Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων, Basileía Rhōmaíōn

Imperium Romanum

395–1453c

Chi Rho (see Byzantine insignia)

Solidus depicting Christ Pantocrator, a common motif on Byzantine

coins.

The empire in 555 under Justinian the Great, at its greatest extent

since the fall of the Western Roman Empire (its vassals in pink)
 The change of territory of the Byzantine Empire (476–1400)

Capital Constantinopled
(395–1204, 1261–1453)
and largest city

 Late Latin, Koine Greek

Common languages
 Medieval Greek (610–
1453)

Religion  Eastern Christianity

(tolerated after the Edicts
of Serdica (311)
and Milan (313); state
religion after 380)
 Eastern Orthodoxy
(following the Schism of
1054)

Notable emperors  
• 306–337 Constantine I
• 395–408 Arcadius
• 402–450 Theodosius II
• 527–565 Justinian I
• 610–641 Heraclius
• 717–741 Leo III
• 797–802 Irene
• 867–886 Basil I
• 976–1025 Basil II
• 1042–1055 Constantine IX
• 1081–1118 Alexius I
• 1259–1282 Michael VIII
• 1449–1453 Constantine XI

Historical era Late Antiquity to Late Middle Ages

• First division of the Roman 1 April 286

 Empire (diarchy)
• Founding of Constantinople 11 May 330
• Final East–West division 17 January 395
after the death
of Theodosius I
• Fall of Rome; deposition 4 September 476
of Romulus
Augustulus by Odoacer
• Assassination of Julius 25 April 480
Nepos; nominal end of
the Western Roman
Empire
• Fourth Crusade; 12 April 1204
establishment of the Latin
Empire by Catholic
crusaders
• Reconquest of 25 July 1261
Constantinople by Michael
VIII Palaiologos
• Fall of Constantinople 29 May 1453
• Fall of Trebizond 15 August 1461

Population
• 457 16,000,000e
• 565 26,000,000
• 775 7,000,000
• 1025 12,000,000
• 1320 2,000,000

Currency Solidus, denarius and hyperpyron

Preceded by Succeeded by
Roman Empire Ottoman
Empire

a. ^ Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων may be transliterated in Latin

as Basileia Rhōmaiōn (literally meaning Monarchy of
the Romans, but commonly rendered Empire of the
Romans).

b. ^ Roman Empire

c. ^ Between 1204 and 1261 there was an interregnum

 when the Empire was divided into the Empire of
Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond and the Despotate of
Epirus, which were all contenders for rule of the
Empire. The Empire of Nicaea is considered the
legitimate continuation of the Byzantine Empire
because it managed to retake Constantinople.

d. ^ Constantinople became the capital of the (united)

empire in 330. Theodosius I was the last emperor to
rule over both the Eastern and Western Roman Empire.
He died in 395 AD, dividing the empire in western and
eastern halves.

e. ^ See Population of the Byzantine Empire for more

detailed figures taken provided by McEvedy and
Jones, Atlas of World Population History, 1978, as well
as Angeliki E. Laiou, The Economic History of
Byzantium, 2002.

Part of a series on the

History of the
Byzantine Empire

Preceding

 Roman Empire 
o Dominate

Early period (330–717)

 Constantinian–Valentinianic era (Constantinian
dynasty – Valentinianic dynasty)
 Theodosian era
  Leonid era
 Justinian era
 Heraclian era
 Twenty Years' Anarchy

Middle period (717–1204)

 Isaurian era
 Nikephorian era
 Amorian era
 Macedonian era
 Doukid era
 Komnenian era
 Angelid era

Late period (1204–1453)

 Fourth Crusade and Latin rule 
o Latin Empire
o Principality of Achaea
o others
 Byzantine successor states 
o Nicaea
o Epirus/Thessalonica
o Trebizond
o Theodoro
 Palaiologan era 
o Despotate of the Morea
 Decline of the Byzantine Empire
 Fall of Constantinople

Timeline

By topic
 Art
 Government
 Economy
 Army
 Navy

 Byzantine Empire portal

 v
 t
  e

The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire,

or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces
during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It
survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD
and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman
Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful
economic, cultural, and military force in Europe.
"Byzantine Empire" is a term created after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to
refer to their empire simply as the Roman Empire (Medieval Greek: Βασιλεία
Ῥωμαίων, romanized: Basileía Rhōmaíōn) or Romania (Medieval Greek: Ῥωμανία), and to
themselves as Romans (Medieval Greek: Ῥωμαῖοι, romanized: Rhōmaîoi) – a term which
Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state
continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians distinguish Byzantium
from its earlier incarnation because it was centred on Constantinople, oriented towards
Greek rather than Latin culture, and characterised by Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
Several events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which
the Roman Empire's Greek East and Latin West diverged. Constantine I (r. 324–337)
reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital and legalised Christianity.
Under Theodosius I (r. 379–395), Christianity became the state religion and other
religious practices were proscribed. In the reign of Heraclius (r. 610–641), the Empire's
military and administration were restructured and Greek was adopted for official use in
place of Latin.
The borders of the empire fluctuated through several cycles of decline and recovery.
During the reign of Justinian I (r. 527–565), the empire reached its greatest extent, after
reconquering much of the historically Roman western Mediterranean coast, including
North Africa, Italy and Rome, which it held for two more centuries. The Byzantine–
Sasanian War of 602–628 exhausted the empire's resources, and during the Early
Muslim conquests of the 7th century, it lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to
the Rashidun Caliphate. During the Macedonian dynasty (10th–11th centuries), the
empire expanded again and experienced the two-century long Macedonian
Renaissance, which came to an end with the loss of much of Asia Minor to the Seljuk
Turks after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. This battle opened the way for the Turks to
settle in Anatolia. The empire recovered during the Komnenian restoration, and by the
12th century, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe. The empire
was delivered a mortal blow during the Fourth Crusade, when Constantinople
was sacked in 1204 and the territories that the empire formerly governed were
divided into competing Byzantine Greek and Latin realms. Despite the
eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one
of several small rival states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its
remaining territories were progressively annexed by the Ottomans in the Byzantine–
Ottoman wars over the 14th and 15th centuries. The fall of Constantinople to the
Ottoman Empire in 1453 ended the Byzantine Empire. The last of the imperial
Byzantine successor states, the Empire of Trebizond, would be conquered by the
Ottomans eight years later in the 1461 siege.

Contents

 1Nomenclature
 2History
o 2.1Early history
o 2.2Christianization and partition of the Empire
o 2.3Loss of the Western Roman Empire
o 2.4Justinian dynasty
o 2.5Shrinking borders
 2.5.1Early Heraclian dynasty
 2.5.2First Arab Siege of Constantinople
(674–678) and the theme system
 2.5.3Late Heraclian dynasty
 2.5.4Second Arab Siege of
Constantinople (717–718) and the
Isaurian dynasty
 2.5.5Religious dispute over iconoclasm
o 2.6Macedonian dynasty and resurgence (867–1025)
 2.6.1Wars against the Abbasids
 2.6.2Wars against the Bulgarian Empire
 2.6.3Relations with the Kievan Rus'
 2.6.4Campaigns in the Caucasus
 2.6.5Apex
 2.6.6Split between Orthodoxy and
Catholicism (1054)
o 2.7Crisis and fragmentation
o 2.8Komnenian dynasty and the Crusades
 2.8.1Alexios I and the First Crusade
 2.8.2John II, Manuel I and the Second
Crusade
 2.8.312th-century Renaissance
o 2.9Decline and disintegration
 2.9.1Angelid dynasty
 2.9.2Fourth Crusade
 2.9.3Crusader sack of Constantinople
(1204)
o 2.10Fall
 2.10.1Empire in exile
 2.10.2Reconquest of Constantinople
 2.10.3Rise of the Ottomans and fall of
Constantinople
o 2.11Political aftermath
 3Government and bureaucracy
o 3.1Diplomacy
 4Science and medicine
  5Law and government
 6Culture
o 6.1Religion
o 6.2Arts
 6.2.1Art and literature
 6.2.2Music
o 6.3Cuisine
o 6.4Flags and insignia
o 6.5Language
o 6.6Recreation
o 6.7Women in the Byzantine Empire
 7Economy
 8Legacy
 9See also
 10Notes
 11References
o 11.1Citations
o 11.2Sources
 11.2.1Primary sources
 11.2.2Secondary sources
 12Further reading
 13External links
o 13.1Byzantine studies, resources and bibliography

Nomenclature[edit]
See also: Names of the Greeks
The first use of the term "Byzantine" to label the later years of the Roman Empire was in
1557, 104 years after the empire's collapse, when the German historian Hieronymus
Wolf published his work Corpus Historiæ Byzantinæ, a collection of historical sources.
[citation needed]
 The term comes from "Byzantium", the name of the city to
which Constantine moved his capital, leaving Rome, and rebuilt under the new name
of Constantinople. The older name of the city would rarely be used from this point
onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine
du Louvre (Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae), and in 1680 of Du
Cange's Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of "Byzantine" among French
authors, such as Montesquieu.[1] However, it was not until the mid-19th century that the
term came into general use in the Western world.[2]
The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the "Roman Empire" or the
"Empire of the Romans" (Latin: Imperium Romanum, Imperium Romanorum; Medieval
Greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Ἀρχὴ τῶν Ῥωμαίων, romanized: Basileia tōn Rhōmaiōn,
Archē tōn Rhōmaiōn), Romania (Latin: Romania; Medieval
Greek: Ῥωμανία, romanized: Rhōmania),[note 1] the Roman Republic (Latin: Res Publica
Romana; Medieval Greek: Πολιτεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, romanized: Politeia tōn Rhōmaiōn), or
in Greek "Rhōmais" (Medieval Greek: Ῥωμαΐς).[5] The inhabitants called
themselves Romaioi and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred
to Modern Greek as Romaiika "Romaic".[6] After 1204 when the Byzantine Empire was
mostly confined to its purely Greek provinces the term 'Hellenes' was increasingly used
instead.[7]
While the Byzantine Empire had a multi-ethnic character during most of its history[8] and
preserved Romano-Hellenistic traditions,[9] it became identified by its western and
northern contemporaries with its increasingly predominant Greek element.[10] Western
medieval sources also referred to the empire as the "Empire of the Greeks"
(Latin: Imperium Graecorum) and to its emperor as Imperator Graecorum (Emperor of
the Greeks);[11] these terms were used to distinguish it from the Holy Roman Empire that
claimed the prestige of the classical Roman Empire in the West.[12]
No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was
more straightforwardly seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic
world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm.[13] The name millet-i Rûm, or
"Roman nation," was used by the Ottomans until the 20th century to refer to the former
subjects of the Byzantine Empire, that is, the Orthodox Christian community within
Ottoman realms.

History[edit]
Main article: History of the Byzantine Empire
Early history[edit]

Constantine the Great was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity and moved the seat of the empire
to Byzantium, renamed Constantinople in his honour.

The Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the Mediterranean

region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and North Africa. These territories
were home to many different cultural groups, both urban populations, and rural
populations. Generally speaking, the eastern Mediterranean provinces were more
urbanized than the western, having previously been united under the Macedonian
Empire and Hellenised by the influence of Greek culture.[14]
The West also suffered more heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD. This
distinction between the established Hellenised East and the younger Latinised West
persisted and became increasingly important in later centuries, leading to a gradual
estrangement of the two worlds.[14]
An early instance of the partition of the Empire into East and West occurred in 293
when Emperor Diocletian created a new administrative system (the tetrarchy), to
guarantee security in all endangered regions of his Empire. He associated himself with
a co-emperor (Augustus), and each co-emperor then adopted a young colleague given
the title of Caesar, to share in their rule and eventually to succeed the senior partner.
Each tetrarch was in charge of a part of the Empire. The tetrarchy collapsed, however,
in 313 and a few years later Constantine I reunited the two administrative divisions of
the Empire as sole Augustus.[15]
Christianization and partition of the Empire[edit]
See also: Byzantium under the Constantinian and Valentinian dynasties

Restored section of the Walls of Constantinople

After the death of Theodosius I in 395, the empire was again divided. The west disintegrated in the late
400s while the east ended with the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
  The Western Roman Empire
  The Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire

In 330, Constantine moved the seat of the Empire to Constantinople, which he founded
as a second Rome on the site of Byzantium, a city strategically located on the trade
routes between Europe and Asia and between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Constantine introduced important changes to the Empire's military, monetary, civil and
religious institutions. In regards to his economic policies he has been accused by
certain scholars of "reckless fiscality", but the gold solidus he introduced became a
stable currency that transformed the economy and promoted development.[16]
Under Constantine, Christianity did not become the exclusive religion of the state but
enjoyed imperial preference since he supported it with generous privileges. Constantine
established the principle that emperors could not settle questions of doctrine on their
own but should instead summon general ecclesiastical councils for that purpose. His
convening of both the Synod of Arles and the First Council of Nicaea indicated his
interest in the unity of the Church and showcased his claim to be its head.[17] The rise of
Christianity was briefly interrupted on the accession of the emperor Julian in 361, who
made a determined effort to restore polytheism throughout the empire and was thus
dubbed "Julian the Apostate" by the Church.[18] However, this was reversed when Julian
was killed in battle in 363.[19]
Theodosius I (379–395) was the last Emperor to rule both the Eastern and Western
halves of the Empire. In 391 and 392 he issued a series of edicts essentially banning
pagan religion. Pagan festivals and sacrifices were banned, as was access to all pagan
temples and places of worship.[20] The last Olympic Games are believed to have been
held in 393.[21] In 395, Theodosius I bequeathed the imperial office jointly to his
sons: Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West, once again dividing Imperial
administration. In the 5th century, the Eastern part of the empire was largely spared the
difficulties faced by the West – due in part to a more established urban culture and
greater financial resources, which allowed it to placate invaders with tribute and pay
foreign mercenaries. This success allowed Theodosius II to focus on codifying Roman
law with the Codex Theodosianus and further fortification of the walls of Constantinople,
which left the city impervious to most attacks until 1204.[22] Large portions of
the Theodosian Walls are preserved to the present day.[citation needed]
To fend off the Huns, Theodosius had to pay an enormous annual tribute to Attila. His
successor, Marcian, refused to continue to pay the tribute, but Attila had already
diverted his attention to the Western Roman Empire. After Attila's death in 453, the Hun
Empire collapsed, and many of the remaining Huns were often hired as mercenaries by
Constantinople.[23]
Loss of the Western Roman Empire[edit]
After the fall of Attila, the Eastern Empire enjoyed a period of peace, while the Western
Empire continued to deteriorate due to the expanding migration and invasions of the
"barbarians", most prominently the Germanic nations. The West's end is usually dated
476 when the East Germanic Roman foederati general Odoacer deposed the Western
Emperor Romulus Augustulus, a year after the latter usurped the position from Julius
Nepos.[24]
In 480 with the death of Julius Nepos, Eastern Emperor Zeno became sole claimant to
Emperor of the empire. Odoacer, now ruler of Italy, was nominally Zeno's subordinate
but acted with complete autonomy, eventually providing support to a rebellion against
the Emperor.[25]
Zeno negotiated with the invading Ostrogoths, who had settled in Moesia, convincing
the Gothic king Theodoric to depart for Italy as magister militum per
Italiam ("commander in chief for Italy") to depose Odoacer. By urging Theodoric to
conquer Italy, Zeno rid the Eastern Empire of an unruly subordinate (Odoacer) and
moved another (Theodoric) further from the heart of the Empire. After Odoacer's defeat
in 493, Theodoric ruled Italy de facto, although he was never recognised by the eastern
emperors as "king" (rex).[25]
In 491, Anastasius I, an aged civil officer of Roman origin, became Emperor, but it was
not until 497 that the forces of the new emperor effectively took the measure of Isaurian
resistance.[26] Anastasius revealed himself as an energetic reformer and an able
administrator. He introduced a new coinage system of the copper follis, the coin used in
most everyday transactions.[27] He also reformed the tax system and permanently
abolished the chrysargyron tax. The State Treasury contained the enormous sum of
320,000 lb (150,000 kg) of gold when Anastasius died in 518.[28]
Justinian dynasty[edit]
See also: Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty

Emperor Justinian (left) and (presumed) general Belisarius (right) (Mosaic from Basilica of San Vitale, 6th

century)

Empress Theodora and attendants (Mosaic from Basilica of San Vitale, 6th century)

Hagia Sophia built in AD 537, during the reign of Justinian. The minarets were added in the 15th–16th
centuries by the Ottoman Empire.[29]

The Byzantine Empire in c. 600 during the reign of Maurice. Half of the Italian peninsula and most of southern
Hispania were lost, but the eastern borders expanded gaining land from the Persians.

