian rear, enlisting the support of theHungarians.  The Byzantines were defeated at the  Battle of Boulgarophygon  in 896, however, and agreed to pay annual subsidies to the Bulgarians.

Leo the Wise died in 912, and hostilities soon resumed as Simeon marched to Constantinople at the head of a large army.  Though the walls of the city were impregnable, the Byzantine administration was in disarray and Simeon was invited into the city, where he was granted the crown ofbasileus   (emperor) of Bulgaria and had the young emperor  Constantine VII  marry one of his daughters. When a revolt in Constantinople halted his dynastic project, he again invaded Thrace and conquered  Adrianople.  The Empire now faced the problem of a powerful Christian state within a few days' marching distance from Constantinople,  as well as having to fight on two fronts.

A great imperial expedition under  Leo Phocas  and  Romanos I Lekapenos  ended with another crushing Byzantine defeat at the  Battle of Achelous  in 917, and the following year the Bulgarians were free to ravage northern Greece. Adrianople was plundered again in 923, and a Bulgarian army laid siege to Constantinople in 924. Simeon died suddenly in 927, however, and Bulgarian power collapsed with him. Bulgaria and Byzantium entered a long period of peaceful relations, and the Empire was now free to concentrate on the eastern front against the Muslims.  In 968, Bulgaria was overrun by the  Rus'  under  Sviatoslav I of Kiev, but three years later, John I Tzimiskes  defeated  the Rus' and re-incorporated Eastern Bulgaria into the Byzantine Empire.

The extent of the Empire under  Basil II.

Bulgarian resistance revived under the rule of the  Cometopuli dynasty, but the new emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025) made the submission of the Bulgarians his primary goal.  Basil's first expedition against Bulgaria, however, resulted in a humiliating defeat at the  Gates of Trajan. For the next few years, the emperor would be preoccupied with internal revolts in Anatolia, while the Bulgarians expanded their realm in the Balkans. The war dragged on for nearly twenty years. The Byzantine victories of  Spercheios  and  Skopje  decisively weakened the Bulgarian army, and in annual campaigns, Basil methodically reduced the Bulgarian strongholds.[84]  At the  Battle of Kleidion  in 1014 the Bulgarians were annihilated: their army was captured, and it is said that 99 out of every 100 men were blinded, with the hundredth man left with one eye so he could lead his compatriots home. When Tsar  Samuil  saw the broken remains of his once gallant army, he died of shock. By 1018, the last Bulgarian strongholds had surrendered, and the country became part of the Empire.[84]  This victory restored the Danube frontier, which had not been held since the days of the emperor Heraclius.

Relations with the Kievan Rus' Rus'   under the walls of Constantinople (860).

Between 850 and 1100, the Empire developed a mixed relationship with the new state of the  Kievan Rus', which had emerged to the north across the Black Sea.[85]  This relationship would have long-lasting repercussions in the history of the  East Slavs, and the Empire quickly became the main  tradingand cultural partner for Kiev. The Rus' launched their first attack against Constantinople  in 860, pillaging the suburbs of the city. In 941,  they appeared on the Asian shore  of the Bosphorus, but this time they were crushed, an indication of the improvements in the Byzantine military position after 907, whenonly diplomacy had been able to push back the invaders. Basil II could not ignore the emerging power of the Rus', and, following the example of his predecessors, he used religion as a means for the achievement of political purposes.  Rus'–Byzantine relations became closer following the marriage of the  Anna Porphyrogeneta  to  Vladimir the Great  in 988, and the subsequent  Christianisation of the Rus'.  Byzantine priests, architects, and artists were invited to work on numerous cathedrals and churches around Rus', expanding Byzantine cultural influence even further, while numerous Rus' served in the Byzantine army as mercenaries, most notably as the famous  Varangian Guard.

Even after the Christianisation of the Rus', however, relations were not always friendly. The most serious conflict between the two powers was the war of 968–971 in Bulgaria, but several Rus' raiding expeditions against the Byzantine cities of the Black Sea coast and Constantinople itself are also recorded. Although most were repulsed, they were often followed by treaties that were generally favourable to the Rus', such as the one concluded at the end of  the war of 1043, during which the Rus' gave an indication of their ambitions to compete with the Byzantines as an independent power.

Apex Constantinople became the largest and wealthiest city in Europe between the 9th and 11th centuries.

