Ch 13. The Byzantine Empire and Crisis and Recovery in the West

Hippodrome

A huge arena near the palace complex of Constantinople (next to the Hagia Sophia).

iconoclasm

A movement to destroy icons of religious figures... things believed to be forms of idolatry Beginning in 730 CE Byzantine Emperor outlawed the use of icons. He did so in part to add to the prestige of the patriarch of Constantinople. Roman popes were opposed to the iconoclastic edicts. Late in the 8th century, the Byzantine emperors changed their minds about iconoclasm but a lot of damage had been done between the East and the West churches.

theme

A new and larger administrative unit combining civilian and military offices (the theme) into the same hands used by a new system of defense that was put in place to protect against the constant attacks from Persians and Slavs.

iconoclast

one who opposes established beliefs, customs, and institutions. From byzantine times... an iconoclast was someone who destroyed religious sculptures and paintings. Greek: "icon"... image... clast... break.

edicts

rules proclaimed by one in authority

Pope Boniface VIII

struggle between Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) and King Philip IV (1285-1314) of France. In his desire to acquire new revenues, Philip claimed the right to tax the clergy of France, but Boniface VIII insisted that the clergy of any state could not pay taxes to their secular ruler without the pope's consent. In no uncertain terms he argued that popes were supreme over both the church and the state

besiege

surround with armed forces; harass (with requests); annoy continually. (v.) to attack by surrounding with military forces; to cause worry or trouble

Theodora

the wife of Justinian, she helped to improve the status of women in the Byzantinian Empire and encouraged her husband to stay in Constntinople and fight the Nika Revolt. She was an actress and possibly a prostitute.

codify

v. to organize something (such as laws or rules) into a system

temporal

(adj.) chronological and sequential; (adj.) earthly and secular

l'uomo universale

A new view of human beings emerged as people in the Italian Renaissance began to emphasize individual ability. The 15th-century Florentine architect Leon Battista Alberti expressed the new philosophy succinctly: ''Men can do all things if they will.'' This high regard for human worth and for individual potentiality gave rise to a new social ideal of the well-rounded personality or ''universal person''—l'uomo universale —who was capable of achievements in many areas of life.

Manzikert, 1071

A nomadic people from Central Asia, the Seljuk Turks had been converted to Islam. As their numbers increased, they moved into the eastern provinces of the Abbasid Empire, and in 1055 they captured Baghdad and occupied the rest of the empire. When they moved into Asia Minor—the heartland of the Byzantine Empire and its main source of food and manpower—the Byzantines were forced to react. Emperor Romanus IV led an army of recruits and mercenaries into Asia Minor in 1071 and met Turkish forces at Manzikert (MANZ- ih-kurt), where the Byzantines were soundly defeated. Seljuk Turks then went on to occupy much of Anatolia, where many peasants, already disgusted by their exploitation at the hands of Byzantine landowners, readily accepted Turkish con- trol (see Map 7.4 on p. 193).

patriarch

A patriarch is a male leader.

Justinian

A very remarkable ruler / emperor. Well-trained in imperial administration. Determined to reestablish the Roman administration. He had a great general named Belisarius. Byzantine emperor in the 6th century A.D. who reconquered much of the territory previously ruled by Rome, initiated an ambitious building program , including Hagia Sofia, as well as a new legal code

Latin Empire of Constantinople

After the death of Saladin in 1193 (see Chapter 7), Pope Innocent III launched theFourth Crusade. Judging the moment auspicious, Innocent encouraged the nobility of Europe to don the crusader's mantle. The Venetians agreed to transport the crusaders to the east but diverted them from the Holy Land by persuading them to first capture Zara, a Christian port on the Dalmatian coast. The crusading army thus became enmeshed in Byzantine politics. At the start of the thirteenth century, the Byzantine Empire was experiencing yet another struggle for the imperial throne. One contender, Alexius, son of the overthrown Emperor Isaac II, appealed to the crusaders in Zara for assistance, offering to pay them 200,000 marks in silver (the Venetians were getting 85,000 as a transport fee) and to reconcile the Eastern Ortho- dox Church with the Roman Catholic Church. When the crusading army arrived, the deposed Isaac II was reestablished with his son, Alexius IV, as co-emperor. The emperors were unable to pay the promised sum... Leading to an attack on Constantinople by the crusaders in the spring of 1204. On April 12, they stormed and sacked the city. Christian crusaders took gold, silver, jewelry, and precious furs, while the Catholic clergy accompanying the crusaders stole as many relics as they could find. Thus began the Latin Empire