The Justinian dynasty was founded by Justin I, who though illiterate, rose through the
ranks of the military to become Emperor in 518.[30] He was succeeded by his
nephew Justinian I in 527, who may already have exerted effective control during
Justin's reign.[31] One of the most important figures of late antiquity and possibly the last
Roman emperor to speak Latin as a first language,[32] Justinian's rule constitutes a
distinct epoch, marked by the ambitious but only partly realised renovatio imperii, or
"restoration of the Empire".[33] His wife Theodora was particularly influential.[34]
In 529, Justinian appointed a ten-man commission chaired by John the Cappadocian to
revise Roman law and create a new codification of laws and jurists' extracts, known as
the "Corpus Juris Civilis", or the Justinian Code. In 534, the Corpus was updated and,
along with the enactments promulgated by Justinian after 534, formed the system of law
used for most of the rest of the Byzantine era.[35] The Corpus forms the basis of civil
law of many modern states.[36]
In 532, attempting to secure his eastern frontier, Justinian signed a peace treaty
with Khosrau I of Persia, agreeing to pay a large annual tribute to the Sassanids. In the
same year, he survived a revolt in Constantinople (the Nika riots), which solidified his
power but ended with the deaths of a reported 30,000 to 35,000 rioters on his orders.
[37]
 The western conquests began in 533, as Justinian sent his general Belisarius to
reclaim the former province of Africa from the Vandals, who had been in control since
429 with their capital at Carthage.[38] Their success came with surprising ease, but it was
not until 548 that the major local tribes were subdued.[39]
In 535, a small Byzantine expedition to Sicily met with easy success, but the Goths
soon stiffened their resistance, and victory did not come until 540, when Belisarius
captured Ravenna, after successful sieges of Naples and Rome.[40] In 535–536,
Theodahad sent Pope Agapetus I to Constantinople to request the removal of Byzantine
forces from Sicily, Dalmatia, and Italy. Although Agapetus failed in his mission to sign a
peace with Justinian, he succeeded in having the Monophysite Patriarch Anthimus I of
Constantinople denounced, despite Empress Theodora's support and protection.[41]
The Ostrogoths captured Rome in 546. Belisarius, who had been sent back to Italy in
544, was eventually recalled to Constantinople in 549.[42] The arrival of the Armenian
eunuch Narses in Italy (late 551) with an army of 35,000 men marked another shift in
Gothic fortunes. Totila was defeated at the Battle of Taginae and his successor, Teia,
was defeated at the Battle of Mons Lactarius (October 552). Despite continuing
resistance from a few Gothic garrisons and two subsequent invasions by
the Franks and Alemanni, the war for the Italian peninsula was at an end.[43] In
551, Athanagild, a noble from Visigothic Hispania, sought Justinian's help in a rebellion
against the king, and the emperor dispatched a force under Liberius, a successful
military commander. The empire held on to a small slice of the Iberian Peninsula coast
until the reign of Heraclius.[44]
In the east, the Roman–Persian Wars continued until 561 when the envoys of Justinian
and Khosrau agreed on a 50-year peace.[45] By the mid-550s, Justinian had won victories
in most theatres of operation, with the notable exception of the Balkans, which were
subjected to repeated incursions from the Slavs and the Gepids. Tribes
of Serbs and Croats were later resettled in the northwestern Balkans, during the reign of
Heraclius.[46] Justinian called Belisarius out of retirement and defeated the new Hunnish
threat. The strengthening of the Danube fleet caused the Kutrigur Huns to withdraw and
they agreed to a treaty that allowed safe passage back across the Danube.[47]
Although polytheism had been suppressed by the state since at least the time of
Constantine in the 4th century, traditional Greco-Roman culture was still influential in
the Eastern empire in the 6th century.[48] Hellenistic philosophy began to be gradually
amalgamated into newer Christian philosophy. Philosophers such as John
Philoponus drew on neoplatonic ideas in addition to Christian thought and empiricism.
Because of active paganism of its professors, Justinian closed down the Neoplatonic
Academy in 529. Other schools continued in Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria,
which were the centres of Justinian's empire.[49] Hymns written by Romanos the
Melodist marked the development of the Divine Liturgy, while the architects Isidore of
Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles worked to complete the new Church of the Holy
Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, which was designed to replace an older church destroyed
during the Nika Revolt. Completed in 537, the Hagia Sophia stands today as one of the
major monuments of Byzantine architectural history.[50] During the 6th and 7th centuries,
the Empire was struck by a series of epidemics, which greatly devastated the population
and contributed to a significant economic decline and a weakening of the Empire.
[51]
 Great bathhouses were built in Byzantine centers such
as Constantinople and Antioch.[52]
After Justinian died in 565, his successor, Justin II, refused to pay the large tribute to
the Persians. Meanwhile, the Germanic Lombards invaded Italy; by the end of the
century, only a third of Italy was in Byzantine hands. Justin's successor, Tiberius II,
choosing between his enemies, awarded subsidies to the Avars while taking military
action against the Persians. Although Tiberius' general, Maurice, led an effective
campaign on the eastern frontier, subsidies failed to restrain the Avars. They captured
the Balkan fortress of Sirmium in 582, while the Slavs began to make inroads across the
Danube.[53]
Maurice, who meanwhile succeeded Tiberius, intervened in a Persian civil war, placed
the legitimate Khosrau II back on the throne, and married his daughter to him. Maurice's
treaty with his new brother-in-law enlarged the territories of the Empire to the East and
allowed the energetic Emperor to focus on the Balkans. By 602, a series of successful
Byzantine campaigns had pushed the Avars and Slavs back across the Danube.
[53]
 However, Maurice's refusal to ransom several thousand captives taken by the Avars,
and his order to the troops to winter in the Danube, caused his popularity to plummet. A
revolt broke out under an officer named Phocas, who marched the troops back to
Constantinople; Maurice and his family were murdered while trying to escape.[54]
Shrinking borders[edit]
Early Heraclian dynasty[edit]
Further information: Byzantine Empire under the Heraclian dynasty

Battle between Heraclius and the Persians. Fresco by Piero della Francesca, c. 1452

By 650 (pictured) the empire had lost all its southern provinces, except the Exarchate of Africa, to the Rashidun
Caliphate. At the same time the Slavs invaded and settled in the Balkans.

After Maurice's murder by Phocas, Khosrau used the pretext to reconquer the Roman
province of Mesopotamia.[55] Phocas, an unpopular ruler invariably described in
Byzantine sources as a "tyrant", was the target of a number of Senate-led plots. He was
eventually deposed in 610 by Heraclius, who sailed to Constantinople
from Carthage with an icon affixed to the prow of his ship.[56]
Following the accession of Heraclius, the Sassanid advance pushed deep into the
Levant, occupying Damascus and Jerusalem and removing the True
Cross to Ctesiphon.[57] The counter-attack launched by Heraclius took on the character of
a holy war, and an acheiropoietos image of Christ was carried as a military
standard[58] (similarly, when Constantinople was saved from a combined Avar–Sassanid–
Slavic siege in 626, the victory was attributed to the icons of the Virgin that were led in
procession by Patriarch Sergius about the walls of the city).[59] In this very siege of
Constantinople of the year 626, amidst the climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–
628, the combined Avar, Sassanid, and Slavic forces unsuccessfully besieged the
Byzantine capital between June and July. After this, the Sassanid army was forced to
withdraw to Anatolia. The loss came just after news had reached them of yet another
Byzantine victory, where Heraclius's brother Theodore scored well against the Persian
general Shahin.[60] Following this, Heraclius led an invasion into Sassanid Mesopotamia
once again.
The main Sassanid force was destroyed at Nineveh in 627, and in 629 Heraclius
restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in a majestic ceremony,[61] as he marched into the
Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon, where anarchy and civil war reigned as a result of the
enduring war. Eventually, the Persians were obliged to withdraw all armed forces and
return Sassanid-ruled Egypt, the Levant and whatever imperial territories of
Mesopotamia and Armenia were in Roman hands at the time of an earlier peace treaty
in c. 595. The war had exhausted both the Byzantines and Sassanids, however, and left
them extremely vulnerable to the Muslim forces that emerged in the following years.
[62]
 The Byzantines suffered a crushing defeat by the Arabs at the Battle of Yarmouk in
636, while Ctesiphon fell in 637.[63]
First Arab Siege of Constantinople (674–678) and the theme system [edit]

Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine–Arab Wars (from the Madrid

Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid).

The Arabs, now firmly in control of Syria and the Levant, sent frequent raiding parties
deep into Asia Minor, and in 674–678 laid siege to Constantinople itself. The Arab fleet
was finally repulsed through the use of Greek fire, and a thirty-years' truce was signed
between the Empire and the Umayyad Caliphate.[64] However, the Anatolian raids
continued unabated, and accelerated the demise of classical urban culture, with the
inhabitants of many cities either refortifying much smaller areas within the old city walls
or relocating entirely to nearby fortresses.[65] Constantinople itself dropped substantially
in size, from 500,000 inhabitants to just 40,000–70,000, and, like other urban centres, it
was partly ruralised. The city also lost the free grain shipments in 618, after Egypt fell
first to the Persians and then to the Arabs, and public wheat distribution ceased.[66]
The void left by the disappearance of the old semi-autonomous civic institutions was
filled by the system called theme, which entailed dividing Asia Minor into "provinces"
occupied by distinct armies that assumed civil authority and answered directly to the
imperial administration. This system may have had its roots in certain ad hoc measures
taken by Heraclius, but over the course of the 7th century it developed into an entirely
new system of imperial governance.[67] The massive cultural and institutional
restructuring of the Empire consequent on the loss of territory in the 7th century has
been said to have caused a decisive break in east Mediterranean Romanness and that
the Byzantine state is subsequently best understood as another successor state rather
than a real continuation of the Roman Empire.[68]
Late Heraclian dynasty[edit]
See also: Twenty Years' Anarchy

Constantine IV and his retinue, mosaic in Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe. Constantine IV defeated
the First Arab Siege of Constantinople.

The withdrawal of large numbers of troops from the Balkans to combat the Persians and
then the Arabs in the east opened the door for the gradual southward expansion of
Slavic peoples into the peninsula, and, as in Asia Minor, many cities shrank to small
fortified settlements.[69] In the 670s, the Bulgars were pushed south of the Danube by the
arrival of the Khazars. In 680, Byzantine forces sent to disperse these new settlements
were defeated.[70]
In 681, Constantine IV signed a treaty with the Bulgar khan Asparukh, and the new
Bulgarian state assumed sovereignty over several Slavic tribes that had previously, at
least in name, recognised Byzantine rule.[70] In 687–688, the final Heraclian
emperor, Justinian II, led an expedition against the Slavs and Bulgarians, and made
significant gains, although the fact that he had to fight his way
from Thrace to Macedonia demonstrates the degree to which Byzantine power in the
north Balkans had declined.[71]
Justinian II attempted to break the power of the urban aristocracy through severe
taxation and the appointment of "outsiders" to administrative posts. He was driven from
power in 695, and took shelter first with the Khazars and then with the Bulgarians. In
705, he returned to Constantinople with the armies of the Bulgarian khan Tervel, retook
the throne and instituted a reign of terror against his enemies. With his final overthrow in
711, supported once more by the urban aristocracy, the Heraclian dynasty came to an
end.[72]
Second Arab Siege of Constantinople (717–718) and the Isaurian dynasty[edit]
Further information: Byzantine Empire under the Isaurian dynasty
The Byzantine Empire at the accession of Leo III, c. 717. Striped indicates areas raided by the Umayyads.

Gold solidus of Leo III (left), and his son and heir, Constantine V (right)

In 717 the Umayyad Caliphate launched the Siege of Constantinople (717–718) which

lasted for one year. However, the combination of Leo III the Isaurian's military genius,
the Byzantines' use of Greek Fire, a cold winter in 717–718, and Byzantine diplomacy
with the Khan Tervel of Bulgaria resulted in a Byzantine victory. After Leo III turned back
the Muslim assault in 718, he addressed himself to the task of reorganising and
consolidating the themes in Asia Minor. In 740 a major Byzantine victory took place at
the Battle of Akroinon where the Byzantines destroyed the Umayyad army once again.
Leo III the Isaurian's son and successor, Constantine V, won noteworthy victories in
northern Syria and also thoroughly undermined Bulgarian strength.[73] In 746, profiting by
the unstable conditions in the Umayyad Caliphate, which was falling apart
under Marwan II, Constantine V invaded Syria and captured Germanikeia and the Battle
of Keramaia resulted in a major Byzantine naval victory over the Umayyad fleet.
Coupled with military defeats on other fronts of the Caliphate and internal instability,
Umayyad expansion came to an end.
Religious dispute over iconoclasm[edit]
Main article: Byzantine iconoclasm
A Simple Cross: An example of Iconoclast art in the Hagia Irene Church in Istanbul.

