Heraclius & Two Sons w cross 610AD Ancient BYZANTINE Coin Large M i36833
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Heraclius & Two Sons w cross 610AD Ancient BYZANTINE Coin Large M i36833:
$70.00
Item: i36833
Authentic Ancient Roman Coin of:
Byzantine - Heraclius - Emperor: October 5, 610 A.D. - January 11, 641 A.D. -
Bronze 12 Nummi 24mm (3.12 grams) Constantinople mint: circa 610-641 A.D.
Reference: Sear 811; B.M.C. 197-201; T. 426-8.
No legend. Heraclius (in centre), Heraclius Constantine (on right) and Heraclonas (on left) all standing
facing; Heraclius, with moustache and long bead, wears crown and military dress; with two sons each wear
crown and chlamys; Heraclius holds long cross, whilst; his sons each hold globe cross.
Large M, between A / N / N / O and numerals representing the regnal year., in exergue, CON.
You are offerding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
Flavius Heraclius Augustus known in English as Heraclius, or Herakleios; c. 575 - February 11, 641) was aByzantine Emperor ofArmenian origin, who ruled theEastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire. 1][A He was in power for over thirty years, from October 5, 610 to February 11, 641 and was responsible for abandoning the use ofLatin in favour of theGreek language in official documents, furtherHellenising the Empire. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, also namedHeraclius, the viceregalExarch of Africa, successfully led a revolt against the unpopular usurperPhocas.
Heraclius\' reign was marked by several military campaigns. The year Heraclius came to power, the Byzantine Empire was threatened on multiple fronts. Heraclius immediately had to fight theinvasion of the Empire by theSassanians who were ruled by the Persian kingKhosrau Parvez. The first battles of the campaign ended in defeat for the Byzantines; and the Persian army fought their way to the gate of Constantinople, the capital. The Persian army attacked the city from the east while an army of Avars, Slavs, and Bulgars attacked it from the west and from the sea. However, because Constantinople was protected by a strong navy and impenetrable walls, Heraclius was able to avoid total defeat. Soon after this, he initiated a campaign to rebuild and reform the military. Following this success Heraclius moved into Persian territory in 627 and won a decisive battle atNineveh defeating the Persian army. He was the first Emperor toengage the Muslims, and, in the Islamic world, he is seen as something of an ideal ruler who studied theQur\'an, was a true believer of Islam, and viewedMuhammad as the true prophet, the messenger of God.
After his victory over theSassanid Empire, he faced a new threat with the rising power ofIslam. The Persians were quickly defeated by the Islamic forces and in 634 the latter invaded Syria, defeating the emperor\'s brotherTheodore. Heraclius eventually lost Syria in a string of battles. Within a short period of time the Arabs would conquer Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Egypt.
In religious matters, Heraclius is remembered as the driving force in converting the peoples migrating to theBalkan Peninsula. At his requestPope John IV (640-642) sentChristian teachers and missionaries to theDalmatia, newly Croatian Provinces settled byPorga, and his clan who practicedSlavic paganism. He tried to repair the schism in the Christian church in regard to theMonophysites by promoting a compromise doctrine calledMonothelitism; however, this philosophy was rejected asheretical by both sides of the dispute.
//Early lifeOriginsHeraclius was the eldest son ofHeraclius the Elder and Epiphania, anArmenian family from Cappadocia. 2][A[4] Beyond that, there is little specific information known about his ancestry. His father was a key general during EmperorMaurice\'s war withBahrām Chobin, usurper of theSassanid Empire, during 590.[5] After the war, Maurice appointedHeraclius the Elder to the position ofExarch ofAfrica.[5]
Revolt against Phocas and accession to EmperorIn 608, Heraclius the Elder renounced his loyalty to the EmperorPhocas, who had overthrown Maurice six years earlier. The rebels issued coins showing both Heraclii dressed as consuls, though neither of them explicitly claimed the imperial title at this time.[6] Heraclius\' younger cousinNicetas launched an overland invasion ofEgypt; by 609, he had defeated Phocas\' generalBonosus and secured the province. Meanwhile, the younger Heraclius sailed eastward with another force via Sicily and Cyprus.[6]
As he approachedConstantinople, he made contact with leading leaders and planned an attack to overthrowaristocrats in the city, and soon arranged a ceremony where he was crowned and acclaimed as emperor. When he reached the capital, theExcubitors, an elite Imperial Guard unit led by Phocas\' son-in-lawPriscus, deserted to Heraclius, and he entered the city without serious resistance. When Heraclius captured Phocas, he asked him, \"Is this how you have ruled, wretch?\" Phocas said in reply, \"And will you rule better?\" With that, Heraclius became so enraged that he beheaded Phocas on the spot.[7] He later had the genitalia removed from the body because Phocas had raped the wife of Photius, a powerful politician in the city.[8]
On October 5, 610, Heraclius was crowned for a second time, this time in the Chapel of St. Stephen within the Great Palace, and at the same time married Fabia, who took the nameEudokia. After her death in 612, he married his nieceMartina in 613; this second marriage was consideredincestuous and was very unpopular.[9] In the reign of Heraclius\' two sons, the divisive Martina was to become the center of power and political intrigue. Despite widespread hatred for Martina in Constantinople, Heraclius took her on campaigns with him and refused attempts byPatriarch Sergius to prevent and later dissolve the marriage.[9]
War against PersiaTo the brink of defeatDuring hisBalkan Campaigns, EmperorMaurice and his family were murdered byPhocas in November 602 after a mutiny.[10]Khosrau II (Chosroes) of theSassanid Empire had been restored to his throne by Maurice and they had remained allies. 3][A Thus, the Persian King Khosrau II seized the pretext to attack the Eastern Roman Empire, and reconquer the Roman province of Mesopotamia.[11] Khosrau had at his court a man who claimed to be Maurice\'s son Theodosius; and Khosrau demanded that the Romans accept this Theodosius as Emperor.
