Byzantine Notes

Location of Constantinople

• Constantinople was protected by the eastern frontier

• Constantinople was far away from the Germanic invasions in the western empire

• Constantinople was where many traders came – “crossroads of trade”

• Constantinople was on a peninsula so it could be defended and it had good harbors for boats

Role of Constantinople

• Seat of the Byzantine Empire until Ottoman conquest

• Saved classical Greco-Roman culture• Center of Trade

Justinian• Codified (wrote

them down) Roman law; European countries used these laws

• Reconquest of former Roman territories

• Expanded trade

Art and Architecture• Got ideas from

Christianity and powerful empire

• Icons– religious images

• Mosaics in public an religious buildings

• Hagia Sophia—domed church

Byzantine Culture• Greco-Roman traditions

continue• Greek Language – not

Latin like the West• Greek Orthodox

Christianity -- not Catholic like West

• Greek and Roman knowledge was saved by Byzantine libraries

Influence of Byzantine Culture on Eastern Europe and Russia

• Trade routes between Black Sea and Baltic Sea

• Eastern Europe and Russia adopt Orthodox Christianity – no Catholicism

• Russia adopts the Cyrillic alphabet – St. Cyril’s Bible

• Church architecture and art