The 8th and early 9th centuries were also dominated by controversy and religious
division over Iconoclasm, which was the main political issue in the Empire for over a
century. Icons (here meaning all forms of religious imagery) were banned by Leo and
Constantine from around 730, leading to revolts by iconodules (supporters of icons)
throughout the empire. After the efforts of empress Irene, the Second Council of
Nicaea met in 787 and affirmed that icons could be venerated but not worshipped. Irene
is said to have endeavoured to negotiate a marriage between herself and Charlemagne,
but, according to Theophanes the Confessor, the scheme was frustrated by Aetios, one
of her favourites.[74]
In the early 9th century, Leo V reintroduced the policy of iconoclasm, but in 843
Empress Theodora restored the veneration of icons with the help of Patriarch
Methodios.[75] Iconoclasm played a part in the further alienation of East from West, which
worsened during the so-called Photian schism, when Pope Nicholas I challenged the
elevation of Photios to the patriarchate.[76]
Macedonian dynasty and resurgence (867–1025)[edit]
See also: Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty

The Byzantine Empire, c. 867

The accession of Basil I to the throne in 867 marks the beginning of the Macedonian
dynasty, which ruled for 150 years. This dynasty included some of the ablest emperors
in Byzantium's history, and the period is one of revival. The Empire moved from
defending against external enemies to reconquest of territories.[77] The Macedonian
dynasty was characterised by a cultural revival in spheres such as philosophy and the
arts. There was a conscious effort to restore the brilliance of the period before
the Slavic and subsequent Arab invasions, and the Macedonian era has been dubbed
the "Golden Age" of Byzantium.[77] Although the Empire was significantly smaller than
during the reign of Justinian, it had regained much strength, as the remaining territories
were less geographically dispersed and more politically, economically, and culturally
integrated.
Wars against the Abbasids[edit]
Main article: Arab–Byzantine wars

The general Leo Phokas defeats the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo at Andrassos in 960, from the Madrid

Skylitzes

Taking advantage of the Empire's weakness after the Revolt of Thomas the Slav in the
early 820s, the Arabs re-emerged and captured Crete. They also successfully attacked
Sicily but in 863 general Petronas gained a decisive victory at the Battle of
Lalakaon against Umar al-Aqta, the emir of Melitene (Malatya). Under the leadership of
emperor Krum, the Bulgarian threat also re-emerged, but in 815–816 Krum's
son, Omurtag, signed a peace treaty with Leo V.[78]
In the 830s Abbasid Caliphate started military excursions culminating with a victory in
the Sack of Amorium. The Byzantines then counter-attacked and sacked Damietta in
Egypt. Later the Abbasid Caliphate responded by sending their troops into Anatolia
again, sacking and marauding until they were eventually annihilated by the Byzantines
at the Battle of Lalakaon in 863.
In the early years of Basil I's reign, Arab raids on the coasts of Dalmatia and the Siege
of Ragusa (866–868) were defeated and the region once again came under secure
Byzantine control. This enabled Byzantine missionaries to penetrate to the interior
and convert the Serbs and the principalities of modern-
day Herzegovina and Montenegro to Christianity.[79]
By contrast, the Byzantine position in Southern Italy was gradually consolidated; by
873 Bari was once again under Byzantine rule and most of Southern Italy would remain
in the Empire for the next 200 years.[79][80] On the more important eastern front, the
Empire rebuilt its defences and went on the offensive. The Paulicians were defeated at
the Battle of Bathys Ryax and their capital of Tephrike (Divrigi) taken, while the
offensive against the Abbasid Caliphate began with the recapture of Samosata.[79]
10th century military successes were coupled with a major cultural revival, the so-called Macedonian
Renaissance. Miniature from the Paris Psalter, an example of Hellenistic-influenced art.

Under Basil's son and successor, Leo VI the Wise, the gains in the east against the
enfeebled Abbasid Caliphate continued. Sicily was lost to the Arabs in 902 and in
904 Thessaloniki, the Empire's second city was sacked by an Arab fleet. The naval
weakness of the Empire was rectified. Despite this revenge, the Byzantines were still
unable to strike a decisive blow against the Muslims, who inflicted a crushing defeat on
the imperial forces when they attempted to regain Crete in 911.[81]
The death of the Bulgarian tsar Simeon I in 927 severely weakened the Bulgarians,
allowing the Byzantines to concentrate on the eastern front.[82] Melitene was permanently
recaptured in 934 and in 943 the famous general John Kourkouas continued the
offensive in Mesopotamia with some noteworthy victories, culminating in the reconquest
of Edessa. Kourkouas was especially celebrated for returning to Constantinople the
venerated Mandylion, a relic purportedly imprinted with a portrait of Jesus.[83]
The soldier-emperors Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969) and John I Tzimiskes (969–
976) expanded the empire well into Syria, defeating the emirs of north-west Iraq.
Nikephoros took the great city of Aleppo in 962 and the Arabs were decisively expelled
from Crete in 963. The recapture of Crete in the Siege of Chandax put an end to Arab
raids in the Aegean, allowing mainland Greece to flourish again. Cyprus was
permanently retaken in 965 and the successes of Nikephoros culminated in 969 with
the Siege of Antioch and its recapture, which he incorporated as a province of the
Empire.[84] His successor John Tzimiskes recaptured
Damascus, Beirut, Acre, Sidon, Caesarea and Tiberias, putting Byzantine armies within
striking distance of Jerusalem, although the Muslim power centres in Iraq and Egypt
were left untouched.[85] After much campaigning in the north, the last Arab threat to
Byzantium, the rich province of Sicily, was targeted in 1025 by Basil II, who died before
the expedition could be completed. By that time the Empire stretched from the straits
of Messina to the Euphrates and from the Danube to Syria.[86]
Wars against the Bulgarian Empire[edit]
Further information: Byzantine–Bulgarian wars
Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025)

The extent of the Empire under Basil II

The traditional struggle with the See of Rome continued through the Macedonian

period, spurred by the question of religious supremacy over the newly
Christianised state of Bulgaria.[77] Ending eighty years of peace between the two states,
the powerful Bulgarian tsar Simeon I invaded in 894 but was pushed back by the
Byzantines, who used their fleet to sail up the Black Sea to attack the Bulgarian rear,
enlisting the support of the Hungarians.[87] The Byzantines were defeated at the Battle of
Boulgarophygon in 896, however, and agreed to pay annual subsidies to the
Bulgarians.[81]
Leo the Wise died in 912, and hostilities soon resumed as Simeon marched to
Constantinople at the head of a large army.[88] Although the walls of the city were
impregnable, the Byzantine administration was in disarray and Simeon was invited into
the city, where he was granted the crown of basileus (emperor) of Bulgaria and had the
young emperor Constantine VII marry one of his daughters. When a revolt in
Constantinople halted his dynastic project, he again invaded Thrace and
conquered Adrianople.[89] The Empire now faced the problem of a powerful Christian
state within a few days' marching distance from Constantinople,[77] as well as having to
fight on two fronts.[81]
A great imperial expedition under Leo Phocas and Romanos I Lekapenos ended with
another crushing Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Achelous in 917, and the following
year the Bulgarians were free to ravage northern Greece. Adrianople was plundered
again in 923, and a Bulgarian army laid siege to Constantinople in 924. Simeon died
suddenly in 927, however, and Bulgarian power collapsed with him. Bulgaria and
Byzantium entered a long period of peaceful relations, and the Empire was now free to
concentrate on the eastern front against the Muslims.[90] In 968, Bulgaria was overrun by
the Rus' under Sviatoslav I of Kiev, but three years later, John I Tzimiskes defeated the
Rus' and re-incorporated Eastern Bulgaria into the Byzantine Empire.[91]
Bulgarian resistance revived under the rule of the Cometopuli dynasty, but the new
Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025) made the submission of the Bulgarians his primary goal.
[92]
 Basil's first expedition against Bulgaria, however, resulted in a defeat at the Gates of
Trajan. For the next few years, the emperor would be preoccupied with internal revolts
in Anatolia, while the Bulgarians expanded their realm in the Balkans. The war dragged
on for nearly twenty years. The Byzantine victories of Spercheios and Skopje decisively
weakened the Bulgarian army, and in annual campaigns, Basil methodically reduced
the Bulgarian strongholds.[92] At the Battle of Kleidion in 1014 the Bulgarians were
annihilated: their army was captured, and it is said that 99 out of every 100 men were
blinded, with the hundredth man left with one eye so he could lead his compatriots
home. When Tsar Samuil saw the broken remains of his once formidable army, he died
of shock. By 1018, the last Bulgarian strongholds had surrendered, and the country
became part of the Empire.[92] This victory restored the Danube frontier, which had not
been held since the days of the Emperor Heraclius.[86]
Relations with the Kievan Rus'[edit]

Rus' under the walls of Constantinople (860)

Varangian Guardsmen, an illumination from the Skylitzis Chronicle

Between 850 and 1100, the Empire developed a mixed relationship with the new state
of the Kievan Rus', which had emerged to the north across the Black Sea.[93] This
relationship would have long-lasting repercussions in the history of the East Slavs, and
the Empire quickly became the main trading and cultural partner for Kiev. The Rus'
launched their first attack against Constantinople in 860, pillaging the suburbs of the
city. In 941, they appeared on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, but this time they were
crushed, an indication of the improvements in the Byzantine military position after 907,
when only diplomacy had been able to push back the invaders. Basil II could not ignore
the emerging power of the Rus', and, following the example of his predecessors, he
used religion as a means for the achievement of political purposes.[94] Rus'–Byzantine
relations became closer following the marriage of Anna Porphyrogeneta to Vladimir the
Great in 988, and the subsequent Christianisation of the Rus'.[93] Byzantine priests,
architects, and artists were invited to work on numerous cathedrals and churches
around Rus', expanding Byzantine cultural influence even further, while numerous Rus'
served in the Byzantine army as mercenaries, most notably as the famous Varangian
Guard.[93]
Even after the Christianisation of the Rus', however, relations were not always friendly.
The most serious conflict between the two powers was the war of 968–971 in Bulgaria,
but several Rus' raiding expeditions against the Byzantine cities of the Black Sea coast
and Constantinople itself are also recorded. Although most were repulsed, they were
often followed by treaties that were generally favourable to the Rus', such as the one
concluded at the end of the war of 1043, during which the Rus' indicated their ambitions
to compete with the Byzantines as an independent power.[94]
Campaigns in the Caucasus[edit]
Main article: Byzantine–Georgian wars
Between 1021 and 1022, following years of tensions, Basil II led a series of victorious
campaigns against the Kingdom of Georgia, resulting in the annexation of several
Georgian provinces to the Empire. Basil's successors also annexed Bagratid Armenia in
1045. Importantly, both Georgia and Armenia were significantly weakened by the
Byzantine administration's policy of heavy taxation and abolishing of the levy. The
weakening of Georgia and Armenia would play a significant role in the Byzantine defeat
at Manzikert in 1071.[95]
Apex[edit]

Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe throughout late antiquity and most of the Middle
Ages until the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

Basil II is considered among the most capable Byzantine emperors and his reign as the
apex of the empire in the Middle Ages. By 1025, the date of Basil II's death, the
Byzantine Empire stretched from Armenia in the east to Calabria in Southern Italy in the
west.[86] Many successes had been achieved, ranging from the conquest of Bulgaria to
the annexation of parts of Georgia and Armenia, and the reconquest of Crete, Cyprus,
and the important city of Antioch. These were not temporary tactical gains but long-term
reconquests.[79]
Leo VI achieved the complete codification of Byzantine law in Greek. This monumental
work of 60 volumes became the foundation of all subsequent Byzantine law and is still
studied today.[96] Leo also reformed the administration of the Empire, redrawing the
borders of the administrative subdivisions (the Themata, or "Themes") and tidying up
the system of ranks and privileges, as well as regulating the behaviour of the various
trade guilds in Constantinople. Leo's reform did much to reduce the previous
fragmentation of the Empire, which henceforth had one centre of power,
Constantinople.[97] However, the increasing military success of the Empire greatly
enriched and gave the provincial nobility more power over the peasantry, who were
essentially reduced to a state of serfdom.[98]
Under the Macedonian emperors, the city of Constantinople flourished, becoming the
largest and wealthiest city in Europe, with a population of approximately 400,000 in the
9th and 10th centuries.[99] During this period, the Byzantine Empire employed a strong
civil service staffed by competent aristocrats that oversaw the collection of taxes,
domestic administration, and foreign policy. The Macedonian emperors also increased
the Empire's wealth by fostering trade with Western Europe, particularly through the
sale of silk and metalwork.[100]
Split between Orthodoxy and Catholicism (1054) [edit]
Further information: East–West Schism

Mural of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century, Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria

The Macedonian period also included events of momentous religious significance. The

conversion of the Bulgarians, Serbs and Rus' to Orthodox Christianity drew the religious
map of Europe which still resonates today. Cyril and Methodius, two Byzantine Greek
brothers from Thessaloniki, contributed significantly to the Christianization of the
Slavs and in the process devised the Glagolitic alphabet, ancestor to the Cyrillic script.
[101]

In 1054, relations between the Eastern and Western traditions of

the Chalcedonian Christian Church reached a terminal crisis, known as the East–West
Schism. Although there was a formal declaration of institutional separation, on 16 July,
when three papal legates entered the Hagia Sophia during Divine Liturgy on a Saturday
afternoon and placed a bull of excommunication on the altar,[102] the so-called Great
Schism was actually the culmination of centuries of gradual separation.[103]
Crisis and fragmentation[edit]
The Byzantine Empire soon fell into a period of difficulties, caused to a large extent by
the undermining of the theme system and the neglect of the military. Nikephoros II, John
Tzimiskes, and Basil II shifted the emphasis of the military divisions (τάγματα, tagmata)
from a reactive, defence-oriented citizen army into an army of professional career
soldiers, increasingly dependent on foreign mercenaries. Mercenaries were expensive,
however, and as the threat of invasion receded in the 10th century, so did the need for
maintaining large garrisons and expensive fortifications.[104] Basil II left a burgeoning
treasury upon his death, but he neglected to plan for his succession. None of his
immediate successors had any particular military or political talent and the imperial
administration increasingly fell into the hands of the civil service. Incompetent efforts to
revive the Byzantine economy resulted in severe inflation and a debased gold currency.
The army was now seen as both an unnecessary expense and a political threat. A
number of standing local units were demobilised, further augmenting the army's
dependence on mercenaries, who could be retained and dismissed on an as-needed
basis.[105]
The seizure of Edessa (1031) by the Byzantines under George Maniakes and the counterattack by the Seljuk
Turks