Council of Constance, 1417

Although the Council of Constance ended the Great Schism, the council's efforts to reform the church were less successful. By the mid-fifteenth century, the papacy had reas- serted its authority and ended the conciliar movement. At the same time, however, as a result of these crises, the church had lost much of its temporal power. Even worse, the papacy and the church had also lost much of their moral prestige.

Hippodrome

An attraction in the Byzantine empire that was directly across from the imperial palace where forms of entertainment were held such as chariot races, games, and games involving animals and humans fighting against each other. Built by Justinian; A huge stadium; Held athletic events and games, especially chariot races. Seated 60,000 people located in Constantinople. Site of Nika Revolt. The colusseum is to Rome as the Hippodrome is to Constantinople. It no longer really exists.

icon

An icon is a symbol. It can be literal—-like the little trashcan on your computer screen—-or metaphorical--as in a singer so well known by ten-year-olds, he's called a pre-teen pop icon.

Henry VII/Tudors

As the first Tudor king, Henry VII (1485-1509) worked to establish a strong monarchical government. Henry ended the petty wars of the nobility by abolishing their private armies. He was also very thrifty. By not overburdening the nobility and the middle class with taxes, Henry won their favor, and they provided him much support.

Ravenna

As the seat of late Roman power in Italy, the town of Ravenna was adorned with examples of late Roman art. The Church of San Vitale at Ravenna contains some of the finest examples of sixth-century mosaics. Small pieces of colored glass were set in mortar on the wall to form these figures and their surroundings. The emperor is seen as both head of state (he wears a jeweled crown and a purple robe) and head of the church (he carries a gold bowl symbolizing the body of Jesus). It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 402 until that empire collapsed in 476. It then served as the capital of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths until it was re-conquered in 540 by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Afterwards, the city formed the centre of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna until the invasion of the Lombards in 751, after which it became the seat of the Kingdom of the Lombards.

Bulgars

Asiatic people known as the Bulgars had arrived earlier in the sixth century. In 679, the Bulgars defeated the eastern Roman forces and took possession of the lower Danube valley, setting up a strong Bulgarian kingdom.

"little ice age"

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, changes in global weather patterns ushered in what has been called a ''little ice age.'' Shortened growing seasons and disastrous weather con- ditions, including heavy storms and constant rain, led to widespread famine and hunger. Soon an even greater catastrophe struck.

War of the Roses

At the end of the Hundred Years war, England faced even greater turmoil when a civil war, known as the War of the Roses, erupted and aristocratic factions fought over the monarchy until 1485, when Henry Tudor established a new dynasty.

Raphael

At twenty-five, Raphael was already regarded as one of Italy's best painters. He was acclaimed for his numerous madonnas, in which he attempted to achieve an ideal of beauty far surpassing human standards. He is well known for his frescoes in the Vatican Palace, which reveal a world of bal- ance, harmony, and order—the underlying principles of the art of Classical Greece and Rome

Macedonian dynasty

Basil I, after impressing Emperor Michael III with his wrestling skills, he married the emperor's mistress and was made co-emperor. One year later, he arranged the murder of Michael and then became sole ruler, establishing a dynasty that would last almost two hundred years.

peasant revolts

Black Death greatly reduced the number of peasants. New government taxes hurt. Peasants complained and rose to rural revolts. The English Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was the most promi- nent. The immediate cause of the revolt was the monarchy's attempt to raise revenues by imposing a poll tax, a flat charge on each adult member of the population. Peasants in eastern England refused to pay the tax and expelled the collectors for- cibly from their villages. Rebellion spread as peasants burned down the manor houses of aristocrats, lawyers, and govern- ment officials. Soon, however, the young king, Richard II (1377-1399), with the assistance of aristocrats, arrested hun- dreds of the rebels and ended the revolt. The poll tax was eliminated, however, and in the end most of the rebels were pardoned. The revolts started a trend towards social unrest.