The war initially went the Persians\' way, partly because of Phocas\' brutal repression and the succession crisis that ensued as the general Heraclius sent his nephewNicetas to attack Egypt, enabling his son Heraclius the younger to claim the throne in 610.[10] Phocas, an unpopular ruler who is invariably described in historical sources as a \"tyrant\", was eventually deposed by Heraclius, who sailed to Constantinople from Carthage with an icon affixed to the prow of his ship.[12][13]
By this time, the Persians had conquered Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, and in 611 they overran Syria and entered Anatolia. A major counter-attack led by Heraclius two years later was decisively defeated outsideAntioch byShahrbaraz andShahin, and the Roman position collapsed; the Persians devastated parts of Asia Minor, and capturedChalcedon across from Constantinople on theBosporus.[14] Over the following decade the Persians were able to conquerPalestine and Egypt (by mid-621 the whole province was in their hands[15]) and to devastate Anatolia, 4][A while theAvars andSlavs took advantage of the situation to overrun theBalkans, bringing the Roman Empire to the brink of destruction. In 613, the Persian army took Damascus with the help of theJews, seized Jerusalem in 614, damaging theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre and capturing theTrue Cross and afterwards capturingEgypt in 616.[10]
With the Persians at the very gate of Constantinople, Heraclius thought of abandoning the city and moving the capital to Carthage, but was convinced to stay by the powerful church figurePatriarch Sergius. Safe behind the walls of Constantinople, Heraclius was able to sue for peace in exchange for an annual tribute of: a thousand talents of gold, a thousand talents of silver, a thousand silk robes, a thousand horses, and a thousand virgins to the Persian King.[17] The peace allowed him to rebuild the Empire\'s army by slashing non-military expenditure, devaluing the currency, and melting down, with the backing of Patriarch Sergius, Church treasures to raise the necessary funds to continue the war.[18]
Byzantine Empire strikes backOn April 5, 622, Heraclius left Constantinople, entrusting the city to Sergius and generalBonus as regents of his son. He assembled his forces in Asia Minor, probably inBithynia, and, after he revived their broken morale, he launched a new counter-offensive, which took on the character of a holy war; anacheiropoietos image of Christ was carried as a military standard.[18][19][20][21]
The Roman army proceeded to Armenia, inflicted a defeat on an army led by a Persian-allied Arab chief, and then won a victory over the Persians under Shahrbaraz.[22] He would stay on campaign for several years.[23][24] On March 25, 624 Heraclius left again Constantinople with his wife,Martina, and his two children; after he celebratedEaster in Nicomedia on April 15, he campaigned in the Caucasus, winning a series of victories in Azerbaijan and Armenia against Khosrau and his generals Shahrbaraz, Shahin andShahraplakan.[25][26] In 626 the Avars and Slavs besieged Constantinople, supported by a Persian army commanded by Shahrbaraz, but the siege ended in failure (the victory was attributed to the icons of the Virgin which were led in procession by Sergius about the walls of the city[27]), while a second Persian army under Shahin suffered another crushing defeat at the hands of Heraclius\' brother Theodore.
With the Persian war effort disintegrating, Heraclius was able to bring theGokturks of theWestern Turkic Khaganate,Ziebel, whoinvaded Persian Transcaucasia. Heraclius exploited divisions within the Persian Empire, keeping the Persian generalShahrbaraz neutral by convincing him that Khosrau had grown jealous of him and ordered his execution. Late in 627 he launched a winter offensive into Mesopotamia, where, despite the desertion of his Turkish allies, he defeated the Persians under Rhahzadh at theBattle of Nineveh.[28] Continuing south along the Tigris he sacked Khosrau\'s great palace at Dastagird and was only prevented from attacking Ctesiphon by the destruction of the bridges on the Nahrawan Canal. Discredited by this series of disasters, Khosrau was overthrown and killed in a coup led by his sonKavadh II, who at once sued for peace, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territories.[29] In 629 Heraclius restored theTrue Crosss to Jerusalem in a majestic ceremony.[13][30][31]
Heraclius took for himself the ancient Persian title of \"King of Kings\" after his victory over Persia. Later on, starting in 629, he styled himself as Basileus, the Greek word for \"sovereign\", and that title was used by the Roman Emperors for the next 800 years. The reason Heraclius chose this title, over previous Roman terms such as Augustus, has been attributed by some scholars to having to do with Heraclius\' Armenian origins.
Heraclius\' defeat of the Persians had been the end game in a war that had been on and off for almost 800 years. It was then thatAlexander the Great had totally defeated the Persians. After Heraclius\' victory over the Persian Empire left it in disarray which it never recovered. In 633 the new Islamic State slowly devoured the Persians until theMuslim conquest of Persia led to the end of theSassanid Empire in 644, and theSassanid dynasty in 651.[33]
War against the ArabsBackground
The Islamic ProphetMuhammadd had recently succeeded in unifying all thenomadic tribes of theArabian Peninsula. The Arabs, who had been too divided in the past to pose a military threat, now comprised one of the most powerful states in the region, and were animated by their new conversion toIslam.[34] Heraclius fell ill soon after his triumph over the Persians and never took the field again.
Islamic sources record that Heraclius dreamt of the coming Arab invasion. HistorianAl-Tabari wrote that Heraclius dreamt of a new kingdom of the \"circumcised man\" that be victorious against all its enemies.[35] After telling his court his dream his patricians who did not know of the rise of Islam in Arabia, \"advised him to send orders to behead every Jew in his dominion.\"[35] It was only when aBedouin trader speaking of a man uniting the tribes of Arabia under a new religion was brought before the Emperor did the Heraclius and his court realize that the kingdom of the \"circumcised man\" was not the Jews but the new Islamic Empire.[35] When the Muslim Arabs attackedSyria andPalestine in 634, he was unable to oppose them personally in battle. Although he remained strategically in charge of operations, his generals failed him in battle. TheBattle of Yarmouk in 636 resulted in a crushing defeat for the larger Roman army; within three years, theLevant had been lost again. By the time of Heraclius\' death, on February 11, 641, most of Egypt had fallen as well.
Islamic view of the Emperor[36] Owing to his role as the Eastern Roman Emperor at the time Islam emerged, he was remembered inArabic literature, such as the Islamichadith andsira. They viewed him favourably, and early Muslims were never enemies of Heraclius, as evidenced in the Quranic verses about the Perso-Roman wars below:002 - 005: The Romans have been defeated [From Persians]. In the nearer land, and they, after their defeat will be victorious. Within ten years— Allah\'s is the command in the former case and in the latter— and in that day believers will rejoice. In Allah\'s help to victory. He helpeth to victory whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Merciful..[37]
TheSwahili \"Utendi wa Tambuka\", anepic poem composed in 1728 atPate Island (off the shore of present-dayKenya) and depicting the wars between the Muslims and Byzantines from the former\'s point of view, is also known as Kyuo kya Hereḳali (\"The book of Heraclius\"). This reflects the considerable impression which this Emperor made on his Muslim foes, being still prominently remembered by Muslims more than a millennium after his death and at a considerable geographical and cultural distance.