At the same time, Byzantium was faced with new enemies. Its provinces in southern
Italy were threatened by the Normans, who arrived in Italy at the beginning of the 11th
century. During a period of strife between Constantinople and Rome culminating in
the East-West Schism of 1054, the Normans began to advance, slowly but steadily, into
Byzantine Italy.[106] Reggio, the capital of the tagma of Calabria, was captured in 1060
by Robert Guiscard, followed by Otranto in 1068. Bari, the main Byzantine stronghold in
Apulia, was besieged in August 1068 and fell in April 1071.[107]
About 1053, Constantine IX disbanded what the historian John Skylitzes calls the
"Iberian Army", which consisted of 50,000 men and it was turned into a
contemporary Drungary of the Watch. Two other knowledgeable contemporaries, the
former officials Michael Attaleiates and Kekaumenos, agree with Skylitzes that by
demobilising these soldiers Constantine did catastrophic harm to the Empire's eastern
defences.
The emergency lent weight to the military aristocracy in Anatolia, who in 1068 secured
the election of one of their own, Romanos Diogenes, as emperor. In the summer of
1071, Romanos undertook a massive eastern campaign to draw the Seljuks into a
general engagement with the Byzantine army. At the Battle of Manzikert, Romanos
suffered a surprise defeat by Sultan Alp Arslan, and he was captured. Alp Arslan treated
him with respect and imposed no harsh terms on the Byzantines.[105] In Constantinople,
however, a coup put in power Michael Doukas, who soon faced the opposition
of Nikephoros Bryennios and Nikephoros Botaneiates. By 1081, the Seljuks had
expanded their rule over virtually the entire Anatolian plateau from Armenia in the east
to Bithynia in the west, and they had founded their capital at Nicaea, just 90 kilometres
(56 miles) from Constantinople.[108]
Komnenian dynasty and the Crusades[edit]
See also: Byzantine Empire under the Komnenos dynasty and Komnenian restoration

Alexios I, founder of the Komnenos dynasty

During the Komnenian, or Comnenian, period from about 1081 to about 1185, the five
emperors of the Komnenos dynasty (Alexios I, John II, Manuel I, Alexios II, and
Andronikos I) presided over a sustained, though ultimately incomplete, restoration of the
military, territorial, economic, and political position of the Byzantine Empire.[109] Although
the Seljuk Turks occupied the heartland of the Empire in Anatolia, most Byzantine
military efforts during this period were directed against Western powers, particularly
the Normans.[109]
The Empire under the Komnenoi played a key role in the history of the Crusades in the
Holy Land, which Alexios I had helped bring about, while also exerting enormous
cultural and political influence in Europe, the Near East, and the lands around the
Mediterranean Sea under John and Manuel. Contact between Byzantium and the
"Latin" West, including the Crusader states, increased significantly during the
Komnenian period. Venetian and other Italian traders became resident in large numbers
in Constantinople and the empire (there were an estimated 60,000 Latins in
Constantinople alone, out of a population of three to four hundred thousand), and their
presence together with the numerous Latin mercenaries who were employed by Manuel
helped to spread Byzantine technology, art, literature and culture throughout the Latin
West, while also leading to a flow of Western ideas and customs into the Empire.[110]
In terms of prosperity and cultural life, the Komnenian period was one of the peaks in
Byzantine history,[111] and Constantinople remained the leading city of the Christian world
in size, wealth, and culture.[112] There was a renewed interest in classical Greek
philosophy, as well as an increase in literary output in vernacular Greek.[113] Byzantine art
and literature held a pre-eminent place in Europe, and the cultural impact of Byzantine
art on the west during this period was enormous and of long-lasting significance.[114]
Alexios I and the First Crusade[edit]
Further information: Alexios I Komnenos
See also: First Crusade
The Chora Church, dating from the Komnenian period, has some of the finest Byzantine frescoes and mosaics.

After Manzikert, a partial recovery (referred to as the Komnenian restoration) was made
possible by the Komnenian dynasty.[115] The Komnenoi attained power again under
Alexios I in 1081. From the outset of his reign, Alexios faced a formidable attack by the
Normans under Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemund of Taranto, who
captured Dyrrhachium and Corfu, and laid siege to Larissa in Thessaly. Robert
Guiscard's death in 1085 temporarily eased the Norman problem. The following year,
the Seljuq sultan died, and the sultanate was split by internal rivalries. By his own
efforts, Alexios defeated the Pechenegs; they were caught by surprise and annihilated
at the Battle of Levounion on 28 April 1091.[116]

The Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm before the First Crusade (1095–1099)

Having achieved stability in the West, Alexios could turn his attention to the severe
economic difficulties and the disintegration of the Empire's traditional defences.
[117]
 However, he still did not have enough manpower to recover the lost territories in Asia
Minor and to advance against the Seljuks. At the Council of Piacenza in 1095, envoys
from Alexios spoke to Pope Urban II about the suffering of the Christians of the East,
and underscored that without help from the West they would continue to suffer under
Muslim rule.[118]
Urban saw Alexios's request as a dual opportunity to cement Western Europe and
reunite the Eastern Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic Church under his rule.
[118]
 On 27 November 1095, Pope Urban II called together the Council of Clermont, and
urged all those present to take up arms under the sign of the Cross and launch an
armed pilgrimage to recover Jerusalem and the East from the Muslims. The response in
Western Europe was overwhelming.[116]
Alexios had anticipated help in the form of mercenary forces from the West, but he was
totally unprepared for the immense and undisciplined force that soon arrived in
Byzantine territory. It was no comfort to Alexios to learn that four of the eight leaders of
the main body of the Crusade were Normans, among them Bohemund. Since the
crusade had to pass through Constantinople, however, the Emperor had some control
over it. He required its leaders to swear to restore to the empire any towns or territories
they might reconquer from the Turks on their way to the Holy Land. In return, he gave
them guides and a military escort.[119]
Alexios was able to recover a number of important cities, islands and much of western
Asia Minor. The Crusaders agreed to become Alexios' vassals under the Treaty of
Devol in 1108, which marked the end of the Norman threat during Alexios' reign.[120]
John II, Manuel I and the Second Crusade[edit]
Main articles: John II Komnenos and Manuel I Komnenos

A mosaic from the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople (modern Istanbul), depicting Mary and Jesus, flanked

by John II Komnenos (left) and his wife Irene of Hungary (right), 12th century

Byzantine Empire in orange, c. 1180, at the end of the Komnenian period

Alexios's son John II Komnenos succeeded him in 1118 and ruled until 1143. John was
a pious and dedicated Emperor who was determined to undo the damage to the empire
suffered at the Battle of Manzikert, half a century earlier.[121] Famed for his piety and his
remarkably mild and just reign, John was an exceptional example of a moral ruler at a
time when cruelty was the norm.[122] For this reason, he has been called the
Byzantine Marcus Aurelius.
During his twenty-five-year reign, John made alliances with the Holy Roman Empire in
the West and decisively defeated the Pechenegs at the Battle of Beroia.[123] He thwarted
Hungarian and Serbian threats during the 1120s, and in 1130 he allied himself with
the German emperor Lothair III against the Norman king Roger II of Sicily.[124]
In the later part of his reign, John focused his activities on the East, personally leading
numerous campaigns against the Turks in Asia Minor. His campaigns fundamentally
altered the balance of power in the East, forcing the Turks onto the defensive, while
restoring many towns, fortresses, and cities across the peninsula to the Byzantines. He
defeated the Danishmend Emirate of Melitene and reconquered all of Cilicia, while
forcing Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch, to recognise Byzantine suzerainty. In an
effort to demonstrate the Emperor's role as the leader of the Christian world, John
marched into the Holy Land at the head of the combined forces of the Empire and
the Crusader states; yet despite his great vigour pressing the campaign, his hopes were
disappointed by the treachery of his Crusader allies.[125] In 1142, John returned to press
his claims to Antioch, but he died in the spring of 1143 following a hunting accident.
John's chosen heir was his fourth son, Manuel I Komnenos, who campaigned
aggressively against his neighbours both in the west and in the east. In Palestine,
Manuel allied with the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and sent a large fleet to
participate in a combined invasion of Fatimid Egypt. Manuel reinforced his position as
overlord of the Crusader states, with his hegemony over Antioch and Jerusalem
secured by agreement with Raynald, Prince of Antioch, and Amalric, King of Jerusalem.
[126]
 In an effort to restore Byzantine control over the ports of southern Italy, he sent an
expedition to Italy in 1155, but disputes within the coalition led to the eventual failure of
the campaign. Despite this military setback, Manuel's armies successfully invaded the
Southern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1167, defeating the Hungarians at
the Battle of Sirmium. By 1168, nearly the whole of the eastern Adriatic coast lay in
Manuel's hands.[127] Manuel made several alliances with the Pope and Western Christian
kingdoms, and he successfully handled the passage of the Second Crusade through his
empire.[128]
In the east, however, Manuel suffered a major defeat in 1176 at the Battle of
Myriokephalon, against the Turks. Yet the losses were quickly recovered, and in the
following year Manuel's forces inflicted a defeat upon a force of "picked Turks".[129] The
Byzantine commander John Vatatzes, who destroyed the Turkish invaders at the Battle
of Hyelion and Leimocheir, not only brought troops from the capital but also was able to
gather an army along the way, a sign that the Byzantine army remained strong and that
the defensive program of western Asia Minor was still successful.[130]
12th-century Renaissance[edit]
Further information: Byzantine civilisation in the 12th century
See also: Komnenian Byzantine army

The Lamentation of Christ (1164), a fresco from the church of Saint Panteleimon in Nerezi, North Macedonia,

considered a superb example of 12th-century Komnenian art

John and Manuel pursued active military policies, and both deployed considerable
resources on sieges and city defences; aggressive fortification policies were at the heart
of their imperial military policies.[131] Despite the defeat at Myriokephalon, the policies of
Alexios, John and Manuel resulted in vast territorial gains, increased frontier stability in
Asia Minor, and secured the stabilisation of the Empire's European frontiers. From c.
1081 to c. 1180, the Komnenian army assured the Empire's security, enabling
Byzantine civilisation to flourish.[132]
This allowed the Western provinces to achieve an economic revival that continued until
the close of the century. It has been argued that Byzantium under the Komnenian rule
was more prosperous than at any time since the Persian invasions of the 7th century.
During the 12th century, population levels rose and extensive tracts of new agricultural
land were brought into production. Archaeological evidence from both Europe and Asia
Minor shows a considerable increase in the size of urban settlements, together with a
notable upsurge in new towns. Trade was also flourishing; the Venetians,
the Genoese and others opened up the ports of the Aegean to commerce, shipping
goods from the Crusader kingdoms of Outremer and Fatimid Egypt to the west and
trading with the Empire via Constantinople.[133]
In artistic terms, there was a revival in mosaic, and regional schools of architecture
began producing many distinctive styles that drew on a range of cultural influences.
[134]
 During the 12th century, the Byzantines provided their model of early humanism as a
renaissance of interest in classical authors. In Eustathius of Thessalonica, Byzantine
humanism found its most characteristic expression.[135] In philosophy, there was a
resurgence of classical learning not seen since the 7th century, characterised by a
significant increase in the publication of commentaries on classical works.[113] Besides,
the first transmission of classical Greek knowledge to the West occurred during the
Komnenian period.[114]
Decline and disintegration[edit]
Main article: Decline of the Byzantine Empire
Angelid dynasty[edit]
Main article: Byzantine Empire under the Angelos dynasty

Byzantium in the late Angeloi period

Manuel's death on 24 September 1180 left his 11-year-old son Alexios II Komnenos on

the throne. Alexios was highly incompetent in the office, and with his mother Maria of
Antioch's Frankish background, made his regency unpopular.[136] Eventually, Andronikos
I Komnenos, a grandson of Alexios I, launched a revolt against his younger relative and
managed to overthrow him in a violent coup d'état.[137] Utilizing his good looks and his
immense popularity with the army, he marched on to Constantinople in August
1182 and incited a massacre of the Latins.[137] After eliminating his potential rivals, he had
himself crowned as co-emperor in September 1183. He eliminated Alexios II and took
his 12-year-old wife Agnes of France for himself.[137]
Andronikos began his reign well; in particular, the measures he took to reform the
government of the Empire have been praised by historians. According to George
Ostrogorsky, Andronikos was determined to root out corruption: under his rule, the sale
of offices ceased; selection was based on merit, rather than favouritism; officials were
paid an adequate salary to reduce the temptation of bribery. In the provinces,
Andronikos's reforms produced a speedy and marked improvement.[138] The aristocrats
were infuriated against him, and to make matters worse, Andronikos seems to have
become increasingly unbalanced; executions and violence became increasingly
common, and his reign turned into a reign of terror.[139] Andronikos seemed almost to
seek the extermination of the aristocracy as a whole. The struggle against the
aristocracy turned into wholesale slaughter, while the Emperor resorted to ever more
ruthless measures to shore up his regime.[138]
Despite his military background, Andronikos failed to deal with Isaac Komnenos, Béla III
of Hungary (r. 1172–1196) who reincorporated Croatian territories into Hungary,
and Stephen Nemanja of Serbia (r. 1166–1196) who declared his independence from
the Byzantine Empire. Yet, none of these troubles would compare to William II of Sicily's
(r. 1166–1189) invasion force of 300 ships and 80,000 men, arriving in 1185.
[140]
 Andronikos mobilised a small fleet of 100 ships to defend the capital, but other than
that he was indifferent to the populace. He was finally overthrown when Isaac Angelos,
surviving an imperial assassination attempt, seized power with the aid of the people and
had Andronikos killed.[141]
The reign of Isaac II, and more so that of his brother Alexios III, saw the collapse of
what remained of the centralised machinery of Byzantine government and defence.
Although the Normans were driven out of Greece, in 1186 the Vlachs and Bulgars
began a rebellion that led to the formation of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The internal
policy of the Angeloi was characterised by the squandering of the public treasure and
fiscal maladministration. Imperial authority was severely weakened, and the growing
power vacuum at the centre of the Empire encouraged fragmentation. There is evidence
that some Komnenian heirs had set up a semi-independent state in Trebizond before
1204.[142] According to Alexander Vasiliev, "the dynasty of the Angeloi, Greek in its
origin, ... accelerated the ruin of the Empire, already weakened without and disunited
within."[143]
Fourth Crusade[edit]
Further information: Fourth Crusade
The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople, by Eugène Delacroix (1840)

