Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus — Quick Reference Notes

Capital and wealth: Constantinople, strategic on the Bosporus; hub between Europe and Asia; wealth from trade and location. By 527 C.E., controlled lands around the Mediterranean, including North Africa, Spain, Sicily, Italy, Greece, Balkans, and SW Asia.
Structure: Highly centralized government with a vast imperial bureaucracy; long peace but instability due to succession disputes.
Geography and defense: Strong fortifications around Constantinople and other cities; eastern border contested with the Sassanid Empire.
Key date: The eastern half of the former Roman Empire survived after 395 C.E. and continued as the Byzantine Empire until 1453.

Reign: 527-565; revived Constantinople under a Christian character; Hagia Sophia expanded as a symbol of power.
Law: Codified Roman law into the Corpus Juris Civilis (Justinian Code), foundation of European legal tradition until the 19th century.
Expansion: Eastern campaigns under Belisarius defeated the Sassanids; western campaigns expanded into North Africa, southern Spain, Sicily, and Italy.
Cost: Expansion was expensive; empire nearly bankrupt by Justinian’s death.
Aftermath: Borders contracted after his reign.

Theocracy: Church and state tightly linked; emperor appointed the patriarch and guided sermons.
Iconoclasm: Leo III enforced the destruction or covering of religious icons (iconoclasm) influenced perhaps by Islamic opposition to religious imagery.
Monastic response: Monks opposed iconoclasm; religious institutions remained central to society.
Schism with Rome: Tensions over papal authority and icon veneration culminated in the Great Schism of 1054, separating Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
Cyril and Cyrillic: Cyril created an alphabet (~863) to spread Christianity and literacy; script adopted by many Slavic languages.

Arts: Religious in focus; icons, mosaics, illuminated manuscripts; Byzantine art influenced Europe and Islamic cultures.
Education: Church-centered schools; philosophy, math, medicine, law taught with religious perspective; University of Constantinople founded in 850.
Daily life: Constantinople modeled as a grand imperial capital with public baths, palaces, Hippodrome; other cities like Antioch and Thessalonica mirrored its grandeur.

Trade: Afro-Eurasian trade network; Constantinople as a monetary and commercial hub; silk weaving as a major industry.
Agriculture: Peasants dominated land; themes allowed freedom with military service; limits on landholding attempted to curb wealth concentration.
Tax and revolts: Land concentration rose; tax collection weakened; notable peasant revolts led by Basil the Copper Hand (928-932) and Ivaylo (1277-1280).

Slavic groups: East Slavic (became Russian/Ukrainian), West Slavic (Polish, Slovak, Czech), South Slavic (Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian).
Vikings and Kiev: East Slavs allied with Vikings (the Rus); by the early 900s, the settlement on the Dnieper River formed the Principality of Kiev (Kievan Rus).
Tribute system: Kiev and its city-states governed themselves as long as they paid tribute to the grand prince of Kiev; boyars (noble council) advised the ruler.

Conversion: In 989, Prince Vladimir I converted Kievan Rus to Orthodox Christianity; Byzantines sent advisers, priests, and teachers; many churches built in Byzantine style.
Church policy: Imperial control over church matters; peasants often retained pagan practices for centuries.

Vladimir I and Yaroslav the Wise: Vladimir expanded western borders; Yaroslav (1019-1054) promoted education and codified laws (Russkaya Pravda).
Trade and tribute: Rus traded honey, furs, timber, and slaves with Byzantium, the Baltic, and the Arab world; princes gathered tribute from tribes through expeditions to Constantinople.
Decline: Dependence on Byzantium increased vulnerability; invasions by Pechenegs and later raids by northern Russian princes (e.g., in 1169, 1204) weakened Kiev.
Mongol invasion: In 1240, Mongols (Golden Horde) invaded and ruled for about 250 years, shifting power away from Kiev.
Novgorod: Founded by Rurik; became a prosperous, multicultural trading city; independent in the 12th century and later absorbed by the Moscow-led state.

After Manzikert (1071): Seljuk Turks weakened Byzantine control in Asia Minor; further losses to Arabs and Normans.
Crusades and decline: Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) sacked Constantinople; empire shrank to a European remnant.
Fall of Constantinople: Conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire.