The Eastern Roman Empire and Its Legacy

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the Eastern Roman Empire, its governance, religious developments, decline, and enduring legacy in Eastern Europe.

Byzantines

The name given by Western Europeans during the Middle Ages to the Eastern Romans, based on the claim that the 'real' Romans died off in 476 when the Western Empire collapsed.

Romance Languages

Languages such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian that evolved from regional variations of Latin after trade, travel, and communication broke down following the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Justinian

The Eastern Roman emperor who presided over the Byzantine Empire at the height of its power and attempted to reunify the Western and Eastern halves of the Roman Empire.

Double Walls of Constantinople

The multi-layered fortification system that protected the Byzantine capital from invasion for centuries until the introduction of gunpowder and cannons.

Caesaropapism

A political and religious system in the Eastern Roman Empire where the emperor holds supreme authority over both political governance and the church.

Excommunication

The power of the Pope in the Catholic Church to formally cast someone out of the church community, effectively denying them spiritual salvation.

Great Schism

The official 1054 division within the Christian church that split it into the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the East.

Catholic

A word meaning 'universal,' ironically retained by the Roman Catholic Church even after the Great Schism reduced its presence primarily to Western Europe.

Seljuqs

A group of Turks who defeated the Eastern Romans in the 1000s, contributing to the military and territorial decline of the empire.

Fourth Crusade

A military campaign financed by Venice where Western European crusaders diverted from the Middle East to attack, sack, and briefly take over Constantinople.

Latin Empire

The short-lived crusader state established in the Eastern Roman Empire by Western crusaders after sacking Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.

Ottoman Turks

The group of Turks named after their leader Osman who used gunpowder and cannons to breach Constantinople's walls and conquer the Eastern Roman Empire.

1453

The year Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, marking the formal end of the Roman Empire and a boundary commonly used by historians to mark the start of modern history.

Periodization

The practice used by historians to categorize, organize, and divide human history into distinct named eras or time periods.

Third Rome

The historical concept adopted by Russia positioning itself as the successor to the original Rome (the first) and the Byzantine Empire (the second).

Cyril and Methodius

Two Byzantine missionaries who spread Orthodox Christianity throughout Eastern Europe and created an alphabet tailored to Eastern European languages.

Cyrillic Script

The alphabet created by Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius that became the dominant writing system in parts of Eastern Europe, including Russia.