Byzantine Empire

​The Byzantine Empire & An Introduction to the Medieval Europe

​Learning Objective:

Students will understand the various changes that took place in Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

​Essential Question:

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Did the Roman Empire really fall, or did it transition into what we know as the Byzantine Empire and live on for nearly 1000 years?

​Terms & Names

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●Justinian

●Justinian Code

●Hagia Sophia

●Patriarch

●icon

●excommunication

​The Western Roman Empire crumbled in the fifth century as it was overrun by invading Germanic tribes. By this time, however, the once great empire had already undergone significant changes. It had been divided into western and eastern empires, and its capital had moved east from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium. The city would become known as Constantinople after the emperor Constantine, who made it the new capital in a.d. 330. Under Constantine and his successors, Christianity became a major unifying factor in the empire. For nearly a thousand years, Byzantium and its flourishing capital would carry on the glory of Rome. It lasted from the fall of the Roman Empire until the Ottoman conquest in 1453.

Multiple Choice

The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century because

• Attacks by Germanic Tribes

• Civil War

• Natural Disaster

• Disease

Multiple Choice

The Byzantine Empire created lots of different temples, what is the most famous Church which is now a Mosque?

• The Vatican

• Notre Dame

• Hagia Sophia

• Church of Christ

​The first truly strong Byzantine Emperor was Justinian—who ruled the Byzantine Empire from AD 527 to AD 565. He was able to reclaim much of the Western Empire during his reign.

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Emperor Justinian also built upon Roman ideas when he put forth a unified Roman legal code. Prior to his reign, Roman laws had differed from region to region and many contradicted one another.

​Having unified the two empires, Justinian set up a panel of legal experts to regulate Byzantium’s increasingly complex society. The panel created a single, uniform code known as the Justinian Code. After its completion, the code consisted of four works.

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1. The Code contained nearly 5,000 Roman laws that were still considered useful for the Byzantine Empire.

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2. The Digest quoted and summarized the opinions of Rome’s greatest legal thinkers about the laws. This massive work ran to a total of 50 volumes.

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3. The Institutes was a textbook that told law students how to use the laws.

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4. The Novellae (New Laws) presented legislation passed after 534.

Multiple Choice

What is a unified code of Law, created by combining laws from ancient Rome and current Byzantine law?

• The Digest

• The Justinian Code

• The Institutes

• Hammurabi's Code

Multiple Choice

Who was the first truly strong Byzantine Emperor, who ruled from 527-565 AD?

• Constantine

• Marcus Arelious

• Julius Caesar

• Justinian

​Creating the Imperial Capital

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While his scholars were creating the legal code, Justinian launched the most ambitious public building program ever seen in the Roman world. He rebuilt the crumbling fortifications of Constantinople, as workers constructed a 14-mile stone wall along the city’s coastline and repaired the massive fortifications along its western land border

​Church building, however, was the emperor’s greatest passion. Justinian viewed churches as the most visible sign of the close connection between church and state in his empire. The crowning glory of his reign was Hagia Sophia, which means “Holy Wisdom” in Greek. Many visitors hailed it as the most splendid church in the Christian world.

Multiple Choice

What was one of the most important public work project Justinian completed during his rule?

• The Library of Alexandria

• Constantinople Castle

• Rebuilt the Walls of Constantinople

• Notre Dame

Multiple Choice

Building Churches was Justinian's passion, his most notable Church was the Hagia Sophia. What does Hagia Sophia mean in Greek?

• One True God

• Life Eternal

• Church of God

• Holy Wisdom

​Citizens could enjoy free entertainment at the Hippodrome (from Greek words meaning “horse” and “racecourse”), which offered wild chariot races. Fans of the different teams formed rowdy gangs named for the colors worn by their heroes.

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In 532, two such fan groups sparked citywide riots called the Nika Rebellion (because the mob cried “Nika!” or “Victory!”). They packed the Hippodrome and demanded the overthrow of Justinian. The army, commanded by General Belisarius, however, broke in with his troops and slaughtered about 30,000 rebels.

​Justinian had considered fleeing during the Nika Rebellion, but his wife, Theodora, urged him to stay. As her husband’s steely adviser, Theodora had immense power. She rallied Justinian to remain in the capital with a fiery speech:

​The Empire Falls

After Justinian’s death in 565, the empire suffered countless setbacks. There were street riots, religious quarrels, palace intrigues, and foreign dangers. Each time the empire moved to the edge of collapse, it found some way to revive—only to face

another crisis.

​The Church Divides

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Since the time of Constantine, Christianity had been the central feature of life in the Byzantine Empire. Over time, however, Christianity began to develop differently in the western and eastern parts of the empire. Eventually, because of political conflicts and differences in belief, these differences grew and split apart the western and eastern parts of the Church in 1054, when the Pope in the West and the Patriarch in the East both declared the other to be an outcast of the Church. This is known as excommunication. The western church became the Roman Catholic Church, and the eastern church became the Eastern Orthodox Church.

​The leader of the Eastern Church was the Bishop of Constantinople, known as the Patriarch, or leading Bishop of the East.

​Both churches believe in the gospel of Jesus and in the Bible as interpreted by their church. They also believe that God uses sacraments to convey his love to humans. Sacraments are visible signs of something sacred; for instance, the water used in baptism is a sign of God’s power to cleanse people of sin. The Venn diagram below shows other similarities and differences.

​Make sure you Complete your Guided Notes!!!!!

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