By 1025, the date of Basil II's death, the Byzantine Empire stretched from  Armenia  in the east to  Calabria  in Southern Italy in the west.  Many successes had been achieved, ranging from the conquest of Bulgaria to the annexation of parts of  Georgia  and Armenia, and the reconquest of Crete, Cyprus, and the important city of Antioch. These were not temporary tactical gains but long-term reconquests.

Leo VI achieved the complete codification of Byzantine law in Greek. This monumental work of 60 volumes became the foundation of all subsequent Byzantine law and is still studied today.  Leo also reformed the administration of the Empire, redrawing the borders of the administrative subdivisions (the  Themata , or "Themes") and tidying up the system of ranks and privileges, as well as regulating the behavior of the various trade guilds in Constantinople. Leo's reform did much to reduce the previous fragmentation of the Empire, which henceforth had one center of power, Constantinople.  However, the increasing military success of the Empire greatly enriched and empowered the provincial nobility with respect to the peasantry, who were essentially reduced to a state of serfdom.

Under the Macedonian emperors, the city of Constantinople flourished, becoming the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, with a population of approximately 400,000 in the 9th and 10th centuries.  During this period, the Byzantine Empire employed a strong civil service staffed by competent aristocrats that oversaw the collection of taxes, domestic administration, and foreign policy. The Macedonian emperors also increased the Empire's wealth by fostering trade with Western Europe, particularly through the sale of silk and metalwork.

Split between Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism (1054) Mural of  Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century,  Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria.

The Macedonian period also included events of momentous religious significance. The conversion of the Bulgarians, Serbs and  Rus'  to Orthodox Christianity permanently changed the religious map of Europe and still resonates today.  Cyril and Methodius, two  Byzantine Greek  brothers from Thessaloniki, contributed significantly to the  Christianization of the Slavs  and in the process devised the  Glagolitic alphabet, ancestor to the  Cyrillic script.

In 1054, relations between the Eastern and Western traditions within the Christian Church reached a terminal crisis, known as the  Great Schism. Although there was a formal declaration of institutional separation, on July 16, when three papal legates entered the Hagia Sophia during Divine Liturgy on a Saturday afternoon and placed a bull of excommunication on the altar,  the so-called Great Schism was actually the culmination of centuries of gradual separation.

Crisis and fragmentation

The Empire soon fell into a period of difficulties, caused to a large extent by the undermining of the theme system and the neglect of the military.  Nikephoros II Phokas  (reigned 963–969), John Tzimiskes and Basil II changed the military divisions (τάγματα ,  tagmata ) from a rapid response, primarily defensive, citizen army into a professional, campaigning army increasingly manned by mercenaries.  Mercenaries, however, were expensive and as the threat of invasion receded in the 10th century, so did the need for maintaining large garrisons and expensive fortifications.[95]

Basil II left a burgeoning treasury upon his death, but neglected to plan for his succession. None of his immediate successors had any particular military or political skill and the administration of the Empire increasingly fell into the hands of the civil service. Efforts to revive the Byzantine economy only resulted in inflation and a debased gold coinage. The army was now seen as both an unnecessary expense and a political threat. Therefore, native troops were cashiered and replaced by foreign mercenaries on specific contract.

Komnenian dynasty and the crusaders Alexios I , founder of the  Komnenos dynasty.

The period from about 1081 to about 1185 is often known as the Komnenian or Comnenian period, after the  Komnenos dynasty. Together, the five Komnenian emperors (Alexios I, John II, Manuel I, Alexios II and Andronikos I) ruled for 104 years, presiding over a sustained, though ultimately incomplete, restoration of the military, territorial, economic and political position of the Byzantine Empire.  Though the Seljuk Turks occupied the Empire's heartland in Anatolia, it was against Western powers that most Byzantine military efforts were directed, particularly the Normans.

The Empire under the Komnenoi played a key role in the history of the Crusades in the Holy Land, which Alexios I had helped bring about, while also exerting enormous cultural and political influence in Europe, the Near East, and the lands around the Mediterranean Sea under John and Manuel. Contact between Byzantium and the "Latin" West, including the Crusader states, increased significantly during the Komnenian period. Venetian and other Italian traders became resident in Constantinople and the empire in large numbers (there were an estimated 60,000 Latins in Constantinople alone, out of a population of three to four hundred thousand), and their presence together with the numerous Latin mercenaries who were employed by Manuel helped to spread Byzantine technology, art, literature and culture throughout the Latin West, while also leading to a flow of Western ideas and customs into the Empire.