Europe in 2nd half of 15th century

By the second half of the fifteenth century, monarchs in western Europe, particularly France, Spain, and England, had begun the process of modern state building. With varying success, they reined in the power of the church and nobles, increased their ability to levy taxes, and established effective government bureaucracies.

Greek fire

Byzantine weapon consisting of mixture of chemicals (petroleum, quicklime, sulfur) that ignited when exposed to water; utilized to drive back Arab fleets that attacked Constantinople

Istanbul

Capital of the Ottoman Empire; Constantinople was renamed this after 1453 and the sack of Constantinople.

Greek Orthodoxy

Christian Church in the Byzantine Empire

Hagia Sophia (HAG-ee-uh soh-FEE-uh)

Churches were Justinian's special passion, and in Constantinople he built or rebuilt thirty-four of them. His greatest achievement was the famous Hagia Sophia (HAG-ee-uh soh-FEE-uh), the Church of the Holy Wisdom.

Basil II

Expanded the empire to include Bulgaria. He blinded 14,000 of the Bulgar captives before letting them return to their homes. The Byzantines went on to add the islands of Crete and Cyprus to the empire and to defeat the Muslim forces in Syria, expanding the empire to the upper Euphrates. By the end of Basil's reign in 1025, the Byzantine Empire was the largest it had been since the beginning of the seventh century.

Ostrogoths and Lombards

Germanic people who occupied areas of Italy, especially in the North. The Ostrogoths were defeated by Justinian (Belarius) but they were not strong after winning and much of Italy just went quickly back to some new Germans named the Lombards.

the Great Schism

Gregory XI died in Rome the spring after his return. When the college of cardinals met to elect a new pope, the citizens of Rome, fearful that the French majority would choose another Frenchman who would move the papacy back to Avignon, threatened that the cardinals would not leave Rome alive unless they elected a Roman or an Italian as pope. Wisely, the terrified cardinals duly elected the Italian archbishop of Bari as Pope Urban VI (1378-1389). Five months later, a group of dissenting cardinals—the French ones—declared Urban's election invalid and chose one of their number, a Frenchman, who took the title of Clement VII and promptly returned to Avignon. Because Urban remained in Rome, there were now two popes, beginning a crisis that has been called the Great Schism of the church.

idolatry

Idolatry means the worship of images as if they were gods. Many religions prohibit idolatry, some even to the extent of forbidding any representational objects in houses of worship.

gunpowder

Important to the French success was the use of the cannon, a new weapon made possible by the invention of gunpowder. The Chinese had invented gunpower in the tenth century and devised a simple cannon by the thirteenth. The Mongols greatly improved this technology, developing more accurate cannons and cannonballs; both spread to the Middle East in the thirteenth century and to Europe by the fourteenth.

the Blues and the Greens

In 532, two factions, called the Blues and the Greens because they supported chariot teams bearing those colors when they competed in the Hippodrome (a huge amphitheater), joined together and rioted to protest the emperor's taxation policies. The riots soon became a revolt as insurgents burned and looted the center of the city, shouting ''Nika!'' (victory), the word normally used to cheer on their favorite teams. Aristocratic factions joined the revolt and put forward a nobleman named Hypatius as a new emperor.

Crecy and Agincourt

In Crecy was the first major battle. The English archers decimated the French cavalry.

Joan of Arc

In February 1429, Joan made her way to the dauphin's court and persuaded Charles to allow her to accompany a French army to Orle ́ans (or-lay-AHN). Apparently inspired by the faith of the peasant girl known as ''the Maid of Orle ́ans,'' the French armies found new confidence in themselves and liberated the city. Joan had brought the war to a decisive turning point.

Cosimo de' Medici

In Florence, Cosimo de' Medici (KAH-zee-moh duh MED-ih-chee) took control of the merchant oligarchy in 1434. Through lavish patronage and careful courting of political allies, he and his family dominated the city at a time when Florence was the center of the cultural Renaissance.