In Arabic histories he is seen as a just ruler of great piety, who studied the Qur\'an.[36] The 14th-century historian Ibn Kathir (d. 774/1373) went even further stating that \"Heraclius was one of the wisest men and among the most resolute, shrewd, deep and opinionated of kings. He ruled the Romans with great leadership and splendor.\"[36] Islamic history even goes as far as claiming that Heraclius recognizedMuhammad as the true prophet and proclaimed him the messenger of God.[38] According to Arab sources, he tried to convert the ruling class of the Empire, but they resisted so strongly that he reversed his course and claimed that he was just testing their faith in Christianity.[39] His status as a true believer in Islamic texts is seen as a way to legitimizeMuhammad as the true prophet: if a foreign emperor, who is viewed as an almost perfect ruler, believes in Islam\'s message, thenMuhammad must be the true prophet and voice of God.[40]
Looking back at the reign of Heraclius, scholars have credited him with many accomplishments. He enlarged the Empire and his reorganization of the government and military were great successes. His attempts at religious harmony failed, but he succeeded in returning the True Cross, one of the holiest Christian relics, to the territorial gains produced by his defeat of the Persians were lost to the advance of the Muslims, Heraclius still ranks among the great Roman emperors. His reforms of the government reduced the corruption which had taken hold in Phocas\' reign, and he reorganized the military with great success. Ultimately, the reformed imperial army halted the Muslims inAsia Minorr and held on toCarthage for another 60 years, saving a core from which the empire\'s strength could be rebuilt.[41]
The recovery of the Eastern areas of the Roman Empire from the Persians once again raised the problem of religious unity centering around the understanding of the true nature ofChrist. Most of the inhabitants of these provinces wereMonophysites who rejected theCouncil of Chalcedon.[42] Heraclius tried to promote a compromise doctrine calledMonothelitism; however, this philosophy was rejected asheretical by both sides of the dispute. For this reason, Heraclius was viewed as a heretic and bad ruler by some later religious writers. After the Monophysite provinces were finally lost to the Muslims, Monotheletism rather lost its raison d\'être and was eventually abandoned.[42]
One of the most important legacies of Heraclius was changing the official language of the Eastern Roman Empire fromLatin to Greek in 620.[43] Others include the conversation of the nomadic peoples settling in the Balkan region. At his requestPope John IV (640-642) sentChristian teachers and missionaries to theDalmatia, newly Croatian Provinces settled byPorga, and his clan who practicedSlavic paganism.[44]
Up to the 20th century he was credited with establishing theThematic system but modern scholarship now points more to the 660s, underConstans II.[45]
The modern day border of Turkey can be attributed to Heraclius. This border was Heraclius\' line of defence in Eastern Anatolia which would permanently define the border between lands Islamised by Arabs in the first flush of Islamic conquest and those which would only be Islamised many centuries later— by Turks. It was this ethnic and cultural dividing line which, at the dissolution of theOttoman Empire, would in 1925 become the Eastern border of the presentTurkish Republic
Edward Gibbonn in his work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire wrote:
Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Heraclius is one of the most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first and last years of a long reign, the emperor appears to be the slave of sloth, of pleasure, or of superstition, the careless and impotent spectator of the public calamities. But the languid mists of the morning and evening are separated by the brightness of the meridian sun; the Arcadius of the palace arose the Caesar of the camp; and the honor of Rome and Heraclius was gloriously retrieved by the exploits and trophies of six adventurous campaigns. [...] Since the days of Scipio and Hannibal, no bolder enterprise has been attempted than that which Heraclius achieved for the deliverance of the empire.[46]Recovery of the True CrossDespite his actual heterodox theology, Heraclius was long remembered favourably in the Western church for his reputed feat in recovering theTrue Cross, which had been captured by the Persians. As Heraclius approached the capital Khosrau fled from his favourite residence,Dastgerd (near Baghdad), without offering resistance. Meanwhile, some of the Persian grandees freed his eldest son Kavadh II, whom Khosrau II had imprisoned, and proclaimed him King on the night of 23–4 February , 628.[47] Kavadh however was mortally ill and was anxious that Heraclius should protect his infant son Ardeshir. So as a goodwill gesture, he sent the True Cross with a peace negotiator to sue for peace in 628.[29] After a tour of the Empire he returned the cross on March 21, 630.[29][48] The story was included in the Golden Legend the famous 13th century compendium of hagiography, and he is sometimes shown in art, as in The History of the True Cross sequence offrescoes painted byPiero della Francesca inArezzo, or a similar sequence on a small altarpiece byAdam Elsheimer (Städel, Frankfurt). Both of these show scenes of Heraclius andConstantine I\'s motherSaint Helena, traditionally responsible for the excavation of the cross. The scene usually shown is Heraclius carrying the cross; according to the Golden Legend he insisted on doing this as he entered Jerusalem, against the advice of the Patriarch. At first (shown above), when he was on horseback, the burden was too heavy, but after he dismounted and removed his crown it became miraculously light, and the barred city gate opened of its own accord.
Probably because he was one of the few Eastern Roman emperors widely known in the West, theLate AntiqueColossus of Barletta was considered to depict Heraclius.
FamilyHeraclius was married twice: first to Fabia Eudokia, a daughter of Rogatus, and then to his nieceMartina. He had two children with Fabia and at least nine with Martina most of whom were sickly children. 5][A[51] Of Martina\'s children at least two weredisabled, which was seen as punishment for the illegality of the marriage: Fabius (Flavius) had aparalyzed neck and Theodosios, who was adeaf-mute, married Nike, daughter of Persian generalShahrbaraz or daughter of Niketas, cousin of Heraclius.
Two of Heraclius\' children would become Emperor: Martina\'s sonConstantine Heraclius (Heraklonas), from 638– 641, andHeraclius Constantine (Constantine III), his son from Eudokia, from February, 641– May, 641.John Athalarichos, who conspired a plot against Heraclius with his cousin, the magister Theodorus, and the Armenian nobleDavid Saharuni. 6][A When Heraclius discovered the plot he had Atalarichos\' nose and hands cut off and he wasexiled toPrinkipo, one of thePrinces\' Islands.[55] Theodorus had the same treatment but was sent to Gaudomelete (possibly modern day Gozo Island) with additional instructions to cut off one leg.[55]
During the last years of Heraclius\' life, it became evident that a struggle was taking place between Heraclius Constantine and Martina, who was trying to position her son Heraklonas in line for the throne. When Heraclius died, in hiswill he left the empire to both Heraclius Constantine and Heraklonas to rule jointly with Martina as Empress.[51]
The Byzantine Empire was the predominantlyGreek-speaking continuation of theRoman Empire duringLate Antiquity and theMiddle Ages. Its capital city wasConstantinople (modern-dayIstanbul), originally known asByzantium. Initially the Eastern half of the Roman Empire (often called the Eastern Roman Empire in this context), it survived the 5th centuryfragmentation and collapse of theWestern Roman Empire and continued to thrive, existing for an additional thousand years until itfell to theOttoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both \"Byzantine Empire\" and \"Eastern Roman Empire\" are historiographical terms applied in later centuries; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire and Romania .
The borders of the Empire evolved a great deal over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign ofJustinian I (r. 527–565), the Empire reached its greatest extent after reconquering much of the historically Roman westernMediterranean coast, including north Africa, Italy, and Rome itself, which it held for two more centuries. During the reign ofMaurice (r. 582–602), the Empire\'s Eastern frontier was expanded and the north stabilised. However, his assassination caused atwo-decade-long war withSassanid Persia which exhausted the Empire\'s resources and contributed to major territorial losses during theMuslim conquests of the 7th century. During theMacedonian dynasty (10th-11th centuries), the Empire again expanded and experienced a two-century longrenaissance, which came to an end with the loss of much of Asia Minor to theSeljuk Turks after theBattle of Manzikert (1071).
