The Byzantine Empire evolved from the eastern half of the Roman Empire, with its capital in Constantinople. It reached its height under Emperor Justinian in the 6th century AD, reconquering Italy and North Africa. However, the Byzantine Empire gradually declined due to invasions and attacks from the Slavs, Persians, Arabs, and Seljuk Turks. This continued until the Ottoman Turks finally conquered Constantinople in 1453, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire.

1. The Byzantine Era
An Empire Evolves
Professor Will Adams
Valencia College
Spring 2012

2. The Beginning of the Byzantine
 In 395 AD, Emperor Constantine
divides the Roman Empire into the
Roman Empire in the West &
Byzantine Empire in the East.
 The Byzantine Empire was
headquartered in the ancient city of
Byzantium, which Constantine
renamed Constantinople, after
himself.
 By the time it reaches its zenith, the
Byzantine Empire included:
 The Balkan Peninsula
 Asia Minor
 Syria
 Egypt

3. The Beginning of the Byzantine
Constantinople, as it appeared around the sixth century AD.

4. The Byzantine Empire Begins
 The Byzantine capital was
established in
Constantinople, situated
where Europe & Asia meet.
 The city overlooks the
Bosporus & Dardanelles - 2
very important waterways
that link Europe & Asia.
 As a result, Constantinople
had near-total control of
trade between the east (Asia
Minor & Asia) & the west
(Europe).

5. The New Rome
 Once Emperor Constantine
established the city as the new
capitol, Constantinople became
known as “New Rome”.
 Wealthy patrician families from
Rome migrated to
Constantinople when the
Germanic tribes like the Goths
invaded Rome from the west
 While the early emperors of the
Byzantine empire spoke Latin,
most of the empire’s people
spoke Greek & practiced Greek
culture.

6. The Greatest Byzantine:Emperor Justinian
• The Emperor Justinian
ruled the Byzantine
Empire from 527 – 565
AD.
• Looking back, Justinian’s
reign marked the height of
Byzantine Empire’s power
and influence.
• Because of his tireless
efforts to restore the glory
of the Roman past,
Justinian was nicknamed
“The Emperor who never
sleeps”.

7. The Justinian’s Code
 Significantly, Justinian reformed
the previous Roman legal system.
 He ordered court scholars to
collect & reform old Roman laws.
 Justinian’s scholars created a legal
new code, the Corpus of Civil Law
(now known as Justinian’s Code).
 Organized into 4 parts:
 Code: contained useful Roman
laws
 Digest: summarized Roman legal
opinions
 Institutes: guide for law students
 Novellae: laws passed after AD 534

8. Power Behind the Throne: Empress Theodora
 Empress Theodora was
Justinian’s wife & adviser.
 As an early women’s rights
advocate, she was able to get
her husband to pass a decree
allowing women to own land
equal in value to what they
had brought into the
marriage (their dowries).

9. Power Behind the Throne: Empress Theodora
 During the 532 AD Nika
Revolt, the people of
Constantinople threatened to
topple Justinian’s throne over
tax reforms
 Justinian wanted to flee, but his
wife talked him into staying &
fighting
 Consequently, he crushed the
rebellion, with the help of his
general, Belisarius, who would
later win back Roman lands.

10. The Byzantine Empire Begins to Grow
 Justinian wanted to bring the old
Roman Empire back to full
strength.
 In 533 AD, he set out to re-
conquer Italy, North Africa, and
Spain – all lands controlled by
Germanic tribes by that point.
 By 554 AD, he had reclaimed the
old Roman Empire using:
 Strong navy with chemical
weapon “Greek fire”
 Taxes on trade that raised
income to pay for military

11. The Byzantine Secret Weapon: Greek Fire
"This fire is made by the
following arts. From the pine and
the certain such evergreen trees
inflammable resin is collected.
This is rubbed with sulphur and
put into tubes of reed, and is
blown by men using it with
violent and continuous breath.
Then in this manner it meets the
fire on the tip and catches light
and falls like a fiery whirlwind on
the faces of the enemies."

12. The Byzantine Empire: 527-565 AD

13. The Byzantine Empire: 527-565 AD
 The wars to reclaim the
old empire were very
costly for Justinian.
 The economic weakness
strained the Byzantine
Empire’s border protection
 The Persians were nearly
able to take over the
Byzantines
 After Justinian’s death, the
Germanic tribes reclaimed
the lands that they had lost
to Justinian.