Hagia Sophia (HAG-ee-uh soh-FEE-uh)

Most famous example of Byzantine architecture, it was built under Justinian I and is considered one of the most perfect buildings in the world. Completed in 537, Hagia Sophia was designed by two Greek scientists who departed radically from the simple, flat-roofed basilica of western architecture. The center of Hagia Sophia consisted of four huge piers crowned by an enormous dome, which seemed to be floating in space. This effect was emphasized by Procopius (pruh-KOH-pee-uss), the court historian, who at Justinian's request wrote a treatise on the emperor's building projects: ''From the lightness of the building, it does not appear to rest upon a solid foundation, but to cover the place beneath as though it were suspended from heaven by the fabled golden chain.''

Hundred Years War

In the 13th century, England still held one small possession in France known as the duchy of Gascony. As duke of Gascony, the English king pledged loyalty as a vassal to the French king, but when King Philip VI of France (1328-1350) seized Gascony in 1337, the duke of Gascony—King Edward III of England (1327-1377)—declared war on Philip. England and France fought for 100 years. Initially England captured a third of France (to the North). Their longbows were superior. But French with the help of Joan of Arc, turned the tide. Eventually winning with gunpowder and cannons.

Procopius' Secret History

In the eyes of many scholars, the Secret History reveals an author who had become deeply disillusioned with the emperor Justinian and his wife, Empress Theodora, as well as Belisarius, his former commander and patron, and Antonina, Belisarius' wife. The anecdotes claim to expose the secret springs of their public actions, as well as the private lives of the emperor, his wife and their entourage. Justinian is portrayed as cruel, venal, prodigal and incompetent; as for Theodora, the reader is treated to the most detailed and titillating portrayals of vulgarity and insatiable lust combined with shrewish and calculating mean-spiritedness. However, it has been argued that Procopius feared that a conspiracy could overthrow the imperial power, and therefore prepared an exaggerated document in order to clear himself of all accusations of proximity with the future-former imperial power; if this hypothesis is correct, the Secret History cannot be seen as proof that Procopius hated Justinian and Theodora.

the Black Death and Yersinia pestis

In the mid-14th century, Black Death struck in Asia, North Africa, and Europe. Bubonic plague was the most common and most important form of plague in the diffusion of the Black Death and was spread by black rats infested with fleas who were host to the deadly bacterium Yersinia pestis (yur-SIN-ee-uh PES-tiss). Originated in Asia. Wiped out about 1/3 of the population in Europe, Northern Africa and Asia. Traveled along the trade routes. Arrived in Europe in 1347 50-60% of people in cities died in Italy.

Threats to Eastern Roman Empire

Islam (unified Arab tribes)... Arabs besieged Constantinople but they were pushed back due to the use of "Greek fire". Also the Bulgars to the North

longbows

Longbows had a longer range than crossbows (at the time of the Battle of Crecy) and a greater speed of fire. Range of about 300m. Firing rate 2-5 times more frequently than a crossbow.

King Louis XI

Louis strengthened the use of the taille (TY)—an annual direct tax usually on land or property—as a permanent tax imposed by royal authority, giving him a sound, regular source of income, which created the foundations of a strong French monarchy.

Mehmet II the Conqueror

Mehmet (meh-MET) II came to the Ottoman throne in 1451 at the age of only nineteen, he was determined to capture Constantinople and complete the demise of the Byzantine Empire. Eventually he did capture Constantinople in 1453.

david

Michelangelo statue

Michelangelo

Michelangelo, an accomplished painter, sculptor, and archi- tect, was fiercely driven by a desire to create, and he worked with great passion and energy on a remarkable number of proj- ects. Michelangelo was influenced by Neoplatonism, especially evident in his figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. These muscular figures reveal an ideal type of human being with perfect proportions. In good Neoplatonic fashion, their beauty is meant to be a reflection of divine beauty; the more beautiful the body, the more God-like the figure. Another manifestation of Michelangelo's search for ideal beauty was his David, a colossal marble statue commissioned by the government of Florence in 1501 and completed in 1504.

madonnas

Paintings of the Virgin Mary either alone or with baby Jesus

Photian schism

Patriarch Photius (FOH-shuss) condemned the pope as a heretic for accepting a revised form of the Nicene Creed stating that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son instead of from the Father alone. A council of eastern bishops followed Photius's wishes and excommunicated the pope, creating the so-called Photian schism. Although the differences were later papered over, this controversy inserted a greater wedge between the eastern and western Christian churches.