In terms of prosperity and cultural life, the Komnenian period was one of the peaks in Byzantine history,  and Constantinople remained the leading city of the Christian world in terms of size, wealth, and culture.  There was a renewed interest in classical Greek philosophy, as well as an increase in literary output in vernacular Greek.  Byzantine art and literature held a pre-eminent place in Europe, and the cultural impact of Byzantine art on the west during this period was enormous and of long lasting significance.

Alexios I and the First Crusade

After Manzikert, a partial recovery (referred to as the Komnenian restoration) was made possible by the efforts of the Komnenian dynasty.  The first emperor of this dynasty was  Isaac I  (1057–1059) and the second Alexios I. At the very outset of his reign, Alexios faced a formidable attack by the Normans under Robert Guiscard and his son  Bohemund of Taranto, who captured  Dyrrhachium  and  Corfu, and laid siege to  Larissa  in  Thessaly. Robert Guiscard's death in 1085 temporarily eased the Norman problem. The following year, the Seljuq sultan died, and the sultanate was split by internal rivalries. By his own efforts, Alexios defeated the  Pechenegs; they were caught by surprise and annihilated at the  Battle of Levounion  on 28 April 1091.

   

Having achieved stability in the West, Alexios could turn his attention to the severe economic difficulties and the disintegration of the Empire's traditional defences.  However, he still did not have enough manpower to recover the lost territories in Asia Minor and to advance against the Seljuks. At the  Council of Piacenza  in 1095, Alexios' envoys spoke toPope Urban II  about the suffering of the Christians of the East, and underscored that without help from the West they would continue to suffer under Muslim rule.

Urban saw Alexios' request as a dual opportunity to cement Western Europe and reunite the  Eastern Orthodox Churcheswith the  Roman Catholic Church  under his rule.  On 27 November 1095, Pope Urban II called together the  Council of Clermont, and urged all those present to take up arms under the sign of the  Cross  and launch an armed  pilgrimage  to recover Jerusalem and the East from the Muslims. The response in Western Europe was overwhelming.

John II, Manuel I and the Second Crusade Medieval manuscript depicting the  Capture of Jerusalem  during the First Crusade.

Alexios's son  John II Komnenos  succeeded him in 1118, and ruled until 1143. John was a pious and dedicated Emperor who was determined to undo the damage his empire had suffered at the Battle of Manzikert, half a century earlier.[114]  Famed for his piety and his remarkably mild and just reign, John was an exceptional example of a moral ruler, at a time when cruelty was the norm.[115]  For this reason, he has been called the ByzantineMarcus Aurelius.

In the course of his twenty-five year reign, John made alliances with the  Holy Roman Empire  in the West, decisively defeated the Pechenegs at theBattle of Beroia,  and personally led numerous campaigns against the  Turks  in Asia Minor. John's campaigns fundamentally changed the balance of power in the East, forcing the Turks onto the defensive and restoring to the Byzantines many towns, fortresses and cities right across the peninsula.  He also thwarted Hungarian, and Serbian threats during the 1120s, and in 1130 allied himself with the  German emperor  Lothair IIIagainst the Norman king  Roger II of Sicily.

In the later part of his reign, John focused his activities on the East. He defeated the  Danishmend  emirate of  Melitene, and reconquered all of  Cilicia, while forcing  Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch, to recognise Byzantine suzerainty. In an effort to demonstrate the Emperor's role as the leader of the Christian world, John marched into the  Holy Land  at the head of the combined forces of the Empire and the  Crusader states; yet despite the great vigour with which he pressed the campaign, John's hopes were disappointed by the treachery of his Crusader allies.  In 1142, John returned to press his claims to Antioch, but he died in the spring of 1143 following a hunting accident. Raymond was emboldened to invade Cilicia, but he was defeated and forced to go to Constantinople to beg mercy from the new Emperor.

12th-century Renaissance 'The Lamentation of Christ' (1164), a fresco from the  church of Saint Panteleimon  in Nerezi near Skopje. It is considered a superb example of 12th century  Komnenian  art.

John and Manuel pursued active military policies, and both deployed considerable resources on sieges and on city defences; aggressive fortification policies were at the heart of their imperial military policies.  Despite the defeat at Myriokephalon, the policies of Alexios, John and Manuel resulted in vast territorial gains, increased frontier stability in Asia Minor, and secured the stabilisation of the Empire's European frontiers. From circa 1081 to circa 1180, the Komnenian army assured the Empire's security, enabling Byzantine civilisation to flourish.

