1. The Byzantine Empire (450 CE)
One God, One Empire, One Religion

2. Remember…

3. The Eastern Empire
As Western Europe succumbed (gave in) to the Germanic invasions, imperial power shifted to the Byzantine Empire (the eastern part of the Roman Empire).

4. Constantinople
Constantinople became the sole capitol of the empire and remained so until the successful revival of the western empire in the 8th century by Charlemagne.
The city is named after the Emperor Constantine
Constantine announced the end to all persecution of Christians

5. The Reign of Justinian
The height of the first period of Byzantine history ( ) was the reign of Emperor Justinian (r ) and his wife Empress Theodora (d. 548)

6. First things first… Justinian’s objectives as a ruler: Laws came first
Justinian wanted to regain Rome’s fading glory by expanding it’s territories
And he set out to take on the task of reforming the Roman Law
Laws came first

7. One God One Empire One Religion
How did he do it
Justinian appointed a jurist friend to lead a committee to go through all the laws, put them in order, and get rid of those that were contradictory.
One God One Empire One Religion

8. New Law
The panel created a single uniform code known as Justinian Code.
This became the official law of the empire.
The code consisted of four works

9. Justinian’s Code
The Code contained nearly 5,000 Roman laws that were still considered useful for the Byzantine Empire

10. Hagia Sophia The crowning glory of his reign “Holy Wisdom” in Greek
It was one of the largest building in Europe for 6 Centuries

13. Efforts to preserve the West
Families valued education- specifically classical learning
Latin
Philosophy
Geometry (Euclid)
History (Herodotus)
Literature (Homer)
They helped to preserve many of the great works of Greece and Rome

14. Empress Theodora The most powerful women in Byzantine history
As empress she met with foreign envoys, wrote to foreign leaders, passed laws, and built churches.
After she died, Justinian was so depressed that he passed no major laws for the rest of his reign.

15. The Empire at Its Height
The empire was at its height In 565, during Justinian’s reign. It included most of the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

16. The Great Divide
During the Byzantine Empire Christianity underwent a dramatic development
It had begun to develop differently in the Eastern and Western halves of the Roman Empire.
Due largely to the distance and lack of contact between the two regions.

17. East Side
Eastern Christianity built its heritage on the works of early Church fathers.
In 730, Emperor Leo III banned the use of icons, religious images used by Eastern Christians to aid their devotions.
The emperor viewed the use of icons as idol worship

18. West Side
In the west, the Pope became involved in the eastern dispute and supported the use of icons
One Pope even ordered the excommunication of a Byzantine emperor (he declared the emperor to be an outcast from the Church)

19. The Great Schism
The great split in Christianity. The western church became the Roman Catholic Church, and the eastern church became the Eastern Orthodox Church.

20. Recovery of Territory
The Byzantines called upon the European states to push back the Muslim conquerors. The European states complied, successfully pushed back the Seljuks, returned territory to the Byzantines, and carved out kingdoms of their own in Syria and Palestine.

21. Conquered by the Ottoman Turks
In 1453, Constantinople was finally and permanently conquered by the Ottoman Turks and renamed Istanbul. Byzantine culture, law, and administration came to its final end.

22. Contribution to Western Civilization
Throughout the early Middle Ages, the Byzantine Empire remained a protective barrier between western Europe and hostile Persian, Arab, and Turkish armies.
The Byzantines were also a major conduit of classical learning and science into the West down to the Renaissance. While western Europeans were fumbling to create a culture of their own, the cities of the Byzantine Empire provided them a model of a civilized society.