Controversy: The Byzantine Empire

In 527 AD, Justinian took control of the Byzantine Empire. Although it is currently referred to as the Byzantine Empire, many citizens and leaders, including Justinian, considered themselves to be Roman and part of the Roman Empire. This mentality led to the revival of the Roman Empire in Byzantine and in its capital, Constantinople. During his rule, Justinian led the empire to its greatest size both in the amount of controlled land and influence over groups in Europe and Asia. He also contributed to the spread of Christianity both within the Byzantine Empire and without. Finally, Justinian preserved Roman laws for the Byzantine Empire and other European systems of government. Justinian’s successful emulation and revival of the Roman Empire through his beautification and improvements on Constantinople and other parts of the Byzantine Empire, strong support of Christianity and role in its growth as a major religion, and his codification of Byzantine law benefited the Byzantine Empire and the surrounding regions.

Iconoclastic policies aimed to stop the use of icons or religious images to worship and glorify the God. There was two period in the history of Byzantine Empire when imperial and religious authorities opposed the use of icons or religious images. The first iconoclasm was in the beginning of 730, and the second one between 814 and 842. Images became the items of cult implying beliefs in their animations. Iconoclasts believed that use of icons was a violation of the Old Testament. They felt that by using images, there was a possibility of idolatry. As stated by a traditional view, Byzantine iconoclasm instituted an abolition of icons by Emperor Leo III and this abolition went on even under those who succeeded him (Spielvogel, 233). There was a widespread persecution of those who supported the worship of images and destruction of the icons.

The Byzantine Empire modern day Turkey was an empire that was based on its own culture coming out of the Roman Empire. It was a strong Empire that came out of the Roman Empire along with Islam and Europe, each where apart of the Roman Empire, and each survived the fall of the Roman Empire: “By 750 three distinct and nearly separate civilizations- Byzantine, European, and Islamic- crystallized in and around the territory of the old Roman Empire.” . The Byzantine Empire was considered a small country at the time, but even so it was also considered tough. As a result of Byzantine being a part of the Roman Empire before the collapse of the Roman Empire, they represent a break from the old

The Persian empire is on the outskirts of the Byzantine Empire, which is depicted in the first photo, a map of the area surrounding the Turkish capital Constantinople. In the next photo, a map of Constantinople, it is shown that the city is surrounded by three rivers and is located on a peninsula. Looking at the photo we can predict that the main religion was Christianity, due to churches being represented by crosses and being the majority of buildings on the map. The southwest of the map has an entrance called “Golden Gate.” The next photo is of a fort. This fort is in the water, indicating that it could be a strategy to keep away opposing naval forces. It also has large walls and towers, for keeping a lookout, and for having a high vantage

The Byzantine Empire was an Eastern Roman that was located along Europe and Asia during 375CE. The Byzantine was a rural population. They grew fruits, wheat, and cotton. The degree of farming mainly depended on the location. The Byzantine Empire’s capital is called Constantinople, which was founded as the second Rome. The official language spoken among the Byzantine was Greek, to Justinian, an emperor, preserving the greek and latin language was important. Justinian came to power in 527 CE-565 CE as an absolute power emperor. Justinian improved Constantinople by adopting Roman architecture and building the Hagia Sophia. The architecture of the empire was advanced as seen from the Hagia Sophia, this shows the prosperity of the empire. During

The Eastern Roman Empire was a vast region that covered over three continents and wrapped around the East Mediterranean. The amount of land that comprised the empire was centered around Constantinople and is often referred to as the Byzantine Empire with several major cultural centers such as Thessalonica the capital of Macedonia, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. In spite of the diversification of the regions that consisted of the Byzantine empire it was a stable, powerful, and easy to govern. This is partly because it had a different societal structure from the Western Roman Empires.

The rise and the fall of the Byzantine Empire was an important event. No empire was strong enough to defeat the mighty Byzantine empire. This empire was unstoppable and expanded far and wide. The Byzantine empire lasted for hundreds of years. Three main points in time of the Byzantine Empire is when, the Roman Empire split forming the Byzantine Empire, when the empire converted to Christian start in the “holy wars” against the Muslims, and when the Byzantine Empire falls from getting attacked from Mehmed the II.

