\u201cByzantine Empire\u201d is a conventional name invented by us.They never used this term back in those days. They always called themselves as Roman Empire and Romans even not East Roman. The name was given by the Humanist scholars during Renaissance, because they thought that single universal state was an empire. They found the difference between the Ancient Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire was mainly in religion, since Byzantine Empire was a christian state. This name came from the city Byzantion

Byzantine Empire, emerged in the 4th century as the direct successor / inheritor of the ancient Greco-Roman civilization, was a transitional point between the ancient and medieval world. It lasted throughout the Middle Ages.

Early period of Byzantine Empire falls in the ancient world and preserved main features of the
antic life and of classical urban society between 4th and 7th century. After 7th century, it remained as a
large unified medieval state and enjoyed a lively, active city-life, trade and commerce. In 7th century,
after the collapse of classical and urban culture, Byzantine transformed from typical antic state into a
characteristic medieval state until 1453. Byzantine Empire and civilization is important, because when
western part of the empire sank into confusion in the age of Germanic Invasions (Dark Ages) which
fragmented Western Part into barbaric kingdoms.
Byzantine in east maintained unity. It flourished
preserving classical Greek and Roman
Legal traditions. Byzantine produced
the heritage for the modern world
(Greek, Turkey, Balkans, Russia
and Mediterranean cities)

Byzantine Empire emerged
as an organic part of the Roman
Empire and continued its existing
after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Byzantine Empire underwent
many changes. Their geographical
boundaries were changing and shifting
constantly.
In 4th century, It was a huge Mediterranean Empire
In 5th century, the loss of the western territories of the empire took place.
In 6th century, the boundaries were restored temporarily during the Justinean era.
In 7th century, because of the rise of Islam, the eastern provinces were lost to Arabs. (Egypt, Palestine,
and Syria) thus former Mediterranean huge empire transformed into a much smaller Greek and Greek
speaking state. (Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor) Greek was adopted as official language instead of
Latin.

Except for this last period, Balkan Peninsula and Anatolian made up the nucleus of the
Byzantine Empire, which were rich and populist regions, which supplied the empire with resources
such as food and manpower. (Peasant force and soldiers)

Byzantine Empire was an inheritor of the Greco-Roman civilization, since they were the
continuation of the legal and administrative systems. Byzantine Empire\u2019s major transformation was
that it evolved into a Christian and primarily Greek speaking state.

Byzantine population was multi-ethnic (including Greeks, Slaves and Armenians), multi-lingual (many ethnic minorities could keep their languages) and multi-religious (Orthodox Christians, Jewish, Moslems and Armenians were allowed to practice their own religions).

Byzantine Empire was governed by an autocratic regime. The power was centralized: One
emperor ruled with complete authority and autocracy; but a vast bureaucracy-militarily and civilian
officials- carried out the actual administration.

The founder of the empire was the Constantin the 1st (the Great; because a) He founded the city
of Constantin, thereby he became b) the founder of the Byzantine Empire and c) His conversion to
Christianity, which was a turning point not only for the Byzantine Empire also for the whole world.)

Byzantine Empire
was the integration
of the Hellenistic
Culture and the
Christianity within
the Roman
Imperial
framework

Constantinople was rebuilt between 324 and 330 and dedicated and renamed after its founder.
This was the starting point of the Byzantine Empire and marked the transformation. Constantin
enlarged the boundaries of Byzantion-an old trade colony-and called it \u201cNew Rome\u201d or \u201c2nd Rome\u201d.

region. (Diochletian lived not in Rome but in Nikomedia and had a fortified palace in split- Dalmatian)
Eastern orientation was started before Constantin; because of that two questions emerged:
1) Why was Rome abandoned as the capital?
2) Why was an eastern city selected?

Military and strategic reasons: Rome was too far away from frontiers and Italy became a
dangerous place because of the threat of Germanic tribes. The existence of eastern enemies
such as the Sassanies of Persia required having an eastern city with a permanent army
stationed there. Actually Asia Minor and the Balkans were the resources of soldiers for the
Roman Empire. These soldiers were collected from eastern regions and brought to Italy to be
trained at the \u201cMilitary Base\u201d and sent back to the east for the wars. This unlogical act also
made the Roman Empire Create an eastern base.

The Rome: Rome lost its intellectual and cultural importance. It couldn\u2019t catch up the east.
Roman libraries and academies were not as effective as the ones of the eastern cities.
(Alexandria, Antioch, Pergama)

Ideological point of view: In Rome, because of the strong republican traditions, the population was not so comfortable with increasing autocratic regime. But in the east, the population was familiar to autocratic-monarchic forms because of the influence of Hellenism.

The main difference between Constantinople and former Roman cities was its Christian
character. Constantin was the first Christian Roman emperor. Before the important battle of \u201cMilvian
Bridge\u201d when Constantin defeated his political rival, he had a vision. He saw a cross in the sky and on
this cross was \u201cBy this sign, conquer\u201d written. Then he let tis sign drew on the shields of his soldiers.
In 313 he issued a new law: Edict of Milan = Edict of religious toleration. With this edict, he allowed
for the first time religious freedom to the Christian subjects of the Roman Empire. Previous emperors
persecuted Christians. Constantin proclaimed religious. He offered them certain privileges like
economic benefits. After 3 centuries of conflict since the rise of Christianity, peace was established
between Christian church and Roman Emperor. Christianity was favoured by the Empirical Circle. But
had a very strong \u201cpagan\u201d past. It had a large and political influent pagan population including the
senators. Establishing an eastern HQ where the majority of Christians within the empire lived provided
Constantin with the opportunity to build up a city with Christian character;bu t this didn\u2019t lead to the
replacement of paganism. About fifty years of Constantin\u2019s time Julian \u2013the 3rd Byzantine empire- tried
to re-establish the pagan religion within the empire, after that he was called Julian the Apostate (the
only pagan Roman Empire), But his successors restored the Christianity.

