hsnanan eelneecns nae Bec aan ae ame ae eee trees Soe me, pie at bir aa = = ersity of Virginia Librar DF552.5 .D55 1925 LD Pater eT o Creare sess heB 3 x yzantine empir istory 0 bh e * l oa peat st il 0 Sn iy Soe eee ne ReeSee sie Slee fan nae ES a coer poeereearte Sa oa i‘ ae Sean ae See ane seniors corer Fae eet a oor See aerae tas oy eet al ee ae te Bee ane hot Se ceed Shots er verre. pet ratte he | erst coe bed SR eee tet tae had eee eh eters ee hl element 1 ete a ted = n i 4 Sr pa Or Oe he — PP TTA Bene ey as a tot a sg ks ee eth eet 1 ee Jt 2. as nue mba Soe ee Se at eee a ieee A Ud re Senha hal peed Oe ee ee Lon od— ores: saaeeeean ee eed ert ie PE ert eee a Cones Oe ee ee ere dave 4, Hiden ee | ee ee ee eee eee tT ——— = ee Se eee eS + o i Hd rt | 1 i i n H ri 8 7 | a f : ‘ 1 ; 7 | 3 | 4 i 7 ‘ to 2 4 H | i P| ' if { , J ; | F | 7 4 5 5 4 my F ‘ 3 a 2 i ; } 4 5 : t Hy 3 | 4 Fi 3 i ee. a)eet ae Te Be Qype Lh cna ddan Fae 1 ad eed” a to ee a ee en _— Se ee ee Stee eee eek OS eee es Cae ewes OF tae ee et ere a pace ir ' ' ‘ i. | ry 4 H = 1 F $ i a eet ee Pee ein bo oe abe DaPe e ca eal ey Qr eee ede es — an tes TEM Oh ere: ta DL — 478 Ree ocr tet ee et mee tit eC eter eed osre ere bee en Tre eee ere te ee eee ee en ee i . r iH ‘i 4s F f > a Fy | 4 "i | } ? " H 7 i 4 it A \ 4 4 ; 4 A | =| 2 . LI u ; ny rs \ 4 } t 4 : } } i ' j j ‘| 1 2 ‘ fe | i H ee ret i. tee Te eweetate rie ea 5 ee ores ts ee ath ie el tS reascew.l a er 7a bet aa eT atin bikes be a Oe at ie Pe teed rae Se ee ee eel BA te be coe 5 deere eet Hi i re = f Crs els =e = erin es eT ents ies Te a Ee oes 4 tee —— Qe = ee ad Sa es De de ete 1) £1 ober ee oat) Pee et eras aa | cod a ae | ret test FPS Ry PB Se pee, ee a ean ota te eA he a tons mene tine Lt ettp p. p. p. p. p. p. p p. EPS TORY: OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE ERRATA Wael 25x, 7, 1. wy and py 33) lh 202 ion Anasta- tius read Anastasius 48, 1. 10: For strategis read strategos 48, 1. 17: For eparchis read eparchies 75, 1. 30: For successve read successive 107, 1. 22: For 1483 read 1453 169, 1. 14: For approved read proved 175, 1. 11: For Leo III, 716-741 read Leo III, 717- 741 191, 1. 21: For Hergenrother read Hergenréther 191, |. 27: For Jirecek read Jiretek festory of the Byzantine EmpireOe ol aes ett dee ee 7 ae tet. SPa ys po— st. Se ee eT oe neni meee 8 A eed 2. ee etd beeen et be ie ' ‘ a 4 Pe r Pe ’ -~ td i eee Se Seni De We hae ee 8 a ee 4 TV Meee eatetetee ee eet tet ae. Le toe pois ts RX ee et Ee a etd ee tent et hemos bd iter FEAHISTORY OF THE Byzantine Empire BY CHARLES DIEHL, MEMBRE DE L’INSTITUT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY GEORGE B. IVES PRINCETON “Princeton Univ ersity Press MCMxXxV } ' | : 7 a 1 f 1 4 a i 4 a ? 4 | 4 ee ed ots ae a ee eeeBenen INT ee en SH Pte eT toe. Copyright, 1925, Princeton University Press it a ie nett LLP eee ee ft R BIS ae potrrrara es Sa ae ms : “TP Set teres OY hoe ieee ot bere en ee ces ave tet toed ee do bet he el t i 5 it ei b hi eke ee oa th lees ts. 5 —warrreet tank~ a dain een Det) aL | oectes toe PRINTED AT THE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, PRINCETON, N. Je THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA be RL Oe tee ane he be ceed “TDM Bae pe) gee St eeet perenne eetes ts he ML a=" eP Pee eek at eePREFACE HE history of the Byzantine Emptre, notwtth- standing the numerous works which have almost re-created it in the last fifty years, 1s still the object of un- yielding prejudices, especially in the West. To many of our contemporaries it still appears, as 1t appeared to Montesquieu and Gibbon, as the continuation and de- generation of the Roman Empire. Through an uncon- scious effect of immemorial jealousies, through a dim recollection of vanished religious passions, we still judge the Greeks of the Middle Ages as did the Crusaders, who did not understand them, and the Popes, who excom- municated them. In like manner, Byzantine art 1s still too often re- garded as a stationary art,— we like to call tt “hieratic,” — powerless to renew itself, and, under the close survetl- lance of the Church, limiting its thousand-year activity to copying over and over again the creations of a few artists of genius. As a matter of fact, Byzantium was something quite different. Although she freely proclaimed herself to be the inberitor and continuator of Rome; although her emper- ors, to the very last, assumed the title of “ Bastleus of the Romans”; although they never abandoned the claims that they asserted to the ancient and glorious capttal of the Empire, yet in reality Byzantium very quickly be- came, and was essentially, an Oriental monarchy. Vv e 4 5 ' ] \ 4 4 Y A a ih F i 3 4 t 1 i ee a rseg ae i a! ra - ’ ] . > " ra fs * ° } a 7 4 .) J hy rial AM rs ad ty t A 4 | Pi » Mj i 4 i 5 b-} ' AM i . 