14. The Byzantine Christian Church
 Byzantine Emperors had
strong ties to the
Church.
 Beginning in 400 AD,
Emperors were crowned
by Patriarch of
Constantinople, and were
expected to:
 Pledge to defend the
Christian faith
 Appoint Church officials

15. A Byzantine Religious Controversy
 In the 700’s AD, a theological
debate surrounding the use of
icons (devotional images Christ,
the Virgin, or the Saints) began.
 Iconoclasts believed that the use
of icons was dangerously close
to idol worship (which was
forbidden in the 10
Commandments).
 Those who supported icons
stressed that the icons were
symbolic – not objects
worshipped as idols.

16. A Byzantine Religious Controversy
 The issue came to a head
in 726 AD when Emperor
Leo III ordered all icons
be destroyed (this is known
as the Iconoclasm).
 The Pope in Rome
responded in 787 AD,
saying that it was a heresy
not to allow icons because
some Christians could not
read or write & icons
helped them learn
Christianity.

17. A Byzantine Religious Controversy
 The Roman Church’s Council
threatened the iconoclasts with
excommunication (denial of the
sacraments).
 This caused tensions between
the Church in Rome & the
Church in Constantinople.
 Tensions eventually escalated to
the point that the Patriarch in
Constantinople refused to see
the Roman Pope as the supreme
religious authority.

18. A Byzantine Religious Controversy
 In the 700’s AD, the
Lombards invaded central
Italy & the Byzantine
Emperor refused to help
the Pope in Rome.
 The Pope eventually
received help from the
Franks (Germanic
Catholics).
 The Franks helped drive
the Lombards out of
Rome.

19. A Byzantine Religious Controversy
 The Frankish leader, King Pepin
the Short, was given the title of
Holy Roman Emperor by the
Pope
 This caused a major division in
the Church
 Previously, the Byzantine
emperor was the only person who
could make someone else
emperor.
 Finally, in 1054 AD, the Christian
Church splits in two:
 WEST (Roman Catholic Church)
 EAST (Eastern Orthodox
Church)

20. Byzantine Culture
 With the Western Empire declining,
the Eastern Empire preserved Greek
philosophy & literature, Roman
politics, & Christian theology.
 In Byzantine culture, the family unit
becomes the center of the social
structure.
 Both the Church & the government
supported marriage (as both a sacred &
legal institution).
 Divorces were difficult to obtain.
 The Church only allowed 1 remarriage.
 Women were directed to live in seclusion
 There were specific rooms in houses &
churches set aside for women’s use.
 Justinian did give women some rights
however.

21. The Byzantine Economy
 The Byzantine economy was
driven by the work of farmers,
herders & laborers
 Their products kept commerce
& trade alive
 The Byzantines traded goods
between Asia & Europe
 The Silk Road became the major
trading route.
 Eventually, the Byzantines
became extremely wealthy by
stealing silk weaving technology
from China when 2 Orthodox
monk missionaries brought
silkworms & mulberry trees back
with them.

22. Byzantine Art & Education
 Most art was religious in its
subject matter.
 Icons were, initially, a
popular form of art for
displaying images of the
saints.
 Mosaics were popular
artworks made of tiles or
pieces of glass (called
tesserae) that covered
walls, floors, or ceilings.
 Religious scholars also
used art in their books to
illustrate Bible stories.

23. Byzantine Art & Education
Byzantine icon of Christ as Pantokrater Psalter (book of psalms) illustration of
(Maker of all things) Christ as Pantokrater, surrounded by saints

24. Byzantine Art & Education
 In 850 AD, the University of
Constantinople was founded through
support from the Byzantine government.
 The Eastern Orthodox Church also
formed new churches in order to train
priests.
 As a result, the Byzantine people were
able to study medicine, law, philosophy,
math, geometry, astronomy, grammar
& music.
 Commonly available literature typically
focused on the salvation of the Christian
soul, obedience to God & the
preservation and dissemination of
Classical Greek & Roman works.

25. A Byzantine Architectural Triumph
 In 532 AD, the Church of Hagia
Sophia (meaning “holy wisdom”) was
constructed in Constantinople under
Justinian’s supervision.
 The design of the Hagia Sophia
represented a quantum leap forward
in terms of architectural design and
engineering.
 Previously, the Romans had used
domes to create buildings.
 The difference between what the
Romans had achieved and the Hagia
Sophia is that this was the first dome
placed over a rectangular building.
 Prior to this, domes had always been
positioned over square structures.

26. A Byzantine Architectural Triumph
 To create his groundbreaking church,
Justinian hired two mathematicians as
his architects: Anthemius of Tralles and
Isodorus of Miletus.
 Their assignment was to create the
largest, grandest architectural interior ever
built.
 Their finished design still stands as
Constantinople's grandest building and
one of the supreme accomplishments of
world architecture
 Its steel-less structure is about 270 feet
long and 240 feet wide.
 The dome is 108 feet in diameter, and its
crown rises 180 feet above the ground.

