the byzantine empire russia and eastern...
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Information Who/What The Byzantine Empire Greeks
RomansTurksNorth Africans
The Rise of Russia Slavs Mongols
Shaping Eastern Europe Slavs Jews Magyars Serbs
Information When/Where 300’s to 1600’s
Byzantine Empire was home to Europe's greatest center of commerce, Constantinople and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The Byzantine empire blended ancient Greek, Roman, and Christian influences with other traditions of the Mediterranean world.
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The Early Byzantine Period: The 'First Golden Age' of Byzantium (324730) The Christianized eastern part of the Roman Empire, or Byzantium, as it came to be called, continued for another 1100 years. A vital figure in its earliest years was the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine the Great (274[?]337), who established toleration for Christianity throughout the Roman Empire through the Edict of Milan in 313. Constantine legally transferred his capital from Rome to Constantinople, on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium. So it was that the empire continued to be ruled by Roman law and political institutions, with the elite communicating officially in Latin. Yet the population, now Christian, also spoke Greek. In school students studied the ancient Greek classics of literature, philosophy, science, medicine, art, and rhetoric. The church, which developed its own literature and philosophy, nonetheless looked favorably upon the intellectual tradition of classical scholarship. An incalculable benefit of this system was that often only that part of classical Greek literature preserved in Byzantine schoolbooks has survived into modern times. One of the advantages of Constantine's new capital was that it was on an easily fortified peninsula; as it was closer to the dangerous frontiers of the empire than Rome, imperial armies could respond more rapidly to crises. The strategic location of the city enabled merchants there to grow rich through their control over the trade routes between Europe and the East and the shipping lanes connecting the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Constantine lavished on his new capital a university, two theaters, eight public and fifty-three private baths, fifty-two covered walkways, four law courts, fourteen churches, and fourteen palaces. He imported staggering quantities of the best Greco-Roman art from throughout the empire. This infusion helped the art of the Early Byzantine period to remain close to its Greco-Roman heritage in its naturalism and classical subject matter. At the Eastern Empire's greatest expanse during the sixth century, the emperor Justinian (483565) controlled most of the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. He was an ambitious builder, his greatest monument being the magnificent domed church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), which was constructed in just five years (53237). In the seventh century the empire lost Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt, and North Africa to invading Islamic armies. For a time the Muslims merely tapped the economy of these regions, leaving intact many of the Byzantine institutions they had overrun. The Early Byzantine period ended with the onset of the Iconoclastic controversy, the violent debate over devotional religious images called icons that devasted much of the empire for over a hundred years.
The emperor Justinian expanded the Byzantine empire, erected grand buildings, and established a code of laws.
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The Byzantine Empire, founded when the capital of the Roman Empire was transferred from Rome to Constantinople in 324, existed in the eastern Mediterranean area until the fifteenth century. The arts and culture of this "New Rome" continued the pan-Mediterranean traditions of the late antique Greco-Roman world, setting the standard of cultural excellence for the Latin West and the Islamic East. The results of the cultural development of the Byzantine Empire during these centuries has had a lasting impact on such modern nations as Albania, Armenia, Belorus', Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Greece, Rumania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Syria, Ukraine, and Turkey.
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Probably Istanbul's most famous landmark, the Hagia Sophia (also spelled Ayasofya) was built by the emperor Justinian I in the year 537 AD. Built in only six years, the structure was designed by the architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus. On May 7, 558, the dome of the church collapsed due to a December 557 earthquake, and though a new dome was quickly rebuilt, historical records tell us that it was not identical to the original. Constantinople was rebuilt after a fire and became a grand city, with its jewel being the church of Hagia Sophia.
A strong central government and a prosperous economy enabled the empire to survive for more than 1,000 years.
Eventually, struggles over succession, court intrigues, and constant wars weakened the empire and it fell to Ottoman forces.
Permanent schism developed with the Catholic Church in Rome.
Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Cerularious and Pope Leo IX excommunicate each other.
1054 the first split in Christianity
1 : DIVISION, SEPARATION;also: DISCORD, DISHARMONY
2 a : formal division in or separation from a church or religious body
Russia was profoundly influenced by Byzantine culture. Trade between the two cultures first introduced Russia to Orthodox Christianity.