Constantin built three churches in Constatinople: Saint Sophia-was not finished during his
lifetime-, Saint Irene and the Church of Holy Apostles. Nevertheless, Constantinople was a typical late
antic Roman City where there were also churches, few in number and insufficient to present the image
of a predominant Christian city. Pagan structures in the city were unharmed, which were the religious
centers of ancient Byzantion (Acropolis). The pagan temples were not touched and pagans are not
prevented from worshipping. At the end of the 4th century, paganism was banned and pagan temples
weer officially closed by the 6th Byzantine Emperor Thedosius the 1st, thus the Christianity was
accepted as the official state religion of the Empire. But Constantin declared Christianity only as an
allowed religion. Paganism and Christianity coexisted during the early Byzantine Period. This religious
dualism is evident in the case of Constantin himself. He was born pagan and worshipped the sun god
Apollo until his conversion to Christianity. (Sol Invictus: undefeatable /invincible Sun - on the coin
with Apollo)

A quick and forced change was impossible, because the majority of Roman population (90%)
consisted of pagans, which were the members of upper classes and army, (powerful elements of Roman
Empire) thus Constantin adopted a policy of religious dualism to keep both sides in peace. Constantin
was not baptised until his very last moment, so the question emerged if it was his policy to gain the
support of the minority (?) the Christians; but whatever Constantin\u2019s personal decision was, the
important thing was that his actions were very effective in the long run. He started a new era for the
Roman Empire and prepared the way of one state religion and the transition from polytheism to

One Christian God \u2013
Heavenly King
One Christian Empire
One Christian Emperor

monotheism within the Roman Empire. Constantin determined the relationship between church and
state (religious and secular authority). Church received support and assistance of state; but it was under
strong imperial authority/ influence/ dependence. Church was dominated by Byzantine Emperors. They
played active roles in religious affairs and directly interfered in them such as passing religious laws and
appointing religious officials; although there was a patriarch. This unusual autocracy was the legacy of
Constantin the 1st. Byzantine consisted of strong state and weak church. There was no strict boundary
between secular and religious affairs, but west was different. After the fall of Western Empire, the
barbaric kingdoms were emerged there was no single, strong centralized state. In such an absence,
Western Church = Church of Rome became in the 5th century the strongest power in Europe and it had
no secular rival until Charlemagne.

Justinean\u2019s period was the highest degree of imperial autocracy. His greatest
ambition was to put into practice the Byzantine ideal of universal empire, which
required one emperor, one church and one law. When Justinean took over the empire
in 527, it was no longer a universal empire, since Germanic invasions caused
collapse of the Western part which was divided up among Germanic tribes. He
carried out series of wars in order to reconquest these provinces. After 20 years he
managed to recover. In theory, the empire was reunited and Mediterranean was again a Roman lake in
565. Justinean established universal Empire according to his ambition. That the results of wars were at
following:

1. The wars were very expensive, so the taxes were increased throughout the empire. The immediate
reactions were upheavals/ rebellions. The most important one was in Constantinople- Nika
Rebellion in 532. It almost overthrew the emperor and destroyed half of the city. After this, the
city was reconstructed \u2013 Saint Sophia and Saint Irene. The basilica form of these churches from
Constantin\u2019s era was changed into the \u201cDome form\u201d during these reconstructions. Justinean\u2019s
Saint Sophia was an achievement of engineering and architecture since no one was able to build
such a big dome. The rebuilding of Saint Sophia and other achievements earned him the title
Justinean the great. Another long lasting achievement of Justinean was his legal work.
(systemization and qualification of the Roman law) He undertook this project because of the
chaotic state of the Roman law system, where there was a vast accumulation of contradictory laws
and many unnecessary repetitions. A team of lawyers headed by Tribonian worked upon it 30
years long (Corpus- Juris- Civilis: Body of civil law / Justinean\u2019s code). It helped spread of the
Roman Civil Law to Europe.

A new and stronger enemy emerged: the Moslems from Arabia. They began to conquer eastern Roman provinces. Some of them such as Egypt and Syria could never taken back from Moslems. Egypt was the greatest source of grain for the Byzantine Empire. To solve this difficulty they had to find new grain sources, so they looked to the northern part of the empire because of existing food rebellions in the empire.

The cities were in severe crises (urban crises) which resulted in destruction of antiquity. After
the 7th century the medieval Mediterranean cities remained as an urban civilization, but it changed
partly because of Arabs. Many cities disappeared; those who survived were reduced in size or were
relocated. Their populations declined. The breakdown of Byzantine Culture transformed everyday life.
There was a shift from open to close modes of social expression. A shift from public outward looking
life to (characteristics of an ancient city until 7th century, with broad roads, public baths, theatres etc.)
to small cities with limited public interest (ONLY CHURCHES). Defence with fortification gained
importance. In Constantinople, all places of public entertainment disappeared with the exception of

In the west king was the first among equals or nobilities. He was not detached and above
the others.In Byzantine, Emperors were beyond any hierarchy. He was the only authority, who
depend on anyone on earth. His authority was received directly from god. So he was the
representative / imitation of god on earth.