Eastern Rome & the Western Empire

The Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire

Constantinople

Did the Roman Empire Fall?

Justinian Eastern emperor Justinian (ruled from ) attempts to re-unify the Roman Empire & save the West.

Justinian Justinian was from the Balkans & spoke Latin. He considered himself the heir to Rome & wanted to restore its integrity.

Justinian & Theodora Along with his very influential wife, Theodora, he will take several measures to accomplish this goal:

1. Codification of Roman laws a.hadn’t been done for centuries. b.Justinian intends on the law code to enhance his power/authority. c.he formed a committee of lawyers & scholars to accomplish the task d.results?

Results? 1.The Code – a compilation of all imperial statues from Hadrian to Justinian

Results? 2. The Novels – legislation of Justinian 3. The Digest – summary of writings of great jurists 4. The Institute – a textbook of legal principles

Results: *** All four volumes are bound together and called the Corpus Juris Civilis *** Many of the legal principles in the Corpus become influential in the development of European legal systems.

2. Military campaigns to re-capture the West a. Justinian’s armies easily (at first) recapture North Africa, Italy, and parts of Spain.

Justinian’s campaigns – cont. b. The Catholics of Italy welcomed the Eastern Romans due to the Italian hatred of the Arian Ostrogoth masters. c. The campaigns actually hurt the Eastern Roman Empire. Why? 1. excessive taxation to support them. 2. it allowed the Persians to attack the Eastern Empire from the east.

3. Effects of Justinian’s western campaigns: a.The weakened Italy even more. Example: devastation of continual warfare combined with the invasion of more barbarian tribes (ex. Lombards)

Effects -- continued b. North Africa falls to the Arab Muslims in the 600s. Spain follows in the early 700s.

Effects -- continued c. Justinian’s attempts were ultimately a failure. The Roman world is clearly divided into 3 emerging civilizations: 1.Byzantine Empire (Eastern Europe and Anatolia) --- The Greek language and Orthodox Christianity are the binding features. 2.Islamic Civilization (Middle East and North Africa) - -- Islam and the Arabic language are its binding features. 3.Western Christian Europe (Germanic kingdoms) Arian and Catholic Christianity with Germanic kings settling tribes are its binding features.