The “New Rome”

•Constantine moved capital to Byzantium &

renamed it Constantinople

•AD 476: W. Rome fell due to barbarian invasions

•E. Rome, ruled from Constantinople, lasted another 1000 years

•Preserved Greek & Roman culture

•Constantine lavished on his new capital a university, 2 theaters, 8

public and 53 private baths, 52 covered walkways, 4 law courts, 14

churches, and 14 palaces. He imported staggering quantities of the

best Greco-Roman art from throughout the empire.

Constantinople:

Strategic Location

•Overlooked the Bosporus Strait

•Richest & largest European city

•Dominated economic life in the Mediterranean

•Center of trade b/tw E & W - where Europe & Asia meet

Easily fortified location; armies could respond quickly to threat from invaders

•Christian Church became the Eastern Orthodox Church

•Byzantine emperor controlled both the church and the government

•Emperor appointed the head of the church

•Mainly Greeks

occupied Byzantium

•Greek replaced

Latin as the official

language

▪ Justinian - 6th century emperor (E. empire)

▪Took power in 527AD

▪One of Byzantine’s greatest rulers

▪ Justinian had ambitious public building

program

▪City becomes unparalleled w/churches, baths,

aqueducts, law courts, schools, hospitals

▪Free entertainment at the Hippodrome

(“horse track”); held 60,000 people

▪Justinian had Roman laws codified & classified

▪Decided legal questions regulating marriage, slavery, property, inheritance, crime, women’s rights, etc.

▪Preserved Rome’s legal heritage & later became the basis

for most European legal systems

▪Justinian’s wife Theodora was VERY influential during his reign

▪Wanted to improve the social standing of women; urged Justinian to give women more rights

▪Nika Rebellion - violent riot that started in the Hippodrome

▪Justinian wanted to flee

▪Theodora advised against leaving

▪Justinian stayed and had his army crush the rebels;

thousands killed

▪The Byzantines conquered these Germanic groups and

extended their rule in the west

Belisarius:

▪Peasant with little military experience

▪Friend of Theodora’s

▪Eventually appointed general of the Byzantine army

▪In addition, Belisarius fought a series of wars against the Vandals, Ostrogoths, & Visigoths

▪During the 8th century a church controversy arose over

the use of icons (religious images) in worship

▪Eastern church (Constantinople) vs. Western church (Rome)

▪Emperor Leo III (726) ordered the removal of all icons

▪Believed that they encouraged superstition & the worship of idols

▪Led to iconoclasts (“image breakers”) who broke into churches to destroy images

▪Resulted in an argument over the true source of religious authority → Eastern church or western church?

▪Pope (Rome) claimed he was the supreme leader of W. church

▪Patriarch (Constantinople) claimed he was the supreme leader of E. church

▪Controversy eventually resulted in a schism in 1054

▪Church was permanently divided into the Roman Catholic

Church in the W & Eastern Orthodox Church in the E

▪Both churches competed with each other for converts

▪Eastern Orthodox missionaries tried to convert the Slavs

▪Invented an alphabet for Slavic languages to read the Bible

▪This is the creation of the Cyrillic Alphabet

Roman Catholic Eastern Orthodox

Services are conducted in LatinServices conducted in Greek or local

language

Pope has authority over all other

bishops

Patriarch & other bishops head the

church as a group

Pope claims authority over all

kings/emperors

Emperor claims authority over

patriarch & other bishops

Priests may not marry Priests may marry

Divorce is not permittedDivorce is allowed under certain

conditions

▪Byzantine art glorified religion

▪Icons in homes, churches & shrines

▪Mosaics: Tiny pieces of colored glass

or flat stone set in plaster

▪Subjects of Byzantine art appeared

stiff & artificial with calm, meditative

faces to inspire reverence

Emperor Komnenos, Eirene, & Alexios Mosaic

Artist: Unknown - Hagia Sophia - c.13th century

•Mary the Virgin is depicted smaller than the Emperor

and Empress and Christ is seated on her lap.

•Monograms of ‘’Mother of God’’ MP OV

•Empress Eirene is holding a scroll of parchment of

donation made to the Great Church.

•Emperor Komnenos II is presenting a money purse to

Mary and Christ.

•Alexios (son) is about 17

years old.

•Reflects a gloomy tone;

he died of tuberculosis at

an early age.

•This panel is believed to

date a later year than his

parents due to the style.

The Vestibule Mosaic

Artist: Unknown Hagia Sophia

c.10th century

•Justinian, Christ, Mary

and Constantine

•Mary is holding Christ.

•There are ‘’The Mother

of God’’ monograms

around them.

•Justinian is giving a

model of Hagia Sophia.

•Constantine is presenting

the city of Constantinople.

•Both of the Emperors have gold embellished crowns with pearls and emeralds, wear golden

imperial clothes and golden leather shoes.

•Justinian looks older than Constantine with his wrinkles on the face. His inscription

reads: ‘’Justinian, Emperor of Illustrious Memory’’.

•Constantine has an emotional face and he is younger then Justinian. The inscription around him

says: ‘’Constantine, the great Emperor amongst the saints’’.

Madonna and Child Artist: Berlinghiero

Lucca, Italy c.1230

•One of only two works that can

be confidently attributed to

Berlinghiero (leading painter Lucca, Italy)

•Copied the Byzantine type

known as the Hodegetria "She

who shows the way"

•Madonna points to Jesus as

the way to Salvation for

humankind

•Jesus dressed like an ancient

philosopher, he holds a scroll.

▪Greatest form of Byzantine art

▪Hagia Sophia- means “holy wisdom” (built

by Justinian)

▪Originally Greek Orthodox Cathedral →

Ottoman Mosque → museum until a few

months ago → Mosque again

▪Built in the shape of a Greek cross

▪Includes murals, mosaics & ivory,

silver & jeweled insets

▪Huge dome resting on columns

▪ Expanded the Empire

▪ Justinian’s Code

▪ Hagia Sophia

▪ Helped spread Christianity

▪ Increased women's rights

The Plague of Justinian:

•In the worst year of the plague, 10,000 people died every day.

•Destroyed a huge % of the empire’s pop.

Foreign Invasions:

•Avars, Slavs, Bulgars, and Persians attack.

•GREATLY weakened the empire.

▪Ottoman Turks from central Asia attacked the E. provinces.

▪AD 1453 - Ottomans laid siege to Constantinople.

▪Constantinople fell.