The history of Byzantium, one of the "world" powers of the Middle Ages, a society of peculiar development and high culture, a society at the junction of the West and the East, was full of turbulent internal events, endless wars with neighbors, intense political, economic, cultural relations with many countries of Europe and the Middle East .
The political structure of Byzantium
From the Roman Empire, Byzantium inherited a monarchical form of government with an emperor at the head. From the 7th century the head of state was often referred to as an autocrator.
The Byzantine Empire consisted of two prefectures - the East and Illyricum, each of which was headed by prefects: the prefect of the praetoria of the East (lat. Praefectus praetorio Orientis) and the prefect of the praetoria of Illyricum (lat. Praefectus praetorio Illyrici). Constantinople was singled out as a separate unit, headed by the prefect of the city of Constantinople (Latin Praefectus urbis Constantinopolitanae).
For a long time, the former system of state and financial management was preserved. But from the end of the 6th century, significant reforms began, mainly related to defense (administrative division into themes instead of exarchates) and the Greek culture of the country (the introduction of the positions of logothete, strategist, drungaria, etc.).
Since the 10th century, feudal principles of governance have been widely spread, this process has led to the approval of representatives of the feudal aristocracy on the throne. Until the very end of the empire, numerous rebellions and the struggle for the imperial throne do not stop. The two highest military officials were the commander-in-chief of the infantry (lat. magister paeditum) and the head of the cavalry (lat. magister equitum), later these positions were combined (Magister militum); in the capital there were two masters of infantry and cavalry (Stratig Opsikia) (lat. Magistri equitum et paeditum in praesenti). In addition, there was the master of infantry and cavalry of the East (Strateg of Anatolika), the master of infantry and cavalry of Illyricum, the master of infantry and cavalry of Thrace (Stratig of Thrace).
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), the Eastern Roman Empire continued to exist for nearly a thousand years; in historiography, from that time on, it is usually called Byzantium.
The ruling class of Byzantium is characterized by vertical mobility. At all times, a man from the bottom could break through to power. In some cases, it was even easier for him: for example, there was an opportunity to make a career in the army and earn military glory. So, for example, Emperor Michael II Travl was an uneducated mercenary, was sentenced to death by Emperor Leo V for rebellion, and his execution was postponed only because of the celebration of Christmas (820). Vasily I was a peasant, and then a horse rider in the service of a noble nobleman. Roman I Lecapenus was also a native of peasants, Michael IV, before becoming emperor, was a money changer, like one of his brothers.
Army of the Eastern Roman Empire by 395
Although Byzantium inherited its army from the Roman Empire, its structure approached the phalanx system of the Hellenic states. By the end of the existence of Byzantium, she became mostly mercenary and was distinguished by a rather low combat capability. On the other hand, a military command and control system was developed in detail, works on strategy and tactics are published, various technical means are widely used, in particular, a system of beacons is built to warn of enemy attacks. In contrast to the old Roman army, the importance of the fleet is greatly increasing, which the invention of "Greek fire" helps to gain dominance at sea. The Sassanids adopted a fully armored cavalry - cataphracts. At the same time, technically complex throwing weapons, ballistas and catapults, replaced by simpler stone throwers, are disappearing.
The transition to the theme system of recruiting troops provided the country with 150 years of successful wars, but the financial exhaustion of the peasantry and its transition to dependence on the feudal lords led to a gradual decrease in combat capability. The recruiting system was changed to a typically feudal one, where the nobility was required to supply military contingents for the right to own land. In the future, the army and navy fall into ever greater decline, and at the very end of the existence of the empire they are purely mercenary formations.
In 1453, Constantinople, with a population of 60,000 inhabitants, was able to field only a 5,000-strong army and 2,500 mercenaries. Since the 10th century, the emperors of Constantinople hired Russ and warriors from neighboring barbarian tribes. From the 10th century, the ethnically mixed Varangians played a significant role in the heavy infantry, and the light cavalry was recruited from Turkic nomads. After the era of Viking campaigns came to an end in the early 11th century, mercenaries from Scandinavia (as well as from Normandy and England conquered by the Vikings) rushed to Byzantium through the Mediterranean Sea. The future Norwegian king Harald the Severe fought for several years in the Varangian guard throughout the Mediterranean. The Varangian Guard bravely defended Constantinople from the crusaders in 1204 and were defeated during the capture of the city.
Of great cultural importance was the period of the reign of emperors from Basil I the Macedonian to Alexei I Komnenos (867-1081). The essential features of this period of history are the high rise of Byzantinism and the spread of its cultural mission to southeastern Europe. Through the work of the famous Byzantines Cyril and Methodius, the Slavic alphabet appeared - Glagolitic, which led to the emergence of their own written literature among the Slavs. Patriarch Photius put up barriers to the claims of the Roman popes and theoretically substantiated the right of Constantinople to church independence from Rome (see Separation of Churches).
In the scientific sphere, this period is distinguished by unusual fertility and a variety of literary enterprises. In collections and adaptations of this period, precious historical, literary and archaeological material, borrowed from writers now lost, has been preserved.
Economy
The state included rich lands with a large number of cities - Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece. In the cities, artisans and merchants united into estates. Belonging to a class was not a duty, but a privilege; joining it was subject to a number of conditions. The conditions established by the eparch (mayor) for the 22 estates of Constantinople were summarized in the 10th century in a collection of decrees, the Book of the eparch. Despite a corrupt system of government, very high taxes, a slave economy and court intrigues, the Byzantine economy for a long time was the strongest in Europe. Trade was conducted with all the former Roman possessions in the west and with India (through the Sassanids and Arabs) in the east.
Even after the Arab conquests, the empire was very rich. But the financial costs were also very high, and the wealth of the country caused great envy. The decline in trade caused by the privileges granted to Italian merchants, the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders and the onslaught of the Turks led to the final weakening of finances and the state as a whole.
In the initial period of the history of the state, the basis of the economy was production and customs structure. 85-90 percent of production in all of Eurasia (with the exception of India and China) came from the Eastern Roman Empire. Absolutely everything was made in the empire: from consumer products (oil lamps, weapons, armor, the production of primitive elevators, mirrors, some other items related to cosmetics), which are now quite widely represented in all museums of the world, to unique works of art, in other areas of the world not represented at all - iconography, painting, and so on.
Medicine in Byzantium
Byzantine science throughout the entire period of the existence of the state was in close connection with ancient philosophy and metaphysics. The main activity of scientists was in the applied plane, where a number of remarkable successes were achieved, such as the construction of St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople and the invention of Greek fire.
At the same time, pure science practically did not develop either in terms of creating new theories or in terms of developing the ideas of ancient thinkers. From the era of Justinian until the end of the first millennium, scientific knowledge was in a severe decline, but later Byzantine scientists again showed themselves, especially in astronomy and mathematics, already relying on the achievements of Arabic and Persian science.
Medicine was one of the few branches of knowledge in which progress was made compared to antiquity. The influence of Byzantine medicine was felt both in the Arab countries and in Europe during the Renaissance. In the last century of the empire, Byzantium played an important role in the dissemination of ancient Greek literature in Italy during the early Renaissance. By that time, the Academy of Trebizond had become the main center for the study of astronomy and mathematics.
In 330, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great declared the city of Byzantium his capital, renaming it "New Rome" (Constantinople is an unofficial name).
The new capital was located on the most important trade route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, along which grain was transported. In Rome, new contenders for the throne constantly appeared. Having defeated rivals in exhausting civil wars, Constantine wanted to create a capital, initially and completely subject to him alone. A profound ideological upheaval was called upon to serve the same purpose: until recently, persecuted in Rome, Christianity was declared the state religion in the reign of Constantine. Constantinople immediately became the capital of the Christian empire.
The final division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western took place in 395 after the death of Theodosius I the Great. The main difference between Byzantium and the Western Roman Empire was the predominance of Greek culture on its territory. Differences grew, and over the course of two centuries the state finally acquired its individual appearance.
The formation of Byzantium as an independent state can be attributed to the period 330-518. During this period, through the borders on the Danube and the Rhine, numerous barbarian, mainly Germanic tribes penetrated into Roman territory. The situation in the East was no less difficult, and a similar ending could be expected after the Visigoths won the famous battle of Adrianople in 378, the emperor Valens was killed and King Alaric devastated all of Greece. But soon Alaric went west - to Spain and Gaul, where the Goths founded their state, and the danger from their side for Byzantium was over. In 441, the Goths were replaced by the Huns. Their leader Attila started a war several times, and only by paying a large tribute it was possible to buy him off. In the battle of the peoples on the Catalaunian fields (451), Attila was defeated, and his power soon disintegrated.
In the second half of the 5th century, danger came from the Ostrogoths - Theodoric the Great ravaged Macedonia, threatened Constantinople, but he also went west, conquering Italy and founding his state on the ruins of Rome.
In 1204, Constantinople surrendered for the first time under the onslaught of the enemy: enraged by an unsuccessful campaign in the "promised land", the crusaders broke into the city, announced the creation of the Latin Empire and divided the Byzantine lands between the French barons.
The new formation did not last long: on July 51, 1261, Michael VIII Palaiologos occupied Constantinople without a fight, who announced the revival of the Eastern Roman Empire. The dynasty he founded ruled Byzantium until its fall, but this rule was rather miserable. In the end, the emperors lived on handouts from Genoese and Venetian merchants, and even plundered church and private property in kind.
By the beginning of the XIV century, only Constantinople, Thessaloniki and small scattered enclaves in southern Greece remained from the former territories. The desperate attempts of the last emperor of Byzantium, Manuel II, to enlist the military support of Western Europe were not successful. On May 29, 1453, Constantinople was conquered for the second and last time.
Religion of Byzantium
In Christianity, diverse trends fought and clashed: Arianism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism. While in the West the popes, beginning with Leo the Great (440-461), asserted the papal monarchy, in the East the patriarchs of Alexandria, especially Cyril (422-444) and Dioscorus (444-451), tried to establish the papal throne in Alexandria. In addition, as a result of these unrest, old national strife and separatist tendencies surfaced.
Political interests and goals were closely intertwined with the religious conflict.
Since 502, the Persians resumed their onslaught in the east, the Slavs and Bulgars began raids south of the Danube. Internal unrest reached its extreme limits, in the capital there was a tense struggle between the parties of "green" and "blue" (according to the colors of the chariot teams). Finally, the strong memory of the Roman tradition, which supported the idea of the need for the unity of the Roman world, constantly turned minds to the West. To get out of this state of instability, a powerful hand was needed, a clear policy with precise and definite plans. This policy was pursued by Justinian I.
The national composition of the empire was very diverse, but starting from the 7th century, Greeks made up the majority of the population. Since then, the Byzantine emperor began to be called in Greek - "basileus". In the 9th-10th centuries, after the conquest of Bulgaria and the subjugation of the Serbs and Croats, Byzantium became, in essence, a Greek-Slavic state. Based on the religious community around Byzantium, an extensive "zone of orthodoxy (Orthodoxy)" was formed, including Rus', Georgia, Bulgaria, and most of Serbia.
Until the 7th century, the official language of the empire was Latin, but there was literature in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian. In 866, the "Thessalonica brothers" Cyril (c.826-869) and Methodius (c.815-885) invented the Slavic letter, which quickly spread in Bulgaria and Rus'.
Despite the fact that the whole life of the state and society was permeated with religion, secular power in Byzantium was always stronger than church power. The Byzantine Empire has always been distinguished by stable statehood and strictly centralized administration.
By its political structure, Byzantium was an autocratic monarchy, the doctrine of which was finally formed here. All power was in the hands of the emperor (basileus). He was the supreme judge, directed foreign policy, issued laws, commanded the army, and so on. His power was considered divine and was practically unlimited, however, (paradox!) It was not legally hereditary. The result of this was constant unrest and wars for power, ending in the creation of another dynasty (a simple warrior, even from the barbarians, or a peasant, thanks to his dexterity and personal abilities, could often take a high position in the state or even become an emperor. The history of Byzantium is full of such examples).