7 . Ps ee i} bi) 6 ‘ u i ‘ a “ =| a AL ite 5 ‘ | i ! if ns a a be ~ ar {' ie hi i. ie a, ® “a. ve Hi} Hi} ' at tn " Pa ee es Sere paper a ia beret Te ee elie Ei Leeman S Eke eet Lets i kek i eens he a ates Pa TOM tenes eg te PREFACE Lt must not be judged by comparison with the over- whelming memories of Rome: in the words of one of the men who has best understood its character and seen it in its true aspect, it was “a medieval state, situated on the extreme frontier of Europe, on the confines of Asiatic barbarism.” This state had its defects and its vices, which it would be puerile to attempt to conceal. It too often experienced palace revolutions and military sedi- tions; it was tremendously fond of the games of the circus, and still fonder of theolo gical disputes; despite the refine- ment of tts civilization, its customs were often cruel and barbarous; and, lastly, it produced in too great abun- dance mediocre characters and base souls. But, such as it was, this state was great. Nor should we Imagine, as we are only too prone to do, that Byzantium declined uninterru ‘ptedly toward de- struction during the thousand years that she survived the fall of the Roman Em pire. The critical periods in which she Was near collapse were followed again and a gain by periods of incomparable splendor, by unexpected regen- erations, when, in the words of a chronicler, “the em Dire, old woman that she is, appears like a young girl, adorned with gold and precious stones.” In the sixth century, under Fustinian, for the last time the Empire was reconstructed as in the glorious days of Rome, and the Mediterranean again became a Roman lake. In the ei ghth century, the Isaurian emper- ors checked the onrush of Islam, at about the same time that Charles Martel saved Christendom at Poitiers. In the tenth century, the rulers of the Macedonian dynasty made Byzantium the great power of the Orient, carrying 1 A. Rambaud, L’Empire Grec, au Xme stécle, p. vii. v1PREFACE their victorious arms even into Syria, crushing the Rus- stans on the Danube, drowning in blood the kingdom created by the Bulgarian tsars. In the twelfth century, under the Comnent, the Greek Empire still made a re- spectable figure in the world, and Constantinople was one of the principal centers of European polity. Thus, for a thousand years, Byzantium lived; and not merely as the result of a fortunate hazard; she lived glo- riously; and that tt should be so, she must have bad within her something besides vices. To direct her affairs she had great emperors, illustrious statesmen, skilful diplomats, and victorious generals; and through them she accomplished a great work tn the world. Before the Crusades she was the champion of Christendom in the Orient against the infidels, and by her military prowess, she saved Europe again and agatn. Face to face with bar- barism, she was the center of a wonderful civilization — the most fastidious, the most refined that the Middle Ages knew in many years. She was the teacher of the Slav and Astatic Ortent, whose peoples owe to her thetr religion, their literary lan- guage, their art, and their government; her all-powerful influence extended even to the West, which received from her immeasurable intellectual and artistic gifts. From her all the peoples who to-day inhabit Eastern Europe descend; and modern Greece especially owes much more to Christian Byzantium than to the Athens of Pericles and Phidias. It 1s because of all this, because of what she did in the past, no less than by what she bequeathed to the future, that Byzantium still deserves attention and tnterest. However far away her history may seem, however tnade- Vil| +} J i | , ay ie ih Hy Hy | a ha A Th | ; tr i ir Ne rie : AM if ¥ rae a) Ar ae aM § Y Hh £ ed, eee ek a sl A cael) Ba hae me TET OE wk PE ee Pz tris PREFACE quately known it may be to many people, it is not a dead history, deserving to be forgotten. Well did Ducange know tt, when, in the middle of the seventeenth century, by bis editions of the Byzantine historians, by the learned commentaries with which he accompanied them, by a number of admirable books, he laid the foundation for the scientific history of Byzantium, and opened broad and luminous vistas in this still unexplored do- main. In the country of Ducange during the last fifty years, the tradition of the studies of which he was the founder has been revived; and without decrying what has been done elsewhere, in Russia and Greece, in England and Germany, it may perhaps be permissible to say that, if the delvers into B yzantine history have earned the Jree- dom of the city in the scientific world, it is chiefly to France that they owe it. Ll have been asked with polite