The final centuries of the Empire exhibited a general trend of decline. It struggled torecover during the 12th century, but was delivered a mortal blow during theFourth Crusade, when Constantinople was sacked and the Empiredissolved and divided into competing Byzantine Greek andLatin realms. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople andre-establishment of the Empire in 1261, Byzantium remained only one of several small rival states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. This volatile period led to itsprogressive annexation by the Ottomans over the 15th century and theFall of Constantinople in 1453.
NomenclatureThe first use of the term \"Byzantine\" to label the later years of theRoman Empire was in 1557, when the German historianHieronymus Wolf published his work Corpus Historiæ Byzantinæ, a collection of historical sources. The term comes from \"Byzantium\", the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantine\'s capital. This 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 ofDu Cange\'s Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of \"Byzantine\" among French authors, such asMontesquieu. However, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. As regards the English historiography in particular, the first occasion of the \"Byzantine Empire\" appears in a 1857 work ofGeorge Finlay (History of the Byzantine Empire from 716 to 1057).
The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the \"Roman Empire\", the \"Empire of the Romans\" (Latin: Imperium Romanum, Imperium Romanorum; Greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων Basileia tōn Rhōmaiōn, Ἀρχὴ τῶν Ῥωμαίων Archē tōn Rhōmaiōn), \"Romania\" (Latin: Romania; Greek:Ῥωμανία Rhōmania), the \"Roman Republic\" (Latin: Res Publica Romana; Greek:Πολιτεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων Politeia tōn Rhōmaiōn), Graikia (Greek: Γραικία), and also as Rhōmais (Greek: Ῥωμαΐς).
Although the Byzantine Empire had a multi-ethnic character during most of its history and preservedRomano-Hellenistic traditions, it became identified by its western and northern contemporaries with its increasingly predominantGreek element. The occasional use of the term \"Empire of the Greeks\" (Latin: Imperium Graecorum) in the West to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire and of the Byzantine Emperor as Imperator Graecorum (Emperor of the Greeks) were also used to separate it from the prestige of the Roman Empire within the new kingdoms of the West.
The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation ofCharlemagne asImperator Augustus byPope Leo III in the year 800. Needing Charlemagne\'s support in his struggle against his enemies in Rome, Leo used the lack of a male occupant of the throne of the Roman Empire at the time to claim that it was vacant and that he could therefore crown a new Emperor himself. Whenever the Popes or the rulers of the West made use of the name Roman to refer to the Eastern Roman Emperors, they usually preferred the term Imperator Romaniae (meaning Emperor of Romania) instead of Imperator Romanorum (meaning Emperor of the Romans), a title that they applied only to Charlemagne and his successors.
No such distinction existed in the Persian, Islamic, and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more straightforwardly seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire.
Early history The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael \'s pupils (1520–1524, fresco , Vatican City, Apostolic Palace ). Eusebius of Caesarea records that (as was common among converts of early Christianity ) Constantine delayed receiving baptism until shortly before his death.The Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions insouthwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to many different cultural groups, ranging from primitive to highly sophisticated. Generally speaking, the Eastern Mediterranean provinces were more urbanised than the western, having previously been united under theMacedonian Empire andHellenised by the influence of Greek culture.
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.
Divisions of the Roman EmpireIn order to maintain control and improve administration, various schemes to divide the work of the Roman Emperor by sharing it between individuals were tried between 285 and 324, from 337 to 350, from 364 to 392, and again between 395 and 480. Although the administrative subdivisions varied, they generally involved a division of labour between East and West. Each division was a form of power-sharing (or even job-sharing), for the ultimate imperium was not divisible and therefore the empire remained legally one state—although the co-emperors often saw each other as rivals or enemies rather than partners.
In 293, emperorDiocletian created a new administrative system (the tetrarchy), in order 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. The tetrarchy collapsed, however, in 313 and a few years later Constantine I reunited the two administrative divisions of the Empire as sole Augustus.
RecentralisationIn 330,Constantine moved theseat of the Empire toConstantinople, which he founded as a second Rome on the site of Byzantium, a city well-positioned astride the trade routes between East and West. Constantine introduced important changes into the Empire\'s military, monetary, civil and religious institutions. As regards his economic policies in particular, he has been accused by certain scholars of \"reckless fiscality\", but the goldsolidus he introduced became a stable currency that transformed the economy and promoted development.
Under Constantine, Christianity did not become the exclusive religion of the state, but enjoyed imperial preference, becausethe emperor supported it with generous privileges. Constantine established the principle that emperors could not settle questions of doctrine on their own, but should summon insteadgeneral ecclesiastical councils for that purpose. His convening of both theSynod of Arles and theFirst Council of Nicaea indicated his interest in the unity of the Church, and showcased his claim to be its head.
In 395,Theodosius I bequeathed the imperial office jointly to his sons:Arcadius in the East andHonorius in the West, once again dividing Imperial administration. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, 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 withtribute and pay foreign mercenaries. This success allowedTheodosius II to focus on thecodification of the Roman law and the further fortification ofthe walls of Constantinople, which left the city impervious to most attacks until 1204.
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 theWest. After his death in 453, theHunnic Empire collapsed, and many of the remaining Huns were often hired as mercenaries by Constantinople.
Loss of the western Roman EmpireAfter the fall of Attila, the Eastern Empire enjoyed a period of peace, while the Western Empire deteriorated in continuing migration and expansion byGermanic nations (its end is usually dated in 476 when the Germanic Roman generalOdoacer deposed the titular Western EmperorRomulus Augustulus). In 480 EmperorZeno abolished the division of the Empire making himself sole Emperor. Odoacer, now ruler of Italy, was nominally Zeno\'s subordinate but acted with complete autonomy, eventually providing support of a rebellion against the Emperor.
Zeno negotiated with the invadingOstrogoths, who had settled inMoesia, convincing the Gothic kingTheodoric to depart for Italy as magister militum per Italiam (\"commander in chief for Italy\") with the aim to depose Odoacer. By urging Theodoric into conquering 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 on his own, although he was never recognised by the Eastern emperors as \"king\" (rex).
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 ofIsaurian resistance. Anastasius revealed himself as an energetic reformer and an able administrator. He perfected Constantine I\'s coinage system by definitively setting the weight of the copperfollis, the coin used in most everyday transactions. He also reformed the tax system and permanently abolished thechrysargyron tax. The State Treasury contained the enormous sum of 320,000 lb (150,000kg) of gold when Anastasius died in 518.
Reconquest of the western provinces Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale , Ravenna .Justinian I, the son of anIllyrian peasant, may already have exerted effective control during the reign of his uncle,Justin I (518–527).[32] He assumed the throne in 527, and oversaw a period of recovery of former territories. In 532, attempting to secure his Eastern frontier, he signed a peace treaty withKhosrau I of Persia agreeing to pay a large annual tribute to theSassanids. In the same year, he survived a revolt in Constantinople (theNika riots), which solidified his power but ended with the deaths of a reported 30,000 to 35,000 rioters on his orders.