In Byzantium, a special system of relations between secular and ecclesiastical authorities, called Caesaropapism, developed (the Emperors, in essence, ruled the Church, becoming "popes." The Church became only an appendage and instrument of secular power). The power of the emperors was especially strengthened during the infamous period of "iconoclasm", when the clergy were completely subordinate to the imperial power, deprived of many privileges, the wealth of the church and monasteries were partially confiscated. As for cultural life, the result of "iconoclasm" was the complete canonization of spiritual art.
Byzantine culture
In artistic creativity, Byzantium gave the medieval world high images of literature and art, which were distinguished by the noble elegance of forms, figurative vision of thought, refinement of aesthetic thinking, and depth of philosophical thought. The direct successor of the Greco-Roman world and the Hellenistic East, in terms of expressiveness and deep spirituality, Byzantium stood ahead of all the countries of medieval Europe for many centuries. Since the 6th century, Constantinople has been turning into a glorified artistic center of the medieval world, into a "palladium of sciences and arts." It is followed by Ravenna, Rome, Nicaea, Thessalonica, which also became the focus of the Byzantine artistic style.
The process of artistic development of Byzantium was not straightforward. It had epochs of ups and downs, periods of the triumph of progressive ideas and gloomy years of domination by reactionaries. There were several periods, more or less prosperous, marked by a special flourishing of art:
Time of Emperor Justinian I (527-565) - "golden age of Byzantium"
and the so-called Byzantine "renaissances":
The reign of the Macedonian dynasty (mid-IX - late XI century) - "Macedonian renaissance".
The reign of the Komnenos dynasty (end of the 11th - the end of the 12th centuries) - "the Komnenos' renaissance".
Late Byzantium (since 1260) - "Paleologian Renaissance".
Byzantium survived the invasion of the Crusaders (1204, IV Crusade), but with the formation and strengthening of the Ottoman Empire on its borders, its end became inevitable. The West promised help only on the condition of converting to Catholicism (the Ferraro-Florentine Union, indignantly rejected by the people).
In April 1453, Constantinople was surrounded by a huge Turkish army and two months later taken by storm. The last emperor - Constantine XI Palaiologos - died on the fortress wall with a weapon in his hands.
Since then, Constantinople has been called Istanbul.
The fall of Byzantium was a huge blow to the Orthodox (and Christian in general) world. Disregarding politics and economics, Christian theologians saw the main reason for its death in that decline in morals and in that hypocrisy in matters of religion that flourished in Byzantium in the last centuries of its existence. So, Vladimir Solovyov wrote:
"After many delays and a long struggle with material decay, the Eastern Empire, long dead morally, was finally just before
the revival of the West, demolished from the historical field. ... Proud of their orthodoxy and piety, they did not want to understand that simple and self-evident truth that true orthodoxy and piety require that we somehow conform our lives to what we believe and what we honor - they did not want to understand that the real advantage belongs to the Christian kingdom over others only insofar as it is organized and governed in the spirit of Christ. ... Being hopelessly incapable of its high purpose - to be a Christian kingdom - Byzantium lost the inner reason for its existence. For the current, ordinary tasks of state administration could, and even much better, be performed by the government of the Turkish Sultan, which, being free from internal contradictions, was more honest and stronger and, moreover, did not interfere in the religious field of Christianity, did not compose dubious dogmas and malicious heresies, but also did not defend Orthodoxy by massacre of heretics and solemn burning of heresiarchs at the stake.
On May 11, 330 AD, on the European coast of the Bosporus, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great solemnly founded the new capital of the empire - Constantinople (and to be precise and use its official name, then - New Rome). The emperor did not create a new state: Byzantium, in the exact sense of the word, was not the successor to the Roman Empire, it was Rome itself. The word "Byzantium" appeared only in the West during the Renaissance. The Byzantines called themselves the Romans (Romans), their country - the Roman Empire (Empire of the Romans). Constantine's plans corresponded to such a name. New Rome was erected at the main crossroads of the main trade routes and was originally planned as the greatest of the cities. Built in the 6th century, Hagia Sophia was the tallest architectural structure on Earth for more than a thousand years, and its beauty was compared with Heaven.
Until the middle of the XII century, New Rome was the main trading hub of the planet. Before being devastated by the crusaders in 1204, it was also the most populated city in Europe. Later, especially in the last century and a half, more economically significant centers appeared on the globe. But in our time, the strategic importance of this place could not be overestimated. Owning the straits of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, he owned the entire Near and Middle East, and this is the heart of Eurasia and the entire Old World. In the 19th century, the real owner of the straits was the British Empire, which protected this place from Russia even at the cost of an open military conflict (during the Crimean War of 1853-1856, and the war could start in 1836 and 1878). For Russia, it was not just a matter of "historical heritage", but the ability to control its southern borders and main trade flows. After 1945, the keys to the straits were in the hands of the United States, and the deployment of American nuclear weapons in this region, as is known, immediately caused the appearance of Soviet missiles in Cuba and provoked the Cuban Missile Crisis. The USSR agreed to retreat only after the curtailment of the American nuclear potential in Turkey. Today, the issues of Turkey's entry into the European Union and its foreign policy in Asia are paramount problems for the West.
They only dreamed of peace
New Rome received a rich inheritance. However, this became his main "headache". In his contemporary world, there were too many applicants for the assignment of this inheritance. It is difficult to recall even one long period of calm on the Byzantine borders; the empire was in mortal danger at least once a century. Until the 7th century, the Romans along the perimeter of all their borders waged the most difficult wars with the Persians, Goths, Vandals, Slavs and Avars, and in the end the confrontation ended in favor of New Rome. This happened very often: young and fresh peoples who fought the empire went into historical oblivion, and the empire itself, ancient and almost defeated, licked its wounds and continued to live. However, then the former enemies were replaced by the Arabs from the south, the Lombards from the west, the Bulgarians from the north, the Khazars from the east, and a new centuries-old confrontation began. As the new opponents weakened, they were replaced in the north by the Rus, Hungarians, Pechenegs, Cumans, in the east by the Seljuk Turks, in the west by the Normans.
In the fight against enemies, the empire used force, diplomacy honed over the centuries, intelligence, military cunning, and sometimes the services of allies. The last resort was double-edged and extremely dangerous. The crusaders who fought against the Seljuks were extremely burdensome and dangerous allies for the empire, and this alliance ended with the first fall for Constantinople: the city, which had successfully fought off any attacks and sieges for almost a thousand years, was brutally devastated by its “friends”. Its further existence, even after the liberation from the crusaders, was only a shadow of the previous glory. But just at that time, the last and most cruel enemy appeared - the Ottoman Turks, who surpassed all previous ones in their military qualities. The Europeans really got ahead of the Ottomans in military affairs only in the 18th century, and the Russians were the first to do this, and the first commander who dared to appear in the inner regions of the Sultan's empire was Count Peter Rumyantsev, for which he received the honorary name Zadanaisky.
Indefatigable subjects
The internal state of the Roman Empire was also never calm. Its state territory was extremely heterogeneous. At one time, the Roman Empire maintained its unity through superior military, commercial, and cultural capabilities. The legal system (the famous Roman law, finally codified in Byzantium) was the most perfect in the world. For several centuries (since the time of Spartacus), Rome, within which more than a quarter of all mankind lived, was not threatened by any serious danger, wars were fought on distant borders - in Germany, Armenia, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Only internal decay, the crisis of the army and the weakening of trade led to disintegration. Only from the end of the 4th century did the situation on the borders become critical. The need to repel barbarian invasions in different directions inevitably led to the division of power in a vast empire between several people. However, this also had negative consequences - internal confrontation, further weakening of ties and the desire to "privatize" their piece of imperial territory. As a result, by the 5th century, the final division of the Roman Empire was a fact, but did not alleviate the situation.
The eastern half of the Roman Empire was more populated and Christianized (by the time of Constantine the Great, Christians, despite the persecution, there were already more than 10% of the population), but in itself did not constitute an organic whole. An amazing ethnic diversity reigned in the state: Greeks, Syrians, Copts, Arabs, Armenians, Illyrians lived here, Slavs, Germans, Scandinavians, Anglo-Saxons, Turks, Italians and many other nationalities soon appeared, from whom they were only required to confess the true faith and submit to imperial power . Its richest provinces - Egypt and Syria - were geographically too far from the capital, fenced off by mountain ranges and deserts. Sea communication with them, as trade declined and piracy flourished, became more and more difficult. In addition, the overwhelming majority of the population here were adherents of the Monophysite heresy. After the victory of Orthodoxy at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, a powerful uprising broke out in these provinces, which was suppressed with great difficulty. In less than 200 years, the Monophysites joyfully greeted the Arab "liberators" and subsequently converted to Islam relatively painlessly. The western and central provinces of the empire, primarily the Balkans, but also Asia Minor, for many centuries experienced a massive influx of barbarian tribes - Germans, Slavs, Turks. Emperor Justinian the Great in the 6th century tried to expand the state limits in the west and restore the Roman Empire to its "natural borders", but this led to colossal efforts and costs. A century later, Byzantium was forced to shrink to the limits of its “state core”, predominantly inhabited by Greeks and Hellenized Slavs. This territory included the west of Asia Minor, the Black Sea coast, the Balkans and southern Italy. The further struggle for existence was mainly going on already in this territory.
The people and the army are united
The constant struggle required the constant maintenance of defense capability. The Roman Empire was forced to revive the peasant militia and heavily armed cavalry, characteristic of Ancient Rome of the republican period, to re-create and maintain a powerful navy at state expense. Defense has always been the main expense of the treasury and the main burden for the taxpayer. The state kept a close eye on the fact that the peasants retained their fighting capacity, and therefore strengthened the community in every possible way, preventing its disintegration. The state struggled with the excessive concentration of wealth, including land, in private hands. State regulation of prices was a very important part of the policy. A powerful state apparatus, of course, gave rise to the omnipotence of officials and large-scale corruption. Active emperors fought against abuses, inert ones started the disease.
Of course, slow social stratification and limited competition slowed down the pace of economic development, but the fact of the matter was that the empire had more important tasks. Not from a good life, the Byzantines equipped their armed forces with all sorts of technical innovations and types of weapons, the most famous of which was the “Greek fire” invented in the 7th century, which brought the Romans more than one victory. The army of the empire maintained its fighting spirit until the second half of the 12th century, until it gave way to foreign mercenaries. The treasury now spent less, but the risk of falling into the hands of the enemy increased immeasurably. Let us recall the classic expression of one of the recognized experts on the issue - Napoleon Bonaparte: the people who do not want to feed their own army will feed someone else's. Since that time, the empire has become dependent on Western "friends", who immediately showed her how much friendship is.
Autocracy as a recognized necessity
The circumstances of Byzantine life strengthened the perceived need for the autocratic power of the emperor (basileus of the Romans). But too much depended on his personality, character, abilities. That is why the empire developed a flexible system for the transfer of supreme power. In specific circumstances, power could be transferred not only to a son, but also to a nephew, son-in-law, brother-in-law, husband, adopted successor, even one's own father or mother. The transfer of power was secured by the decision of the Senate and the army, popular approval, church wedding (since the 10th century, the practice of imperial chrismation, borrowed in the West, was introduced). As a result, the imperial dynasties rarely experienced their centenary, only the most talented - the Macedonian - dynasty managed to hold out for almost two centuries - from 867 to 1056. A person of low birth could also be on the throne, who advanced thanks to one or another talent (for example, a butcher from Dacia, Lev Makella, a commoner from Dalmatia and the uncle of the Great Justinian, Justin I, or the son of an Armenian peasant Vasily the Macedonian - the founder of that very Macedonian dynasty). The tradition of co-rulers was extremely developed (co-rulers sat on the Byzantine throne in general for about two hundred years). Power had to be firmly held in the hands: in the entire Byzantine history, there were about forty successful coups d'etat, usually they ended in the death of the defeated ruler or his removal to the monastery. Only half of the basileus died on the throne with their death.Empire as a catechon
The very existence of the empire was for Byzantium more of a duty and a duty than an advantage or a rational choice. The ancient world, the only direct heir of which was the Empire of the Romans, has gone into the historical past. However, his cultural and political legacy became the foundation of Byzantium. The empire from the time of Constantine was also the stronghold of the Christian faith. The basis of the state political doctrine was the idea of the empire as a "katechon" - the guardian of the true faith. The barbarian-Germans who flooded the entire western part of the Roman ecumene adopted Christianity, but only in the Arian heretical version. The only major "acquisition" of the Ecumenical Church in the west until the 8th century was the Franks. Having accepted the Nicene Creed, King Clovis of the Franks immediately received the spiritual and political support of the Roman Patriarch-Pope and the Byzantine emperor. This began the growth of the power of the Franks in the west of Europe: Clovis was granted the title of Byzantine patrician, and his distant successor Charlemagne, three centuries later, already wanted to be called the emperor of the West.
