LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Byzantine Empire: Emperors
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[A]t that time the Byzantine Empire was riven by disputes over religion. The Emperor's claimed to be God's representative on earth and they were not afraid to intervene in religious arguments.
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If the Byzantine Empire is to once again become the dominant power of the East, then it will first need to reclaim its heartlands wholly before encroaching upon the borders of another power. The Byzantine legacy is long and predominantly proud, but unless the Emperor can turn things around, it is a legacy that will soon end.
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In the 600s, the Byzantine Empire was assaulted by the Slavs, an Indo-European agricultural people, who assaulted Greece and Macedonia and finally attacked Constantinople itself. To counter the Lombards and the Slavs, 7th century Byzantine emperors placed much civil and military authority in the hands of regional military commanders, and the region's civilian population became the defending army. This development ensured the survival of the empire but changed it into a society mobilized for continuous warfare.
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[S]ome parts of the Byzantine Empire remained independent and were ruled by emperors in exile. Gradually the emperors in exile won back territory and in 1261 they recaptured Constantinople. Nevertheless the Byzantine Empire never recovered.
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The Byzantine emperor was an absolute ruler (see absolute monarchy), and the laws and customs associated with his empire were strict and complex. His rule was supported by the Christian Church in the region, which later became the independent Eastern Orthodox Church.
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From the beginning, the Byzantine emperors played active roles in the calling of church councils and the formation of Christian doctrine. Leo the Isaurian took seriously his role as religious leader of the empire. He vigorously persecuted heretics and Jews, ordering that the latter must be baptized. In 726 he launched a theological crusade against the use of icons, images or representations of Christ and other religious figures. The emperor was concerned that icons played too prominent a role in Byzantine life and that their common use as godparents, witnesses at weddings, and objects of adoration violated the Old Testament prohibition of the worship of graven images. Accordingly, the emperor ordered the army to destroy icons. This image-breaking, or iconoclastic, policy sparked a violent reaction in the western part of the empire, especially in the monasteries.
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