In 529, a ten-man commission chaired byJohn the Cappadocian revised the Roman law and created a new codification of laws and jurists\' extracts. In 534, the Code was updated and, along with theenactements promulgated by Justinian after 534, it formed the system of law used for most of the rest of the Byzantine era.
The western conquests began in 533, as Justinian sent his generalBelisarius to reclaim the former province ofAfrica from theVandals who had been in control since 429 with their capital at Carthage. Their success came with surprising ease, but it was not until 548 that the major local tribes were subdued. InOstrogothic Italy, the deaths of Theodoric, his nephew and heirAthalaric, and his daughterAmalasuntha had left her murderer,Theodahad (r. 534–536), on the throne despite his weakened authority.
In 535, a small Byzantine expedition toSicily met with easy success, but the Goths soon stiffened their resistance, and victory did not come until 540, when Belisarius capturedRavenna, after successful sieges ofNaples and Rome. In 535–536, Theodahad sentPope 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 theMonophysitePatriarch Anthimus I of Constantinople denounced, despite empressTheodora\'s support and protection.
The Ostrogoths were soon reunited under the command of KingTotila andcaptured Rome in 546. Belisarius, who had been sent back to Italy in 544, was eventually recalled to Constantinople in 549. The arrival of the Armenian eunuchNarses in Italy (late 551) with an army of some 35,000 men marked another shift in Gothic fortunes. Totila was defeated at theBattle of Taginae and his successor,Teia, was defeated at theBattle of Mons Lactarius (October 552). Despite continuing resistance from a few Gothic garrisons and two subsequent invasions by the Franks andAlemanni, the war for the Italian peninsula was at an end.[40] In 551, Athanagild, a noble fromVisigothicHispania, sought Justinian\'s help in a rebellion against the king, and the emperor dispatched a force underLiberius, a successful military commander. The Empire held on to a small slice of theIberian Peninsula coast until the reign of Heraclius.
In the east, the Roman–Persian Wars continued until 561 when the envoys of Justinian and Khosrau agreed on a 50-year peace. By the mid-550s, Justinian had won victories in most theatres of operation, with the notable exception of theBalkans, which were subjected to repeated incursions from the Slavs and theGepids. Tribes ofSerbs andCroats were later resettled in the northwestern Balkans, during the reign of Heraclius. Justinian called Belisarius out of retirement and defeated the new Hunnish threat. The strengthening of the Danube fleet caused theKutrigur Huns to withdraw and they agreed to a treaty that allowed safe passage back across the Danube.
During the 6th century, traditional Greco-Roman culture was still influential in the Eastern empire. Philosophers such asJohn Philoponus drew onneoplatonic ideas in addition to Christian thought and empiricism. Nevertheless,Hellenistic philosophy began to be supplanted by or amalgamated into newerChristian philosophy. Polytheism wassuppressed by the state. The closure of thePlatonic Academy was a notable turning point. Hymns written byRomanos the Melodist marked the development of the Divine Liturgy, while architects and builders worked to complete the new Church of theHoly Wisdom,Hagia Sophia, which was designed to replace an older church destroyed during the Nika Revolt. The Hagia Sophia stands today as one of the major monuments of Byzantine architectural history.[45] During the 6th and 7th centuries, the Empire was struck by aseries of epidemics, which greatly devastated the population and contributed to a significant economic decline and a weakening of the Empire.
After Justinian died in 565, his successor,Justin II refused to pay the large tribute to the Persians. Meanwhile, the GermanicLombards 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 theAvars while taking military action against the Persians. Though Tiberius\' general,Maurice, led an effective campaign on the Eastern frontier, subsidies failed to restrain the Avars. They captured the Balkan fortress ofSirmium in 582, while the Slavs began to make inroads across the Danube.
Maurice, who meanwhile succeeded Tiberius, intervened in a Persian civil war, placed the legitimateKhosrau 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 Byzantinecampaigns had pushed the Avars and Slavs back across the Danube.
Shrinking bordersHeraclian dynastyAfter Maurice\'s murder byPhocas, Khosrau used the pretext to reconquer theRoman province of Mesopotamia. 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 fromCarthage with an icon affixed to the prow of his ship.
Following the ascension of Heraclius, the Sassanid advance pushed deep into Asia Minor, occupyingDamascus andJerusalem and removing theTrue Cross toCtesiphon. The counter-attack launched by Heraclius took on the character of a holy war, and anacheiropoietos image of Christ was carried as a military standard[51] (similarly, when Constantinople was saved from an Avar siege in 626, the victory was attributed to the icons of the Virgin that were led in procession byPatriarch Sergius about the walls of the city).
The main Sassanid force was destroyed atNineveh in 627, and in 629 Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in a majestic ceremony. The war had exhausted both the Byzantines and Sassanids, however, and left them extremely vulnerable to theMuslim forces that emerged in the following years. The Byzantines suffered a crushing defeat by the Arabs at theBattle of Yarmouk in 636, while Ctesiphon fell in 634.
Siege of Constantinople (674–678)The Arabs, now firmly incontrol of Syria and the Levant, sent frequent raiding parties deep into Asia Minor, and in674–678 laid siege to Constantinople itself. The Arab fleet was finally repulsed through the use ofGreek fire, and a thirty-years\' truce was signed between the Empire and theUmayyad Caliphate. However, theAnatolian 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. 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.
The void left by the disappearance of the old semi-autonomous civic institutions was filled by the theme system, 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. 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.
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. In the 670s, theBulgars were pushed south of the Danube by the arrival of the Khazars. In 680, Byzantine forces sent to disperse these new settlements were defeated.
In 681,Constantine IV signed a treaty with the Bulgar khanAsparukh, and thenew Bulgarian state assumed sovereignty over a number of Slavic tribes that had previously, at least in name, recognised Byzantine rule. 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 fromThrace toMacedonia demonstrates the degree to which Byzantine power in the north Balkans had declined.
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 khanTervel, 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.
Isaurian dynasty to the ascension of Basil ILeo III the Isaurian turned back the Muslim assault in 718 and addressed himself to the task of reorganising and consolidating the themes in Asia Minor. His successor,Constantine V, won noteworthy victories in northern Syria and thoroughly undermined Bulgarian strength.
Taking advantage of the Empire\'s weakness after theRevolt of Thomas the Slav in the early 820s, the Arabs reemerged andcaptured Crete. They also successfully attacked Sicily, but in 863 generalPetronas gained ahuge victory againstUmar al-Aqta, theemir ofMelitene. Under the leadership of emperorKrum, the Bulgarian threat also reemerged, but in 815–816 Krum\'s son,Omurtag, signed apeace treaty withLeo V.
Macedonian dynasty and resurgence (867–1025)The accession ofBasil I to the throne in 867 marks the beginning of theMacedonian dynasty, which would rule for the next two and a half centuries. This dynasty included some of the most able emperors in Byzantium\'s history, and the period is one of revival and resurgence. The Empire moved from defending against external enemies to reconquest of territories formerly lost.