The Byzantine mission of that period could well compete with the Western one. Missionaries of the Church of Constantinople preached in the space of Central and Eastern Europe - from the Czech Republic to Novgorod and Khazaria; close contacts with the Byzantine Church were maintained by the English and Irish Local Churches. However, papal Rome quite early became jealous of competitors and expelled them by force, and soon the mission itself in the papal West acquired an openly aggressive character and predominantly political tasks. The first large-scale action after the fall of Rome from Orthodoxy was the papal blessing of William the Conqueror on a campaign in England in 1066; after that, many representatives of the Orthodox Anglo-Saxon nobility were forced to emigrate to Constantinople.
Within the Byzantine Empire itself, there were heated disputes on religious grounds. Now among the people, now in power, heretical currents arose. Under the influence of Islam, the emperors began iconoclastic persecution in the 8th century, which provoked resistance from the Orthodox people. In the 13th century, out of a desire to strengthen relations with the Catholic world, the authorities went to the union, but again did not receive support. All attempts to "reform" Orthodoxy on the basis of opportunistic considerations or to bring it under "earthly standards" failed. A new union in the 15th century, concluded under the threat of Ottoman conquest, could no longer even ensure political success. It has become history's bitter grin at the vain ambitions of rulers.
What is the advantage of the West?
When and in what way did the West begin to take over? As always, in economics and technology. In the sphere of culture and law, science and education, literature and art, Byzantium until the 12th century easily competed or was far ahead of its Western neighbors. The powerful cultural influence of Byzantium was felt in the West and East far beyond its borders - in Arab Spain and Norman Britain, and in Catholic Italy it dominated until the Renaissance. However, due to the very conditions of the existence of the empire, it could not boast of special socio-economic successes. In addition, Italy and Southern France were initially more favorable for agricultural activity than the Balkans and Asia Minor. In the XII-XIV centuries in Western Europe there is a rapid economic rise - one that has not been since ancient times and will not be there until the XVIII century. This was the heyday of feudalism, the papacy and chivalry. It was at this time that a special feudal structure of Western European society arose and established itself with its class-corporate rights and contractual relations (the modern West emerged from this).
Western influence on the Byzantine emperors from the Komnenos dynasty in the 12th century was the strongest: they copied Western military art, Western fashion, and for a long time acted as allies of the Crusaders. The Byzantine fleet, so burdensome for the treasury, was disbanded and rotted, its place was taken by the fleets of the Venetians and Genoese. The emperors cherished the hope of overcoming the recent falling away of papal Rome. However, the strengthened Rome already recognized only complete submission to its will. The West was surprised at the imperial brilliance and, in order to justify its aggressiveness, loudly resented the duplicity and depravity of the Greeks.
Were the Greeks drowning in depravity? Sin was side by side with grace. The horrors of palaces and city squares alternated with the genuine sanctity of the monasteries and the sincere piety of the laity. Evidence of this is the lives of the saints, liturgical texts, high and unsurpassed Byzantine art. But the temptations were very strong. After the defeat of 1204 in Byzantium, the pro-Western current only intensified, young people went to study in Italy, and among the intelligentsia there was a craving for the pagan Hellenic tradition. Philosophical rationalism and European scholasticism (and it was based on the same pagan learning) began to be regarded in this milieu as higher and more refined teachings than patristic ascetic theology. Intellect took precedence over Revelation, individualism over Christian achievement. Later, these trends, together with the Greeks who moved to the West, would greatly contribute to the development of the Western European Renaissance.
Historical scope
The empire survived in the fight against the crusaders: on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, opposite the defeated Constantinople, the Romans retained their territory and proclaimed a new emperor. Half a century later, the capital was liberated and held out for another 200 years. However, the territory of the revived empire was practically reduced to the great city itself, several islands in the Aegean Sea and small territories in Greece. But even without this epilogue, the Roman Empire existed for almost a millennium. It is possible in this case not even to take into account the fact that Byzantium directly continues the ancient Roman statehood, and considered the foundation of Rome in 753 BC as its birth. Even without these reservations, there is no other such example in world history. Empires last for years (Napoleon's empire: 1804–1814), decades (German Empire: 1871–1918), at best, for centuries. The Han Empire in China lasted four centuries, the Ottoman Empire and the Arab Caliphate - a little more, but by the end of their life cycle they became only a fiction of empires. The West-based Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was also a fiction for most of its existence. There are not many countries in the world that did not claim imperial status and continuously existed for a thousand years. Finally, Byzantium and its historical predecessor - Ancient Rome - also demonstrated a "world record" of survival: any state on Earth withstood at best one or two global alien invasions, Byzantium - much more. Only Russia could be compared with Byzantium.
Why did Byzantium fall?
Her successors answered this question in different ways. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Pskov elder Philotheus believed that Byzantium, having accepted the union, had betrayed Orthodoxy, and this was the reason for its death. However, he argued that the death of Byzantium was conditional: the status of the Orthodox empire was transferred to the only remaining sovereign Orthodox state - Moscow. In this, according to Philotheus, there was no merit of the Russians themselves, such was God's will. However, the fate of the world now depended on the Russians: if Orthodoxy falls in Rus', then the world will soon end with it. Thus, Filofei warned Moscow of a great historical and religious responsibility. The coat of arms of the Paleologians inherited by Russia - a double-headed eagle - is a symbol of such responsibility, a heavy cross of the imperial burden.A younger contemporary of the elder, Ivan Timofeev, a professional warrior, pointed to other reasons for the fall of the empire: the emperors, trusting in flattering and irresponsible advisers, despised military affairs and lost combat readiness. Peter the Great also spoke about the sad Byzantine example of the loss of fighting spirit, which caused the death of a great empire: a solemn speech was delivered in the presence of the Senate, Synod and generals in the Trinity Cathedral of St. Petersburg on October 22, 1721, on the day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, at the king of the imperial title. As you can see, all three - the elder, the warrior and the newly proclaimed emperor - had in mind close things, only in a different aspect. The power of the Roman Empire rested on strong power, a strong army and the loyalty of its subjects, but they themselves, at the base, had to have a firm and true faith. And in this sense, the empire, or rather all the people who made it up, has always balanced between Eternity and death. In the invariable relevance of this choice, there is an amazing and unique flavor of Byzantine history. In other words, this story in all its light and dark sides is a clear evidence of the correctness of the saying from the order of the Triumph of Orthodoxy: “This is the apostolic faith, this is the paternal faith, this is the Orthodox faith, this is the faith that affirm the universe!”
Much of this tone was set by the eighteenth-century English historian Edward Gibbon, who devoted at least three-quarters of his six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to what we would unhesitatingly call the Byzantine period.. And although this view has not been the mainstream for a long time, we still have to start talking about Byzantium as if not from the beginning, but from the middle. After all, Byzantium has neither a year of foundation, nor a founding father, like Rome with Romulus and Remus. Byzantium imperceptibly sprouted from within Ancient Rome, but never broke away from it. After all, the Byzantines themselves did not think of themselves as something separate: they did not know the words “Byzantium” and “Byzantine Empire” and called themselves either “Romans” (that is, “Romans” in Greek), appropriating the history of Ancient Rome, or “ by the race of Christians”, appropriating the entire history of the Christian religion.We do not recognize Byzantium in early Byzantine history with its praetors, prefects, patricians and provinces, but this recognition will become more and more as emperors acquire beards, consuls turn into hypats, and senators into synclitics.
background
The birth of Byzantium will not be clear without a return to the events of the 3rd century, when the most severe economic and political crisis broke out in the Roman Empire, which actually led to the collapse of the state. In 284, Diocletian came to power (like almost all emperors of the 3rd century, he was just a Roman officer of humble origin - his father was a slave) and took measures to decentralize power. First, in 286, he divided the empire into two parts, entrusting the administration of the West to his friend Maximian Herculius, while keeping the East for himself. Then, in 293, wanting to increase the stability of the system of government and ensure the turnover of power, he introduced a system of tetrarchy - a four-part government, which was carried out by two senior Augustus emperors and two junior Caesar emperors. Each part of the empire had an August and a Caesar (each of which had its own geographical area of responsibility - for example, the August of the West controlled Italy and Spain, and the Caesar of the West controlled Gaul and Britain). After 20 years, the Augusts were to transfer power to the Caesars, so that they would become Augusts and elect new Caesars. However, this system proved unviable, and after the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian in 305, the empire again plunged into an era of civil wars.
Birth of Byzantium
1. 312 - Battle of the Mulvian Bridge
After the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, the supreme power passed to the former Caesars - Galerius and Constantius Chlorus, they became Augusts, but neither the son of Constantius Constantine (later Emperor Constantine I the Great, considered the first emperor of Byzantium), nor Maximian's son Maxentius. Nevertheless, both of them did not leave imperial ambitions and from 306 to 312 alternately entered into a tactical alliance in order to jointly oppose other contenders for power (for example, Flavius Severus, appointed Caesar after the abdication of Diocletian), then, on the contrary, entered the struggle. The final victory of Constantine over Maxentius in the battle on the Milvian bridge across the Tiber River (now within the boundaries of Rome) meant the unification of the western part of the Roman Empire under the rule of Constantine. Twelve years later, in 324, as a result of another war (now with Licinius - Augustus and the ruler of the East of the empire, who was appointed by Galerius), Constantine united East and West.
The miniature in the center depicts the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. From the homily of Gregory the Theologian. 879-882 years
MS grec 510 /
The Battle of the Milvian Bridge in the Byzantine mind was associated with the idea of the birth of the Christian empire. This was facilitated, firstly, by the legend of the miraculous sign of the Cross, which Constantine saw in the sky before the battle - Eusebius of Caesarea tells about this (albeit in completely different ways). Eusebius of Caesarea(c. 260-340) - Greek historian, author of the first church history. and Lactants lactation(c. 250---325) - Latin writer, apologist for Christianity, author of the essay "On the Death of the Persecutors", dedicated to the events of the era of Diocletian., and secondly, the fact that two edicts were issued at about the same time Edict- normative act, decree. about religious freedom, legalized Christianity and equalized all religions in rights. And although the issuance of edicts on religious freedom was not directly related to the fight against Maxentius (the first was published in April 311 by the emperor Galerius, and the second - already in February 313 in Milan by Constantine together with Licinius), the legend reflects the internal connection of seemingly independent political steps of Constantine, who was the first to feel that state centralization is impossible without the consolidation of society, primarily in the sphere of worship.
However, under Constantine Christianity was only one of the candidates for the role of a consolidating religion. The emperor himself was for a long time an adherent of the cult of the Invincible Sun, and the time of his Christian baptism is still the subject of scientific disputes.
2. 325 - I Ecumenical Council
In 325 Constantine summoned representatives of the local churches to the city of Nicaea. Nicaea- now the city of Iznik in Northwestern Turkey. to resolve a dispute between Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and Arius, a presbyter of one of the Alexandrian churches, about whether Jesus Christ was created by God Opponents of the Arians briefly summarized their teaching thus: "There was [such a time] when [Christ] did not exist.". This meeting was the first Ecumenical Council - a meeting of representatives of all local churches, with the right to formulate doctrine, which will then be recognized by all local churches. It is impossible to say exactly how many bishops participated in the council, since its acts have not been preserved. Tradition calls the number 318. Be that as it may, it is possible to speak about the “ecumenical” nature of the cathedral only with reservations, since in total at that time there were more than 1,500 episcopal sees.. The First Ecumenical Council is a key stage in the institutionalization of Christianity as an imperial religion: its meetings were held not in the temple, but in the imperial palace, the cathedral was opened by Constantine I himself, and the closing was combined with grandiose celebrations on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his reign.
