Byzantium Becomes

the New Rome

 A Quick Review….
■ Emperor Constantine moved the Roman
Empire from Rome to Byzantium in A.D.
330.
■ The new capital of the Roman Empire was
renamed Constantinople.
■ One reason for doing this was to keep the
Eastern Roman Empire safer from attacks from
invading tribes, which was leading to the
downfall of Rome and the Western Empire
 Justinian: A New Line of Caesars
■ The Roman Empire was officially divided into
its Western and Eastern parts in 395.
■ Constantine’s successors in the Eastern half of
the empire considered themselves to be the
emperors of Rome.
■ Constantine’s nephew Justinian, who was a
high-ranking nobleman, took the throne in 527.
 Justinian: A New Line of Caesars
■ Justinian immediately decided that he was the head of
the entire Roman Empire and in 533 sent his best
general Belisarius to recover the Western half of the
empire.
■ Belisarius took back Rome, and most of Italy and
Spain. Rome was almost restored to what it formally
was.
■ Justinian, like the Caesars before him, had absolute
power. Byzantine emperors lived in constant danger of
assassination—of the 88, 29 died violently and 13
abandoned the throne to live in monasteries.
Justinian
Before…
…and After.
 Justinian’s Code
Between 528 and 533, a panel of experts came up with
a new uniform code of law for Justinian, called the
Justinian Code:
■ The Code contained 5,000 Roman laws that were still
relevant for their time.
■ The Digest quoted and summarized the opinions of
Rome’s greatest legal thinkers.
■ The Institutes was a textbook for law students.
■ The Novellae (New Laws) were legislation passed after
534.
 Marriage
■ Justinian Code of Law: “Citizens are joined together
in lawful wedlock when they are united according to
law, the man having reached the years of puberty, and
the woman being of marriageable age…provided
that…they have the consent of the parents.
 Robbery
■ Justinian Code of Law: Robbery is defined as taking
of personal property by using violence or threat. “It is
also declared that this [law] relates not only to robbery
of travelers, but also to forcible entries on land and
houses, so as to deter people from all violent [theft]
upon property.
■
“The penalty [for robbery] is three times the value of
the property, and this whether the robber be caught in
the act or not. [However], if a man by mistake thought
that property was his own…he cannot be convicted of
robbery.
 Creating the Imperial Capital

Justinian launched a building program to improve

Constantinople:
■ He rebuilt crumbling fortifications.
■ The city’s coasts were ringed by a 14-mile stone wall.
Byzantine Sea Wall
 Hagia Sophia
■ Hagia Sophia, which
means “Holy Wisdom”
in Greek, was a church in
Constantinople which
has been destroyed in
riots. Justinian had it
rebuilt to be the most
splendid church in the
world. This was
Justinian’s crowning
glory.
Hagia Sophia
Economic and Social Distinctions
Economy centrally controlled
(Constantinople)
Large peasant class
◦ Food prices kept low for urban lower class;
hardship for peasants
Location ideal for defense and trade
◦ Brisk silk production
◦ Manufactured cloth
◦ Carpets
◦ Luxury products
Merchants did not have political power (like
Chinese)
◦ Merchants in western Europe had greater power
Economic and Social Distinctions
Women found themselves confined to the home
◦ May have concealed their faces when they left home under veils
◦ Only men they socialized with were family members
◦ Empress Theodora had great influence over Justinian
 Constantinople’s Hectic Pace
■ The main street in Constantinople was Mese, or
“Middle Way”. It was lined with busy merchant stalls
selling wares from Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as
food vendors.
■ People could also enjoy free chariot races and circus
acts in the Hippodrome, which had the capacity to
accommodate 60,000 spectators.
 Constantinople’s Hectic Pace

■ Fans of different teams wore color of their

favorites and, not unlike today, could be rowdy.
In 532 two factions, the Blues and the Greens,
started a riot named the Nika Rebellion in
protest of the prefect (mayor) putting down a
previous riot.
■ The gangs tried to proclaim a new emperor, but
were put down by Belisarius, who slaughtered
30,000 rioters.
Hippodrome
Hippodrome
The Plague of Justinian

■ This plague resembled the bubonic plague of the

1300’s, and was probably brought over on rat-infested
trading ships from India.
■ At its peak in 542, it is estimated that 10,000 people
died daily from this disease.
■ The plague broke out every 8-12 years until it finally
faded out in around the year 700.
■ By that time, much of the Byzantine population was
wiped out, which left them more vulnerable to invaders.
 Attacks from East and West
■ Many groups attacked the Byzantines from both the East and the
West.
■ Some of these groups include the Lombards (modern day
Austria and Hungary), the Avars, the Slavs, the Bulgars, the
Sassanid Persians, the Arabs, the Russians, and the Ottoman
Turks.
■ In the 11th century, the Turks fought into Anatolia , and the
Crusades in 1204 brought knights in who pillaged
Constantinople.
■ By 1350, the Byzantine Empire was reduced to the tip of
Anatolia and a strip of the Balkans . Constantinople fell to the
Ottoman Turks in 1453.
Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire around 1100