In 1198, Pope Innocent III broached the subject of a new crusade

through legates and encyclical letters.[144] The stated intent of the crusade was to
conquer Egypt, now the centre of Muslim power in the Levant. The crusader army that
arrived at Venice in the summer of 1202 and hired the Venetian fleet to transport them
to Egypt. As a payment to the Venetians, they captured the (Christian) port
of Zara in Dalmatia (vassal city of Venice, which had rebelled and placed itself under
Hungary's protection in 1186).[145] Shortly afterwards, Alexios Angelos, son of the
deposed and blinded Emperor Isaac II Angelos, made contacts with the crusaders.
Alexios offered to reunite the Byzantine church with Rome, pay the crusaders 200,000
silver marks, join the crusade, and provide all the supplies they needed to reach Egypt.
[146]

Crusader sack of Constantinople (1204)[edit]

Further information: Siege of Constantinople (1203) and Siege of Constantinople
(1204)

The partition of the empire following the Fourth Crusade, c. 1204

The crusaders arrived at Constantinople in the summer of 1203 and quickly attacked,
starting a major fire that damaged large parts of the city, and briefly seized control.
Alexios III fled from the capital and Alexios Angelos was elevated to the throne
as Alexios IV along with his blind father Isaac. Alexios IV and Isaac II were unable to
keep their promises and were deposed by Alexios V. The crusaders again took the city
on 13 April 1204 and Constantinople was subjected to pillage and massacre by the rank
and file for three days. Many priceless icons, relics and other objects later turned up
in Western Europe, a large number in Venice. According to Choniates, a prostitute was
even set up on the Patriarchal throne.[147] When order had been restored, the crusaders
and the Venetians proceeded to implement their agreement; Baldwin of Flanders was
elected Emperor of a new Latin Empire and the Venetian Thomas Morosini was chosen
as Patriarch. The lands divided up among the leaders included most of the former
Byzantine possessions, though resistance would continue through the Byzantine
remnants of Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus.[148] Although Venice was more interested in
commerce than conquering territory, it took key areas of Constantinople and the Doge
took the title of "Lord of a Quarter and Half a Quarter of the Roman Empire".[149]
Fall[edit]
Empire in exile[edit]
Further information: Frankokratia
After the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by Latin crusaders, two Byzantine successor
states were established: the Empire of Nicaea, and the Despotate of Epirus. A third,
the Empire of Trebizond, was created after Alexios Komnenos, commanding
the Georgian expedition in Chaldia[150] a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople,
found himself de facto emperor, and established himself in Trebizond. Of the three
successor states, Epirus and Nicaea stood the best chance of reclaiming
Constantinople. The Nicaean Empire struggled to survive the next few decades,
however, and by the mid-13th century it had lost much of southern Anatolia.[151] The
weakening of the Sultanate of Rûm following the Mongol invasion in 1242–43 allowed
many beyliks and ghazis to set up their own principalities in Anatolia, weakening the
Byzantine hold on Asia Minor.[152] In time, one of the Beys, Osman I, created an empire
that would eventually conquer Constantinople. However, the Mongol invasion also gave
Nicaea a temporary respite from Seljuk attacks, allowing it to concentrate on the Latin
Empire to its north.
Reconquest of Constantinople[edit]
Main article: Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty

The Byzantine Empire, c. 1263

The Empire of Nicaea, founded by the Laskarid dynasty, managed to effect

the Recapture of Constantinople from the Latins in 1261 and defeat Epirus. This led to a
short-lived revival of Byzantine fortunes under Michael VIII Palaiologos but the war-
ravaged Empire was ill-equipped to deal with the enemies that surrounded it. To
maintain his campaigns against the Latins, Michael pulled troops from Asia Minor and
levied crippling taxes on the peasantry, causing much resentment.[153] Massive
construction projects were completed in Constantinople to repair the damage of the
Fourth Crusade but none of these initiatives was of any comfort to the farmers in Asia
Minor suffering raids from Muslim ghazis.[154]
Rather than holding on to his possessions in Asia Minor, Michael chose to expand the
Empire, gaining only short-term success. To avoid another sacking of the capital by the
Latins, he forced the Church to submit to Rome, again a temporary solution for which
the peasantry hated Michael and Constantinople.[154] The efforts of Andronikos II and
later his grandson Andronikos III marked Byzantium's last genuine attempts in restoring
the glory of the Empire. However, the use of mercenaries by Andronikos II would often
backfire, with the Catalan Company ravaging the countryside and increasing
resentment towards Constantinople.[155]
Rise of the Ottomans and fall of Constantinople[edit]
Main articles: Byzantine–Ottoman Wars and Fall of Constantinople

The Siege of Constantinople in 1453, depicted in a 15th-century French miniature

The situation became worse for Byzantium during the civil wars after Andronikos III
died. A six-year-long civil war devastated the empire, allowing the Serbian ruler Stefan
Dušan (r. 1331–1346) to overrun most of the Empire's remaining territory and establish
a Serbian Empire. In 1354, an earthquake at Gallipoli devastated the fort, allowing
the Ottomans (who were hired as mercenaries during the civil war by John VI
Kantakouzenos) to establish themselves in Europe.[156] By the time the Byzantine civil
wars had ended, the Ottomans had defeated the Serbians and subjugated them as
vassals. Following the Battle of Kosovo, much of the Balkans became dominated by the
Ottomans.[157]
The Byzantine emperors appealed to the West for help, but the Pope would only
consider sending aid in return for a reunion of the Eastern Orthodox Church with
the See of Rome. Church unity was considered, and occasionally accomplished by
imperial decree, but the Orthodox citizenry and clergy intensely resented the authority of
Rome and the Latin Rite.[158] Some Western troops arrived to bolster the Christian
defence of Constantinople, but most Western rulers, distracted by their own affairs, did
nothing as the Ottomans picked apart the remaining Byzantine territories.[159]
Constantinople by this stage was underpopulated and dilapidated. The population of the
city had collapsed so severely that it was now little more than a cluster of villages
separated by fields. On 2 April 1453, Sultan Mehmed's army of 80,000 men and large
numbers of irregulars laid siege to the city.[160] Despite a desperate last-ditch defence of
the city by the massively outnumbered Christian forces (c. 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom
were foreign),[159] Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans after a two-month siege on
29 May 1453. The final Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, was last seen
casting off his imperial regalia and throwing himself into hand-to-hand combat after the
walls of the city were taken.[161]
Political aftermath[edit]

The Eastern Mediterranean just before the Fall of Constantinople

Flag of the late Empire under the Palaiologoi, sporting the tetragrammic cross symbol of the Palaiologos
dynasty

By the time of the fall of Constantinople, the only remaining territory of the Byzantine
Empire was the Despotate of the Morea (Peloponnese), which was ruled by brothers of
the last Emperor, Thomas Palaiologos and Demetrios Palaiologos. The Despotate
continued as an independent state by paying an annual tribute to the Ottomans.
Incompetent rule, failure to pay the annual tribute and a revolt against the Ottomans
finally led to Mehmed II's invasion of Morea in May 1460.[162]
A few holdouts remained for a time. The island of Monemvasia refused to surrender and
it was first ruled for a short time by an Aragonese corsair. When the population drove
him out they obtained the consent of Thomas to place themselves under the Pope's
protection before the end of 1460. The Mani Peninsula, on the Morea's south end,
resisted under a loose coalition of the local clans and then that area came under
Venice's rule. The last holdout was Salmeniko, in the Morea's northwest. Graitzas
Palaiologos was the military commander there, stationed at Salmeniko Castle. While the
town eventually surrendered, Graitzas and his garrison and some town residents held
out in the castle until July 1461, when they escaped and reached Venetian territory.[163]
The Empire of Trebizond, which had split away from the Byzantine Empire just weeks
before Constantinople was taken by the Crusaders in 1204, became the last remnant
and last de facto successor state to the Byzantine Empire. Efforts by the Emperor
David to recruit European powers for an anti-Ottoman crusade provoked war between
the Ottomans and Trebizond in the summer of 1461. After a month-long siege, David
surrendered the city of Trebizond on 14 August 1461. The Empire of Trebizond's
Crimean principality, the Principality of Theodoro (part of the Perateia), lasted another
14 years, falling to the Ottomans in December 1475.
A nephew of the last Emperor, Constantine XI, Andreas Palaiologos claimed to have
inherited the title of Byzantine Emperor. He lived in the Morea until its fall in 1460, then
escaped to Rome where he lived under the protection of the Papal States for the
remainder of his life. Since the office of emperor had never been technically hereditary,
Andreas' claim would have been without merit under Byzantine law. However, the
Empire had vanished, and Western states generally followed the Roman-church-
sanctioned principles of hereditary sovereignty. Seeking a life in the west, Andreas
styled himself Imperator Constantinopolitanus ("Emperor of Constantinople"), and sold
his succession rights to both Charles VIII of France and the Catholic Monarchs.
Constantine XI died without producing an heir, and had Constantinople not fallen he
might have been succeeded by the sons of his deceased elder brother, who were taken
into the palace service of Mehmed II after the fall of Constantinople. The oldest boy,
renamed Has Murad, became a personal favourite of Mehmed and served as Beylerbey
(Governor-General) of the Balkans. The younger son, renamed Mesih Pasha, became
Admiral of the Ottoman fleet and Sancak Beg (Governor) of the Province of Gallipoli. He
eventually served twice as Grand Vizier under Mehmed's son, Bayezid II.[164]
Mehmed II and his successors continued to consider themselves heirs to the Roman
Empire until the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century following World
War I. They considered that they had simply shifted its religious basis as Constantine
had done before, and they continued to refer to their conquered Eastern Roman
inhabitants (Orthodox Christians) as Rûm. Meanwhile, the Danubian
Principalities (whose rulers also considered themselves the heirs of the Eastern Roman
Emperors[165]) harboured Orthodox refugees, including some Byzantine nobles.
At his death, the role of the emperor as a patron of Eastern Orthodoxy was claimed
by Ivan III, Grand duke of Muscovy. He had married Andreas' sister, Sophia
Palaiologina, whose grandson, Ivan IV, would become the first Tsar of Russia (tsar,
or czar, meaning caesar, is a term traditionally applied by Slavs to the Byzantine
Emperors). Their successors supported the idea that Moscow was the proper heir to
Rome and Constantinople. The idea of the Russian Empire as the successive Third
Rome was kept alive until its demise with the Russian Revolution.[166]

Government and bureaucracy[edit]

Main article: Byzantine bureaucracy
The themes, c. 750

The themes, c. 950

In the Byzantine state, the emperor was the sole and absolute ruler, and his power was
regarded as having divine origin.[167] The Senate had ceased to have real political and
legislative authority but remained as an honorary council with titular members. By the
end of the 8th century, a civil administration focused on the court was formed as part of
a large-scale consolidation of power in the capital (the rise to pre-eminence of the
position of sakellarios is related to this change).[168] The most important administrative
reform, which probably started in the mid-7th century, was the creation of themes,
where civil and military administration was exercised by one person, the strategos.[169]
Despite the occasionally derogatory use of the terms "Byzantine" and "Byzantinism",
the Byzantine bureaucracy had a distinct ability for adapting to the Empire's changing
situations. The elaborate system of titulature and precedence gave the court prestige
and influence. Officials were arranged in strict order around the emperor and depended
upon the imperial will for their ranks. There were also actual administrative jobs, but
authority could be vested in individuals rather than offices.[170]
In the 8th and 9th centuries, civil service constituted the clearest path to aristocratic
status, but, starting in the 9th century, the civil aristocracy was rivalled by an aristocracy
of nobility. According to some studies of the Byzantine government, 11th-century politics
were dominated by competition between the civil and the military aristocracy. During
this period, Alexios I undertook important administrative reforms, including the creation
of new courtly dignities and offices.[171]
Diplomacy[edit]
Main article: Byzantine diplomacy
The embassy of John the Grammarian in 829, between the emperor Theophilos and the Abbasid caliph Al-
Ma'mun

After the fall of Rome, the key challenge to the Empire was to maintain a set of relations
between itself and its neighbours. When these nations set about forging formal political
institutions, they often modelled themselves on Constantinople. Byzantine diplomacy
soon managed to draw its neighbours into a network of international and inter-state
relations.[172] This network revolved around treaty-making, and included the welcoming of
the new ruler into the family of kings, and the assimilation of Byzantine social attitudes,
values and institutions.[173] Whereas classical writers are fond of making ethical and legal
distinctions between peace and war, Byzantines regarded diplomacy as a form of war
by other means. For example, a Bulgarian threat could be countered by providing
money to the Kievan Rus'.[174]

Italian sketch of Emperor John VIII during his visit in Ferrara and Florence in 1438

Diplomacy in the era was understood to have an intelligence-gathering function on top

of its pure political function. The Bureau of Barbarians in Constantinople handled
matters of protocol and record-keeping for any issues related to the "barbarians", and
thus had, perhaps, a basic intelligence function itself.[175] John B. Bury believed that the
office exercised supervision over all foreigners visiting Constantinople, and that they
were under the supervision of the Logothetes tou dromou.[176] While on the surface a
protocol office – its main duty was to ensure foreign envoys were properly cared for and
received sufficient state funds for their maintenance, and it kept all the official
translators – it probably had a security function as well.[177]
Byzantines availed themselves of several diplomatic practices. For example, embassies
to the capital would often stay on for years. A member of other royal houses would
routinely be requested to stay on in Constantinople, not only as a potential hostage but
also as a useful pawn in case political conditions where he came from changed.
Another key practise was to overwhelm visitors by sumptuous displays.[172] According
to Dimitri Obolensky, the preservation of the ancient civilisation in Europe was due to
the skill and resourcefulness of Byzantine diplomacy, which remains one of Byzantium's
lasting contributions to the history of Europe.[178]

Science and medicine[edit]

See also: Byzantine science, Byzantine medicine, Byzantine law, and List of Byzantine
inventions

Interior of the Hagia Sophia, the patriarchal basilica in Constantinople designed 537 CE by Isidore of Miletus,
the first compiler of Archimedes' various works. The influence of Archimedes' principles of solid geometry is
evident.

The writings of Classical antiquity were cultivated and extended in Byzantium.