First Council of Nicaea. Fresco from the monastery of Stavropoleos. Bucharest, 18th century
Wikimedia Commons
Councils I of Nicaea and the Councils of Constantinople that followed it (meeting in 381) condemned the Arian doctrine about the created nature of Christ and the inequality of the hypostases in the Trinity, and the Apollinarian one, about the incomplete perception of human nature by Christ, and formulated the Nicene-Tsargrad Creed, which recognized Jesus Christ not created, but born (but at the same time eternal), but all three hypostases - possessing one nature. The creed was recognized as true, not subject to further doubt and discussion The words of the Nicene-Tsargrad Creed about Christ, which caused the most fierce disputes, in the Slavonic translation sound like this: Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, Whom all was.”.
Never before has any direction of thought in Christianity been condemned by the fullness of the universal church and imperial power, and no theological school has been recognized as heresy. The era of the Ecumenical Councils that has begun is the era of the struggle between orthodoxy and heresy, which are in constant self- and mutual determination. At the same time, the same doctrine could alternately be recognized as heresy, then right faith - depending on the political situation (this was the case in the 5th century), however, the very idea of the possibility and necessity of protecting orthodoxy and condemning heresy with the help of the state was questioned in Byzantium has never been set.
3. 330 - transfer of the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople
Although Rome always remained the cultural center of the empire, the Tetrarchs chose cities on the periphery as their capitals, from which it was more convenient for them to repel external attacks: Nicomedia Nicomedia- now Izmit (Türkiye)., Sirmius Sirmius- now Sremska Mitrovica (Serbia)., Milan and Trier. During the reign of the West, Constantine I transferred his residence to Milan, then to Sirmium, then to Thessalonica. His rival Licinius also changed the capital, but in 324, when a war broke out between him and Constantine, the ancient city of Byzantium on the banks of the Bosphorus, known from Herodotus, became his stronghold in Europe.
Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror and the Serpent Column. Miniature of Naqqash Osman from the manuscript "Khyuner-name" by Seyid Lokman. 1584-1588 years Wikimedia Commons
During the siege of Byzantium, and then in preparation for the decisive battle of Chrysopolis on the Asian coast of the strait, Constantine assessed the position of Byzantium and, having defeated Licinius, immediately began a program to renew the city, personally participating in the marking of the city walls. The city gradually took over the functions of the capital: a senate was established in it and many Roman senatorial families were forcibly transported closer to the senate. It was in Constantinople that during his lifetime Constantine ordered to rebuild a tomb for himself. Various curiosities of the ancient world were brought to the city, for example, the bronze Serpentine Column, created in the 5th century BC in honor of the victory over the Persians at Plataea Battle of Plataea(479 BC) — one of the most important battles of the Greco-Persian wars, as a result of which the land forces of the Achaemenid Empire were finally defeated..
The 6th-century chronicler John Malala tells that on May 11, 330, Emperor Constantine appeared at the solemn ceremony of consecrating the city in a diadem - a symbol of the power of the eastern despots, which his Roman predecessors avoided in every possible way. The shift in the political vector was symbolically embodied in the spatial movement of the center of the empire from west to east, which, in turn, had a decisive influence on the formation of Byzantine culture: the transfer of the capital to territories that had been speaking Greek for a thousand years determined its Greek-speaking character, and Constantinople itself turned out to be in the center of the mental map of the Byzantine and identified with the entire empire.
4. 395 - division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western
Despite the fact that in 324 Constantine, having defeated Licinius, formally united the East and West of the empire, ties between its parts remained weak, and cultural differences grew. No more than ten bishops arrived at the First Ecumenical Council from the western provinces (out of about 300 participants); most of the arrivals were not able to understand Constantine's welcoming speech, which he delivered in Latin, and it had to be translated into Greek.
Half silicone. Flavius Odoacer on the obverse of a coin from Ravenna. 477 year Odoacer is depicted without the imperial diadem - with an uncovered head, a shock of hair and a mustache. Such an image is uncharacteristic for emperors and is considered "barbaric". The Trustees of the British Museum
The final division occurred in 395, when Emperor Theodosius I the Great, who for several months before his death became the sole ruler of East and West, divided the state between his sons Arcadius (East) and Honorius (West). However, formally the West still remained connected with the East, and at the very decline of the Western Roman Empire, in the late 460s, the Byzantine emperor Leo I, at the request of the Senate of Rome, made the last unsuccessful attempt to elevate his protege to the western throne. In 476, the German barbarian mercenary Odoacer deposed the last emperor of the Roman Empire, Romulus Augustulus, and sent the imperial insignia (symbols of power) to Constantinople. Thus, from the point of view of the legitimacy of power, parts of the empire were again united: the emperor Zeno, who ruled at that time in Constantinople, de jure became the sole head of the entire empire, and Odoacer, who received the title of patrician, ruled Italy only as his representative. However, in reality, this was no longer reflected in the real political map of the Mediterranean.
5. 451 - Chalcedon Cathedral
IV Ecumenical (Chalcedon) Council, convened for the final approval of the doctrine of the incarnation of Christ in a single hypostasis and two natures and the complete condemnation of Monophysitism Monophysitism(from the Greek μόνος - the only one and φύσις - nature) - the doctrine that Christ did not have a perfect human nature, since his divine nature, during the incarnation, replaced it or merged with it. The opponents of the Monophysites were called dyophysites (from the Greek δύο - two)., led to a deep schism that has not been overcome by the Christian church to this day. The central government continued to flirt with the Monophysites under the usurper Basiliscus in 475-476, and in the first half of the 6th century, under the emperors Anastasius I and Justinian I. Emperor Zeno in 482 tried to reconcile the supporters and opponents of the Council of Chalcedon, without going into dogmatic issues . His conciliatory message, called the Enoticon, ensured peace in the East, but led to a 35-year split with Rome.The main support of the Monophysites were the eastern provinces - Egypt, Armenia and Syria. Religious uprisings regularly broke out in these regions and an independent Monophysite hierarchy and its own church institutions parallel to the Chalcedonian (that is, recognizing the teachings of the Council of Chalcedon) and their own church institutions were formed, which gradually developed into independent, non-Chalcedonian churches that still exist today - Syro-Jacobite, Armenian and Coptic. The problem finally lost its relevance for Constantinople only in the 7th century, when, as a result of the Arab conquests, the Monophysite provinces were torn away from the empire.
Rise of early Byzantium
6. 537 - completion of the construction of the church of Hagia Sophia under Justinian
Justinian I. Fragment of the church mosaic San Vitale in Ravenna. 6th century
Wikimedia Commons
Under Justinian I (527-565), the Byzantine Empire reached its peak. The Code of Civil Law summarized the centuries-old development of Roman law. As a result of military campaigns in the West, it was possible to expand the borders of the empire, including the entire Mediterranean - North Africa, Italy, part of Spain, Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily. Sometimes people talk about the "Justinian Reconquista". Rome became part of the empire again. Justinian launched extensive construction throughout the empire, and in 537 the construction of a new Hagia Sophia in Constantinople was completed. According to legend, the plan of the temple was suggested personally to the emperor by an angel in a vision. Never again in Byzantium was a building of such magnitude built: a grandiose temple, in the Byzantine ceremonial called the "Great Church", became the center of power of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The era of Justinian at the same time and finally breaks with the pagan past (in 529 the Academy of Athens was closed Athens Academy - philosophical school in Athens, founded by Plato in the 380s BC. e.) and establishes a line of succession with antiquity. Medieval culture opposes itself to early Christian culture, appropriating the achievements of antiquity at all levels - from literature to architecture, but at the same time discarding their religious (pagan) dimension.
Coming from the bottom, seeking to change the way of life of the empire, Justinian met with rejection from the old aristocracy. It is this attitude, and not the personal hatred of the historian for the emperor, that is reflected in the vicious pamphlet on Justinian and his wife Theodora.
7. 626 - Avaro-Slavic siege of Constantinople
The reign of Heraclius (610-641), glorified in court panegyric literature as the new Hercules, accounted for the last foreign policy successes of early Byzantium. In 626, Heraclius and Patriarch Sergius, who was directly defending the city, managed to repel the Avar-Slavic siege of Constantinople (the words that open the akathist to the Mother of God tell precisely about this victory In the Slavic translation, they sound like this: “To the chosen Voivode, victorious, as if having got rid of the evil ones, we thankfully describe Thy servants, the Mother of God, but as if having an invincible power, free us from all troubles, let us call Ty: rejoice, Bride of the Bride.”), and at the turn of the 20-30s of the 7th century during the Persian campaign against the power of the Sassanids Sasanian Empire- a Persian state centered on the territory of present-day Iraq and Iran, which existed in the years 224-651. the provinces in the East lost a few years earlier were recaptured: Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Palestine. The Holy Cross stolen by the Persians was solemnly returned to Jerusalem in 630, on which the Savior died. During the solemn procession, Heraclius personally brought the Cross into the city and laid it in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Under Heraclius, the last rise before the cultural break of the Dark Ages is experienced by the scientific and philosophical Neoplatonic tradition, coming directly from antiquity: a representative of the last surviving ancient school in Alexandria, Stephen of Alexandria, comes to Constantinople at the imperial invitation to teach.
Plate from a cross with images of a cherub (left) and the Byzantine emperor Heraclius with the Shahinshah of the Sassanids Khosrow II. Valley of the Meuse, 1160-70s Wikimedia Commons
All these successes were brought to naught by the Arab invasion, which wiped out the Sassanids from the face of the earth in a few decades and forever wrested the eastern provinces from Byzantium. Legends tell how the prophet Muhammad offered Heraclius to convert to Islam, but in the cultural memory of the Muslim peoples, Heraclius remained precisely a fighter against the emerging Islam, and not with the Persians. These wars (generally unsuccessful for Byzantium) are described in the 18th-century epic poem The Book of Heraclius, the oldest written monument in Swahili.
Dark Ages and Iconoclasm
8. 642 Arab conquest of Egypt
The first wave of Arab conquests in the Byzantine lands lasted eight years - from 634 to 642. As a result, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt were torn away from Byzantium. Having lost the most ancient Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, the Byzantine Church, in fact, lost its universal character and became equal to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which within the empire had no church institutions equal to it in status.
In addition, having lost the fertile territories that provided it with grain, the empire plunged into a deep internal crisis. In the middle of the 7th century, there was a reduction in monetary circulation and the decline of cities (both in Asia Minor and in the Balkans, which were no longer threatened by the Arabs, but by the Slavs) - they turned into either villages or medieval fortresses. Constantinople remained the only major urban center, but the atmosphere in the city changed and the ancient monuments brought there back in the 4th century began to inspire irrational fears in the townspeople.
Fragment of a papyrus letter in the Coptic language of the monks Victor and Psan. Thebes, Byzantine Egypt, circa 580-640 Translation of a fragment of a letter into English at the Metropolitan Museum of Art website. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Constantinople also lost access to papyrus, which was produced exclusively in Egypt, which led to an increase in the cost of books and, as a result, a decline in education. Many literary genres disappeared, the previously flourishing genre of history gave way to prophecy - having lost their cultural connection with the past, the Byzantines lost interest in their history and lived with a constant feeling of the end of the world. The Arab conquests, which caused this breakdown in the worldview, were not reflected in the literature of their time, their events are brought to us by the monuments of later eras, and the new historical consciousness reflects only an atmosphere of horror, and not facts. The cultural decline lasted for more than a hundred years, the first signs of a revival occur at the very end of the 8th century.
