Rome: The Byzantine Empire

Through the chaos and anarchy from the destruction of Rome emerged a powerful empire. It all began in 323CE when a young general named Constantine became the Emperor of Rome. He was quick to make some changes, including moving the imperial capital from Rome to Byzantium, but he renamed it Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire was separated from the Roman Empire’s collapse so it managed to survive and maintain order in the east.

Philip Sherrard states that the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople was “ the best fortified city in the world…” because of “ it’s towers [housing] more archers and missile throwers.” (Document B) Because of the architecture the empire was well equipped and safely guarded. In document note of Justinian’s code it states that Justinian’s modification of the Byzantine Empire’s laws shaped “our basic ideas about law and justice today.” and created a more “ unified empire.”

n empire that saved western civilization and lasted more than a thousand years only remains in memory. The Byzantine empire, known in books but not always in minds. The empire came to be in 330 CE when a young emperor named Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which is modern day Istanbul. It’s just as well that he did that considering that shortly after Rome fell, and this new city became the heart of the new empire. He built the city extravagantly and named it after himself; Constantinople. The city would become the holy city of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantine empire is something that should be studied because it’s one of the most important eras in European history. Some reasons are that they created

Silk soon became an imperial monopoly, and through this way, the trade of luxury items became the Byzantine’s main source of income. The location of Constantinople also aided in military conquest and defence, for the empire’s naval headquarters were located along the shores, and had access to the Black Sea and Mediterranean. Because of the Empire’s location, all but overlapping the fallen Roman’s territory, the Byzantine Empire was greatly affected by these Roman’s past traditions and ways of life.

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.

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.

Roman emperor Constantine strategically chose Byzantion, also referred to as Byzantium, as the new imperial capital for the Roman Empire. Emperor Constantine named the capital, Constantinople (“city of Constantine), after himself (Bentley, Ziegler, and Streets-Salter, p. 182). A historian of the Christian Church, Sozomen once stated:

Last but not least, the crusades led to the decline of the Byzantine Empire by demolishing their economy. The Annales Herbipolenses demonstrates the Christians were so desperate for help, they took any and every person to fight, they did not require any person to be skilled. The crusades weakened the economy making people want to fight due to how poor they lived their lives especially those who held low social status such as serfs or peasants. The need for monetary support in the West left them vulnerable and ultimately led to the sacking of Constantinople (Doc 3.) This writer is anonymous but by the location of the writer, the writer must have had a Germanic nature, therefore the information must be valid because Germany was a Catholic nation,

In 324, the Byzantine empire is created in Constantinople from the ashes of the fallen Roman empire. Around 200 years later, Emperor Justinian would take the throne in 527 and became one of the most influential rulers. Justinian’s goal was clear, restoration of the glory of the old Roman empire. However his goals never came to fruition as he would end up creating a new Byzantine empire. Although Justinian‘s Byzantine was reminiscent of the old Roman Empire in both architecture and territories, Justinian’s Byzantine empire was its own unique empire in that it had a different religion, capital, and women rights.

In 395 A.D., the Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western Empires. Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire and thrived under the leadership of Justinian, who was the emperor from 527 A.D. to 565 A.D. Although the empire has some Roman influence, it is remarkably different from ancient Rome, with there being markets and products from places unheard of. Justinian also enforced Christianity and built the Hagia Sophia and created a new legal system, the Justinian Code. He also rebuilt Constantinople and made it safe from invasions. Justinian created a new Byzantine Empire through enforcing Christianity, creating the Justinian Code, and the exterior and interior structures of Constantinople.

know that the Byzantine changed the course of history. You should study the Byzantine Empire

In schools around the world we have social studies, where we talk about the past empires that affected today's world. We talk about the Roman Empire, the Egyptians, even the Chinese empires for there huge affect on common era but their is one that deserves just as much credit as the rest and that is the Byzantine empire. The Byzantine empire lasted well over 1000 years and happened right after the fall of the Roman Empire in the Middle East. I will be talking about why we need to study the Byzantine empire with three simple yet major reasons. First, I will be talking about the byzantines preservation of important documents.

Rome, a prosperous empire was greatly on the rise from 500BC - 500AD. Experienced many new architectural achievements including the aqueduct, Hadrian’s Wall, The Colosseum, and the Pantheon. But during the late stages in the empires existence, the western part was invaded by barbaric Germanic tribes who wanted to take the Roman empire over. The west eventually fell, but a new empire arose which is essentially “The New Roman Empire” The Byzantine Empire. They Byzantines incorporated Roman architecture, laws, and religion into the founding of the Byzantine Empire.

It is said that Rome was not built in a day. True. It took ambition, lust, murder and the unrivalled power of technology to make the Roman Empire span across three continents and many centuries. While the contributions of ambition, conquest and other political and militaristic factors remain important for the Roman Republic to transform into an Empire, none of this could have been possible without the immense contribution of engineering and technology. In this essay, we shall look into three engineering feats that I believe were crucial in building the Roman Empire. We shall be making use of the video “Rome: Engineering an Empire” as an aid towards the