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The Early Byzantine Empire

Emperor Constantine provided the foundation of the Byzantine empire by establishing Constantinople as a “New Rome” in the East on the ruins of ancient Byzantium (where Europe and Asia meet)

-Became the heart of Roman imperial system in 476 AD with the collapse of the western empire

-Under the Byzantine rulers, a great civilization based on trade and Roman law lasted until AD 1453

  • Byzantine Accomplishments

    • Greek language and cultural accomplishments preserved

    • Center for world trade and exchange of culture

    • Codification of roman law → Justinian code

    • Eastern church (Greek orthodox) converted Slavic people to Christianity

    • New focus for art → glorification of Christianity

  • Constantine established a New Rome in Byzantine in 330 AD

    • Constantinople was strategically located, with excellent defensible borders, and a crossroads of world trade

    • With the fall of Rome in 476 AD, Eastern Roman Empire became known as the Byzantine empire

  • Reasons for Byzantine’s success → Empire lasted 1000 years

    • economic prosperity based on domination of the commercial trade routes controlled by Constantine and a monopoly over the silk trade

    • made excellent use of diplomacy to avoid invasions, geographically distant from the tribes who sacked Rome

    • codification of Roman law by Justinian (528-565 AD) strengthened the bureaucracy

  • Reasons for the decline of Byzantine empire

    • Geographic proximity to Arabs, Slavs, and Seljuk Turks→all becoming more powerful

    • loss of commercial dominance over the Italians

    • Religious controversy with the west and split with Roman catholic church

    • Sack of Constantinople during the fourth crusade

    • The fall of Constantinople 1453 AD marked the end of Byzantine empire

  • Achievements of the Byzantine Empire

    • preservation of the heritage of the Greco-Roman civilization

    • spread civilization to all of Eastern Europe

    • preserved Eastern Orthodox Church

    • economic strength based on the stability of its money economy