9. 726/730 year According to 9th-century icon-worshipping historians, Leo III issued an edict of iconoclasm in 726. But modern scientists doubt the reliability of this information: most likely, in 726, talks about the possibility of iconoclastic measures began in Byzantine society, the first real steps date back to 730.- start of iconoclastic controversy
Saint Mokios of Amphipolis and the angel killing the iconoclasts. Miniature from the Psalter of Theodore of Caesarea. 1066 The British Library Board, Add MS 19352, f.94r
One of the manifestations of the cultural decline of the second half of the 7th century is the rapid growth of disordered practices of icon veneration (the most zealous ones scraped and ate plaster from the icons of saints). This caused rejection among some of the clergy, who saw in this a threat of a return to paganism. Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741) used this discontent to create a new consolidating ideology, taking the first iconoclastic steps in 726/730. But the most fierce disputes about icons fell on the reign of Constantine V Copronymus (741-775). He carried out the necessary military and administrative reforms, significantly strengthening the role of the professional imperial guard (tagm), and successfully contained the Bulgarian threat on the borders of the empire. The authority of both Constantine and Leo, who repelled the Arabs from the walls of Constantinople in 717-718, was very high, therefore, when in 815, after the teaching of iconodules was approved at the VII Ecumenical Council (787), a new round of war with the Bulgarians provoked a new political crisis, the imperial power returned to the iconoclastic policy.
The controversy over icons gave rise to two powerful strands of theological thought. Although the teachings of the iconoclasts are much less well known than those of their opponents, indirect evidence suggests that the thought of the iconoclasts of Emperor Constantine Copronymus and the Patriarch of Constantinople John the Grammarian (837-843) was no less deeply rooted in the Greek philosophical tradition than the thought of the iconoclast theologian John Damaskin and the head of the anti-iconoclastic monastic opposition Theodore the Studite. In parallel, the dispute developed in the ecclesiastical and political plane, the boundaries of the power of the emperor, patriarch, monasticism and episcopate were redefined.
10. 843 - The triumph of Orthodoxy
In 843, under Empress Theodora and Patriarch Methodius, the dogma of icon veneration was finally approved. It became possible thanks to mutual concessions, for example, the posthumous forgiveness of the iconoclast emperor Theophilus, whose widow was Theodora. The feast "Triumph of Orthodoxy", arranged by Theodora on this occasion, ended the era of the Ecumenical Councils and marked a new stage in the life of the Byzantine state and church. In the Orthodox tradition, he still manages to this day, and anathemas against iconoclasts, named by name, sound every year on the first Sunday of Great Lent. Since then, iconoclasm, which became the last heresy condemned by the entirety of the church, began to be mythologized in the historical memory of Byzantium.
Empress Theodora's daughters learn to read icons from their grandmother Feoktista. Miniature from the Madrid Codex "Chronicle" of John Skylitzes. XII-XIII centuries Wikimedia Commons
Back in 787, at the VII Ecumenical Council, the theory of the image was approved, according to which, in the words of Basil the Great, “the honor given to the image goes back to the prototype,” which means that worship of the icon is not an idol service. Now this theory has become the official teaching of the church - the creation and worship of sacred images from now on was not only allowed, but made a duty for a Christian. From that time on, an avalanche-like growth of artistic production began, the habitual appearance of an Eastern Christian church with iconic decoration took shape, the use of icons was integrated into liturgical practice and changed the course of worship.
In addition, the iconoclastic dispute stimulated the reading, copying and study of sources to which the opposing sides turned in search of arguments. Overcoming the cultural crisis is largely due to philological work in the preparation of church councils. And the invention of the minuscule Minuscule- writing in lowercase letters, which radically simplified and cheapened the production of books., perhaps, was due to the needs of the icon-worshipping opposition that existed under the conditions of “samizdat”: icon-worshippers had to quickly copy texts and did not have the means to create expensive uncial Uncial, or majuscule,- writing in capital letters. manuscripts.
Macedonian era
11. 863 - the beginning of the Photian schism
Dogmatic and liturgical differences gradually grew between the Roman and Eastern churches (primarily with regard to the Latin addition to the text of the Creed of the words about the procession of the Holy Spirit not only from the Father, but “and from the Son”, the so-called Filioque filioque- literally "and from the Son" (lat.).). The Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Pope fought for spheres of influence (primarily in Bulgaria, southern Italy and Sicily). The proclamation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West in 800 dealt a severe blow to the political ideology of Byzantium: the Byzantine emperor found a rival in the person of the Carolingians.
The miraculous salvation of Constantinople by Photius with the help of the robe of the Mother of God. Fresco from the Dormition Knyaginin Monastery. Vladimir, 1648 Wikimedia Commons
Two opposing parties within the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the so-called Ignatians (supporters of Patriarch Ignatius, who was deposed in 858) and the Photians (supporters of Photius who was erected - not without scandal - instead of him), sought support in Rome. Pope Nicholas used this situation to assert the authority of the papal throne and expand his spheres of influence. In 863, he withdrew the signatures of his envoys who approved the erection of Photius, but Emperor Michael III considered that this was not enough to remove the patriarch, and in 867 Photius anathematized Pope Nicholas. In 869-870, a new council in Constantinople (to this day recognized by Catholics as the VIII Ecumenical) deposed Photius and restored Ignatius. However, after the death of Ignatius, Photius returned to the patriarchal throne for another nine years (877-886).
Formal reconciliation followed in 879-880, but the anti-Latin line laid down by Photius in the District Epistle to the episcopal thrones of the East formed the basis of a centuries-old polemical tradition, the echoes of which were heard during the rupture between the churches in, and during the discussion of the possibility of a church union in XIII and fifteenth centuries.
12. 895 - the creation of the oldest known codex of Plato
Manuscript page E. D. Clarke 39 with the writings of Plato. 895 The rewriting of the tetralogy was commissioned by Aretha of Caesarea for 21 gold coins. It is assumed that the scholia (marginal comments) were left by Aretha himself. At the end of the 9th century, there is a new discovery of the ancient heritage in Byzantine culture. A circle developed around Patriarch Photius, which included his disciples: Emperor Leo VI the Wise, Bishop Aref of Caesarea and other philosophers and scientists. They copied, studied and commented on the works of ancient Greek authors. The oldest and most authoritative list of Plato's writings (it is kept under the code E. D. Clarke 39 in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University) was created at this time by order of Arefa.
Among the texts that interested the scholars of the era, especially high-ranking church hierarchs, there were also pagan works. Aretha ordered copies of the works of Aristotle, Aelius Aristides, Euclid, Homer, Lucian and Marcus Aurelius, and Patriarch Photius included in his Myriobiblion "Myriobiblion"(literally "Ten thousand books") - a review of the books read by Photius, which, however, in reality were not 10 thousand, but only 279. annotations to Hellenistic novels, evaluating not their seemingly anti-Christian content, but the style and manner of writing, and at the same time creating a new terminological apparatus of literary criticism, different from that used by ancient grammarians. Leo VI himself created not only solemn speeches on church holidays, which he personally delivered (often improvising) after services, but also wrote Anacreontic poetry in the ancient Greek manner. And the nickname Wise is associated with the collection of poetic prophecies attributed to him about the fall and reconquest of Constantinople, which were remembered back in the 17th century in Rus', when the Greeks tried to persuade Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to campaign against the Ottoman Empire.
The era of Photius and Leo VI the Wise opens the period of the Macedonian Renaissance (named after the ruling dynasty) in Byzantium, which is also known as the era of encyclopedism or the first Byzantine humanism.
13. 952 - completion of work on the treatise "On the management of the empire"
Christ blesses Emperor Constantine VII. Carved panel. 945
Wikimedia Commons
Under the patronage of Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-959), a large-scale project was implemented to codify the knowledge of the Byzantines in all areas of human life. The measure of Constantine's direct participation cannot always be determined with accuracy, however, the personal interest and literary ambitions of the emperor, who knew from childhood that he was not destined to rule, and was forced to share the throne with a co-ruler for most of his life, are beyond doubt. By order of Constantine, the official history of the 9th century was written (the so-called Successor of Theophanes), information was collected about the peoples and lands adjacent to Byzantium (“On the management of the empire”), on the geography and history of the regions of the empire (“On the themes Fema- Byzantine military-administrative district.”), about agriculture (“Geoponics”), about the organization of military campaigns and embassies, and about court ceremonial (“On the ceremonies of the Byzantine court”). At the same time, church life was regulated: the Synaxarion and the Typicon of the Great Church were created, which determined the annual order of commemoration of the saints and the holding of church services, and a few decades later (about 980), Simeon Metaphrastus began a large-scale project to unify hagiographic literature. Around the same time, a comprehensive encyclopedic dictionary of the Court was compiled, including about 30 thousand entries. But the largest encyclopedia of Constantine is an anthology of information from ancient and early Byzantine authors about all spheres of life, conventionally called "Excerpts" It is known that this encyclopedia included 53 sections. Only the section “On Embassies” has reached its full extent, and partially – “On Virtues and Vices”, “On Conspiracies against Emperors”, and “On Opinions”. Among the missing chapters: “On the peoples”, “On the succession of emperors”, “On who invented what”, “On Caesars”, “On exploits”, “On settlements”, “On hunting”, “On messages”, “ On speeches, On marriages, On victory, On defeat, On strategies, On morals, On miracles, On battles, On inscriptions, On public administration, “On Church Affairs”, “On Expression”, “On the Coronation of Emperors”, “On the Death (Deposition) of Emperors”, “On Fines”, “On Holidays”, “On Predictions”, “On Ranks”, “On the Cause of Wars ”, “On sieges”, “On fortresses”..
The nickname Porphyrogenitus was given to the children of reigning emperors, who were born in the Crimson Chamber of the Grand Palace in Constantinople. Constantine VII, son of Leo VI the Wise from his fourth marriage, was indeed born in this chamber, but formally was illegitimate. Apparently, the nickname was to emphasize his rights to the throne. His father made him his co-ruler, and after his death, the young Constantine ruled for six years under the tutelage of regents. In 919, under the pretext of protecting Constantine from the rebels, the military leader Roman I Lekapenus usurped power, he intermarried with the Macedonian dynasty, marrying his daughter to Constantine, and then was crowned co-ruler. By the time the independent reign began, Constantine had been formally considered emperor for more than 30 years, and he himself was almost 40.
14. 1018 - the conquest of the Bulgarian kingdom
Angels lay the imperial crown on Vasily II. Miniature from Basil's Psalter, Marchian Library. 11th century Ms. gr. 17 / Biblioteca Marciana
The reign of Basil II the Bulgar Slayers (976-1025) is the time of an unprecedented expansion of the church and political influence of Byzantium on neighboring countries: the so-called second (final) baptism of Russia takes place (the first, according to legend, took place in the 860s - when the princes Askold and Dir they allegedly were baptized with the boyars in Kiev, where Patriarch Photius sent a bishop specially for this); in 1018, the conquest of the Bulgarian kingdom leads to the liquidation of the autonomous Bulgarian Patriarchate, which had existed for almost 100 years, and the establishment of the semi-independent Archdiocese of Ohrid in its place; as a result of Armenian campaigns, Byzantine possessions in the East were expanding.
In domestic politics, Basil was forced to take tough measures to limit the influence of large landowning clans, who actually formed their own armies in the 970-980s during the civil wars that challenged Basil's power. He tried by harsh measures to stop the enrichment of large landowners (the so-called dinats Dinat ( from the Greek δυνατός) - strong, powerful.), in some cases even resorting to direct land confiscation. But this brought only a temporary effect, centralization in the administrative and military spheres neutralized powerful rivals, but in the long run made the empire vulnerable to new threats - the Normans, Seljuks and Pechenegs. The Macedonian dynasty, which ruled for more than a century and a half, formally ended only in 1056, but in reality, already in the 1020s and 30s, people from bureaucratic families and influential clans gained real power.
The descendants awarded Vasily with the nickname Bulgar Slayer for cruelty in the wars with the Bulgarians. For example, after winning the decisive battle near Mount Belasitsa in 1014, he ordered 14,000 captives to be blinded at once. When exactly this nickname originated is not known. It is certain that this happened before the end of the 12th century, when, according to the historian of the 13th century, George Acropolitan, the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan (1197-1207) began to ravage the Byzantine cities in the Balkans, proudly calling himself a Romeo fighter and thereby opposing himself to Basil.