insistence to write a book which we still lack —a brief, condensed manual of By- zantine history. This seemed to me by no means a useless task. Recently I have attem pted tn another volume, which has gust been published, to draw a synthetic picture of what Byzantium was, to explain the deep-seated causes of ber greatness and her decline, and to potnt out the emt- nent services which ber civilization rendered to the world This little book will give the reader a more analytical account of the thousand-year history of the Byzantine Empire. I have endeavored to brin g out the most 1m por- tant 1deas which control the evolution of this history; to present the essential facts, not so much restrictiy g myself to a minute chronological detail, as grouping them by 1 Ch. Diehl; Byzance, Grandeur et Décadence (in the Bibliothéque de philoso- phie scientifique, dirigée par le Dr. G. Le Bon). Flammarion, 1919. VillPREFACE somewhat long periods, which will be more compreben- sive, and will make clearer the significance and scope of the events narrated. The tables at the end of the volume will mare tt easy for the reader to follow the chronological order of the most important events. But it has seemed to me that my book would be more useful to all who desire to bave gen- eral knowledge of this vanished world, if, without omit- ting any of the necessary precision in detatls, I should trace the main outlines, the characteristic features, and the controlling ideas of the history of Byzantine civilt- Zal1ONn. I wish to thank Hachette, who has authorized me to borrow from Scrader’s “Atlas de géographie historique two of the four maps which accompany this book. T he illustrations, which will give some idea of Byzantine life and costume, and of the monuments of art which Byzan- tium produced, are taken from my “Manuel d art byzan- tine’ (Picard, 1910). At the end of the volume there is a brief bibliography of the principal works for reading or reference. Creet Ete Se boas = "543 wes seem verre aor Cs ae nee oh eee 2 ek he ae tr? des | \ 4 rg fi i! 4 Se he eee wae i eet =—rs Uh ee yeti +——— vo en | Oe ee a ett ens ect ea tent qopert ut Sater. ry Lt bes Oe tt eee aed 1 aed ee eet ee eee aie teeth
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The Founding of Constantinople and the
Beginnings of the ‘Roman Empire in the
East, 330-518
I. THE FOUNDING OF CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW EMPIRE
N May II, A.D. 330, on the shores of the Bos-
phorus, Constantine solemnly dedicated his new
capital, Constantinople.
Why did the Emperor, turning his back upon an-
cient Rome, remove to the East the seat of the mon-
archy? Not only had Constantine no personal liking
for the turbulent pagan city of the Ceesars, but he
also, and not without good reason, considered it badly
placed for meeting the new exigencies with which the
Empire was confronted. ‘The Gothic peril on the Dan-
ube, the Persian peril in Asia, were imminent; and
though the powerful tribes of Illyricum offered admi-
rable resources for defense, Rome was too far away to
make use of them for that purpose. Diocletian had
realized this, and he too had felt the attraction of the
Orient. At all events, the Byzantine Empire came into
being on the day when Constantine founded “New
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
Rome.” By virtue of its geographical situation, where
Europe joins Asia, and of the military and economic
importance resulting therefrom, Constantinople was
the natural center around which the Eastern world
could most readily group itself. On the other hand, by
virtue of the Grecian stamp which had been imprinted
upon it from the very beginning, and especially by
virtue of the character which Christianity imparted
to it, the new capital differed fundamentally from the
old, and symbolized accurately enough the aspirations
and the new tendencies of the Eastern world.
Moreover, long before this, a new conception of the
monarchy had been astir in the Roman Empire. The
transformation came about at the beginning of the
fourth century, through contact with the Near East.
Constantine strove to make of the imperial power an
absolute domination by divine right. He surrounded
it with all the splendor of costume, of the crown, and
the royal purple; with all the pompous ceremonial of
etiquette, with all the magnificence of court and pal-
ace. Deeming himself the representative of God on
earth, believing that in his intellect he was a reflection
of the supreme intellect, he endeavored in all things to
emphasize the sacred character of the sovereign, to
separate him from the rest of mankind by the solemn
forms with which he surrounded him; in a word, to
make earthly royalty as it were an image of the divine
royalty.