Therefore, Byzantine science was in every period closely connected with ancient
philosophy, and metaphysics.[179] In the field of engineering Isidore of Miletus, the Greek
mathematician and architect of the Hagia Sophia, produced the first compilation
of Archimedes' works c. 530, and it is through this manuscript tradition, kept alive by the
school of mathematics and engineering founded c. 850 during the "Byzantine
Renaissance" by Leo the Mathematician, that such works are known today
(see Archimedes Palimpsest).[180]
Pendentive architecture, a specific spherical form in the upper corners to support a
dome, is a Byzantine invention. Although the first experimentation was made in the
200s, it was in the 6th century in the Byzantine Empire that its potential was fully
achieved.[181]
A mechanical sundial device consisting of complex gears made by the Byzantines has
been excavated which indicates that the Antikythera mechanism, a sort of analogue
device used in astronomy and invented around the late second century BC, continued
to be (re)active in the Byzantine period.[182][183][184] J. R. Partington writes that
Constantinople was full of inventors and craftsmen. The "philosopher" Leo of
Thessalonika made for the Emperor Theophilos (829–42) a golden tree, the branches of
which carried artificial birds which flapped their wings and sang a model lion which
moved and roared, and a bejewelled clockwork lady who walked. These mechanical
toys continued the tradition represented in the treatise of Heron of Alexandria (c. A.D.
125), which was well-known to the Byzantines.[185]
Such mechanical devices reached a high level of sophistication and were made to
impress visitors.[186]

The frontispiece of the Vienna Dioscurides, which shows a set of seven famous physicians

Leo the Mathematician has also been credited with the system of beacons, a sort of
optical telegraph, stretching across Anatolia from Cilicia to Constantinople, which gave
warning of enemy raids, and which was used as diplomatic communication as well.
The Byzantines knew and used the concept of hydraulics: in the 900s the
diplomat Liutprand of Cremona, when visiting the Byzantine emperor, explained that he
saw the emperor sitting on a hydraulic throne and that it was "made in such a cunning
manner that at one moment it was down on the ground, while at another it rose higher
and was seen to be up in the air".[187]
John Philoponus, an Alexandrian philologist, Aristotelian commentator and Christian
theologian, author of a considerable number of philosophical treatises and theological
works, was the first who questioned Aristotle's teaching of physics, despite its flaws.
Unlike Aristotle, who based his physics on verbal argument, Philoponus relied on
observation. In his Commentaries on Aristotle, Philoponus wrote:
But this is completely erroneous, and our view may be corroborated by actual
observation more effectively than by any sort of verbal argument. For if you let fall from
the same height two weights of which one is many times as heavy as the other, you will
see that the ratio of the times required for the motion does not depend on the ratio of
the weights, but that the difference in time is a very small one. And so, if the difference
in the weights is not considerable, that is, of one is, let us say, double the other, there
will be no difference, or else an imperceptible difference, in time, though the difference
in weight is by no means negligible, with one body weighing twice as much as the other.
[188]
Bas-relief plaque of Tribonian in the Chamber of the House of Representatives in the United States Capitol

Many refugee Byzantine scholars fled to North Italy in the 1400s. Here John Argyropoulos (1415–1487), born in
Constantinople and who ended his days in north Italy.

John Philoponus' criticism of Aristotelian principles of physics was an inspiration for

Galileo Galilei's refutation of Aristotelian physics during the Scientific Revolution many
centuries later, as Galileo cited Philoponus substantially in his works.[189][190]
The ship mill is a Byzantine invention, designed to mill grains using hydraulic power.
The technology eventually spread to the rest of Europe and was in use until c. 1800.[191]
[192]

The Byzantines pioneered the concept of the hospital as an institution offering medical
care and the possibility of a cure for the patients, as a reflection of the ideals of
Christian charity, rather than merely a place to die.[193]
Ceramic grenades that were filled with Greek fire, surrounded by caltrops, 10th–12th century, National
Historical Museum, Athens, Greece

Although the concept of uroscopy was known to Galen, he did not see the importance of
using it to diagnose disease. It was Byzantine physicians, such as Theophilus
Protospatharius, who realised the diagnostic potential of uroscopy in a time when no
microscope or stethoscope existed. That practice eventually spread to the rest of
Europe.[194]
In medicine, the works of Byzantine doctors, such as the Vienna Dioscorides (6th
century), and works of Paul of Aegina (7th century) and Nicholas Myrepsos (late 13th
century), continued to be used as the authoritative texts by Europeans through the
Renaissance. The latter one invented the Aurea Alexandrina which was a kind of opiate
or antidote.
The first known example of separating conjoined twins happened in the Byzantine
Empire in the 10th century when a pair of conjoined twins from Armenia came to
Constantinople. Many years later one of them died, so the surgeons in Constantinople
decided to remove the body of the dead one. The result was partly successful, as the
surviving twin lived three days before dying, a result so impressive that it was
mentioned a century and a half later by historians. The next case of separating
conjoined twins would not occur until 1689 in Germany.[195][196]
Greek fire, an incendiary weapon which could even burn on water, is also attributed to
the Byzantines. It played a crucial role in the Empire's victory over the Umayyad
Caliphate during the Siege of Constantinople (717–718).[197] The discovery is attributed
to Callinicus of Heliopolis from Syria who fled during the Arab conquest of Syria.
However, it has also been argued that no single person invented Greek fire, but rather,
that it was "invented by the chemists in Constantinople who had inherited the
discoveries of the Alexandrian chemical school...".[185]
The first example of a grenade also appeared in the Byzantine Empire, consisting of
ceramic jars holding glass and nails, and filled with the explosive component of Greek
Fire. It was used on battlefields.[198][199][200]
The first examples of hand-held flamethrower also occurred in the Byzantine Empire in
the 10th century, where infantry units were equipped with hand pumps and swivel tubes
used to project the flame.[201]
The counterweight trebuchet was invented in the Byzantine Empire during the reign
of Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118) under the Komnenian restoration when the
Byzantines used this new-developed siege weaponry to devastate citadels and
fortifications. This siege artillery marked the apogee of siege weaponry before the use
of the cannon. From the Byzantines, the armies of Europe and Asia eventually learned
and adopted this siege weaponry.[202]
In the final century of the Empire, astronomy and other mathematical sciences were
taught in Trebizond; medicine attracted the interest of almost all scholars.[203]
The Fall of Constantinople in 1453 fuelled the era later commonly known as the "Italian
Renaissance". During this period, refugee Byzantine scholars were principally
responsible for carrying, in person and writing, ancient Greek grammatical, literary
studies, mathematical, and astronomical knowledge to early Renaissance Italy.[204] They
also brought with them classical learning and texts on botany, medicine and zoology, as
well as the works of Dioscorides and John Philoponus' criticism of Aristotelian physics.
[190]

Law and government[edit]

In 438, the Codex Theodosianus, named after Theodosius II, codified Byzantine law. It
went into force not just in the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire, but also in the Western
Roman Empire. It not only summarised the laws but also gave direction on
interpretation.
Under the reign of Justinian I it was Tribonian, a notable jurist, who supervised the
revision of the legal code known today as Corpus Juris Civilis. In the field of
law, Justinian I's reforms had a clear effect on the evolution of jurisprudence, with
his Corpus Juris Civilis becoming the basis for revived Roman law in the Western world,
while Leo III's Ecloga influenced the formation of legal institutions in the Slavic world.[205]
In the 10th century, Leo VI the Wise achieved the complete codification of the whole of
Byzantine law in Greek with the Basilika, which became the foundation of all
subsequent Byzantine law with an influence extending through to modern Balkan legal
codes.[96]

Culture[edit]
Religion[edit]
Main articles: State church of the Roman Empire and Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople
As a symbol and expression of the universal prestige of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Justinian built the
Church of the Holy Wisdom of God, Hagia Sophia, which was completed in the short period of four and a half
years (532–537).

Mosaic of Jesus in Pammakaristos Church, Istanbul

Triumphal arch mosaics of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. In Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.

The Byzantine Empire was a theocracy, said to be ruled by God working through the
Emperor. Jennifer Fretland VanVoorst argues, "The Byzantine Empire became a
theocracy in the sense that Christian values and ideals were the foundation of the
empire's political ideals and heavily entwined with its political goals."[206] Steven
Runciman says in his book on The Byzantine Theocracy (2004):
The constitution of the Byzantine Empire was based on the conviction that it was the
earthly copy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as God ruled in Heaven, so the Emperor,
made in his image, should rule on earth and carry out his commandments ... It saw itself
as a universal empire. Ideally, it should embrace all the peoples of the Earth who,
ideally, should all be members of the one true Christian Church, its own Orthodox
Church. Just as man was made in God's image, so man's kingdom on Earth was made
in the image of the Kingdom of Heaven.[207]
The survival of the Empire in the East assured an active role of the Emperor in the
affairs of the Church. The Byzantine state inherited from pagan times the administrative,
and financial routine of administering religious affairs, and this routine was applied to
the Christian Church. Following the pattern set by Eusebius of Caesarea, the
Byzantines viewed the Emperor as a representative or messenger of Christ, responsible
particularly for the propagation of Christianity among pagans, and for the "externals" of
the religion, such as administration and finances. As Cyril Mango points out, the
Byzantine political thinking can be summarised in the motto "One God, one empire, one
religion".[208]
The imperial role in the affairs of the Church never developed into a fixed, legally
defined system.[209] Additionally, due to the decline of Rome and internal dissension in
the other Eastern Patriarchates, the Church of Constantinople became, between the 6th
and 11th centuries, the richest and most influential centre of Christendom.[210] Even when
the Empire was reduced to only a shadow of its former self, the Church continued to
exercise significant influence both inside and outside of the imperial frontiers.
As George Ostrogorsky points out:
The Patriarchate of Constantinople remained the centre of the Orthodox world, with
subordinate metropolitan sees and archbishoprics in the territory of Asia Minor and the
Balkans, now lost to Byzantium, as well as in Caucasus, Russia and Lithuania. The
Church remained the most stable element in the Byzantine Empire.[211]
Byzantine monasticism especially came to be an "ever-present feature" of the empire,
with monasteries becoming "powerful landowners and a voice to be listened to in
imperial politics".[212]
The official state Christian doctrine was determined by the first seven ecumenical
councils, and it was then the emperor's duty to impose it on his subjects. An imperial
decree of 388, which was later incorporated into the Codex Justinianeus, orders the
population of the Empire "to assume the name of Catholic Christians", and regards all
those who will not abide by the law as "mad and foolish persons"; as followers of
"heretical dogmas".[213]
Despite imperial decrees and the stringent stance of the state church itself, which came
to be known as the Eastern Orthodox Church or Eastern Christianity, the latter never
represented all Christians in Byzantium. Mango believes that, in the early stages of the
Empire, the "mad and foolish persons", those labelled "heretics" by the state church,
were the majority of the population.[214] Besides the pagans, who existed until the end of
the 6th century, and the Jews, there were many followers – sometimes even
emperors – of various Christian doctrines, such
as Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Arianism, and Paulicianism, whose teachings were in
some opposition to the main theological doctrine, as determined by the Ecumenical
Councils.[215]
Another division among Christians occurred, when Leo III ordered the destruction of
icons throughout the Empire. This led to a significant religious crisis, which ended in the
mid-9th century with the restoration of icons. During the same period, a new wave of
pagans emerged in the Balkans, originating mainly from Slavic people. These were
gradually Christianised, and by Byzantium's late stages, Eastern Orthodoxy represented
most Christians and, in general, most people in what remained of the Empire.[216]
Jews were a significant minority in the Byzantine state throughout its history, and,
according to Roman law, they constituted a legally recognised religious group. In the
early Byzantine period, they were generally tolerated, but then periods of tensions and
persecutions ensued. In any case, after the Arab conquests, the majority of Jews found
themselves outside the Empire; those left inside the Byzantine borders apparently lived
in relative peace from the 10th century onwards.[217]
Arts[edit]
Art and literature[edit]
Main articles: Byzantine art and Byzantine literature
See also: Byzantine dress

Miniatures of the 6th-century Rabula Gospel display the more abstract and symbolic nature of Byzantine art.

Surviving Byzantine art is mostly religious and with exceptions at certain periods is
highly conventionalised, following traditional models that translate carefully controlled
church theology into artistic terms. Painting in fresco, illuminated manuscripts and on
wood panel and, especially in earlier periods, mosaic were the main media, and
figurative sculpture very rare except for small carved ivories. Manuscript painting
preserved to the end some of the classical realist tradition that was missing in larger
works.[218] Byzantine art was highly prestigious and sought-after in Western Europe,
where it maintained a continuous influence on medieval art until near the end of the
period. This was especially so in Italy, where Byzantine styles persisted in modified form
through the 12th century, and became formative influences on Italian Renaissance art.
But few incoming influences affected the Byzantine style. With the expansion of the
Eastern Orthodox church, Byzantine forms and styles spread throughout the Orthodox
world and beyond.[219] Influences from Byzantine architecture, particularly in religious
buildings, can be found in diverse regions from Egypt and Arabia to Russia and
Romania.
In Byzantine literature, three different cultural elements are recognised: the Greek, the
Christian, and the Oriental. Byzantine literature is often classified in five groups:
historians and annalists, encyclopaedists (Patriarch Photios, Michael Psellus,
and Michael Choniates are regarded as the greatest encyclopaedists of Byzantium) and
essayists, and writers of secular poetry. The only genuine heroic epic of the Byzantines
is the Digenis Acritas. The remaining two groups include the new literary species:
ecclesiastical and theological literature, and popular poetry.[220]
Of the approximately two to three thousand volumes of Byzantine literature that survive,
only 330 consist of secular poetry, history, science and pseudo-science.[220] While the
most flourishing period of the secular literature of Byzantium runs from the 9th to the
12th century, its religious literature (sermons, liturgical books and poetry, theology,
devotional treatises, etc.) developed much earlier with Romanos the Melodist being its
most prominent representative.[221]
Music[edit]
Main article: Byzantine music
See also: List of Byzantine composers
Late 4th century AD "Mosaic of the Musicians" with organ, aulos, and lyre from a Byzantine villa
in Maryamin, Syria[222]

The ecclesiastical forms of Byzantine music, composed to Greek texts as ceremonial,

festival, or church music,[223] are, today, the most well-known forms. Ecclesiastical chants
were a fundamental part of this genre. Greek and foreign historians agree that the
ecclesiastical tones and in general the whole system of Byzantine music is closely
related to the ancient Greek system.[224] It remains the oldest genre of extant music, of
which the manner of performance and (with increasing accuracy from the 5th century
onwards) the names of the composers, and sometimes the particulars of each musical
work's circumstances, are known.
Earliest known depiction of a bowed lyra, from a Byzantine ivory casket (900–1100 AD) (Museo Nazionale,
Florence)

