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.
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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
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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.