2.  Capital Constantinople  Created as the Eastern half of the Roman Empire  From 500 AD to 1200 AD it was the richest nation in Western Asia and Europe  Lead advances in scholarship, art, and science.

3.  Center of world trade  Most trade routes came through Constantinople  A complex system of advisers and officials in specialized departments helped run the nation and control the trade.  The empire became wealthy off of the taxes collected on products coming through Constantinople.  The Byzantines sold and produced many goods; grapes, olives, wheat in rural areas. Glassware, enamel, ivory, and silk were produced in the capital.  The trade and wealth attracted many to live there. 1 million lived there by the year 1000 AD.

5.  Farmers and urban dwellers  Most were poor, except for government officials and wealthy merchants.  Women had little freedom.  Government had set up schools & libraries, in addition to those set up by the church  Higher rate of literacy than Western Europe  Studied of the classical Greek writers  Hagia Sofia = holy wisdom

6.  The seat of the Christian religion in the East  People believed that the emperor’s authority came from God and extended to all matters of church and state.  Bishop of Constantinople, the Patriarch, sat under the emperor.  Byzantines tolerated debate and discussion about religious matters  Services in Byzantium were conducted in Greek, the language of the people.  Allows worshipers to become more involved in service.

7.  Plain exteriors, extravagant interiors.  Highly iconic; carvings, painted tiles, murals  Icons; non-realistic images of Jesus and saints meant to put the viewer in a spiritual mood.  Icons were used to worship and honor those religious figures they represented.

8.  In the west, the Pope claimed authority over all of Christendom.  Clashes existed over the use of iconography.  Some feared that devotion to the icons was too strong.  726, B.Emperor Leo III ordered icons destroyed.  In Rome, Pope Gregory III condemned the action;  icons were important to honor holy people of the past, and helped the illiterate  Gregory allied with Charlemagne and the Franks, and crowned him the holy Roman Emperor.  This angers the Byzantines, who saw their emperor as the only rightful Roman emperor.

9.  1054 the big question – who was supreme?  Western Pope or Eastern Patriarch?  Climax of the argument arose over responsibility of Southern Italian churches.  Partiarch Cerularius lost, and closed any churches that celebrated mass in the western style.  Pope Leo fought back by excommunicating Cerularius, who excommunicated the pope.  This leads to the split, or schism, into two separate churches: Roman Catholic in the West and Eastern Orthodox in the East.  In 1964, the pope and patriarch met in Jerusalem. In 1974, they made a statement to undo the excommunications.

10.  Like the rest of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire endured several attacks on its borders.  People wanted her wealth and the territory.  Thus, they needed great armies and defensive walls around Constantinople.  Walls could protect the city, but not the empire.  After the greatest expansion by Justinian in the 500s, the decline began in the 600s.

11.  Persians attached from the east and south, taking Egypt and then marched north to try and take the capital.  Muslim Arabs too Palestine and Syria in the south.  The Byzantine Empire saw regrowth in the 800s and 900s, but it was not to last long.  1071, the Seljuk Turks, from Turkestan in Central Asia, defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert.  Continuing to capture land, the Turks established their own capital at Nicea; 200 miles southeast of Constantinople.  1095, risking humiliation, the B. Emperor sent a message to Pope Urban for help. Despite the excommunication, only 40 years earlier, he pleaded for help against the Turkish invaders.