In addition to a reassertion of Byzantine military power and political authority, the period under the Macedonian dynasty is 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 theSlavic and subsequentArab invasions, and the Macedonian era has been dubbed the \"Golden Age\" of Byzantium. Though the Empire was significantly smaller than during the reign of Justinian, it had regained significant strength, as the remaining territories were less geographically dispersed and more politically, economically, and culturally integrated.
Wars against the ArabsIn the early years of Basil I\'s reign, Arab raids on the coasts of Dalmatia were successfully repelled, 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-dayHerzegovina andMontenegro to Orthodox Christianity. An attempt to retakeMalta ended disastrously, however, when the local population sided with the Arabs and massacred the Byzantine garrison.
By contrast, the Byzantine position inSouthern Italy was gradually consolidated so that by 873 Bari had once again come under Byzantine rule, and most of Southern Italy would remain in the Empire for the next 200 years. On the more important Eastern front, the Empire rebuilt its defences and went on the offensive. ThePaulicians were defeated and their capital of Tephrike (Divrigi) taken, while the offensive against theAbbasid Caliphate began with the recapture ofSamosata.
Under Michael\'s son and successor,Leo VI the Wise, the gains in the east against the now weak Abbasid Caliphate continued. However, Sicily was lost to the Arabs in 902, and in 904Thessaloniki, the Empire\'s second city, was sacked by an Arab fleet. The weakness of the Empire in the naval sphere was quickly rectified, so that a few years later a Byzantine fleet had re-occupiedCyprus, lost in the 7th century, and also stormed Laodicea in Syria. 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 regainCrete in 911.
The death of the Bulgarian tsarSimeon I in 927 severely weakened the Bulgarians, allowing the Byzantines to concentrate on the Eastern front. Melitene was permanently recaptured in 934, and in 943 the famous generalJohn Kourkouas continued the offensive inMesopotamia with some noteworthy victories, culminating in the reconquest ofEdessa. Kourkouas was especially celebrated for returning to Constantinople the veneratedMandylion, a relic purportedly imprinted with a portrait of Christ.[75]
The soldier-emperorsNikephoros II Phokas (reigned 963–969) andJohn I Tzimiskes (969–976) expanded the empire well into Syria, defeating the emirs of north-westIraq. The great city ofAleppo was taken by Nikephoros in 962, and the Arabs were decisively expelled from Crete in 963. The recapture of Crete put an end to Arab raids in the Aegean, allowing mainland Greece to flourish once again. Cyprus was permanently retaken in 965, and the successes of Nikephoros culminated in 969 with the recapture ofAntioch, which he incorporated as a province of the Empire. His successor John Tzimiskes recaptured Damascus,Beirut,Acre,Sidon,Caesarea, andTiberias, putting Byzantine armies within striking distance of Jerusalem, although the Muslim power centers in Iraq and Egypt were left untouched. After much campaigning in the north, the last Arab threat to Byzantium, the rich province of Sicily, was targeted in 1025 byBasil II, who died before the expedition could be completed. Nevertheless, by that time the Empire stretched from the straits of Messina to theEuphrates and from the Danube to Syria.
Wars against the Bulgarian Empire Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025).The traditional struggle with theSee of Rome continued through the Macedonian period, spurred by the question of religious supremacy over the newly Christianised state of Bulgaria. 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 theBlack Sea to attack the Bulgarian rear, enlisting the support of theHungarians. The Byzantines were defeated at theBattle of Boulgarophygon in 896, however, and agreed to pay annual subsidies to the Bulgarians.
Leo the Wise died in 912, and hostilities soon resumed as Simeon marched to Constantinople at the head of a large army. Though 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 emperorConstantine VII marry one of his daughters. When a revolt in Constantinople halted his dynastic project, he again invaded Thrace and conqueredAdrianople. The Empire now faced the problem of a powerful Christian state within a few days\' marching distance from Constantinople, as well as having to fight on two fronts.
A great imperial expedition underLeo Phocas andRomanos I Lekapenos ended with another crushing Byzantine defeat at theBattle 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. In 968, Bulgaria was overrun by theRus\' underSviatoslav I of Kiev, but three years later, John I Tzimiskesdefeated the Rus\' and re-incorporated Eastern Bulgaria into the Byzantine Empire.
Bulgarian resistance revived under the rule of theCometopuli dynasty, but the new emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025) made the submission of the Bulgarians his primary goal.[84] Basil\'s first expedition against Bulgaria, however, resulted in a humiliating defeat at theGates 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 ofSpercheios andSkopje decisively weakened the Bulgarian army, and in annual campaigns, Basil methodically reduced the Bulgarian strongholds.[84] At theBattle 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 TsarSamuil saw the broken remains of his once gallant army, he died of shock. By 1018, the last Bulgarian strongholds had surrendered, and the country became part of the Empire.[84] This victory restored the Danube frontier, which had not been held since the days of the emperor Heraclius.[78]
Split between Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism (1054) 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 andRus\' to Orthodox Christianity permanently changed the religious map of Europe and still resonates today.Cyril and Methodius, twoByzantine Greek brothers from Thessaloniki, contributed significantly to theChristianization of the Slavs and in the process devised theGlagolitic alphabet, ancestor to theCyrillic script.
In 1054, relations between the Eastern and Western traditions within the Christian Church reached a terminal crisis, known as theGreat Schism. Although there was a formal declaration of institutional separation, on July 16, when three papal legates entered the Hagia Sophia during Divine Liturgy on a Saturday afternoon and placed a bull of excommunication on the altar, the so-called Great Schism was actually the culmination of centuries of gradual separation.
Crisis and fragmentationThe 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 Phokas (reigned 963–969), John Tzimiskes and Basil II changed the military divisions (τάγματα,tagmata) from a rapid response, primarily defensive, citizen army into a professional, campaigning army increasingly manned by mercenaries.Mercenaries, however, were expensive and as the threat of invasion receded in the 10th century, so did the need for maintaining large garrisons and expensive fortifications.
Basil II left a burgeoning treasury upon his death, but neglected to plan for his succession. None of his immediate successors had any particular military or political skill and the administration of the Empire increasingly fell into the hands of the civil service. Efforts to revive the Byzantine economy only resulted in inflation and a debased gold coinage. The army was now seen as both an unnecessary expense and a political threat. Therefore, native troops were cashiered and replaced by foreign mercenaries on specific contract.
At the same time, the Empire was faced with new enemies. Provinces in southern Italy faced theNormans, who arrived in Italy at the beginning of the 11th century. During a period of strife between Constantinople and Rome that ended in the East-West Schism of 1054, the Normans began to advance, slowly but steadily, into Byzantine Italy.Reggio, the capital of the tagma of Calabria, was captured in 1060 byRobert Guiscard, followed byOtranto in 1068. Bari, the main Byzantine stronghold in Apulia, was besieged in August 1068 andfell in April 1071. The Byzantines also lost their influence over theDalmatian coastal cities toPeter Krešimir IV of Croatia (r. 1058–1074/1075) in 1069.