27. A Byzantine Architectural Triumph
The architects overcame a significant engineering problem – how to place a
dome upon a rectangular base.

28. A Byzantine Architectural Triumph
Previous octagonal
buildings solved this
problem through the
use of either a
transitional arches or a
corbelling feature
known in an
architectural design as
a squinch.

29. A Byzantine Architectural Triumph
Anthemius and
Isodorus’ solution was
revolutionary.
They used triangular
transition features
called pendentives that
sprung from four
massive support piers,
up to a drum, and then
to the shallow dome
above.

30. A Byzantine Architectural Triumph
 This 1852 lithograph
clearly shows two of the
great pendentives.
 Beyond them can be seen
one of the Church’s two
apses.
 The apse’s half dome
serves to resist the outward
thrust of the building and
to enlarge the great interior
space.

31. A Byzantine Architectural Triumph
The building is enormous and complex, and required tremendous
mathematical precision.

32. A Byzantine Architectural Triumph

33. The Byzantine Spread of Christianity
 The Byzantines sent missionaries to
spread the Eastern Orthodox faith, as
well as the Empire’s art & learning.
 Two of the most famous Byzantine
missionaries (who were later made
saints) were Cyril & Methodius.
 In 860 AD, St. Cyril created an
alphabet for the Slavic people of Eastern
Europe, because he thought they would
accept the religion if they were able to
read about it in their own language
 Today, that alphabet is know as the
Cyrillic Alphabet, and still used by
Russia & other Slavic nations.

34. The Cyrillic Alphabet

35. The Byzantine Empire’s Decline & Fall
 As the first millennium
approached, the Byzantine
Empire began suffering attacks
from invading forces, including:
 The Lombards (from Italy)
 The Slavs (from the Balkans)
 The Avars (from Mongolia)
 The Bulgars (from Central
Asia)
 The Persians (from the
Middle East)
 The Arabs (from the Middle
East)

36. The Byzantine Empire’s Decline & Fall
 In 565 AD, Justinian died and the
Lombards were able to conquer Italy.
 The Avars then took the northern part
of the Byzantine Empire
 Next, the Slavs took the Balkan
Peninsula.
 The Persians also attacked the
Byzantines from the east.
 By 626 AD, the Slavs were attempting
an invasion of Constantinople itself.
 The Slavs were ultimately defeated,
but the city was left vulnerable to
attack from outsiders.

37. The Byzantine Empire’s Decline & Fall
 The real threat to the Byzantine
Empire came from the Arab Muslims.
 The Muslims were out to spread
Islam and take the Byzantines’
wealth.
 By the 630’s AD, the Arabs had
managed to take Syria, Palestine,
Persia, and parts of North Africa.
 Because of their weakened state
following the Slavic attack on
Constantinople, the Byzantines were
unable to regain the land they had lost
to the Arabs.

38. The Byzantine Empire’s Decline & Fall
 In 1071 AD, a group of Arab
Muslims, called the Seljuk Turks,
began to move closer to
Constantinople.
 The Byzantine Emperor asked the
Roman Catholic Pope for help in
defending Christianity from the
Muslim invaders.
 The Pope called on the powers of
Western Europe to help.
 Consequently, Western European
forces went to Palestine to fight the
Muslims.
 Today, this invasion is known as
The Crusades.

39. The Byzantine Empire’s Decline & Fall
 In actuality, the Western Europeans
saw The Crusades as a way to
recapture the Holy Land from the
Muslims, not a way to help the
Byzantine Empire.
 As a result, Western Crusaders
attacked Constantinople in 1204
AD.
 They burned the city and looted its
treasury.
 The Western Europeans’ goal was
to create a new empire in the East,
based in Constantinople.

40. The Byzantine Empire’s Decline & Fall
 The Byzantines were eventually able to recapture
Constantinople and reestablish their kingdom in 1261 AD.
 However, the reconstituted empire was weak and small
because of its constant struggle against invasion.
 By the 1300’s AD, the Byzantine “empire” consisted of only
the city of Constantinople itself.
 Beginning in 1453 AD, the Ottoman Turks lay siege to
Constantinople for 6 weeks.
 By the end of the sixth week, the Byzantine Emperor was
dead of starvation and disease, and the Ottoman Turks took
the city, renaming it Istanbul.
 As a result, 1453 AD marks the end of the Byzantine Empire.

41. The Byzantine Empire’s Decline & Fall
A sunset view of modern Istanbul, Turkey

42. Acta Est Fabula