Byzantine’s Exceptionalism in the Early Middle Ages

In 1054 the Byzantines split from the Roman Catholic Church in the west and developed the Eastern Orthodox Church. They prospered for almost a thousand years, but fell to the Turks in 1453. Byzantine history is often over looked, but there are many reasons they should be taught about in classrooms including their advanced military technology, the development and influence of Justinian’s code,

Culture means nothing without the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire evolved Christianity, a modern day religion and art that pieced together our society and it’s cultural studies of the background behind it. It is significantly important that the Byzantine Empire is continued to being studied because of the drastic influence it implemented to unify modern day religions, modify political and military strategies, and benefit our education of the world today. With the government unification and architectural protection of the Byzantine Empire, strategic military defense and the Justinian code were both created.

Though both had similar roots, they both took these similar bases & formed it into their own way. Both the Byzantine Empire and Ancient Roman have similar aspects, but each one made it unique. To better understand the similarities and differences of the Byzantine Empire and Ancient Romans one must look at each civilization’s cultural ideas, religion, & dependence on lower class.

The Byzantine Empire and Western Europe originally were part of the Roman Empire, but by the middle Ages(medieval times), they were very different, even though they did share some common traits, but by the 300's, the Byzantine Empire had far surpassed Western Europe in trade and economics and political unity, while both empires were having arguments over religion.

Christianity experienced notable change during the Byzantine Era as a result of the fact that new ideas were introduced into the religion and because more and more cultural values from across the world started to pervade it. The religion was very different in Byzantium from how it was in the West principally because a series of Eastern ideas were adopted by Christian leaders. Christianity experienced a different development in the East when compared to the evolution that it experienced in the West. In the centuries lasting between the beginning of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire and the end of a small medieval state Christianity has practically been bombarded with Eastern ideas and with ideas that generally differed from the ones promoted in the West, eventually making it possible for "a distinct system of religious practice and devotion" (Krueger, 1) to emerge.

People say that the Byzantine Empire is compared to an accordion. Well, it is. Comparing all of the civilizations and empires we learned about, I find that the Byzantine has a history, where people living in that empire rise at on time and fall inconsiderably during another time. The Byzantine Empire is an empire ruled by Emperor Justantine, and Constantinople was the imperial capital of the Byzantine world until it was invaded by the Turks in 1453. Now, how does the imperial capital, Constantinople, Hagia Sophia, Justinian, and the Crusaders involve in the Byzantine Empire? I find that geography and the achievements of the Empire can be two strong reasoning’s on how and why we should study the Byzantine Empire.

Although there are many empires in history that influenced the modern world, the Byzantine Empire is one of the most important to learn about. This empire defeated many areas to help spread the religion. In Document A, the information explains that if they hadn't defeated the Persians, Avars, and Arabs most of the world may be Muslim. In other words, if one of these empires conquered the Byzantine empire than all of Europe and most of American along with the rest of the world, would be the Islamic religion, rather than Christianity, Jewish or other religions. We should also study the Byzantine empire because it had a very efficient and advanced defensive system for that time period.

The Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire, though often forgotten among better-known empires, such as the Roman Empire, ran for nearly one thousand years, occupying the eastern half of what once was the Roman Empire. It engaged in trade, expansion, and decades of warfare. It also gave women a better status then men, valued and preserved Greek history, and eventually fell to the Ottomans.

Starting off, The Byzantine empire struggles with power if quite interesting. With the fall of the Roman empire, it still had an influence on Europe. The influences the Roman’s in displayed here: “Long after its collapse, the Roman empire inspired European philosophers, theologians, and rulers, who dreamed of a centralized political structure embracing all of Christian Europe” (pp.404). They adopted the ideals of the Romans yet a new rise of power is around the corner. As Europe transitions into another era of the Holy Roman Empire as illustrated here: “ Beginning in the late tenth century, German princes formed the so-called Holy Roman Empire, which they viewed as a Christian revival of the earlier Roman empire” (pp.404).

The Byzantines inherited the Roman Empire and became the continuation of it in the East during the Late Antiquity and Middle Age periodization’s. Its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the “Roman Empire” and to themselves as “Romans”. As such, it survived almost a millennium after the fall of its Western counterpart and continued to thrive during the Middle Ages. During the majority of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was a powerhouse economically, culturally and military-wise.

One of the most impressive achievements of Byzantium was its very survival during a period of 1123 years (330–1453).[2] It was one of the longest lasting social organisations in history. Byzantium survived through adaptation.[3] The backbone of the Byzantine Empire’s longevity was its administration, which managed to adapt to frequent changes of rulers, and ongoing crises on its borders. With very limited military force, diplomacy was the key for the empire’s survival. Modern research on resilience, innovation, and adaptation could learn a lot from the Byzantine Empire’s historical experience.[4]

In this article taken from The Journal of Economic History, Peter Charanis discusses the factors that economically affected the decline of the Byzantine Empire. His discussion is based on the fact that past scholars, such as English historian Edward Gibbon who wrote The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, thought the Byzantine Empire was in a constant state of decline throughout its existence, but he disagrees. He says that more recent scholars have found that it was, in fact, one of the great empires in history. He references to historians such as Fridtjof Nansen, author of L’Armenie et le proche Orient, who said that the Byzantine culture “is and will remain one

The focus of this investigation will be “To what extent was the Byzantine empire tolerant of cultural diversity?” and to analyze cultural and geographical characteristics of the Byzantine empire to further understand if this ancient state included diversity and multiculturalism. Therefore, Byzantium, Its Neighbours and Its Cultures: Diversity and Interaction by the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies is a source of great value to this investigation because of the great extent of information about Byzantine culture and the how it functioned from a variety of perspectives that were involved in this conference. Also, Cultural Diversity and the Breakdown of Byzantine Power in Asia Minor by Peter Charanis is a detailed analysis of Byzantium as a whole as well as Byzantine’s social structure, leadership, and the extent of cultural cohesiveness within the empire.

The Byzantine Church was the Christian church in the Byzantine empire that was closely intertwined with the government. The rulers of the Byzantine empire regarded the Byzantine Church as a division of state. A person was chosen to be leaders of the capital (which was the highest position in the church comparable to the pope), and they had the authority to direct others to give sermons that encouraged royal rule. This form of rule was called caesaropapism, and it was a origin of continual dispute between the royal and priestly rulers, and between the emperor and the people. Byzantine Christianity also displayed the continuous effect of tradition philosophy of Greece.