Petrarch

Petrarch (PEE-trark or PET-trark) (1304-1374), who has often been called the father of Italian Renaissance humanism. As Petrarch said, ''Christ is my God; Cicero is the prince of the language.'' Petrarch hunted down ancient manuscripts and emphasized classical Latin.

Philip IV

Philip IV refused to accept the pope's position and sent a small contingent of French forces to capture Boniface and bring him back to France for trial. The pope escaped but soon died from the shock of his experience.

Michael Paleologus

Pope Innocent III accepted as ''God's work'' the conversion of Greek Byzantium to Latin Christianity. But the West was unable to maintain the Latin Empire, for the western rulers of the newly created principalities were soon engrossed in fighting each other. Some parts of the Byzantine Empire had managed to survive under Byzantine princes. In 1259, Michael Paleologus (pay-lee-AWL-uh-guss), a Greek military leader, took control of the kingdom of Nicaea in western Asia Minor, led a Byzantine army to recapture Constantinople two years later, and then established a new Byzantine dynasty, the Paleologi.

Ivan III

Prince Ivan III freed the Russians from the Mongols. Since the 13th century, Russia under domination of Mongols. Gradually, the princes of Moscow rose to prominence by using their close relationship to the Mongol khans to increase their wealth and expand their possessions. During the reign of the great Prince Ivan III (1462- 1505), a new Russian state was born. Ivan annexed other Russian principalities and took advantage of dissension among the Mongols to throw off their yoke by 1480.

Renaissance artists

Renaissance artists sought to imitate nature in their works of art. Their search for naturalism became an end in itself: to persuade onlookers of the reality of the object or event they were portraying

Renaissance humanism

Renaissance humanism was an intellectual movement based on the study of the classics, the literary works of Greece and Rome. Humanists studied the liberal arts—grammar, rhetoric, poetry, moral philosophy or ethics, and history—all based on the writings of ancient Greek and Roman authors. We call these subjects the humanities. Later humanists ideal was to serve the state.

Middle Ages

Roughly the 5th to 15th century (10 centuries)

flagellants and anti-Jewish pogroms

Some, known as flagel- lants (FLAJ-uh-lunts), resorted to extreme measures to gain God's forgiveness. Groups of flagellants, both men and women, wandered from town to town, flogging each other with whips to beg the forgiveness of God An outbreak of virulent anti-Semitism also accompanied the Black Death. Jews were accused of causing the plague by poisoning town wells. The worst pogroms (POH-grums) (massa- cres) against this minority were carried out in Germany, where more than sixty major Jewish communities had been exterminated by 1351.

Aragon and Castile

Spain experienced the growth of a strong national monarchy by the end of the fifteenth century. During the Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) , several independent Christian kingdoms had emerged in the course of the long reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims. The marriage of Isabella of Castile (1474- 1504) and Ferdinand of Aragon (1479-1516) in 1469 was a major step toward unifying Spain. The two rulers worked to strengthen royal control of government. They filled the royal council, which supervised the administration of the government, with middle-class lawyers. Trained in Roman law, these officials operated on the belief that the monarchy embodied the power of the state. Ferdinand and Isabella also reorganized the military forces of Spain, making the new Spanish army the best in Europe by the sixteenth century.

1054 schism

The Eastern Orthodox Church was unwilling to accept the pope's claim that he was the sole head of the Christian church. This dispute reached a climax in 1054 when Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael Cerularius (sayr-yuh-LAR-ee-uss), head of the Byzantine church, formally excommunicated each other, initiating a schism between the two branches of Christianity that has not been healed to this day.

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire is the kingdom of present day Germany and parts of Italy that eventually they lost. Unlike France, England, and Spain, the Holy Roman Empire failed to develop a strong monarchical authority.

