Byzantium

2. BYZANTIUM THE ORIGINS OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE

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In 324, the Roman emperor Constantine founded the city of Constantinople.

It was located on the site of a Greek colony called Byzantium.

This city had great cultural and political influence for many centuries.

In 395, the Roman emperor Theodosius divided the Roman Empire between his two sons: - The Eastern Roman Empire, (under Arcadius), - It had Constantinople as its capital.

- This Empire, was known as a Byzantine Empire - It lasted until 1453 when it was conqured by Turks.

- The Western Romn Empire,( under Honorius) - It, had Rome as its capital.

- It was conquered by Germanic tribes in the 5th century.

2. BYZANTIUM -

THE POLITICAL SYSTEM The emperor or basileus had the supreme authority.

Byzantium was a theocracy, that is to say, the emperor had both politica and religious power.

The Empire was divided into provinces controlled by military governors.

The most famous Byzantine emperor was Justinian: - He regained control over some parts of the Western Roman Empire: north Africa, Italy and the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula.

- He compiled the Roman law in a code, (c贸digo de leyes) called Justinian Code.

2. BYZANTIUM -

RELIGION The church influenced many aspects of the Byzantine society:

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Bizantine art: -

It was a religious art In the 8th and 9 th senturies was a controversy (between the priests and the emperors) because the worship of religious images, or icons, was prohibited.

A lot of icons were destroyed in a process called iconoclasm.

2. Orthodox Christianity - Its traditions developed in the Byzantine Empire and it were different of religious traditions in the West.

- A schism, or split (break), marked the separation between the Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism (in 1054).

3.

Byzantine church : - It spread Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe.

- Monks invented the Cyrillic script to translate the Bible into Slavic languages - The Cyrillic script is the alphabet of languages like Russian, Bulgarian and Serbian

2. BYZANTIUM -

BYZANTINE ART AND CULTURE Byzantine civilisation was a mixture of Greek, Roman and eastern culture.

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The Empire’s official language was Greek.

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Big libraries kept manuscripts of ancient Greek and Roman texts that were unknown in the west. Thanks to this fact, the achievements of classical literature and philosophy were kept alive.

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Byzantine influence spread through Russia and Eastern Europe.

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The masterpiece of Byzantine architecture was the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.It has both western and eastern influences.

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Paintings had religious subjects, and they were rigid in style.

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Churches was decorated with mosaics with religious scenes.