This allowed the Western provinces to achieve an economic revival that continued until the close of the century. It has been argued that Byzantium under the Komnenian rule was more prosperous than at any time since the Persian invasions of the 7th century. During the 12th century, population levels rose and extensive tracts of new agricultural land were brought into production. Archaeological evidence from both Europe and Asia Minor shows a considerable increase in the size of urban settlements, together with a notable upsurge in new towns. Trade was also flourishing; the Venetians, the  Genoese  and others opened up the ports of the Aegean to commerce, shipping goods from the Crusader kingdoms of  Outremer  and Fatimid Egypt to the west and trading with the Empire via Constantinople.

In artistic terms, there was a revival in  mosaic, and regional schools of architecture began producing many distinctive styles that drew on a range of cultural influences.  During the 12th century, the Byzantines provided their model of early  humanism  as a renaissance of interest in classical authors. In  Eustathius of Thessalonica, Byzantine humanism found its most characteristic expression.  In philosophy, there was resurgence of classical learning not seen since the 7th century, characterised by a significant increase in the publication of commentaries on classical works.In addition, it is during the Komnenian period that there occurs the first transmission of classical Greek knowledge towards the West.

Decline and disintegration

Dynasty of the Angeloi

Manuel's death on 24 September 1180 left his 11-year-old son  Alexios II Komnenos  on the throne. Alexios was highly incompetent at the office, but it was his mother,  Maria of Antioch, and her Frankish background that made his regency unpopular.[131]  Eventually,  Andronikos I Komnenos, a grandson of Alexios I, launched a revolt against his younger relative and managed to overthrow him in a violent  coup d'état .

Utilizing his good looks and his immense popularity with the army, he marched on to Constantinople in August 1182,  and incited a massacre of the Latins.  After eliminating his potential rivals, he had himself crowned as co-emperor in September 1183. He eliminated Alexios II, and took his 12-year-old wife  Agnes of France  for himself.

Iconium   was won by the Third Crusade.

Andronikos began his reign well; in particular, the measures he took to reform the government of the Empire have been praised by historians. According to  George Ostrogorsky, Andronikos was determined to root out corruption: Under his rule, the sale of offices ceased; selection was based on merit, rather than favouritism; officials were paid an adequate salary so as to reduce the temptation of bribery. In the provinces, Andronikos's reforms produced a speedy and marked improvement.

The aristocrats were infuriated against him, and to make matters worse, Andronikos seems to have become increasingly unbalanced; executions and violence became increasingly common, and his reign turned into a reign of terror.  Andronikos seemed almost to seek the extermination of the aristocracy as a whole. The struggle against the aristocracy turned into wholesale slaughter, while the Emperor resorted to ever more ruthless measures to shore up his regime.

Despite his military background, Andronikos failed to deal with  Isaac KomnenosBéla III of Hungary  (r. 1172–1196) who reincorporated Croatian territories into Hungary, and  Stephen Nemanja of Serbia  (r. 1166–1196) who declared his independence from the Byzantine Empire. Yet, none of these troubles would compare to  William II of Sicily's (r. 1166–1189) invasion force of 300 ships and 80,000 men, arriving in 1185.  Andronikos mobilised a small fleet of 100 ships to defend the capital but other than that he was indifferent to the populace. He was finally overthrown when  Isaac Angelos, surviving an imperial assassination attempt, seized power with the aid of the people and had Andronikos killed.

The reign of Isaac II, and, still more, that of his brother  Alexios III, saw the collapse of what remained of the centralised machinery of Byzantine government and defence. Although, the Normans were driven out of Greece, in 1186 the  Vlachs  and Bulgars began a rebellion that led to the formation of the  Second Bulgarian Empire. The internal policy of the Angeloi was characterised by the squandering of the public treasure, and fiscal maladministration. Imperial authority was severely weakened, and the growing power vacuum at the center of the Empire encouraged fragmentation. There is evidence that some Komnenian heirs had set up a semi-independent state in  Trebizond  before 1204.  According to  Alexander Vasiliev, "the dynasty of the Angeloi, Greek in its origin, ... accelerated the ruin of the Empire, already weakened without and disunited within."

Fourth Crusade The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople , by  Eugène Delacroix  (1840).