It was in Asia Minor, however, that the greatest disaster would take place. The Seljuq Turks made their first explorations across the Byzantine frontier into Armenia in 1065 and in 1067. The emergency lent weight to the military aristocracy in Anatolia who, in 1068, secured the election of one of their own,Romanos IV 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.
AtManzikert, Romanos not only suffered a surprise defeat at the hands ofSultanAlp Arslan, but was also captured. Alp Arslan treated him with respect, and imposed no harsh terms on the Byzantines. In Constantinople, a coup took place in favour ofMichael Doukas, who soon faced the opposition ofNikephoros Bryennios andNikephoros III Botaneiates. By 1081, the Seljuks expanded their rule over virtually the entire Anatolian plateau from Armenia in the east toBithynia in the west and founded their capital at Nicaea, just 90km from Constantinople.
Komnenian dynasty and the crusaders Alexios I , founder of the Komnenos dynasty .The period from about 1081 to about 1185 is often known as the Komnenian or Comnenian period, after theKomnenos dynasty. Together, the five Komnenian emperors (Alexios I, John II, Manuel I, Alexios II and Andronikos I) ruled for 104 years, presiding over a sustained, though ultimately incomplete, restoration of the military, territorial, economic and political position of the Byzantine Empire. Though the Seljuk Turks occupied the Empire\'s heartland in Anatolia, it was against Western powers that most Byzantine military efforts were directed, particularly the Normans.
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 Constantinople and the empire in large numbers (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.
In terms of prosperity and cultural life, the Komnenian period was one of the peaks in Byzantine history, and Constantinople remained the leading city of the Christian world in terms of size, wealth, and culture. There was a renewed interest in classical Greek philosophy, as well as an increase in literary output in vernacular Greek. 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.
Alexios I and the First CrusadeAfter Manzikert, a partial recovery (referred to as the Komnenian restoration) was made possible by the efforts of the Komnenian dynasty. The first emperor of this dynasty wasIsaac I (1057–1059) and the second Alexios I. At the very outset of his reign, Alexios faced a formidable attack by the Normans under Robert Guiscard and his sonBohemund of Taranto, who capturedDyrrhachium andCorfu, and laid siege toLarissa inThessaly. 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 thePechenegs; they were caught by surprise and annihilated at theBattle of Levounion on 28 April 1091.
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. However, he still did not have enough manpower to recover the lost territories in Asia Minor and to advance against the Seljuks. At theCouncil of Piacenza in 1095, Alexios\' envoys spoke toPope 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.
Urban saw Alexios\' request as a dual opportunity to cement Western Europe and reunite theEastern Orthodox Churches with theRoman Catholic Church under his rule. On 27 November 1095, Pope Urban II called together theCouncil of Clermont, and urged all those present to take up arms under the sign of theCross and launch an armedpilgrimage to recover Jerusalem and the East from the Muslims. The response in Western Europe was overwhelming.
Alexios had anticipated help in the form of mercenary forces from the West, but 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 conquer from the Turks on their way to the Holy Land. In return, he gave them guides and a military escort.
Alexios was able to recover a number of important cities and islands, and in fact much of western Asia Minor. Nevertheless, the crusaders believed their oaths were invalidated when Alexios did not help them during the siege of Antioch (he had in fact set out on the road to Antioch, but had been persuaded to turn back byStephen of Blois, who assured him that all was lost and that the expedition had already failed). Bohemund, who had set himself up asPrince of Antioch, briefly went to war with the Byzantines, but agreed to become Alexios\' vassal under theTreaty of Devol in 1108, which marked the end of Norman threat during Alexios\' reign.
John II, Manuel I and the Second CrusadeAlexios\'s sonJohn II Komnenos succeeded him in 1118, and ruled until 1143. John was a pious and dedicated Emperor who was determined to undo the damage his empire had suffered at the Battle of Manzikert, half a century earlier. 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. For this reason, he has been called the ByzantineMarcus Aurelius.
In the course of his twenty-five year reign, John made alliances with theHoly Roman Empire in the West, decisively defeated the Pechenegs at theBattle of Beroia, and personally led numerous campaigns against theTurks in Asia Minor. John\'s campaigns fundamentally changed the balance of power in the East, forcing the Turks onto the defensive and restoring to the Byzantines many towns, fortresses and cities right across the peninsula. He also thwarted Hungarian, and Serbian threats during the 1120s, and in 1130 allied himself with theGerman emperorLothair III against the Norman kingRoger II of Sicily.
In the later part of his reign, John focused his activities on the East. He defeated theDanishmend emirate ofMelitene, and reconquered all ofCilicia, while forcingRaymond 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 theHoly Land at the head of the combined forces of the Empire and theCrusader states; yet despite the great vigour with which he pressed the campaign, John\'s hopes were disappointed by the treachery of his Crusader allies.In 1142, John returned to press his claims to Antioch, but he died in the spring of 1143 following a hunting accident. Raymond was emboldened to invade Cilicia, but he was defeated and forced to go to Constantinople to beg mercy from the new Emperor.
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, he allied himself with the CrusaderKingdom of Jerusalem and sent a large fleet to participate in a combined invasion ofFatimid Egypt. Manuel reinforced his position as overlord of the Crusader states, with his hegemony over Antioch and Jerusalem secured by agreement withRaynald, Prince of Antioch, andAmalric, King of Jerusalem respectively.
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 theKingdom of Hungary in 1167, defeating the Hungarians at theBattle of Sirmium. By 1168, nearly the whole of the Eastern Adriatic coast lay in Manuel\'s hands. Manuel made several alliances with the Pope and Western Christian kingdoms, and successfully handled the passage of theSecond Crusade through his empire.
In the east, Manuel suffered a major defeat at theBattle of Myriokephalon, in 1176, against the Turks. Yet the losses were quickly made good, and in the following year Manuel\'s forces inflicted a defeat upon a force of \"picked Turks\". The Byzantine commander John Vatatzes, who destroyed the Turkish invaders at theBattle 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.
12th-century RenaissanceJohn and Manuel pursued active military policies, and both deployed considerable resources on sieges and on city defences; aggressive fortification policies were at the heart of their imperial military policies.[126] 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 circa 1081 to circa 1180, the Komnenian army assured the Empire\'s security, enabling Byzantine civilisation to flourish.
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, theGenoese and others opened up the ports of the Aegean to commerce, shipping goods from the Crusader kingdoms ofOutremer and Fatimid Egypt to the west and trading with the Empire via Constantinople.
Decline and disintegrationDynasty of the AngeloiManuel\'s death on 24 September 1180 left his 11-year-old sonAlexios II Komnenos on the throne. Alexios was highly incompetent at the office, but it was his mother,Maria of Antioch, and her Frankish background that made his regency unpopular. 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.
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. 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 wifeAgnes of France for himself.