Crisis of the 11th century
15. 1071 - Battle of Manzikert
Battle of Manzikert. Miniature from the book "On the misfortunes of famous people" Boccaccio. 15th century
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The political crisis that began after the death of Basil II continued in the middle of the 11th century: clans continued to compete, dynasties constantly replaced each other - from 1028 to 1081, 11 emperors changed on the Byzantine throne, there was no such frequency even at the turn of the 7th-8th centuries . From the outside, Pechenegs and Seljuk Turks pressed on Byzantium The power of the Seljuk Turks in just a few decades in the 11th century conquered the territories of modern Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan and became the main threat to Byzantium in the East.- the latter, having won the battle of Manzikert in 1071 Manzikert- now the small town of Malazgirt on the easternmost tip of Turkey near Lake Van., deprived the empire of most of its territories in Asia Minor. No less painful for Byzantium was the full-scale rupture of church relations with Rome in 1054, later called the Great Schism. Schism(from the Greek σχίζμα) - gap., because of which Byzantium finally lost ecclesiastical influence in Italy. However, contemporaries almost did not notice this event and did not attach due importance to it.
However, it was precisely this era of political instability, the fragility of social boundaries and, as a result, high social mobility that gave rise to the figure of Michael Psellos, unique even for Byzantium, an erudite and official who took an active part in the enthronement of emperors (his central work, Chronography, is very autobiographical) , thought about the most complex theological and philosophical issues, studied the pagan Chaldean oracles, created works in all conceivable genres - from literary criticism to hagiography. The situation of intellectual freedom gave impetus to a new typical Byzantine version of Neoplatonism: in the title of "hypata of philosophers" Ipat philosophers- in fact, the main philosopher of the empire, the head of the philosophical school in Constantinople. Psellus was replaced by John Italus, who studied not only Plato and Aristotle, but also such philosophers as Ammonius, Philopon, Porphyry and Proclus and, at least according to his opponents, taught about the transmigration of souls and the immortality of ideas.
Komnenoska revival
16. 1081 - coming to power of Alexei I Komnenos
Christ blesses Emperor Alexei I Komnenos. Miniature from "Dogmatic Panoply" by Euthymius Zigaben. 12th century In 1081, as a result of a compromise with the Duk, Melissene and Palaiologoi clans, the Komnenos family came to power. It gradually monopolized all state power and, thanks to complex dynastic marriages, absorbed former rivals. Beginning with Alexios I Comnenus (1081-1118), the aristocratization of Byzantine society took place, social mobility was reduced, intellectual freedoms were curtailed, and imperial power actively intervened in the spiritual sphere. The beginning of this process is marked by the church-state condemnation of John Ital for "Palatonic ideas" and paganism in 1082. Then follows the condemnation of Leo of Chalcedon, who opposed the confiscation of church property to cover military needs (at that time Byzantium was at war with the Sicilian Normans and Pechenegs) and almost accused Alexei of iconoclasm. Massacres against the Bogomils take place Bogomilstvo- a doctrine that arose in the Balkans in the 10th century, in many respects ascending to the religion of the Manichaeans. According to the Bogomils, the physical world was created by Satan cast down from heaven. The human body was also his creation, but the soul is still the gift of the good God. The Bogomils did not recognize the institution of the church and often opposed the secular authorities, raising numerous uprisings., one of them, Basil, was even burned at the stake - a unique phenomenon for Byzantine practice. In 1117, the commentator of Aristotle, Eustratius of Nicaea, appears before the court on charges of heresy.
Meanwhile, contemporaries and immediate descendants remembered Alexei I rather as a ruler who was successful in his foreign policy: he managed to conclude an alliance with the crusaders and inflict a sensitive blow on the Seljuks in Asia Minor.
In the satire "Timarion" the story is told from the perspective of a hero who has traveled to the afterlife. In his story, he also mentions John Itala, who wanted to take part in the conversation of ancient Greek philosophers, but was rejected by them: “I also witnessed how Pythagoras sharply pushed away John Itala, who wanted to join this community of sages. “Scum,” he said, “having put on the Galilean robe, which they call the divine holy robes, in other words, having been baptized, you seek to communicate with us, whose life was devoted to science and knowledge? Either throw off this vulgar dress, or leave our brotherhood right now! ”” (translated by S. V. Polyakova, N. V. Felenkovskaya).
17. 1143 - coming to power of Manuel I Comnenus
The trends that emerged under Alexei I were developed under Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1180). He sought to establish personal control over the church life of the empire, sought to unify theological thought, and he himself took part in church disputes. One of the questions in which Manuel wanted to have his say was the following: what hypostases of the Trinity accept the sacrifice during the Eucharist - only God the Father or both the Son and the Holy Spirit? If the second answer is correct (and this is exactly what was decided at the council of 1156-1157), then the same Son will be both the one who is sacrificed and the one who receives it.
Manuel's foreign policy was marked by failures in the East (the most terrible was the defeat of the Byzantines at Myriokefal in 1176 at the hands of the Seljuks) and attempts at diplomatic rapprochement with the West. Manuel saw the ultimate goal of Western policy as unification with Rome based on the recognition of the supreme power of a single Roman emperor, which Manuel himself was to become, and the unification of churches that were officially divided in. However, this project was not implemented.
In the era of Manuel, literary creativity becomes a profession, literary circles arise with their own artistic fashion, elements of the folk language penetrate into court aristocratic literature (they can be found in the works of the poet Theodore Prodrom or the chronicler Constantine Manasseh), the genre of the Byzantine love story is born, the arsenal of expressive means and the measure of the author's self-reflection is growing.
Sunset of Byzantium
18. 1204 - the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the crusaders
During the reign of Andronicus I Komnenos (1183-1185) there was a political crisis: he pursued a populist policy (reduced taxes, severed relations with the West and severely cracked down on corrupt officials), which restored a significant part of the elite against him and aggravated the foreign policy position of the empire.
Crusaders attack Constantinople. Miniature from the chronicle of the Conquest of Constantinople by Geoffroy de Villehardouin. Approximately 1330, Villardouin was one of the leaders of the campaign. Bibliothèque nationale de France
An attempt to establish a new dynasty of Angels did not bear fruit, the society was deconsolidated. To this were added failures on the periphery of the empire: an uprising rose in Bulgaria; the crusaders captured Cyprus; Sicilian Normans ravaged Thessalonica. The struggle between pretenders to the throne within the family of Angels gave the European countries a formal reason to intervene. On April 12, 1204, members of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople. We read the most vivid artistic description of these events in the "History" by Nikita Choniates and the postmodern novel "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco, who sometimes literally copies the pages of Choniates.
On the ruins of the former empire, several states arose under Venetian rule, only to a small extent inheriting Byzantine state institutions. The Latin empire, centered in Constantinople, was rather a feudal formation of the Western European type, the same character was with the duchies and kingdoms that arose in Thessalonica, Athens and the Peloponnese.
Andronicus was one of the most eccentric rulers of the empire. Nikita Choniates says that he ordered to create in one of the churches of the capital his portrait in the guise of a poor farmer in high boots and with a scythe in his hand. There were also legends about the bestial cruelty of Andronicus. He arranged public burnings of his opponents at the hippodrome, during which the executioners pushed the victim into the fire with sharp peaks, and who dared to condemn his cruelty, the reader of Hagia Sophia George Disipat threatened to roast on a spit and send to his wife instead of food.
19. 1261 - the reconquest of Constantinople
The loss of Constantinople led to the emergence of three Greek states that equally claimed to be the full heirs of Byzantium: the Nicaean Empire in northwestern Asia Minor under the rule of the Laskar dynasty; The Empire of Trebizond in the northeastern part of the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor, where the descendants of the Komnenos settled - the Great Komnenos, who took the title of "emperors of the Romans", and the Kingdom of Epirus in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula with the dynasty of Angels. The revival of the Byzantine Empire in 1261 took place on the basis of the Nicaean Empire, which pushed aside competitors and skillfully used the help of the German emperor and the Genoese in the fight against the Venetians. As a result, the Latin emperor and patriarch fled, and Michael VIII Palaiologos occupied Constantinople, was re-crowned and proclaimed "the new Constantine."
In his policy, the founder of the new dynasty tried to reach a compromise with the Western powers, and in 1274 he even agreed to a church union with Rome, which set the Greek episcopate and the Constantinopolitan elite against him.
Despite the fact that the empire was formally revived, its culture lost its former “constantinopolecentricity”: the Palaiologians were forced to put up with the presence of the Venetians in the Balkans and the significant autonomy of Trebizond, whose rulers formally renounced the title of “Roman emperors”, but in reality did not leave imperial ambitions.
A vivid example of the imperial ambitions of Trebizond is the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia of the Wisdom of God, built there in the middle of the 13th century and still making a strong impression today. This temple simultaneously contrasted Trebizond with Constantinople with its Hagia Sophia, and at the symbolic level turned Trebizond into a new Constantinople.
20. 1351 - approval of the teachings of Gregory Palamas
Saint Gregory Palamas. Icon of the master of Northern Greece. Early 15th century
The second quarter of the 14th century saw the beginning of the Palamite controversy. St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1357) was an original thinker who developed the controversial doctrine of the difference in God between the divine essence (with which a person can neither unite nor know it) and the uncreated divine energies (with which connection is possible) and defended the possibility contemplation through the "intelligent feeling" of the Divine light, revealed, according to the Gospels, to the apostles during the transfiguration of Christ For example, in the Gospel of Matthew, this light is described as follows: “After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John, his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain alone, and was transformed before them: and His face shone like the sun, and his clothes They became as white as the light” (Matt. 17:1-2)..
In the 40s and 50s of the XIV century, the theological dispute was closely intertwined with political confrontation: Palamas, his supporters (Patriarchs Kallistos I and Philotheus Kokkinos, Emperor John VI Kantakuzen) and opponents (later converted to Catholicism, the philosopher Barlaam of Calabria and his followers Gregory Akindin, Patriarch John IV Kalek, philosopher and writer Nicephorus Gregory) alternately won tactical victories, then suffered defeat.
The Council of 1351, which approved the victory of Palamas, nevertheless did not put an end to the dispute, the echoes of which were heard in the 15th century, but forever closed the way for the anti-Palamites to the highest church and state power. Some researchers following Igor Medvedev I. P. Medvedev. Byzantine humanism of the XIV-XV centuries. SPb., 1997. they see in the thought of the anti-Palamites, primarily Nikifor Grigora, tendencies close to the ideas of the Italian humanists. Humanistic ideas were even more fully reflected in the work of the Neoplatonist and ideologist of the pagan renewal of Byzantium, Georgy Gemist Plifon, whose works were destroyed by the official church.
Even in serious scholarly literature one can sometimes see that the words "(anti)palamites" and "(anti)hesychasts" are used interchangeably. This is not entirely true. Hesychasm (from the Greek ἡσυχία [hesychia] - silence) as a hermit prayer practice, which makes it possible to directly experience communication with God, was substantiated in the works of theologians of earlier eras, for example, Simeon the New Theologian in the X-XI centuries.
21. 1439 - Ferrara-Florence Union
Union of Florence by Pope Eugene IV. 1439 Compiled in two languages - Latin and Greek. British Library Board/Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
By the beginning of the 15th century, it became clear that the Ottoman military threat called into question the very existence of the empire. Byzantine diplomacy actively sought support in the West, negotiations were underway on the unification of churches in exchange for military assistance from Rome. In the 1430s, a fundamental decision on unification was made, but the venue of the cathedral (on Byzantine or Italian territory) and its status (whether it would be designated as “unifying” in advance) became the subject of bargaining. In the end, the meetings took place in Italy - first in Ferrara, then in Florence and in Rome. In June 1439, the Ferrara-Florence Union was signed. This meant that formally the Byzantine Church recognized the correctness of the Catholics on all controversial issues, including the issue. But the union did not find support from the Byzantine episcopate (Bishop Mark Eugenicus became the head of its opponents), which led to the coexistence in Constantinople of two parallel hierarchies - Uniate and Orthodox. 14 years later, immediately after the fall of Constantinople, the Ottomans decided to rely on the anti-Uniates and installed a follower of Mark Eugenicus, Gennady Scholarius, as patriarch, but formally the union was abolished only in 1484.
If in the history of the church the union remained only a short-lived failed experiment, then its trace in the history of culture is much more significant. Figures like Bessarion of Nicaea, a disciple of the neo-pagan Plethon, a Uniate metropolitan, and then a cardinal and titular Latin patriarch of Constantinople, played a key role in the transmission of Byzantine (and ancient) culture to the West. Vissarion, whose epitaph contains the words: “Through your labors, Greece moved to Rome,” translated Greek classical authors into Latin, patronized Greek emigrant intellectuals, and donated his library to Venice, which included more than 700 manuscripts (at that time the most extensive private library in Europe), which became the basis of the Library of St. Mark.