In 1198,  Pope Innocent III  broached the subject of a new crusade through  legates  and  encyclical letters.The stated intent of the crusade was to conquer  Egypt, now the centre of Muslim power in the  Levant. The crusader army that arrived at  Venice  in the summer of 1202 was somewhat smaller than had been anticipated, and there were not sufficient funds to pay the Venetians, whose fleet was hired by the crusaders to take them to Egypt. Venetian policy under the ageing and blind but still ambitious  Doge  Enrico Dandolo  was potentially at variance with that of the Pope and the crusaders, because Venice was closely related commercially with Egypt.

The crusaders accepted the suggestion that in lieu of payment they assist the Venetians in the capture of the (Christian) port of  Zara  in Dalmatia (vassal city of Venice, which had rebelled and placed itself under Hungary's protection in 1186).  The city fell in November 1202 after a briefsiege.  Innocent, who was informed of the plan but his veto disregarded, was reluctant to jeopardise the Crusade, and gave conditional absolution to the crusaders—not, however, to the Venetians.

Map to show the partition of the empire following the  Fourth Crusade, c. 1204.

After the death of  Theobald III, Count of Champagne, the leadership of the Crusade passed to  Boniface of Montferrat, a friend of the  HohenstaufenPhilip of Swabia. Both Boniface and Philip had married into the Byzantine Imperial family. In fact, Philip's brother-in-law,  Alexios Angelos, son of the deposed and blinded Emperor Isaac II Angelos, had appeared in Europe seeking aid and had made contacts with the crusaders.Alexios offered to reunite the Byzantine church with Rome, pay the crusaders 200,000 silver marks, join the crusade and provide all the supplies they needed to get to Egypt.  Innocent was aware of a plan to divert the Crusade to Constantinople and forbade any attack on the city, but the papal letter arrived after the fleets had left Zara.

Crusader sack of Constantinople (1204)

The crusaders arrived at the city in the summer of 1203 and quickly attacked, started a major fire that damaged large parts of the city, and seized control of it (first of two times). Alexios III fled from the capital, and Alexios Angelos was elevated to the throne as Alexios IV along with his blind father Isaac. However, Alexios IV and Isaac II were unable to keep their promises and were deposed by Alexios V. Eventually, the crusaders took the city a second time on 13 April 1204 and Constantinople was subjected to pillage and massacre by the rank and file for three days.

Many priceless icons, relics, and other objects later turned up in Western Europe, a large number in Venice. According to Choniates, a prostitute was even set up on the Patriarchal throne.[144]  When Innocent III heard of the conduct of his crusaders, he castigated them in no uncertain terms. But the situation was beyond his control, especially after his legate, on his own initiative, had absolved the crusaders from their vow to proceed to the Holy Land.

When order had been restored, the crusaders and the Venetians proceeded to implement their agreement;  Baldwin of Flanders  was elected  Emperor  and the Venetian  Thomas Morosini  chosen as Patriarch. The lands divided up among the leaders included most of the former Byzantine possessions, however resistance would continue through the Byzantine remnants of the  NicaeaTrebizond, and  Epirus.

Fall

Empire in exile

After the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by Latin crusaders, two Byzantine successor states were established: the Empire of Nicaea, and the Despotate of Epirus. A third one, the Empire of Trebizond was created a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople by  Alexios I of Trebizond. Of these three successor states, Epirus and Nicaea stood the best chance of reclaiming Constantinople. The Nicaean Empire struggled, however, to survive the next few decades, and by the mid-13th century it lost much of southern Anatolia.

The weakening of the  Sultanate of Rûm  following the  Mongol Invasion in 1242–43  allowed many  beyliks  and  ghazis  to set up their own principalities in Anatolia, weakening the Byzantine hold on Asia Minor.  In time, one of the Beys,  Osman I, created an empire that would eventually conquer Constantinople. However, the Mongol Invasion also gave Nicaea a temporary respite from Seljuk attacks allowing it to concentrate on the Latin Empire only north of its position.

Reconquest of Constantinople The Byzantine Empire c. 1263.

The Empire of Nicaea, founded by the  Laskarid dynasty, managed to  reclaim Constantinople  from the Latins in 1261 and defeat Epirus. This led to a short-lived revival of Byzantine fortunes under  Michael VIII Palaiologos, but the war-ravaged Empire was ill-equipped to deal with the enemies that now surrounded it. To maintain his campaigns against the Latins, Michael pulled troops from Asia Minor, and levied crippling taxes on the peasantry, causing much resentment.  Massive construction projects were completed in Constantinople to repair the damages of the Fourth Crusade, but none of these initiatives was of any comfort to the farmers in Asia Minor, suffering raids from Muslim ghazis.