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Russia’s network of rivers, running from north to south, provided transportation for both people and goods. They linked early Russians to the advanced Byzantine world in the south. During the early Middle Ages, Russians turned in this direction rather than to Western Europe, which was a fragmented, frontier territory after the fall of the Roman empire. Trade first brought Kiev into the Byzantine orbit. In the 800s, Constantinople sent Christian missionaries to convert the Slavs. About 863, two Greek brothers, Cyril and Methodius, adapted the Greek alphabet so they could translate the Bible into the Slavic tongue. This Cyrillic (suh ril ik) alphabet became the written script that is still used today in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, and Bulgaria . In 957, Princess Olga of Kiev converted to Byzantine Christianity. During the reign of her grandson Vladimir, the new religion spread widely. After his own conversion, Vladimir married the sister of a Byzantine emperor. He made Orthodox Christianity the religion of the Rus and began to align his kingdom politically and culturally with the Byzantine empire. Soon, Russians adopted aspects of Byzantine culture, such as art, music, and architecture. Byzantine domes evolved into the onion-shaped domes typical of Russian churches.
The Mongols rule Russia. The Golden Horde advances between 1236 and
1241. Russians paid tribute and were left alone to
rule.
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Between 1236 and 1241, Batu, the grandson of Genghis, led Mongol armies into Russia. Known as the Golden Horde because of the color of their tents, these invaders looted and burned Kiev and other Russian towns. So many inhabitants were killed, declared a Russian historian, that “no eye remained to weep for the dead.” From their capital on the Volga, the Golden Horde ruled Russia for more than 150 years. Areas that were not directly controlled by the Mongols suffered destructive raids from Mongol armies. Although they were fierce conquerors, the Mongols were generally not meddlesome rulers. Russian princes had to acknowledge the Mongols as their overlords and pay heavy tribute. But as long as the tribute was paid, the Mongols left the Russian princes to rule without much other interference. The Mongols Exert Influence Historians have long debated how Mongol rule affected Russia. Although the Mongols converted to Islam, they tolerated the Russian Orthodox Church, which grew more powerful during this period. The Mongol conquest also brought peace to the huge swath of land between China and Eastern Europe, and Russian merchants benefited from new trade routes across this region. In addition, the absolute power of the Mongols served as a model for later Russian rulers. Russian princes developed a strong desire to centralize their own power without interference from nobles, the clergy, or wealthy merchants. Perhaps most important, Mongol rule cut Russia off from contacts with western Europe at a time when Europeans were making rapid advances in the arts and sciences.
Czars Ivan III and Ivan IV expanded the Russian empire and established a tradition of autocratic rule.
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A driving force behind Moscow’s successes was Ivan III, known as Ivan the Great. Between 1462 and 1505, he brought much of northern Russia under his rule. He also recovered Russian territory that had fallen into the hands of neighboring Lithuania. Ivan built the framework for absolute rule. He tried to limit the power of the boyars, or great landowning nobles. After he married a niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Ivan adopted Byzantine court rituals to emphasize Russia’s role as the heir to Byzantine power. Like the Byzantine emperors, he used a double-headed eagle as his symbol and sometimes referred to himself as tsar, the Russian word for Caesar. In 1504, a Russian church council echoed Byzantine statements, declaring, “By nature, the tsar is like any other man, but in power and office he is like the highest God.” Ivan the Terrible Establishes Absolute Rule In 1547, Ivan IV, grandson of Ivan the Great, became the first Russian ruler officially crowned tsar. He further centralized royal power by limiting the privileges of the old boyar families and granting land to nobles in exchange for military or other service. At a time when the manor system was fading in Western Europe, Ivan IV introduced new laws that tied Russian serfs to the land. About 1560, Ivan IV became increasingly unstable. He trusted no one and became subject to violent fits of rage. In a moment of madness, he even killed his own son. He organized the oprichniki (ah preech nee kee), agents of terror who enforced the tsar’s will. Dressed in black robes and mounted on black horses, they slaughtered rebellious boyars and sacked towns where people were suspected of disloyalty. Their saddles were decorated with a dog’s head and a broom, symbols of their constant watchfulness to sweep away their master’s enemies. The tsar’s awesome power, and the ways he used it, earned him the title Ivan the Terrible. When he died in 1584, he left a land seething with rebellion. But he had introduced Russia to a tradition of extreme absolute power that would shape Russian history well into the twentieth century.