Eastern Christendom after the fall of Rome WHAP/Napp
“Constantinople was a new city arising within the old city of Byzantium. Founded by Greek colonists in the eighth century before Christ, the old town had sometimes been captured by enemies and sometimes ransacked, but it was always rebuilt. It stood on a superb triangle of land with the sea washing two sides. Commanding a vital trade route and the only entrance to the Black Sea, its position was symbolic as well as strategic, for it was on the very edge of Europe and within a short rowing distance of Asia.
To enlarge the living and building space of this new city, outer walls were built at some distance from the previous walls, and later the perimeter of these walls went out even further, such as the city’s swift growth. Thick walls were needed, for the city was to be besieged nine times between the years 600 and 1100. Meanwhile it became a marvel of the western world – only China possessed larger cities. Visitors expressed their wonder at the large marble doors of the private palaces, the fine statues confiscated from other cities, the triumphal columns erected in honor of the emperors, and the long two-story aqueduct on which freshwater was born aloft.
Constantinople was the first city so designed as to provide prominent sites for Christian churches. Soon the churches were numerous. Visitors especially wished to pray in one of the noblest buildings in the world, the Hagia Sofia or ‘Divine Wisdom.’ Its dome was rebuilt after the earthquake of 559 and the church was converted nearly a millennium later into a mosque capped by minarets, but the tiers of arched windows and the soaring dome and the sense of space are still breathtaking.
A bishop or patriarch was consecrated in the new city, and soon his spiritual status rivaled that of the pope of Rome. As Constantinople held the palace of the Roman emperor, that heightened its bishop’s status. Already the rival bishops were tugging the church, century after century, in slightly different directions, for the cultures and peoples of Asia Minor were far apart from those of Italy. Even in language the western and eastern churches were separate. Greek was the language of the Eastern Church, and Latin of the Church of Rome. As the two cities were separated by a voyage which could occupy up to a month when seas were rough or the winds unkind, they did not always keep in touch. Moreover Constantinople now held more than 500,000 people, whereas Rome, at the mercy of the incoming barbarians, had so dwindled that it held no more than one-tenth of that population.”
~ A Short History of the World
1- Identify two significant facts about the origins of Constantinople. ______
2- Describe the fortification of the city and explain why fortification was necessary.
______
3- What did visitors notice about the city of Constantinople? ______
4- How did the western and eastern churches differ? ______
5- How did the Byzantine Empire differ from Western Europe after the fall of Rome? ______
Notes:I. Eastern Christendom
A. With collapse of the Roman Empire in West, eastern half, now known as the Byzantine Empire continued traditions of Roman Empire
B. Centered on the magnificent city of Constantinople
1. Great location for tradeàBetween Asia and Eastern Europe
C. Has no clear starting point as an empire
1. Historians dateà330 C.E. àRoman emperor Constantine established new capital, Constantinople, on ancient Greek city called Byzantium
D. Eastern Roman Empireàwealthier, urbanized, more cosmopolitan
1. Possessed a more defensible capital àa shorter frontier to guard
2. Access to Black Sea and command of eastern Mediterranean Sea
3. Stronger army and navy – able to deflect Germanic and Hun invaders
E. Sought to preserve legacy of classical civilization and Roman Empire
1. Constantinopleàa “New Rome” and Byzantinesà“Romans”
2. Fearing contamination by “barbarian” customs, emperors forbade residents of Constantinople from wearing boots, trousers, clothing made from animal skins, long hairstylesàOnly Roman-style robes/sandals
3. But western Roman Empire was lost to Byzantium, despite Emperor Justinian’s (reigned 527-565) short-lived attempt to reconquer West
4. Rapid Arab/Islamic expansion in the 7th century resulted in losses
5. Yet until 1200s, more compact Byzantine Empire remained in eastern Mediterranean, controlling Greece, much of Balkans, Anatolia
F. The Emperor
1. Political authority remained tightly centralized in Constantinople, where emperor claimed to govern all creation as God’s worldly representative
2. End cameà1453àTurkic Ottoman Empire finally took Constantinople
G. The Church
1. Caesaropapismàemperor assumed role of both “Caesar”àhead of state and popeàhead of the Church
2. Emperor appointed the patriarch, or leader, of the Orthodox Church
3. Byzantine churches were filled with icons – religious paintings
H. Religious Differences: East and West
1. Disagreements about nature of Trinity
2. Between 726 and 843, Eastern Orthodox Church, on orders from emperors, took offensive against icons, arguing that they were “idols”
a) Known as iconoclasm, involved destruction of icons and generated opposition within Byzantium until it was ended
b) But iconoclasm was also offensive within Roman Catholic circles for most Roman Popes were supporters of icon veneration
3. Priests in West shavedàafter 1050, to remain celibate, while in Byzantiumàallowed beards to grow long-permitted to marryà Eastern leaders rejected claims of Roman popes to be sole authority for all
4. By 1054, representatives of both churches mutually excommunicated each other (Great Schism)
5. Crusades, launched in 1095 by Catholic pope against forces of Islam, made things worse as Crusaders passing through Byzantine Empire engaged in frequent conflict with local people
6. And remarkable growth of Arab Empire threatened Byzantines
a) Able to hold off for a time with their military innovation known as “Greek fire”- a combination of oil, sulfur, and lime
I. Byzantine Legacy
1. Preserved Greek and Roman 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 letters, with which Slavic languages could be written
b) Expansion of Orthodox Christianity occurred among Slavic peoples of what is now Ukraine and western Russia
c) A modest state known as Kievan Rus - named after the most prominent city, Kiev - emerged in the ninth century CE
J. In Contrast: Western Christendom
1. After fall of RomeàDisease and warfare reduced Western Europe’s population by more than 25 percentàUrban life diminished
2. Germanic people emerged as dominant peoples 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 year 800, crowned as a new Roman emperor by pope, although his realm splintered shortly after his death
4. Otto I of Saxony (reigned 936-973) gathered much of Germany under his control and was likewise invested with title of emperor by the pope
a) His realm became known as the Holy Roman Empire
Complete the graphic organizer below:
Strayer Questions:
· 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
2. 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
3. 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
/ 4. 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
5. Russian civilization emerged nearest to what modern-day city?
(A) St. Petersburg
(B) Kiev
(C) Moscow
(D) Warsaw
(E) Paris
6. Throughout most of its history the capital of the Byzantine Empire was
(A) Baghdad
(B) Constantinople
(C) Rome
(D) Mecca
(E) Damascus
Thesis Practice: How did the Byzantine Empire change over time yet continue to influence world history after its collapse? ______