Rather than holding on to his possessions in Asia Minor, Michael chose to expand the Empire, gaining only short-term success. To avoid another sacking of the capital by the Latins, he forced the Church to submit to Rome, again a temporary solution for which the peasantry hated Michael and Constantinople.  The efforts of  Andronikos II  and later his grandsonAndronikos III  marked Byzantium's last genuine attempts in restoring the glory of the Empire. However, the use of mercenaries by Andronikos II would often backfire, with the  Catalan Company  ravaging the countryside and increasing resentment towards Constantinople.

Rise of the Ottomans and fall of Constantinople The  siege of Constantinople  in 1453 according to a 15th-century French miniature.

Things went worse for Byzantium during the civil wars that followed after Andronikos III died. A  six-year long civil war  devastated the empire, allowing the Serbian ruler  Stefan IV Dushan  (r. 1331–1346) to overrun most of the Empire's remaining territory and establish a short-lived "Serbian Empire". In 1354, an earthquake at  Gallipoli  devastated the fort, allowing the  Ottomans  (who were hired as mercenaries during the civil war by  John VI Kantakouzenos) to establish themselves in Europe.  By the time the Byzantine civil wars had ended, the Ottomans had defeated the Serbians and subjugated them as vassals. Following the  Battle of Kosovo, much of the Balkans became dominated by the Ottomans.[151]

   

The Byzantine emperors appealed to the West for help, but the Pope would only consider sending aid in return for a reunion of the Eastern Orthodox Church with the See of Rome. Church unity was considered, and occasionally accomplished by imperial decree, but the Orthodox citizenry and clergy intensely resented the authority of Rome and the  Latin Rite.[152]  Some Western troops arrived to bolster the Christian defence of Constantinople, but most Western rulers, distracted by their own affairs, did nothing as the Ottomans picked apart the remaining Byzantine territories.[153]

Constantinople by this stage was underpopulated and dilapidated. The population of the city had collapsed so severely that it was now little more than a cluster of villages separated by fields. On 2 April 1453,  Sultan Mehmed's army of some 80,000 men and large numbers of irregulars laid siege to the city.[154]

Despite a desperate last-ditch defence of the city by the massively outnumbered Christian forces (c. 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom were foreign),[153]Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans after a two-month siege on 29 May 1453. The last Byzantine Emperor,  Constantine XI Palaiologos, was last seen casting off his imperial regalia and throwing himself into hand-to-hand combat after the walls of the city were taken.[155]

Culture

Economy

The Byzantine economy was among the most advanced in  Europe  and the  Mediterranean  for many centuries. Europe, in particular, was unable to match Byzantine economic strength until late in the  Middle AgesConstantinople  was a prime hub in a trading network that at various times extended across nearly all of  Eurasia  andNorth Africa, in particular being the primary western terminus of the famous  Silk Road. Until the first half of the 6th century and in sharp contrast with the decaying West, Byzantine economy was flourishing and resilient.

The  Plague of Justinian  and the  Arab conquests  would represent a substantial reversal of fortunes contributing to a period of stagnation and  decline. Isaurian reforms and, in particular,  Constantine V's repopulation, public works and tax measures, marked the beginning of a revival that continued until 1204, despite territorial contraction.[160]  From the 10th century until the end of the 12th, the Byzantine Empire projected an image of luxury and travellers were impressed by the wealth accumulated in the capital.[161]

The  Fourth Crusade  resulted in the disruption of Byzantine manufacturing and the commercial dominance of the Western Europeans in the  eastern Mediterranean, events that amounted to an economic catastrophe for the Empire.  The  Palaiologoi  tried to revive the economy, but the late Byzantine state would not gain full control of either the foreign or domestic economic forces. Gradually, it also lost its influence on the modalities of trade and the price mechanisms, and its control over the outflow of precious metals and, according to some scholars, even over the minting of coins.

One of the economic foundations of Byzantium was trade, fostered by the maritime character of the Empire. Textiles must have been by far the most important item of export; silks were certainly imported into Egypt, and appeared also in Bulgaria, and the West.  The state strictly controlled both the internal and the international trade, and retained the monopoly of issuing  coinage, maintaining a durable and flexible monetary system adaptable to trade needs.

The government exercised formal control over interest rates, and set the parameters for the activity of the  guilds  and corporations, in which it had a special interest. The emperor and his officials intervened at times of crisis to ensure the provisioning of the capital, and to keep down the price of cereals. Finally, the government often collected part of the surplus through taxation, and put it back into circulation, through redistribution in the form of salaries to state officials, or in the form of investment in public works.

