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Byzantine Empire
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The Byzantine Empire is the eastern section of the Roman Empire which remained in existence after the fall of the western section. After the conquest of Rome the East Roman Empire was commonly referred to as the Byzantine Empire after the original name of its capital city, Byzantium. The Roman emperor Constantine the Great rebuilt the city in AD 330 and called it Constantinople (today's Istanbul). The Byzantines referred to themselves as Romans. After the division of the empire (AD 395) into eastern and western territories during the reign of emperor Arcadius, Constantinople became the capital of the East Roman Empire.
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Perhaps the most significant cultural feature of the Byzantine Empire was the type of Christianity developed there. More mystical and more liturgical than Roman Christianity, it was ... less unified because of age-old ethnic hostilities in the region, the survival of various heresies among the clergy in Syria, Egypt, and other provinces, and the early use of the demotic (vernacular) languages in religious services. This disunity partly caused the sweeping success of the Arab invasions that began after Muhammad's death in 632. Within 10 years Syria and Palestine, Egypt and North Africa were under Muslim Arab control. Religious disunity continued to weaken the empire throughout the Iconoclastic Controversy (a dispute over the use of religious images, or icons) of the 8th and early 9th centuries, which left the Eastern Orthodox church split into factions and further alienated from Rome. A formal schism between Eastern and Western churches was mutually agreed to in 1054.
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The Byzantine Empire had a major influence upon Orthodox Christianity. This was embodied in the Byzantine version of Christianity, which spread Orthodoxy and eventually led to the creation of the "Byzantine commonwealth" (a term coined by 20th-century historians) throughout Eastern Europe. Early Byzantine missionary work spread Orthodox Christianity to various Slavic peoples, where it still is a predominant religion. Such modern-day countries are Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Romania, and Ukraine; of course, it has ... remained the official religion of the Greeks via the uninterrupted continuity of the Greek Orthodox Church. Less well known is the influence of the Byzantine religious sensibility on the millions of Christians in Ethiopia, the Coptic Christians of Egypt, and the Christians of Armenia, though they all belong to the Oriental Orthodox (as opposed to the Byzantine Eastern Orthodox) faith.
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The Byzantine Empire began to look less like the Roman Empire as the years passed. The empire covered Greece, the Balkans, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. By the seventh century, Greek had completely replaced Latin as the language of the empire. The Byzantine emperors still thought of themselves as the successors of Caesar Augustus, but over the years Roman influence gradually disappeared. Seljuk Turks began moving into the Byzantine Empire from Central Asia in the eleventh century. The Turks had recently become Muslims, and the Byzantine emperor feared they would soon overpower his Christian empire.
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Like the Roman Empire before it, the Byzantine Empire experienced a number of challenges to its rule. Efforts to expand Byzantine rule under Emperor Justinian led to conflicts with Persians, North Africans, and the Ostrogoths living in Italy. Over the thousand years of Byzantine rule, battles with these and other surrounding peoples led to the expansion and contraction of the empire. Beginning in the eleventh century C.E. Christian armies from western Europe began to travel through the Byzantine Empire to reclaim "holy lands" from Turks and Arabs in the Middle East. These armies, known as crusaders, sparked a series of wars with Turks and Arabs that brought great conflict to the empire.
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At the beginning of the Komnenian period in 1081, the Byzantine Empire had been reduced to the smallest territorial extent in its history. Surrounded by enemies, and financially ruined by a long period of civil war, the empire's prospects had looked grim. Yet, through a combination of determination, military reform, and years of campaigning, Alexios I Komnenos, John II Komnenos and Manuel I Komnenos managed to restore the power of the Byzantine Empire.[9] An important factor in the success of the Komnenoi was their establishment of a reconstructed Byzantine army. The new military system which they created is known as the Komnenian army. From c.1081 to c.1180, the Komnenian army played an important role in providing the empire with a period of security that enabled Byzantine civilization to flourish.[7]
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Byzantine Empire