Hi-Q World C11

Western Roman Empire

crumbled in the fifth century as it was overrun by invading germanic tribes

Germanic tribes

overrun the western roman empire

rome

the capital had moved east from __ to the greek city of byzantium

Byzantium

the capital had moved east from rome to the greek city of __

Constantinople

named after emperor constantine who made it the capital in AD 330 

Emperor constantine 

made constantinople the new capital in ad 330

Byzantium

would remain as the name of the entire eastern empire

395

when roman leaders had divided the empire

Justinian

a high ranking byzantine nobleman succeeded his uncle to the throne of the eastern empire

Belisarius

Justinian’s best general sent in 533 to recover north africa from invading germanic tribes

Belisarius

attacked rome and seized it from a group known as the ostrogoths

rome

attacked by belisarius and seized it from a group known as the ostrogoths

ostrogoths

Belisarius attacked roman and seized it from a group known as __

16 years

rome changed hands 6 times

6 times

rome changed hands over 16 years

Italy and Spain

Justinian’s armies won nearly all of and parts of

caesar

justinian now ruled almost all the territory that rome had ever ruled, he could honestly call himself a new __

88

byzantine emperor, 29 died, 13 abandoned the throne to live in monasteries 

Greek

most byzantines spoke

400

years of roman law combed through by the panel

Justinian code

the panel created a single uniform code, consisted of four works

the Code

contained nearly 5000 roman laws that were still considered useful (justinian code)

the digest

quoted and summarized the opinions of rome’s greatest legal thinkers about the laws. this massive work ran to a total of 50 volumes

the institutes 

was a textbook that told law students how to use the laws

the novellae

new laws, presented legislation passed after 534 

900 yrs 

how long the justinian code served the byzantine empire

Justinian

rebuilt the crumbling fortifications of constantinople 

constantinople

rebuilt by justinian with a 14 mile stone wall

14 mile stone wall

along constantinople’s coastline and repaired the massive fortifications along its western land border

a code

is a general system of laws, and it stems from the latin word codex meaning “book”

The Ortakoy Mosque

caption towers above modern day constantinople, now called istanbul 

Church building

was the emperor’s greatest passion

churches

in justinian’s view, the most visible sign of the close connections between church and state in his empire 

Hagia Sophia

the crowning glory of justinian’s reign, which means holy wisdom in greek

532

hagia sophia destroyed in riots that swept constantinople 

preservation of greco-roman culture

a less obvious but virtually important activity took place

Euclid

students learned geometry from

herodotus

students learned history from

galen

students learned medicine from

Mese

Middle way, the main street running through constantinople 

Hippodrome

where citizens could enjoy free entertainment __ which offered wild chariot races and performance acts (hors and racecourse greek)

60k spectators

hippodrome could hold

Nika rebellion

two such fan groups sparked citywide riots “victory”. both sides were angry with the government

Belisarius

broke in to the hippodrome during the nika rebellion with his troops and slaughtered 30k rebels

Theodora

justinian’s wife who urged him to stay during the nika rebellion

procopius in history of the wars

quoted theodora

565

justinian’s death

bubonic plague

the first crisis actually began before justinian’s death it was a disease that resembled what we now know as the 

542

worst year of the plague, 10k died each day

Lombards

overran justinian’s conquests in the west

avars, slavs, bulgars

made frequent raids on the northern borders

Sassanid persians

attacked relentlessly in the east

the persian and avars

struck against constantinople in 626

arab armies 

attacked the city in 674 and once again in 717 

russians

attempted invasions of the city three times between 860 and 2043

turks

took over the muslim world in the 11th century and fought their way slowly into byzantine territory

byzantines

used bribed, diplomacy, political marriages and military power to keep their enemies at bay 

Emperor Heraclius

in the 7th century reorganized the empire along military lines

themes

military districts/ provinces

tip of anatolia and balkans

the byzantine empire shrank until reduced to __

ottoman turks

constantinople fell to them in 1453

eastern christianity

built its heritage on the works of early church fathers

Saint basil

around 357 wrote rules for the life of monks quoted in the letters 

Saint John Chrysostom

as bishop of constantinople from 398 to 404, he was the patriarchy

patriarchy

leading bishop of the east

Emperor leo III

banned the use of icons

icons

religious images used by eastern christians to aid their devotions

excommunication

declared the emperor to be an outcast from thechurch 

empress theodora

restored icons to eastern churches

orthodox church

took their form of christianity to the slaves

slavs

groups that inhabited the forests north of the black sea

Saint methodilus and Saint Cyril

worked among the slaves in the ninth century, invented an alphabet for the slavic languages 

cyrcillic alphabet

slaves would be able to read the bible in their own tongues, many slavic languages including russian are now written in what is called 

russia

as these missionaries carried out their work the slavs themselves were creating a culture that would form one of histoyr’s most influential countries