The 9th-century Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh (d. 911), in his lexicographical

discussion of instruments, cited the lyra (lūrā) as the typical instrument of the
Byzantines along with the urghun (organ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or lyre) and
the salandj (probably a bagpipe).[225] The first of these, the early bowed stringed
instrument known as the Byzantine lyra, would come to be called the lira da braccio,
[226]
 in Venice, where it is considered by many to have been the predecessor of the
contemporary violin, which later flourished there.[227] The bowed "lyra" is still played in
former Byzantine regions, where it is known as the Politiki lyra (lit. 'lyra of the City',
i.e. Constantinople) in Greece, the Calabrian lira in Southern Italy, and
the Lijerica in Dalmatia. The second instrument, the organ, originated in
the Hellenistic world (see Hydraulis) and was used in the Hippodrome during races.[228]
[229]
 A pipe organ with "great leaden pipes" was sent by the emperor Constantine
V to Pepin the Short, King of the Franks in 757. Pepin's son Charlemagne requested a
similar organ for his chapel in Aachen in 812, beginning its establishment in Western
church music.[229] The aulos was a double reeded woodwind like the modern oboe or
Armenian duduk. Other forms include the plagiaulos (πλαγίαυλος,
from πλάγιος "sideways"), which resembled the flute,[230] and
the askaulos (ἀσκός askos – wine-skin), a bagpipe.[231] Bagpipes, also known
as Dankiyo (from ancient Greek: angion (Τὸ ἀγγεῖον) "the container"), had been played
even in Roman times and continued to be played throughout the empire's former realms
through to the present. (See Balkan Gaida, Greek Tsampouna, Pontic Tulum,
Cretan Askomandoura, Armenian Parkapzuk, and Romanian Cimpoi.) The modern
descendant of the aulos is the Greek Zourna. Other instruments used in Byzantine
Music were Kanonaki, Oud, Laouto, Santouri, Tambouras, Seistron (defi
tambourine), Toubeleki and Daouli. Some claim that Lavta may have been invented by
the Byzantines before the arrival of the Turks.
Cuisine[edit]
Main article: Byzantine cuisine
Byzantine culture was initially the same as Late Greco-Roman, but over the following
millennium of the empire's existence it slowly changed into something more similar to
modern Balkan and Anatolian culture. The cuisine still relied heavily on the Greco-
Roman fish-sauce condiment garos, but it also contained foods still familiar today, such
as the cured meat pastirma (known as "paston" in Byzantine Greek),[232][233]
[234]
 baklava (known as koptoplakous κοπτοπλακοῦς),[235] tiropita (known as plakountas
tetyromenous or tyritas plakountas),[236] and the famed medieval sweet wines
(Commandaria and the eponymous Rumney wine). Retsina, wine flavoured with pine
resin, was also drunk, as it still is in Greece today, producing similar reactions from
unfamiliar visitors; "To add to our calamity the Greek wine, on account of being mixed
with pitch, resin, and plaster was to us undrinkable," complained Liutprand of Cremona,
who was the ambassador sent to Constantinople in 968 by the German Holy Roman
Emperor Otto I.[237] The garos fish sauce condiment was also not much appreciated by
the unaccustomed; Liutprand of Cremona described being served food covered in an
"exceedingly bad fish liquor."[237] The Byzantines also used a soy sauce-like
condiment, murri, a fermented barley sauce, which, like soy sauce,
provided umami flavouring to their dishes.[238][239]
Flags and insignia[edit]
Main article: Byzantine flags and insignia

The double-headed eagle, a common Imperial symbol

For most of its history, the Byzantine Empire did not know or use heraldry in the West
European sense. Various emblems (Greek: σημεία, sēmeia; sing. σημείον, sēmeion)
were used in official occasions and for military purposes, such as banners or shields
displaying various motifs such as the cross or the labarum. The use of the cross and
images of Christ, the Virgin Mary and various saints is also attested on seals of officials,
but these were personal rather than family emblems.[240]

 Double-headed eagle
 Tetragrammic cross
Language[edit]
Further information: Medieval Greek
Left: The Mudil Psalter, the oldest complete psalter in the Coptic language (Coptic Museum, Egypt, Coptic
Cairo)
Right: The Joshua Roll, a 10th-century illuminated Greek manuscript possibly made in Constantinople (Vatican
Library, Rome)

Distribution of Greek dialects in Anatolia in the late Byzantine Empire through to 1923. Demotic in
yellow. Pontic in orange. Cappadocian in green. (Green dots indicate Cappadocian Greek-speaking villages in
1910.[241])

Apart from the Imperial court, administration and military, the primary language used in
the eastern Roman provinces even before the decline of the Western Empire was
Greek, having been spoken in the region for centuries before Latin.[242] Following Rome's
conquest of the east its 'Pax Romana', inclusionist political practices and development
of public infrastructure, facilitated the further spreading and entrenchment of the Greek
language in the east. Indeed, early on in the life of the Roman Empire, Greek had
become the common language of the Church, the language of scholarship and the arts,
and to a large degree the lingua franca for trade between provinces and with other
nations.[243] Greek for a time became diglossic with the spoken language, known
as Koine (eventually evolving into Demotic Greek), used alongside an older written form
(Attic Greek) until Koine won out as the spoken and written standard.[244]
The emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) sought to renew the authority of Latin, making it
the official language of the Roman administration also in the East, and the Greek
expression ἡ κρατοῦσα διάλεκτος (hē kratousa dialektos) attests to the status of Latin
as "the language of power."[245] In the early 5th century, Greek gained equal status with
Latin as the official language in the East and emperors gradually began to legislate in
Greek rather than Latin starting with the reign of Leo I the Thracian in the 460s.[32] The
last Eastern emperor to stress the importance of Latin was Justinian I (r. 527–565),
whose Corpus Juris Civilis was written almost entirely in Latin. He may also have been
the last native Latin-speaking emperor.[32]
The use of Latin as the language of administration persisted until the adoption of Greek
as the sole official language by Heraclius in the 7th century. Scholarly Latin would
rapidly fall into disuse among the educated classes although the language would
continue to be at least a ceremonial part of the Empire's culture for some time.
[246]
 Additionally, Latin remained a minority language in the Empire, mainly on the Italian
peninsula and along the Dalmatian coast, eventually developing into various Romance
languages like Dalmatian.[247]
Many other languages existed in the multi-ethnic Empire, and some of these were given
limited official status in their provinces at various times.[248] Notably, by the beginning of
the Middle Ages, Syriac had become more widely used by the educated classes in the
far eastern provinces.[249] Similarly Coptic, Armenian, and Georgian became significant
among the educated in their provinces.[250] Later foreign contacts made Old Church
Slavic, Middle Persian, and Arabic important in the Empire and its sphere of influence.
[251]
 There was a revival of Latin studies in the 10th century for the same reason and by
the 11th century knowledge of Latin was no longer unusual at Constantinople.[252] There
was widespread use of the Armenian and various Slavic languages, which became
more pronounced in the border regions of the empire.[248]
Aside from these languages, since Constantinople was a prime trading center in
the Mediterranean region and beyond, virtually every known language of the Middle
Ages was spoken in the Empire at some time, even Chinese.[253] As the Empire entered
its final decline, the Empire's citizens became more culturally homogeneous and the
Greek language became integral to their identity and religion.[254]
Recreation[edit]

A game of τάβλι (tabula) played by Byzantine emperor Zeno in 480 and recorded by Agathias in c. 530

because of a very unlucky dice throw for Zeno (red), as he threw 2, 5 and 6 and was forced to leave eight
pieces alone.[255]

Byzantines were avid players of tavli (Byzantine Greek: τάβλη), a game known in

English as backgammon, which is still popular in former Byzantine realms, and still
known by the name tavli in Greece.[255] Byzantine nobles were devoted to horsemanship,
particularly tzykanion, now known as polo. The game came from Sassanid Persia in the
early period and a Tzykanisterion (stadium for playing the game) was built
by Theodosius II (r. 408–450) inside the Great Palace of Constantinople. Emperor Basil
I (r. 867–886) excelled at it; Emperor Alexander (r. 912–913) died from exhaustion while
playing, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) was injured while playing
with Tatikios, and John I of Trebizond (r. 1235–1238) died from a fatal injury during a
game.[256][257] Aside from Constantinople and Trebizond, other Byzantine cities also
featured tzykanisteria, most notably Sparta, Ephesus, and Athens, an indication of a
thriving urban aristocracy.[258] The game was introduced to the West by crusaders, who
developed a taste for it particularly during the pro-Western reign of emperor Manuel I
Komnenos.
Women in the Byzantine Empire[edit]
Main article: Women in the Byzantine Empire
The position of women in the Byzantine Empire essentially represents the position of
women in ancient Rome transformed by the introduction of Christianity, with certain
rights and customs being lost and replaced, while others were allowed to remain.
There were individual Byzantine women famed for their educational accomplishments.
However, the general view of women's education was that it was sufficient for a girl to
learn domestic duties and to study the lives of the Christian saints and memorize
psalms,[259] and to learn to read so that she could study Bible scriptures – although
literacy in women was sometimes discouraged because it was believed it could
encourage vice.[260]
The Roman right to actual divorce was gradually erased after the introduction of
Christianity and replaced with legal separation and annulation. In the Byzantine Empire
marriage was regarded as the ideal state for a woman, and only convent life was seen
as a legitimate alternative. Within marriage, sexual activity was regarded only as a
means of reproduction. Women had the right to appear before court, but her testimony
was not regarded as equal to that of a man, and could be contradicted based on her sex
if put against that of a man.[259]
From the 6th century there was a growing ideal of gender segregation, which dictated
that women should wear veils [261] and only be seen in public when attending church,
[262]
 and while the ideal was never fully enforced, it influenced society. The laws of
emperor Justinian I made it legal for a man to divorce his wife for attending public
premises such theatres or public baths without his permission,[263] and emperor Leo
VI banned women from witnessing business contracts with the argument that it caused
them to come in contact with men.[259] In Constantinople upper class women were
increasingly expected to keep to a special women's section (gynaikonitis),[262] and by the
8th century it was described as unacceptable for unmarried daughters to meet unrelated
men.[259] While Imperial women and their ladies appeared in public alongside men,
women and men at the Imperial Court attended royal banquets separately until the rise
of the Comnenus dynasty in the 12th century.[262]
Eastern Roman and later Byzantine women retained the Roman woman's right to
inherit, own and manage their property and signs contracts,[262] rights which were far
superior to the rights of married women in Medieval Catholic Western Europe, as these
rights included not only unmarried women and widows but married women as well.
[263]
 Women's legal right to handle their own money made it possible for rich women to
engage in business, however women who actively had to find a profession to support
themselves normally worked as domestics or in domestic fields such as the food- or
textile industry.[263] Women could work as medical physicians and attendants of women
patients and visitors at hospitals and public baths with government support.[260]
After the introduction of Christianity, women could no longer become priestesses, but it
became common for women to found and manage nunneries, which functioned as
schools for girls as well as asylums, poor houses, hospitals, prisons and retirement
homes for women, and many Byzantine women practised social work as lay sisters and
deaconesses.[262]

Economy[edit]
Further information: Byzantine economy and Byzantine silk
Further information: Sino-Roman relations

Golden Solidus of Justinian I (527–565 AD) excavated in India probably in the south, an example of Indo-
Roman trade during the period

The Byzantine economy was among the most advanced in Europe and

the Mediterranean for many centuries. Europe, in particular, could not match Byzantine
economic strength until late in the Middle Ages. Constantinople operated as a prime
hub in a trading network that at various times extended across nearly all
of Eurasia and North Africa, in particular as the primary western terminus of the
famous Silk Road. Until the first half of the 6th century and in sharp contrast with the
decaying West, the Byzantine economy was flourishing and resilient.[264]
The Plague of Justinian and the Arab conquests would represent a substantial reversal
of fortunes contributing to a period of stagnation and decline. Isaurian reforms
and Constantine V's repopulation, public works and tax measures marked the beginning
of a revival that continued until 1204, despite territorial contraction.[265] From the 10th
century until the end of the 12th, the Byzantine Empire projected an image of luxury and
travellers were impressed by the wealth accumulated in the capital.[266]
The Fourth Crusade resulted in the disruption of Byzantine manufacturing and the
commercial dominance of the Western Europeans in the eastern Mediterranean, events
that amounted to an economic catastrophe for the Empire.[266] The Palaiologoi tried to
revive the economy, but the late Byzantine state would not gain full control of either the
foreign or domestic economic forces. Gradually, Constantinople also lost its influence
on the modalities of trade and the price mechanisms, and its control over the outflow of
precious metals and, according to some scholars, even over the minting of coins.[267]
One of the economic foundations of Byzantium was trade, fostered by the maritime
character of the Empire. Textiles must have been by far the most important item of
export; silks were certainly imported into Egypt and appeared also in Bulgaria, and the
West.[268] The state strictly controlled both the internal and the international trade, and
retained the monopoly of issuing coinage, maintaining a durable and flexible monetary
system adaptable to trade needs.[269]
The government attempted to exercise formal control over interest rates and set the
parameters for the activity of the guilds and corporations, in which it had a special
interest. The emperor and his officials intervened at times of crisis to ensure the
provisioning of the capital, and to keep down the price of cereals. Finally, the
government often collected part of the surplus through taxation, and put it back into
circulation, through redistribution in the form of salaries to state officials, or in the form
of investment in public works.[269]

Legacy[edit]
See also: Third Rome and Greek scholars in the Renaissance

Christ Pantocrator mosaic in Hagia Sophia, circa 1261

Byzantine culture

 Aristocracy and bureaucracy

 Army
 Art
 Architecture
 Calendar
 Cities
 Coinage
 Cuisine
 Dance
 Diplomacy
 Dress
 Economy
  Gardens
 Law
 Literature
 Medicine
 Music
 Navy
 People
 Science

 v
 t
 e

Byzantium has been often identified with absolutism, orthodox spirituality, orientalism
and exoticism, while the terms "Byzantine" and "Byzantinism" have been used as
bywords for decadence, complex bureaucracy, and repression. Both Eastern and
Western European authors have often perceived Byzantium as a body of religious,
political, and philosophical ideas contrary to those of the West. Even in 19th-century
Greece, the focus was mainly on the classical past, while Byzantine tradition had been
associated with negative connotations.[270]
This traditional approach towards Byzantium has been partially or wholly disputed and
revised by modern studies, which focus on the positive aspects of Byzantine culture and
legacy. Averil Cameron regards as undeniable the Byzantine contribution to the
formation of medieval Europe, and both Cameron and Obolensky recognise the major
role of Byzantium in shaping Orthodoxy, which in turn occupies a central position in the
history and societies of Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, Serbia and other
countries.[271] The Byzantines also preserved and copied classical manuscripts, and they
are thus regarded as transmitters of classical knowledge, as important contributors to
modern European civilisation, and as precursors of both Renaissance humanism and
Slavic-Orthodox culture.[272]
As the only stable long-term state in Europe during the Middle Ages, Byzantium isolated
Western Europe from newly emerging forces to the East. Constantly under attack, it
distanced Western Europe from Persians, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, and for a time, the
Ottomans. From a different perspective, since the 7th century, the evolution and
constant reshaping of the Byzantine state were directly related to the respective
progress of Islam.[272]
Following the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453,
Sultan Mehmed II took the title "Kaysar-i Rûm" (the Ottoman Turkish equivalent
of Caesar of Rome), since he was determined to make the Ottoman Empire the heir of
the Eastern Roman Empire.[273]

See also[edit]
  Byzantine Army
 Byzantine philosophy
 Byzantine Rite
 Index of Byzantine Empire-related articles
 Family trees of the Byzantine imperial dynasties
 Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty
 List of Byzantine emperors
 List of Byzantine inventions
 List of Byzantine revolts and civil wars
 List of Byzantine wars
 Despotate of the Morea
 List of Roman dynasties
 Succession of the Roman Empire
 Legacy of the Roman Empire

Notes[edit]
1. ^ "Romania" was a popular name of the empire used mainly
unofficially, which meant "land of the Romans".[3] After 1081, it
occasionally appears in official Byzantine documents as well.
In 1204, the leaders of the Fourth Crusade gave the
name Romania to their newly founded Latin Empire.[4] The
term does not refer to modern Romania.