Often referred to as Iconoclasm; the act of rejecting, destroying or disowning of religious icons and idols has been a niche human theme throughout history. From the era of the Byzantine Empire, to the German Protestants, Christian iconoclasm seems to spring up in nearly every time period. That being said, instances of the rejection of idols and icons is presented by two rather eloquent texts: The Gothic Idol: ideology and image-making in medieval art by Michael Camille, as well as, The Idol in the Age of Art by Suzanne Preston Blier. The first text mentions idols of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, while the second focuses on idols of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In addition, the iconoclastic movement among German Protestants occurred during the sixteenth century.

Throughout the reign of the Byzantine Empire, sculpting and architecture were the pinnacle of ancient Byzantine art; leaving a vast collection of masterpieces for later cultures to admire, and even adopt their majestic styles and techniques. A focal period during the lifespan of the Byzantine Empire was the reign of Justinian the Great (527-565 A.D.), which is also referred to as the Golden Age. It is during this time that architecture and sculpture begin to flourish, along with other mediums of art such as mosaics, murals, and illuminative manuscripts. Very many religious works of art were created during this time as well, however very few survived the onset of the iconoclast uproar in 726.

The Eastern Roman Empire was gradually reduced in size until it was made up only of the Greek lands surrounding Constantinople, which by the 8th century was transformed into the Byzantine Empire. The Empire was faced with threats to be invaded by Bulgars, Muslim and Christians. It slowly lost touch with the Latin kingdoms of the West. It was just an memory of Roman survival to people in Western Europe it no longer was a state. In Byzantium, unlike Western Europe with its popes and kings, church and state were one, with the emperor supreme over both authorities a new administrative unit, a theme, combined military and civilian jobs into the hands of one person. The rise of Islam was a huge problem at this time. It was a Christian and Greek state,

The two halves shared some similarities and one of them was the form of entertainment that occurred in their culture. The Roman Empire and Byzantine cherished watching gladiator fights as well as chariot races at the big stadiums. In Rome they watched at the coliseum while in Byzantine the watching was done at Circus Maximus.

historiography began to be famous and important. Islamic historians praised God at all times because of their religious views over other religions. At a point of Byzantine view, the Byzantines used to praise their religion, which was Christian Orthodox. For example, according to James, the study over Byzantine Iconoclasm is important to see understand the conflicts over Islam and Western European that means Catholics. The Byzantine Empire used to discriminate religions, and they had conflicts, especially with European Catholics, and they split their churches from Catholics. The Byzantines also were tending to expand to the East to fight Muslims and take their lands from them. That is why Islamic historians praised the victory by giving many thanks to God. This religious discrimination was one of the causes why the Byzantine lost

The heresy of iconoclasm is the destruction of religious icons; translated into English iconoclasm means “image breaker.” Icons were abused by Christians in the early Church, with people attaching a superstitious value to the image rather than God Himself. This idolatry used icons incorrectly, as they were only meant to inspire prayer and worship, and not to be worshipped themselves. Iconoclasts sought to resolve the issue of idolatry by destroying the icons rather than correcting those who were abusing them. Iconoclasm arose in the 8th century when Byzantine Emperor Leo III sought to persecute the use of icons in worship in order to appease Byzantine’s Muslim neighbors. Jewish and Muslim religion forbids any images, or artists’ interpretations of God, which are what they saw in icons. With the Muslims aggressively taking over the Holy Land, Emperor Leo III sought to save his empire from attack by conforming Christianity to reflect more Muslim values and further centralize the Church.

Historians regularly categorize important eras throughout history for the distinction it holds. Heralding a period of prosperity and security in all spheres – political, social, economic, and culture – is the Golden Age. Although the history of Byzantium is marked by constant challenges and various levels of successes, the era of the Macedonian dynasty represents the critical centuries of Byzantine prosperity and influence. Thus, this paper aims to demonstrate through an exploration of the political, and socio-cultural context of Byzantine society the extent to which the Macedonians ruled over the Golden Age of Byzantium in the ninth to eleventh centuries.

This book review is covering the following: Decker, Michael J. The Byzantine Art of War. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme Publishing, 2013, 276 pages. The author, Michael J. Decker, provides his readers a thesis that can be found within his introduction of the Bysantine Empire. His introduction provides a the reader a brief glimpse of how the Byzantine Empire was developed and states that no other European state in history has sustained such “losses, survived and revived to such prominence” and the center of its revival is its army. The author also established his intended audience for this book was the nonspecialist audience and students of military history.