The Ottoman state (named after the first ruler Osman I) arose in 1299 on the ruins of the Seljuk Sultanate in Anatolia and during the 14th century increased its expansion in Asia Minor and the Balkans. A brief respite for Byzantium was given by the confrontation between the Ottomans and the troops of Tamerlane at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, but with the coming to power of Mehmed I in 1413, the Ottomans again began to threaten Constantinople.
22. 1453 - the fall of the Byzantine Empire
Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror. Painting by Gentile Bellini. 1480
Wikimedia Commons
The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, made unsuccessful attempts to repel the Ottoman threat. By the early 1450s, Byzantium retained only a small region in the vicinity of Constantinople (Trapezund was actually independent from Constantinople), and the Ottomans controlled both most of Anatolia and the Balkans (Thessalonica fell in 1430, Peloponnese was devastated in 1446). In search of allies, the emperor turned to Venice, Aragon, Dubrovnik, Hungary, the Genoese, the Pope, but real help (and very limited) was offered only by the Venetians and Rome. In the spring of 1453, the battle for the city began, on May 29 Constantinople fell, and Constantine XI died in battle. About his death, the circumstances of which are not known to scientists, many incredible stories were composed; in Greek folk culture for many centuries there was a legend that the last Byzantine king was turned into marble by an angel and now rests in a secret cave at the Golden Gate, but is about to wake up and drive out the Ottomans.
Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror did not break the line of succession with Byzantium, but inherited the title of Roman Emperor, supported the Greek Church, and stimulated the development of Greek culture. The time of his reign is marked by projects that at first glance seem fantastic. The Greek-Italian Catholic humanist George of Trebizond wrote about building a world empire led by Mehmed, in which Islam and Christianity would unite into one religion. And the historian Mikhail Kritovul created a story in praise of Mehmed - a typical Byzantine panegyric with all the obligatory rhetoric, but in honor of the Muslim ruler, who, nevertheless, was not called the sultan, but in the Byzantine manner - the basil.
Byzantium (Byzantine Empire) - a medieval state from the name of the city of Byzantium, on the site of which the emperor of the Roman Empire Constantine I the Great (306–337) founded Constantinople and in 330 moved the capital here from Rome (see Ancient Rome). In 395 the empire was divided into Western and Eastern; in 476 the Western Empire fell; East survived. Byzantium was its continuation. The subjects themselves called her Romania (Roman power), and themselves - Romans (Romans), regardless of their ethnic origin.
Byzantine Empire in the VI-XI centuries.
Byzantium existed until the middle of the 15th century; until the 2nd half of the 12th century. it was a powerful, richest state that played a huge role in the political life of Europe and the countries of the Middle East. Byzantium achieved its most significant foreign policy successes at the end of the 10th century. - the beginning of the 11th century; she temporarily conquered the western Roman lands, then stopped the offensive of the Arabs, conquered Bulgaria in the Balkans, subjugated the Serbs and Croats and became in essence a Greek-Slavic state for almost two centuries. Its emperors tried to act as the supreme overlords of the entire Christian world. Ambassadors from all over the world came to Constantinople. The sovereigns of many countries of Europe and Asia dreamed of kinship with the emperor of Byzantium. Visited Constantinople around the middle of the 10th century. and Russian princess Olga. Her reception in the palace was described by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus himself. He was the first to call Rus' "Rosia" and spoke about the path "from the Varangians to the Greeks."
Even more significant was the influence of the peculiar and vibrant culture of Byzantium. Until the end of the 12th century. it remained the most cultured country in Europe. Kievan Rus and Byzantium supported from the 9th century. regular trade, political and cultural ties. Invented around 860 by Byzantine cultural figures - the "Thessalonica brothers" Constantine (in monasticism Cyril) and Methodius, Slavic writing in the 2nd half of the 10th century. - early 11th c. penetrated into Rus' mainly through Bulgaria and quickly became widespread here (see Writing). From Byzantium in 988, Rus' also adopted Christianity (see Religion). Simultaneously with the baptism, Prince Vladimir of Kiev married the emperor's sister (granddaughter of Constantine VI) Anna. In the next two centuries, dynastic marriages between the ruling houses of Byzantium and Rus' were concluded many times. Gradually in the 9th-11th centuries. on the basis of an ideological (then primarily religious) community, an extensive cultural zone (“the world of orthodoxy” - Orthodoxy) developed, the center of which was Byzantium and in which the achievements of Byzantine civilization were actively perceived, developed and processed. The Orthodox zone (it was opposed by the Catholic one) included, in addition to Rus', Georgia, Bulgaria and most of Serbia.
One of the factors holding back the social and state development of Byzantium was the continuous wars that it waged throughout its existence. In Europe, she held back the onslaught of the Bulgarians and nomadic tribes - the Pechenegs, the Uzes, the Polovtsians; waged wars with the Serbs, Hungarians, Normans (in 1071 they deprived the empire of its last possessions in Italy), and finally, with the crusaders. In the East, Byzantium served for centuries as a barrier (like Kievan Rus) for Asian peoples: Arabs, Seljuk Turks, and from the 13th century. - and the Ottoman Turks.
There are several periods in the history of Byzantium. Time from the 4th c. until the middle of the 7th c. - this is the era of the collapse of the slave system, the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. Slavery has outlived itself, the ancient policy (city) - the stronghold of the old system - was wrecked. The crisis was experienced by the economy, the state system, and ideology. Waves of "barbarian" invasions hit the empire. Relying on the huge bureaucratic apparatus of power inherited from the Roman Empire, the state recruited part of the peasants into the army, forced others to perform official duties (to carry goods, build fortresses), imposed heavy taxes on the population, attached it to the land. Justinian I (527–565) attempted to restore the Roman Empire to its former borders. His commanders Belisarius and Narses temporarily conquered North Africa from the Vandals, Italy from the Ostrogoths, and part of Southeastern Spain from the Visigoths. The grandiose wars of Justinian were vividly described by one of the greatest contemporary historians - Procopius of Caesarea. But the rise was short. By the middle of the 7th c. the territory of Byzantium was reduced by almost three times: possessions in Spain, more than half of the lands in Italy, most of the Balkan Peninsula, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were lost.
The culture of Byzantium in this era was distinguished by its bright originality. Although Latin was almost until the middle of the 7th century. official language, there was also literature in Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian. Christianity, which became the state religion in the 4th century, had a huge impact on the development of culture. The church controlled all genres of literature and the arts. Libraries and theaters were destroyed or destroyed, schools where "pagan" (ancient) sciences were taught were closed. But Byzantium needed educated people, the preservation of elements of secular scholarship and natural science knowledge, as well as applied arts, the skill of painters and architects. A significant fund of ancient heritage in Byzantine culture is one of its characteristic features. The Christian Church could not exist without a competent clergy. It turned out to be powerless in the face of criticism from pagans, heretics, adherents of Zoroastrianism and Islam, without relying on ancient philosophy and dialectics. On the foundation of ancient science and art, multicolored mosaics of the 5th-6th centuries, enduring in their artistic value, arose, among which the mosaics of churches in Ravenna stand out especially (for example, with the image of the emperor in the church of San Vitale). The Code of Civil Law of Justinian was drawn up, which later formed the basis of bourgeois law, since it was based on the principle of private property (see Roman law). An outstanding work of Byzantine architecture was the magnificent church of St. Sophia, built in Constantinople in 532-537. Anthimius of Thrall and Isidore of Miletus. This miracle of building technology is a kind of symbol of the political and ideological unity of the empire.
In the 1st third of the 7th c. Byzantium was in a state of severe crisis. Huge areas of previously cultivated lands were desolate and depopulated, many cities lay in ruins, the treasury was empty. The entire north of the Balkans was occupied by the Slavs, some of them penetrated far to the south. The state saw a way out of this situation in the revival of small free peasant landownership. Strengthening its power over the peasants, it made them its main support: the treasury was made up of taxes from them, an army was created from those obliged to serve in the militia. It helped to strengthen power in the provinces and return the lost lands in the 7th-10th centuries. a new administrative structure, the so-called thematic system: the governor of the province (themes) - the strategist received from the emperor all the fullness of military and civil power. The first themes arose in areas close to the capital, each new theme served as the basis for the creation of the next, neighboring one. The barbarians who settled in it also became subjects of the empire: as taxpayers and warriors, they were used to revive it.
With the loss of lands in the east and west, the majority of its population were Greeks, the emperor began to be called in Greek - "basileus".
In the 8th–10th centuries Byzantium became a feudal monarchy. A strong central government held back the development of feudal relations. Some of the peasants retained their freedom, remaining taxpayers to the treasury. The vassal system in Byzantium did not take shape (see Feudalism). Most of the feudal lords lived in large cities. The power of the basileus was especially strengthened in the era of iconoclasm (726-843): under the flag of the fight against superstition and idolatry (veneration of icons, relics), the emperors subjugated the clergy, who argued with them in the struggle for power, and supported separatist tendencies in the provinces, confiscated the wealth of the church and monasteries . From now on, the choice of the patriarch, and often the bishops, began to depend on the will of the emperor, as well as the welfare of the church. Having solved these problems, the government restored icon veneration in 843.
In the 9th-10th centuries. the state completely subjugated not only the village, but also the city. The gold Byzantine coin - nomisma acquired the role of an international currency. Constantinople became again a "workshop of splendor" that amazed foreigners; as a "golden bridge", he brought into a knot the trade routes from Asia and Europe. Merchants of the entire civilized world and all "barbarian" countries aspired here. But the artisans and merchants of the major centers of Byzantium were subject to strict control and regulation by the state, paid high taxes and duties, and could not participate in political life. From the end of the 11th century their products could no longer withstand the competition of Italian goods. Uprisings of townspeople in the 11th-12th centuries. brutally repressed. Cities, including the capital, fell into decay. Their markets were dominated by foreigners who bought wholesale products from large feudal lords, churches, and monasteries.
The development of state power in Byzantium in the 8th–11th centuries. - this is the path of gradual revival in a new guise of a centralized bureaucratic apparatus. Numerous departments, courts, and overt and secret police operated a huge machine of power, designed to control all spheres of life of citizens, to ensure their payment of taxes, the fulfillment of duties, and unquestioning obedience. In the center of it stood the emperor - the supreme judge, legislator, military leader, who distributed titles, awards and positions. His every step was decorated with solemn ceremonies, especially the receptions of ambassadors. He presided over the council of the highest nobility (synclite). But his power was not legally hereditary. There was a bloody struggle for the throne, sometimes the synclite decided the matter. Intervened in the fate of the throne and the patriarch, and the palace guards, and all-powerful temporary workers, and the capital's plebs. In the 11th century two main groups of nobility competed - the civil bureaucracy (it stood for centralization and increased tax oppression) and the military (it sought greater independence and expansion of estates at the expense of free taxpayers). The Vasileusses of the Macedonian dynasty (867–1056), founded by Basil I (867–886), under whom Byzantium reached the pinnacle of power, represented the civil nobility. The rebellious commanders-usurpers waged a continuous struggle with her and in 1081 managed to place their protege Alexei I Comnenus (1081-1118), the founder of a new dynasty (1081-1185), on the throne. But the Comneni achieved temporary successes, they only delayed the fall of the empire. In the provinces, the rich magnates refused to consolidate the central government; Bulgarians and Serbs in Europe, Armenians in Asia did not recognize the power of the Basils. Byzantium, which was in crisis, fell in 1204, during the invasion of the Crusaders during the 4th Crusade (see Crusades).
In the cultural life of Byzantium in the 7th-12th centuries. changed three stages. Until the 2nd third of the 9th c. its culture is marked by decadence. Elementary literacy became a rarity, secular sciences were almost expelled (except for those related to military affairs; for example, in the 7th century "Greek fire" was invented, a liquid combustible mixture that brought victories to the imperial fleet more than once). Literature was dominated by the genre of biographies of saints - primitive narratives that praised patience and implanted faith in miracles. Byzantine painting of this period is poorly known - icons and frescoes perished during the era of iconoclasm.