Andronikos began his reign well; in particular, the measures he took to reform the government of the Empire have been praised by historians. According toGeorge 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 so as to reduce the temptation of bribery. In the provinces, Andronikos\'s reforms produced a speedy and marked improvement.
Fourth CrusadeIn 1198,Pope Innocent III broached the subject of a new crusade throughlegates andencyclical letters. The stated intent of the crusade was to conquerEgypt, now the centre of Muslim power in theLevant. The crusader army that arrived atVenice in the summer of 1202 was somewhat smaller than had been anticipated, and there were not sufficient funds to pay the Venetians, whose fleet was hired by the crusaders to take them to Egypt. Venetian policy under the ageing and blind but still ambitiousDogeEnrico Dandolo was potentially at variance with that of the Pope and the crusaders, because Venice was closely related commercially with Egypt.
The crusaders accepted the suggestion that in lieu of payment they assist the Venetians in the capture of the (Christian) port ofZara in Dalmatia (vassal city of Venice, which had rebelled and placed itself under Hungary\'s protection in 1186). The city fell in November 1202 after a briefsiege. Innocent, who was informed of the plan but his veto disregarded, was reluctant to jeopardise the Crusade, and gave conditional absolution to the crusaders—not, however, to the Venetians.
Crusader sack of Constantinople (1204)The crusaders arrived at the city in the summer of 1203 and quickly attacked, started a major fire that damaged large parts of the city, and seized control of it (first of two times). Alexios III fled from the capital, and Alexios Angelos was elevated to the throne as Alexios IV along with his blind father Isaac. However, Alexios IV and Isaac II were unable to keep their promises and were deposed by Alexios V. Eventually, the crusaders took the city a second time 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. When Innocent III heard of the conduct of his crusaders, he castigated them in no uncertain terms. But the situation was beyond his control, especially after his legate, on his own initiative, had absolved the crusaders from their vow to proceed to the Holy Land.
When order had been restored, the crusaders and the Venetians proceeded to implement their agreement;Baldwin of Flanders was electedEmperor and the VenetianThomas Morosini chosen as Patriarch. The lands divided up among the leaders included most of the former Byzantine possessions, however resistance would continue through the Byzantine remnants of theNicaea,Trebizond, andEpirus.
FallEmpire in exileAfter 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 one, the Empire of Trebizond was created a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople byAlexios I of Trebizond. Of these three successor states, Epirus and Nicaea stood the best chance of reclaiming Constantinople. The Nicaean Empire struggled, however, to survive the next few decades, and by the mid-13th century it lost much of southern Anatolia.
The weakening of theSultanate of Rûm following theMongol Invasion in 1242–43 allowed manybeyliks andghazis to set up their own principalities in Anatolia, weakening the Byzantine hold on Asia Minor. 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 only north of its position.
Reconquest of ConstantinopleThe Empire of Nicaea, founded by theLaskarid dynasty, managed toreclaim Constantinople from the Latins in 1261 and defeat Epirus. This led to a short-lived revival of Byzantine fortunes underMichael VIII Palaiologos, but the war-ravaged Empire was ill-equipped to deal with the enemies that now 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. Massive construction projects were completed in Constantinople to repair the damages of the Fourth Crusade, but none of these initiatives was of any comfort to the farmers in Asia Minor, suffering raids from Muslim ghazis.
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. The efforts ofAndronikos II and later his grandsonAndronikos 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 theCatalan Company ravaging the countryside and increasing resentment towards Constantinople.
Rise of the Ottomans and fall of ConstantinopleThings went worse for Byzantium during the civil wars that followed after Andronikos III died. Asix-year long civil war devastated the empire, allowing the Serbian rulerStefan IV Dushan (r. 1331–1346) to overrun most of the Empire\'s remaining territory and establish a short-lived \"Serbian Empire\". In 1354, an earthquake atGallipoli devastated the fort, allowing theOttomans (who were hired as mercenaries during the civil war byJohn VI Kantakouzenos) to establish themselves in Europe. By the time the Byzantine civil wars had ended, the Ottomans had defeated the Serbians and subjugated them as vassals. Following theBattle of Kosovo, much of the Balkans became dominated by the Ottomans.
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 theLatin Rite. 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.
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 some 80,000 men and large numbers of irregulars laid siege to the city.
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),[153] Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans after a two-month siege on 29 May 1453. The last 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.[155]
Religion 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).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 theChristian Church. Following the pattern set byEusebius of Caesarea, the Byzantines viewed the Emperor as a representative or messenger ofChrist, responsible particularly for the propagation of Christianity among pagans, and for the \"externals\" of the religion, such as administration and finances. AsCyril Mango points out, the Byzantine political thinking can be summarised in the motto \"One God, one empire, one religion\".
The official state Christian doctrine was determined by thefirst seven ecumenical councils, and it was then the emperor\'s duty to impose it to his subjects. An imperial decree of 388, which was later incorporated into the Codex Justinianus, orders the population of the Empire \"to assume the name of Catholic Christians\", and regards all those who will not aoffere by the law as \"mad and foolish persons\"; as followers of \"heretical dogmas\".[175]
Despite imperial decrees and the stringent stance of thestate church itself, which came to be known as theEastern Orthodox Church orEastern 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.[176] Besides the pagans, who existed until the end of the 6th century, and theJews, there were many followers – sometimes even emperors – of various Christian doctrines, such asNestorianism,Monophysitism,Arianism, andPaulicianism, whose teachings were in some opposition to the main theological doctrine, as determined by the Ecumenical Councils.[177]
Another division among Christians occurred, when Leo III ordered the destruction of icons throughout the Empire. This led to asignificant religious crisis, which ended in 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 graduallyChristianised, and by Byzantium\'s late stages, Eastern Orthodoxy represented most Christians and, in general, most people in what remained of the Empire.
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.
Legacy King David in robes of a Byzantine emperor. Miniature from the Paris Psalter .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. In the countries ofCentral and Southeast Europe that exited theEastern Bloc in late 80s and early 90s, the assessment of Byzantine civilisation and its legacy was strongly negative due to their connection with an alleged \"Eastern authoritarianism and autocracy.\" 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 in19th-century Greece, the focus was mainly on the classical past, while Byzantine tradition had been associated with negative connotations.
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 the 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, Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia and other countries.[208] The Byzantines also preserved and copied classical manuscripts, and they are thus regarded as transmitters of the classical knowledge, as important contributors to the modern European civilisation, and as precursors of both theRenaissance humanism and the Slav Orthodox culture.
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.
Following the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, SultanMehmed II took the title \"Kaysar-i-Rûm\" (the Turkish equivalent of Caesar of Rome), since he was determined to make the Ottoman Empire the heir of the Eastern Roman Empire. According to Cameron, regarding themselves as \"heirs\" of Byzantium, the Ottomans preserved important aspects of its tradition, which in turn facilitated an \"Orthodox revival\" during the post-communist period of the Eastern European states.
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Heraclius & Two Sons w cross 610AD Ancient BYZANTINE Coin Large M i36833:
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