The Italian States

The Italian states pro- vided the earliest examples of state building in the fifteenth century. During the Middle Ages, Italy had failed to develop a centralized terri- torial state, and by the fifteenth century, five major powers dominated the Italian peninsula: the duchy of Milan, the republics of Flor- ence and Venice, the Papal States, and the kingdom of Naples.

Ottoman Turks and 1453

The Ottoman Turks led by Mehmet successfully invaded the city of Constantinople and converted the cathedral of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

Byzantine Empire

The Roman Empire after attacks by Persians, Arabs, and Bulgars diminished in size until it was really jus an eastern Mediterranean state... known as the Byzantine Empire (after the city named Byzantium before it was renamed Constantinople). It became a Greek State but it was also Christian.

Procopius

The empire's best-known historian was Procopius (c. 500-c. 562), court historian during the reign of Justinian. Procopius's best historical work, the Wars, is a firsthand account of Justinian's wars of reconquest in the western Mediterranean and his wars against the Persians in the east

the Habsburgs

The failure of the German emperors in the thirteenth century ended any chance of centralized authority, and Germany became a land of hundreds of virtually independent states. After 1438, the position of Holy Roman Emperor was held by members of the Habsburg (HAPS- burg) dynasty. Having gradually acquired a number of possessions along the Danube, known collectively as Austria, the house of Habsburg had become one of the wealthiest landholders in the empire and by the mid-15th century had begun to play an important role in European affairs.

Masaccio

The frescoes by Masaccio (1401-1428) in Florence have long been regarded as the first masterpieces of Early Renaissance art. With his use of monumental figures, a more realistic relationship between figures and landscape, and the visual representation of the laws of perspective, a new realistic style of painting was born.

Venice

The maritime republic of Venice remained an extremely stable political entity governed by a small oligarchy of merchant-aristocrats. Its commercial empire brought in vast revenues and gave it the status of an international power. Remember the Venetians transported the crusaders to Constantinople.

Nika Revolt

The revolt against Justinian. Justinian suppressed the revolt after Theodora shamed him into staying to fight. He was on the verge of leaving the city and losing his city / empire.

Leonardo da Vinci

This marked the shift to the High Renaissance, which was dominated by the work of three artistic giants, Leonardo da Vinci (leh-ah-NAHR-doh dah VEEN-chee) (1452-1519), Raphael (RAFF-ee-ul) (1483-1520), and Michelangelo (my-kuh-LAN-juh-loh) (1475-1564). Leonardo carried on the 15th-century experimental tradition by studying everything and even dissecting human bodies in order to see how nature worked. But Leonardo stressed the need to advance beyond such realism and initiated the High Renaissance's preoccupation with the idealization of nature, an attempt to generalize from realistic portrayal to an ideal form.

Corpus Iuris Civilis

To codify and simplify past Roman legal decisions into a state law book, Justinian created the Corpus Iuris Civilis: "Body of Civil Law," Justinian's codification of Roman law. It had three parts: The Digest, the Institutes, and the Novels; last product of eastern Roman culture to be written in Latin

Avignon

To ensure his position and avoid any future papal threat, Philip IV engineered the election of a Frenchman, Clement V (1305-1314), as pope. Using the excuse of turbulence in the city of Rome, the new pope took up residence in Avignon (ah-veen-YOHN) on the east bank of the Rhone River. From 1305 to 1377, the popes resided in Avignon, leading to an increase in antipapal sentiment. At last, Pope Gregory XI (1370-1378), perceiving the disastrous decline in papal prestige, returned to Rome in 1377.

Roman Catholicism

Western Christian Church based in Rome

Lombards

a northern German people who crossed the Alps and in 572 established a kingdom based in northern Italy. They were virtually unopposed since the Gothic War had destroyed so much. They ruled in Northern and Central Italy until they were defeated by Charlemagne.

Ostrogoths

east Germanic people from north of the Black Sea who invaded Italy in 489 and established their own kingdom in Northern Italy. They were finally defeated by Justinian in 552. This war was known as the Gothic War.

renaissance women

historians have argued that although conditions remained bleak for most women, some women, especially those in courtly, religious, and intellectual environments, found ways to develop a new sense of themselves as women. This may be especially true of women who were educated in the humanist fashion and went on to establish literary careers.