Science, medicine, law The frontispiece of the  Vienna Dioscurides, which shows a set of seven famous physicians.

The writings of  Classical antiquity  never ceased to be cultivated in Byzantium. Therefore, Byzantine science was in every period closely connected with  ancient philosophy, and  metaphysics.  Although at various times the Byzantines made magnificent achievements in the application of thesciences  (notably in the construction of the  Hagia Sophia), after the 6th century Byzantine scholars made few novel contributions to science in terms of developing new theories or extending the ideas of classical authors.

Scholarship particularly lagged during the dark years of  plague  and the Arab conquests, but then during the so-called  Byzantine Renaissance   at the end of the first millennium Byzantine scholars re-asserted themselves becoming experts in the scientific developments of the Arabs and Persians, particularly in  astronomy  and  mathematics.  The Byzantines are also credited with  several technological advancements, particularly in architecture (e.g. the pendentive dome) and warfare technology (e.g.  Greek fire).

In the final century of the Empire, Byzantine grammarians were those principally responsible for carrying, in person and in writing, ancient Greek grammatical and literary studies to early  Renaissance Italy.  During this period,  astronomy  and other  mathematical sciences  were taught in Trebizond; medicine attracted the interest of almost all scholars.

In the field of law,  Justinian I's reforms had a clear effect on the evolution of  jurisprudence, and Leo III's  Ecloga   influenced the formation of legal institutions in the Slavic world.  In the 10th century,  Leo VI the Wise  achieved the complete codification of the whole of Byzantine law in Greek, which became the foundation of all subsequent Byzantine law, generating interest to the present day.

Religion    

The survival of the Empire in the East assured an active role of the Emperor in the affairs of the Church. The Byzantine state inherited from pagan times the administrative, and financial routine of administering religious affairs, and this routine was applied to the  Christian Church. Following the pattern set by  Eusebius of Caesarea, the Byzantines viewed the Emperor as a representative or messenger of  Christ, responsible particularly for the propagation of Christianity among pagans, and for the "externals" of the religion, such as administration and finances. As  Cyril Mango  points out, the Byzantine political thinking can be summarised in the motto "One God, one empire, one religion".

The imperial role in the affairs of the Church never developed into a fixed, legally defined system.  With the decline of Rome, and internal dissension in the other Eastern Patriarchates, the Church of Constantinople became, between the 6th and 11th centuries, the richest and most influential center of  Christendom.  Even when the Empire was reduced to only a shadow of its former self, the Church continued to exercise significant influence both inside and outside of the imperial frontiers. As  George Ostrogorsky  points out:

The  Patriarchate of Constantinople  remained the center of the Orthodox world, with subordinate  metropolitan sees  and archbishoprics in the territory of Asia Minor and the Balkans, now lost to Byzantium, as well as in  Caucasus, Russia and  Lithuania. The Church remained the most stable element in the Byzantine Empire.

The official state Christian doctrine was determined by the  first seven ecumenical councils, and it was then the emperor's duty to impose it to his subjects. An imperial decree of 388, which was later incorporated into the  Codex Justinianus , orders the population of the Empire "to assume the name of Catholic Christians", and regards all those who will not abide by the law as "mad and foolish persons"; as followers of "heretical dogmas".

Despite imperial decrees and the stringent stance of the  state church  itself, which came to be known as the  Eastern Orthodox Church  or  Eastern Christianity, the latter never represented all Christians in Byzantium. Mango believes that, in the early stages of the Empire, the "mad and foolish persons", those labelled "heretics" by the state church, were the majority of the population.Besides the  pagans, who existed until the end of the 6th century, and the  Jews, there were many followers – sometimes even emperors – of various Christian doctrines, such as  Nestorianism,MonophysitismArianism, and  Paulicianism, whose teachings were in some opposition to the main theological doctrine, as determined by the Ecumenical Councils.

Another division among Christians occurred, when Leo III ordered the destruction of icons throughout the Empire. This led to a  significant religious crisis, which ended in mid-9th century with the restoration of icons. During the same period, a new wave of pagans emerged in the Balkans, originating mainly from Slavic people. These were gradually  Christianised, and by Byzantium's late stages, Eastern Orthodoxy represented most Christians and, in general, most people in what remained of the Empire.

