1. The Byzantine Empire Section 10-1

3. Vital center of empire

4. Commanded key trade points

5. Busy market place

6. A blending of cultures

8. “Holy Wisdom”

9. Large church with an arching dome

10. Code of Laws

11. “Corpus Juris Civilis” – Body of civil Law or Justinian’s code

12. Included laws passed by Roman Assemblies or decreed by Roman Emperors

13. Spread beyond Byzantine empire by 1100s

14. Inspired Roman Catholic and current Laws in used today

15. Absolute Power

16. Justinian ruled as an autocrat or sole ruler with complete power

17. The emperor had control over church

18. He combined both political power with spiritual authority

19. Combined power with his wife who was shrewd and pursued her own policies

20. Changing Fortunes

21. The empire's fortune rose and fell

22. Attacks by outside forces were largely unsuccessful

24. The Byzantine emperor appointed a patriarch, or highest church official in Constantinople

25. Christians did not accept the pope’s claim to authority of all Christians

26. Byzantine clergy kept their right to marry, unlike the priests in the West.

27. Language of the Byzantine Church was Greek

28. Main Byzantine holiday was Easter, while Western Christians focused mainly on Christmas

29. Schism

30. During Middle Ages, the two branches of Christianity drew farther apart

31. A fight about icons, or holy images, contributed to the split

32. Many Byzantine Christians Prayed to images of Christ, the Virgin Mary ,and the Saints.

33. In the 700s a Byzantine emperor outlawed veneration of icons due to violation of God’s first commandment

34. Violent battles erupted within the empire due to the ban

35. The pope of the west excommunicated the emperor due to the violence

36. Schism means permanent split

38. Byzantine Emperor called for western help to fight the Seljuks in the 1090s [caused the first crusade]

39. Trade rivalry caused violence between Venice and the Byzantine empire during later crusades

40. In 1204 Venetian merchants persuaded knights to attack Constantinople during the fourth crusade

41. Crusades burned and plundered the city for three days

42. Venetian merchants gained control over the Byzantine trade routes draining its wealth

43. The Ottoman Turks overran mostof Asia Minor and the Balkans

44. Constantinople Falls

45. Ottoman forces surrounded Constantinople in 1453

46. After a two month long siege, they stormed the broken walls

47. The last Byzantine emperor was offered safe passage but chose to die fighting

48. The Empire was renamed Istanbul and became the capital of the Ottoman empire

49. Hagia Sophia was turned into an Islamic house of worship

51. Byzantine artists made unique contributions including religious art and architecture

52. Influenced western style from the middle ages to present

53. Mosaics brought scenes from the Bible to “glowing life”

54. Byzantine Palaces and churches blended Greek, Roman, Persian, and other Middle Eastern styles

55. The World of Learning

56. Byzantine historians were concerned with writing about their own times

57. Procopius was an adviser to the general Belisarius, who chronicled the Byzantine campaign against Persia

58. Procopius savagely criticized Justinian and Theodora, in his Secret History

59. Anna Comnena is considered to be the western world’s first important female historian

60. In the Alexiad, she analyzed the reign of her father, Emperor Alexius I

61. Many Greek scholars left Constantinople to teach at Italian universities

62. They took valuable Greek manuscripts along with their knowledge of Greek and Byzantine culture to the West with them