The period from the middle of the 9th c. and almost to the end of the 11th century. called by the name of the ruling dynasty, the time of the "Macedonian revival" of culture. Back in the 8th c. it became predominantly Greek-speaking. The "Renaissance" was peculiar: it was based on official, strictly systematized theology. The metropolitan school acted as a legislator both in the sphere of ideas and in the forms of their embodiment. The canon, model, stencil, fidelity to tradition, the unchanging norm triumphed in everything. All types of fine arts were permeated with spiritualism, the idea of humility and the triumph of the spirit over the body. Painting (icon painting, frescoes) was regulated by obligatory plots, images, the arrangement of figures, a certain combination of colors and chiaroscuro. These were not images of real people with their individual traits, but symbols of moral ideals, faces as carriers of certain virtues. But even in such conditions, artists created genuine masterpieces. An example of this is the beautiful miniatures of the Psalter of the early 10th century. (stored in Paris). Byzantine icons, frescoes, book miniatures occupy a place of honor in the world of fine arts (see Art).
Philosophy, aesthetics, and literature are marked by conservatism, a penchant for compilation, and a fear of novelty. The culture of this period is distinguished by external pomposity, adherence to strict rituals, splendor (during worship, palace receptions, organizing holidays and sports, triumphs in honor of military victories), as well as a sense of superiority over the culture of the peoples of the rest of the world.
However, this time was also marked by a struggle of ideas, and by democratic and rationalist tendencies. Major advances have been made in the natural sciences. He was famous for his scholarship in the first half of the 9th century. Lev Mathematician. The ancient heritage was actively comprehended. He was often approached by Patriarch Photius (mid-ninth century), who cared about the quality of teaching at the higher Mangavra school in Constantinople, where the Slavic enlighteners Cyril and Methodius were then studying. They relied on ancient knowledge when creating encyclopedias on medicine, agricultural technology, military affairs, and diplomacy. In the 11th century the teaching of jurisprudence and philosophy was restored. The number of schools that taught literacy and numeracy increased (see Education). Passion for antiquity led to the emergence of rationalistic attempts to justify the superiority of reason over faith. In the "low" literary genres, calls for sympathy for the poor and humiliated became more frequent. The heroic epic (the poem "Digenis Akrit") is permeated with the idea of patriotism, consciousness of human dignity, independence. Instead of brief world chronicles, there are extensive historical descriptions of the recent past and events contemporary to the author, where the basileus' devastating criticism often sounded. Such, for example, is the highly artistic Chronography by Michael Psellos (2nd half of the 11th century).
In painting, the number of subjects increased sharply, technique became more complicated, attention to the individuality of images increased, although the canon did not disappear. In architecture, the basilica was replaced by a cross-domed church with rich decoration. The pinnacle of the historiographical genre was the “History” by Nicetas Choniates, an extensive historical narrative, brought to 1206 (including a story about the tragedy of the empire in 1204), full of sharp moral assessments and attempts to clarify the cause-and-effect relationships between events.
On the ruins of Byzantium in 1204, the Latin Empire arose, consisting of several states of Western knights bound by vassal ties. At the same time, three state associations of the local population were formed - the Kingdom of Epirus, the Empire of Trebizond and the Nicaean Empire, hostile to the Latins (as the Byzantines called all Catholics whose church language was Latin) and to each other. In the long-term struggle for the “Byzantine inheritance”, the Nicaean Empire gradually won. In 1261, she expelled the Latins from Constantinople, but the restored Byzantium did not regain its former greatness. Not all lands were returned, and the development of feudalism led to the 14th century. to feudal disunity. In Constantinople and other large cities, Italian merchants were in charge, having received unheard-of benefits from the emperors. Civil wars were added to the wars with Bulgaria and Serbia. In 1342–1349 the democratic elements of the cities (primarily Thessalonica) revolted against the big feudal lords, but were defeated.
The development of Byzantine culture in 1204–1261 lost unity: it proceeded within the framework of the three states mentioned above and in the Latin principalities, reflecting both Byzantine traditions and the characteristics of these new political entities. Since 1261, the culture of late Byzantium has been characterized as a "Paleologian revival". This was a new bright flowering of Byzantine culture, marked, however, by especially sharp contradictions. Literature was still dominated by works on church topics - lamentations, panegyrics, lives, theological treatises, etc. However, secular motifs are beginning to sound more and more insistently. The poetic genre developed, novels in verse on ancient subjects appeared. Works were created in which there were disputes about the meaning of ancient philosophy and rhetoric. Folk motifs, in particular folk songs, began to be used more boldly. The fables ridiculed the vices of the social system. Literature in the vernacular arose. 15th century humanist philosopher Georgy Gemist Plifon exposed the self-interest of the feudal lords, proposed to liquidate private property, to replace obsolete Christianity with a new religious system. In painting, bright colors, dynamic postures, individuality of portrait and psychological characteristics prevailed. Many original monuments of religious and secular (palace) architecture were created.
Starting from 1352, the Ottoman Turks, having captured almost all the possessions of Byzantium in Asia Minor, began to conquer its lands in the Balkans. Attempts to bring the Slavic countries in the Balkans to the union failed. The West, however, promised Byzantium help only on the condition that the church of the empire be subordinated to the papacy. The Ferraro-Florentine union of 1439 was rejected by the people, who protested violently, hating the Latins for their dominance in the economy of the cities, for the robberies and oppression of the crusaders. At the beginning of April 1453, almost alone in the struggle, Constantinople was surrounded by a huge Turkish army and on May 29 was taken by storm. The last emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died in arms on the walls of Constantinople. The city was sacked; it then became Istanbul - the capital of the Ottoman Empire. In 1460, the Turks conquered the Byzantine Morea in the Peloponnese, and in 1461 Trebizond, the last fragment of the former empire. The fall of Byzantium, which had existed for a thousand years, was an event of world-historical significance. It resonated with keen sympathy in Rus', in Ukraine, among the peoples of the Caucasus and the Balkan Peninsula, who by 1453 had already experienced the severity of the Ottoman yoke.
Byzantium perished, but its bright, multifaceted culture left a deep mark on the history of world civilization. The traditions of Byzantine culture were carefully preserved and developed in the Russian state, which was on the rise and soon after the fall of Constantinople, at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, turned into a powerful centralized state. Her sovereign Ivan III (1462–1505), under whom the unification of Russian lands was completed, was married to Sophia (Zoya) Paleolog, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor.
STATE AND LAW OF BYZANTIA
In 395, the Roman Empire was divided into Western (capital - Rome) and Eastern (capital - Constantinople). The first empire ceased to exist in 476 under the blows of the Germanic tribes. The Eastern Empire, or Byzantium, existed until 1453. Byzantium got its name from the ancient Greek colony of Megara, a small town of Byzantium, on the site of which Emperor Constantine
in 324-330 he founded the new capital of the Roman Empire - Constantinople. The Byzantines themselves called themselves "Romans", and the empire - "Roman", because for a long time the capital was called "New Rome".
Byzantium was in many ways a continuation of the Roman Empire, preserving its political and state traditions. At the same time, Constantinople and Rome became the two centers of political life - the "Latin" West and the "Greek" East.
The stability of Byzantium had its own reasons,
in the features of socio-economic and historical development. Firstly, the Byzantine state included economically developed regions: Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, the Balkan Peninsula (the territory of the empire exceeded 750,000 sq. km.
with a population of 50-65 million people), who conducted a brisk trade
with India, China, Iran, Arabia and North Africa. The decline of the economy based on slave labor was not felt here as strongly as in Western Rome, since the population was
in free or semi-free state. Agriculture was built not on forced labor in the form of large slave-owning latifundia, but on small peasant farms (communal peasantry). Therefore, small farms reacted faster to the changing market conditions and more quickly, in comparison with large farms, restructured their activities. And in the craft here the free workers played the main role. For these reasons, the eastern provinces suffered less than the western provinces from the economic crisis of the 3rd century.
Secondly, Byzantium, having large material resources, had a strong army, navy and a strong branched state apparatus, which made it possible to contain the raids of the barbarians. There was a strong imperial power with a flexible administrative apparatus.
Thirdly, Byzantium was built on the basis of a new Christian religion, which, in comparison with the pagan Roman religion, had a progressive significance.
The Byzantine Empire reached its greatest power
during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527-565), who carried out extensive conquests, and again the Mediterranean Sea became an inland sea, this time already of Byzantium. After the death of the monarch, the state entered into a long crisis. The countries conquered by Justinian were quickly lost. In the VI century. clashes with the Slavs begin,
and in the 7th century - with the Arabs, who at the beginning of the VIII century. seized North Africa from Byzantium.
At the beginning of the same century, Byzantium was hardly beginning to emerge from the crisis. In 717, Leo III, nicknamed the Isaurian, came to power and founded the Isaurian dynasty (717-802). He carried out a number of reforms. In order to find funds for their implementation, as well as for the maintenance of the army and administration, he decided to liquidate the monastic land ownership. This was expressed in the fight against icons, since the church was accused of paganism - the worship of icons. The authorities used iconoclasm to strengthen their political and economic positions, to subjugate the church and its wealth. Laws are being issued against the veneration of icons, regarding it as idolatry. The struggle with icons made it possible to appropriate church treasures - utensils, icon frames, shrines with the relics of saints. 100 monastic patrimonies were also confiscated, the lands of which were distributed to the peasants, as well as in the form of remuneration to soldiers for their service.
These actions strengthened the internal and external position of Byzantium, which again annexed Greece, Macedonia, Crete, South Italy and Sicily.
In the second half of the 9th century, and especially in the 10th century, Byzantium reaches a new rise, because the powerful Arab Caliphate gradually disintegrated into a number of independent feudal states and Byzantium conquers Syria and numerous islands in the Mediterranean from the Arabs, and at the beginning of the 11th century . annexes Bulgaria.
At that time, Byzantium was ruled by the Macedonian dynasty (867-1056), under which the foundations of a socially centralized early feudal monarchy took shape. Under her, Kievan Rus in 988 accepts Christianity from the Greeks.
Under the next dynasty, Komnenos (1057-1059, 1081-1185),
in Byzantium, feudalization intensifies and the process of enslaving the peasants is completed. With her, the feudal institution is strengthened pronia("care"). Feudalization leads to the gradual disintegration of the state, small independent principalities appear in Asia Minor. The foreign policy situation is also becoming more complicated: the Normans were advancing from the west, the Pechenegs from the north, and the Seljuks from the east. Saved Byzantium from the Seljuk Turks the first crusade. Byzantium managed to return part of its possessions. However, Byzantium and the crusaders soon began to fight among themselves. Constantinople in 1204 was taken by the Crusaders. Byzantium broke up into a number of states, loosely connected with each other.
With the coming to power of the Palaiologos dynasty (1261-1453), Byzantium managed to strengthen itself, but its territory noticeably decreased. Soon, a new threat loomed over the state from the Ottoman Turks, who extended their power over Asia Minor, bringing it to the shores of the Sea of Marmara. In the fight against the Ottomans, the emperors began to hire foreign troops, who often turned their weapons against the employers. Byzantium was exhausted in the struggle, aggravated by peasant and urban uprisings. The state apparatus was in decline, which leads to the decentralization of power and its weakening. The Byzantine emperors decide to seek help from the Catholic West. In 1439, the Union of Florence was signed, according to which the Eastern Orthodox Church submitted to the Pope. However, Byzantium never received real help from the West.
Upon the return of the Greeks to their homeland, the union was rejected by the majority of the people and the clergy.
In 1444, the crusaders suffered a severe defeat from the Ottoman Turks, who delivered the final blow to Byzantium. Emperor John VIII was forced to seek mercy from Sultan Murad II. In 1148 the Byzantine emperor dies. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, entered into a struggle with the new sultan Mehmed II Fatih (the Conqueror). On May 29, 1453, under the blows of Turkish troops, Constantinople was taken, and with its fall, the Byzantine Empire actually ceased to exist. Türkiye becomes one
of the powerful powers of the medieval world, and Constantinople becomes the capital of the Ottoman Empire - Istanbul (from "Islambol" - "abundance of Islam").