References[edit]
Citations[edit]
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3. ^ Fossier & Sondheimer 1997, p. 104.
4. ^ Wolff 1948, pp. 5–7, 33–34.
5. ^ Cinnamus 1976, p. 240.
6. ^ Browning 1992, "Introduction", p. xiii: "The Byzantines did
not call themselves Byzantines, but Romaioi–Romans. They
were well aware of their role as heirs of the Roman Empire,
which for many centuries had united under a single
government the whole Mediterranean world and much that
was outside it."
7. ^ Nicol, Donald M. (30 December 1967).  "The Byzantine
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10. ^ Ahrweiler & Laiou 1998, p. vii; Davies 1996, p. 245; Gross
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11. ^ Klein 2004, p. 290 (Note #39); Annales Fuldenses, 389:
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12. ^ Fouracre & Gerberding 1996, p. 345: "The Frankish court
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62. ^ Foss 1975, pp. 746–47.
63. ^ Haldon 1990, p. 50.
64. ^ Haldon 1990, pp. 61–62.
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67. ^ Haldon 1990, pp. 208–15; Kaegi 2003, pp. 236, 283.
68. ^ Heather 2005, p. 431.
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72. ^ Haldon 1990, pp. 70–78, 169–71; Haldon 2004, pp. 216–
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73. ^ Cameron 2009, pp. 67–68.
74. ^ Cameron 2009, pp. 167–70; Garland 1999, p. 89.
75. ^ Parry 1996, pp. 11–15.
76. ^ Cameron 2009, p. 267.
77. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Browning 1992, p. 95.
78. ^ Treadgold 1997, pp. 432–33.
79. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Browning 1992, p. 96.
80. ^ Karlin-Heyer 1967, p. 24
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82. ^ Browning 1992, p. 107.
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84. ^ Browning 1992, p. 112.
85. ^ Browning 1992, p. 113.
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87. ^ Browning 1992, p. 100.
88. ^ Browning 1992, pp. 102–03.
89. ^ Browning 1992, pp. 103–05.
90. ^ Browning 1992, pp. 106–07.
91. ^ Browning 1992, pp. 112–13.
92. ^ Jump up to:a b c Browning 1992, p. 115.
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98. ^ Browning 1992, pp. 98–109.
99. ^ Laiou & Morisson 2007, pp. 130–31; Pounds 1979, p. 124.
100. ^ Duiker & Spielvogel 2010, p. 317.
101. ^ Timberlake 2004, p. 14.
102. ^ Patterson 1995, p. 15.
103. ^ Cameron 2009, p. 83.
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112. ^ Cameron 2006, p. 47.
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124. ^ Cinnamus 1976, pp. 74–75.
125. ^ Harris 2014, p. 84.
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127. ^ Sedlar 1994, p. 372.
128. ^ Magdalino 2002a, p. 67.
129. ^ Birkenmeier 2002, p. 128.
130. ^ Birkenmeier 2002, p. 196.
131. ^ Birkenmeier 2002, pp. 185–86.
132. ^ Birkenmeier 2002, p. 1.
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135. ^ Tatakes & Moutafakis 2003, p. 110.
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140. ^ Norwich 1998, p. 293.
141. ^ Norwich 1998, pp. 294–95.
142. ^ Angold 1997; Paparrigopoulos & Karolidis 1925, p. 216
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267. ^ Matschke 2002, pp. 805–06.
268. ^ Laiou 2002b, p. 723; Laiou & Morisson 2007, p. 13.
269. ^ Jump up to:    Laiou 2002a, pp. 3–4; Laiou & Morisson 2007,
a b

p. 18.
270. ^ Cameron 2009, pp. 277–81.
271. ^ Cameron 2009, pp. 186–277.
272. ^ Jump up to:a b Cameron 2009, p. 261.
273. ^ Béhar 1999, p. 38; Bideleux & Jeffries 1998, p. 71.

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Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-025960-5.
 Norwich, John Julius (1982). A History of Venice. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf Inc. ISBN 978-0-394-52410-8.
 Nystazopoulou-Pelekidou, Maria (1970).  Συμβολή εις την
χρονολόγησιν των Αβαρικών και Σλαβικών επιδρομών επί
Μαυρικίου (582–602) (μετ' επιμέτρου περί των Περσικών
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during the reign of Maurice (582–602), with an excursus about the
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 Obolensky, Dimitri  (1974) [1971].  The Byzantine Commonwealth:
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 Obolensky, Dimitri  (1994). Byzantium and the Slavs. Yonkers: St
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 Oikonomides, Nikos (1999). "L᾽"Unilinguisme" Officiel de
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 Ostrogorsky, George  (1969). History of the Byzantine State. New
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 Paparrigopoulos, Constantine;  Karolidis, Pavlos (1925).  Ιστορία
του Ελληνικού Έθνους [History of the Greek Nation] (in Greek).  4.
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 Parry, Kenneth (1996). Depicting the Word: Byzantine Iconophile
Thought of the Eighth and Ninth Centuries. Leiden and New York:
Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10502-7.
 Patterson, Gordon M. (1995) [1990]. The Essentials of Medieval
History: 500 to 1450 AD, the Middle Ages. Piscataway: Research
and Education Association.  ISBN  978-0-87891-705-1.
 Perrottet, Tony (2004).  The Naked Olympics: The True Story of
the Ancient Games. Random House. ISBN 978-1-58836-382-4.
 Postan, Michael Moïssey; Miller, Edward; Postan, Cynthia
(1987).  The Cambridge Economic History of Europe (Volume 2).
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-
521-08709-4.
 Pounds, Norman John Greville (1979). An Historical Geography of
Europe, 1500–1840. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22379-9.
 Read, Piers Paul  (2000) [1999].  The Templars: The Dramatic
History of the Knights Templar, The Most Powerful Military Order
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26658-5.
 Reinert, Stephen W. (2002). "Fragmentation (1204–1453)". In
Cyril Mango (ed.).  The Oxford History of Byzantium. Oxford,
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 Rice, David Talbot  (1968). Byzantine Art  (3rd ed.).
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Limited.
 Robins, Robert Henry (1993).  The Byzantine Grammarians: Their
Place in History. Berlin and New York: Mouton de
Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-013574-9.
 Rosser, John H. (2011). "Introduction". Historical Dictionary of
Byzantium. Lanham, MA: Scarecrow.  ISBN  978-0-8108-7567-8.
 Runciman, Steven (1990).  The Fall of Constantinople, 1453.
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-
521-39832-9.
 Runciman, Steven (2004).  The Byzantine Theocracy. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.  ISBN  978-0-521-54591-4.
 Salaman, Rena (1986). "The Case of the Missing Fish,
or  Dolmathon  Prolegomena". In Jaine, Tom (ed.). Oxford
Symposium on Food & Cookery 1984 & 1985: Cookery: Science,
Lore & Books: Proceedings (Introduction by Alan Davidson).
London: Prospect Books Limited. pp.  184–87.  ISBN  978-0-
907325-16-1.
 Sarantis, Alexander (2009). "War and Diplomacy in Pannonia and
the Northwest Balkans during the Reign of Justinian: The Gepid
Threat and Imperial Responses". Dumbarton Oaks Papers.  63:
15–40. JSTOR 41219761.
 Sedlar, Jean W. (1994). East Central Europe in the Middle Ages,
1000–1500.  III. Seattle: University of Washington
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822152-4.
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The Western View". In Maas, Michael (ed.).  The Cambridge
Companion to the Age of Justinian. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press. pp. 267–90. ISBN 978-0-521-81746-
2.
 Speck, Paul (1984). "Ikonoklasmus und die Anfänge der
Makedonischen Renaissance".  Poikila Byzantina. 4: 175–210.
 Stephenson, Paul (2000). Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political
Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.  ISBN  978-0-521-77017-0.
 Tarasov, Oleg; Milner-Gulland, R.R. (2004). Icon and Devotion:
Sacred Spaces in Imperial Russia. London: Reaktion. ISBN 978-
1-86189-118-1.
 Tatakes, Vasileios N.; Moutafakis, Nicholas J. (2003). Byzantine
Philosophy. Indianapolis: Hackett. ISBN 978-0-87220-563-5.
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Papers. 21: 11–36.  doi:10.2307/1291256.  JSTOR  1291256.
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(1997).  Ιστορία δικαίου από την αρχαία στην νεώτερη
Ελλάδα  [History of law from ancient to modern Greece] (in Greek).
Athens: Sakkoulas. ISBN 978-960-232-594-0.
  Vasiliev, Alexander Alexandrovich  (1928–1935).  History of the
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Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-94034-8.
 Weitzmann, Kurt (1982).  The Icon. London: Evans
Brothers. ISBN 978-0-237-45645-0.
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 Wroth, Warwick (1908). Catalogue of the Imperial Byzantine
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Medals. ISBN 978-1-4021-8954-8.

Further reading[edit]
 Ahrweiler, Hélène; Aymard, Maurice (2000).  Les Européens.
Paris: Hermann. ISBN 978-2-7056-6409-1.
 Angelov, Dimiter (2007). Imperial Ideology and Political Thought in
Byzantium (1204–1330). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85703-1.
 Baboula, Evanthia, Byzantium, in Muhammad in History, Thought,
and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God (2 vols.),
Edited by C. Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO,
2014. ISBN 1-61069-177-6.
 Evans, Helen C.; Wixom, William D (1997).  The glory of
Byzantium: art and culture of the Middle Byzantine era, A.D. 843–
1261. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-
8109-6507-2.
 Cameron, Averil (2014). Byzantine Matters. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-5009-9.
 Duval, Ben (2019),  Midway Through the Plunge: John
Cantacuzenus and the Fall of Byzantium, Byzantine Emporia, LLC
 Haldon, John (2001). The Byzantine Wars: Battles and
Campaigns of the Byzantine Era. Stroud, Gloucestershire:
Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7524-1795-0.
 Haldon, John (2002). Byzantium: A History. Stroud,
Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4051-3240-4.
  Haldon, John (2016). The Empire That Would Not Die: The
Paradox of Eastern Roman Survival, 640–740. Harvard
University. ISBN 978-0-674-08877-1.
 Harris, Jonathan. Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium.
Bloomsbury, 2nd edition, 2017.  ISBN  978-1-4742-5465-6. online
review
 Harris, Jonathan (2015). The Lost World of Byzantium. New
Haven CT and London: Yale University Press.  ISBN  978-0-300-
17857-9.
 Harris, Jonathan (2020). Introduction to Byzantium, 602–
1453 (1st ed.). Routledge.  ISBN  978-1-138-55643-0.
 Hussey, J.M. (1966). The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol.  IV:
The Byzantine Empire. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
 Moles Ian N., "Nationalism and Byzantine Greece", Greek Roman
and Byzantine Studies, Duke University, pp. 95–107, 1969
 Runciman, Steven (1966).  Byzantine Civilisation.
London: Edward Arnold  Limited.  ISBN  978-1-56619-574-4.
 Runciman, Steven (1990) [1929]. The Emperor Romanus
Lecapenus and his Reign. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-06164-3.
 Stanković, Vlada, ed. (2016).  The Balkans and the Byzantine
World before and after the Captures of Constantinople, 1204 and
1453. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.  ISBN  978-1-4985-
1326-5.
 Stathakopoulos, Dionysios (2014).  A Short History of the
Byzantine Empire. London: I.B.Tauris.  ISBN  978-1-78076-194-7.
 Thomas, John P. (1987). Private Religious Foundations in the
Byzantine Empire. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-
0-88402-164-3.
 Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1972). Constantine Porphyrogenitus
and His World. Oxford, England: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0-19-215253-4.

External links[edit]
Library resources about
Byzantine Empire

 Online books
 Resources in your library
 Resources in other libraries

 Byzantine Empire on In Our Time at the BBC

 De Imperatoribus Romanis. Scholarly biographies of
many Byzantine emperors.
 12 Byzantine Rulers by Lars Brownworth of The
Stony Brook School; audio lectures. NYTimes
review.
  18 centuries of Roman Empire by Howard
Wiseman (Maps of the Roman/Byzantine Empire
throughout its lifetime).
 Byzantine & Christian Museum
Byzantine studies, resources and bibliography[edit]

 Fox, Clinton R. "What, If Anything, Is a Byzantine?"

(Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors)
 Byzantine studies homepage at Dumbarton Oaks.
Includes links to numerous electronic texts.
 Byzantium: Byzantine studies on the Internet. Links
to various online resources.
 Translations from Byzantine Sources: The Imperial
Centuries, c. 700–1204. Online sourcebook.
 De Re Militari. Resources for medieval history,
including numerous translated sources on the
Byzantine wars.
 Medieval Sourcebook: Byzantium. Numerous
primary sources on Byzantine history.
 Bibliography on Byzantine Material Culture and Daily
Life. Hosted by the University of Vienna; in English.
 Constantinople Home Page. Links to texts, images
and videos on Byzantium.
 Byzantium in Crimea: Political History, Art and
Culture.
 Institute for Byzantine Studies of the Austrian
Academy of Sciences (with further resources and a
repository with papers on various aspects of the
Byzantine Empire)
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