Jews were a significant minority in the Byzantine state throughout its history, and, according to Roman law, they constituted a legally recognised religious group. In the early Byzantine period they were generally tolerated, but then periods of tensions and persecutions ensued. In any case, after the Arab conquests, the majority of Jews found themselves outside the Empire; those left inside the Byzantine borders apparently lived in relative peace from the 10th century onwards.

Art and literature Miniatures of the 6th-century  Rabula Gospeldisplay the more abstract and symbolic nature of Byzantine art.

Surviving Byzantine art is mostly religious and with exceptions at certain periods is highly conventionalized, following traditional models that translate carefully controlled church theology into artistic terms. Painting in  frescoilluminated manuscripts  and on wood panel and, especially in earlier periods,  mosaic  were the main media, and figurative  sculpture  very rare except for small  carved ivories. Manuscript painting preserved to the end some of the classical realist tradition that was missing in larger works.Byzantine art was highly prestigious and sought-after in Western Europe, where it maintained a continuous influence on  medieval art  until near the end of the period. This was especially so in Italy, where Byzantine styles persisted in modified form through the 12th century, and became formative influences on  Italian Renaissance  art. But few incoming influences affected Byzantine style. By means of the expansion of the Eastern Orthodox church, Byzantine forms and styles spread to all the Orthodox world and beyond.  Influences from Byzantine architecture, particularly in religious buildings, can be found in diverse regions from Egypt and Arabia to Russia and Romania.

In Byzantine literature, therefore, four different cultural elements must be reckoned with: the  Greek, the Christian, the  Roman, and the Oriental. Byzantine literature is often classified in five groups: historians and annalists, encyclopaedists (Patriarch Photios,  Michael Psellus, and  Michael Choniates  are regarded as the greatest encyclopaedists of Byzantium) and essayists, and writers of secular poetry (The only genuine heroic epic of the Byzantines is the  Digenis Acritas ). The remaining two groups include the new literary species: ecclesiastical and theological literature, and popular poetry.

Of the approximately two to three thousand volumes of Byzantine literature that survive, only three hundred and thirty consist of secular poetry, history, science and pseudo-science.  While the most flourishing period of the secular literature of Byzantium runs from the 9th to the 12th century, its religious literature (sermonsliturgical books  and poetry, theology, devotional treatises etc.) developed much earlier with  Romanos the Melodist  being its most prominent representative.

Legacy King  David  in robes of a Byzantine emperor. Miniature from the  Paris Psalter.

Byzantium has been often identified with absolutism, orthodox spirituality, orientalism and exoticism, while the terms "Byzantine" and "Byzantinism" have been used as bywords for decadence, complex bureaucracy, and repression. In the countries of  Central  and Southeast Europe that exited theEastern Bloc  in late 80s and early 90s, the assessment of Byzantine civilisation and its legacy was strongly negative due to their connection with an alleged "Eastern authoritarianism and autocracy." Both Eastern and Western European authors have often perceived Byzantium as a body of religious, political, and philosophical ideas contrary to those of the West. Even in  19th-century Greece, the focus was mainly on the classical past, while Byzantine tradition had been associated with negative connotations.

This traditional approach towards Byzantium has been partially or wholly disputed and revised by modern studies, which focus on the positive aspects of Byzantine culture and legacy.  Averil Cameron  regards as undeniable the Byzantine contribution to the formation of the medieval Europe, and both Cameron and Obolensky recognise the major role of Byzantium in shaping Orthodoxy, which in turn occupies a central position in the history and societies of Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia and other countries.  The Byzantines also preserved and copied classical manuscripts, and they are thus regarded as transmitters of the classical knowledge, as important contributors to the modern European civilisation, and as precursors of both the  Renaissance humanism  and the Slav Orthodox culture.

As the only stable long-term state in Europe during the Middle Ages, Byzantium isolated Western Europe from newly emerging forces to the East. Constantly under attack, it distanced Western Europe from Persians, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, and for a time, the Ottomans. From a different perspective, since the 7th century, the evolution and constant reshaping of the Byzantine state were directly related to the respective progress of Islam.

Following the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, Sultan  Mehmed II  took the title "Kaysar-i-Rûm " (the Turkish equivalent of Caesar of Rome), since he was determined to make the Ottoman Empire the heir of the Eastern Roman Empire.  According to Cameron, regarding themselves as "heirs" of Byzantium, the Ottomans preserved important aspects of its tradition, which in turn facilitated an "Orthodox revival" during the  post-communist  period of the Eastern European states.

 


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