In like manner, in order to increase the prestige and
power of the imperial office, he proposed that the
monarchy should be clothed with executive power,
strictly hierarchical in form, closely safeguarded, and
L 4]FOUNDING OF CONSTANTINOPLE
with all authority concentrated in the hands of the
emperor. And finally, by making Christianity a state
religion, by multiplying immunities and privileges in
its favor, by defending it against heresy, and by ex-
tending his protection to it under all circumstances,
Constantine gave an altogether different character to
the power of the Emperor. Seated among the bishops,
“as if he were one of them’’; posing as the accredited
guardian of dogma and discipline; intervening 1n all
affairs of the Church; legislating and giving judgment
In its name, organizing and directing it, convoking
and presiding over its councils; dictating the formulas
of faith, Constantine— and all hissuccessors after him,
whether orthodox or Arians—regulated according
to one uniform principle the relations of State and
Church. This is what came to be called Cesaropa-
pism, the despotic authority of the emperor over the
Church; and the Oriental clergy, creatures of the
court, ambitious and worldly, docile and pliant, ac-
cepted this tyranny without protest.
All this derived its inspiration from the deeply
rooted conception of power dear to Oriental mon-
archies, and because of all this, although the Roman
Empire endured for another century,—until 476,
—although the Roman tradition remained alive and
powerful, even in the Orient, until the end of the
sixth century, nevertheless the Oriental part of the
monarchy was concentrated around the city of Con-
stantine and became, so to speak, conscious of 1ts own
importance.
From the fourth century on, despite the apparent
and theoretical maintenance of Roman unity, 1n real-
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
ity the two halves of the Empire were separated more
than once, and were governed by different emperors;
and when, in 395, Theodosius the Great died, leaving
to his two sons Arcadius and Honortus an inheritance
divided into two empires, the separation, which had
long been imminent, became definitive. henceforth
there was a Roman Empire of the East.
Il. THE CRISIS OF THE BARBARIAN INVASION
Durinc the long period between 330 and 518, two
serious crises, while shaking the Empire to its founda-
tions, finally gave it its peculiar form. The first was
the crisis of the barbarian invasion.
After the third century, on all its frontiers, on the
Danube as well as on the Rhine, the barbarians of
Germany made their way into Roman territory by a
gradual process of infiltration. Some came as soldiers,
in small parties, or settled there as agricultural labor-
ers; others, in whole tribes, attracted by the security
and prosperity of the monarchy, solicited grants of
land, which the imperial government willingly gave
them. The great migrations which were incessantly
taking place in that unstable Germanic world has-
tened this onrush of the barbarians, and finally made
it formidable. In the fifth century, the Western Em-
pire gave way before their irruption; and at first
sight one might think that Byzantium was no better
able than Rome to withstand their formidable onset.
In 376, the Visigoths, fleeing before the Huns, had
demanded from the Empire protection and lands.
Two hundred thousand of them had settled south of
Eto 4FOUNDING OF CONSTANTINOPLE
the Danube, in Meesia. They soon revolted; one em-
peror, Valens, was killed while attempting to stay
them on the plains of Adrianople (378); 1t required all
the adroit vigor of Theodosius to conquer them. But
after his death, in 395, the danger reappeared. Alaric,
King of the Visigoths, descended upon Macedonia; he
ravaged ‘Thessaly and central Greece, and forced his
way into the Peloponnesus, the feeble Arcadius (395-
408), all the troops of the East being then in the West,
being powerless to stop him; and when Stilicho, sum-
moned from the West to the succor of the Empire,
had surrounded the Goths at Pholoe in Arcadia (396),
he preferred to let them escape and to come to terms
with their leader. From that time on, during several
years, the Visigoths were all-powerful in the Empire
of the East, deposing the ministers of Arcadius, im-
posing their will on the sovereign, ruling as masters
in the capital, and convulsing the state by their re-
volts. But the ambition of Alaric led him again toward
the West; in 402 he invaded Italy; he returned thither
In 410, and captured Rome; and by the definite settle-
ment of the Visigoths in Gaul and in Spain, the peril
that threatened the Empire of the East was exorcised.
Thirty years later, the Huns entered on the scene.
Attila, founder of a vast empire which reached from
the Don to Pannonia, crossed the Danube in 441, took
Viminacium, Singidunum, Sirmium, and Naissus, and
threatened Constantinople. The Empire, being de-
fenseless, was compelled to pay tribute to him. This
notwithstanding, in 447 the Huns again appeared
south of the Danube. Again they came to terms. But
the peril was still great, and disaster seemed to be at
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
hand, when, in 450, the Emperor Marcianus (450-457)
bravely refused to pay tribute. Once more fortune
smiled on the Empire of the East. Attila turned his
arms to the West. He returned thence, beaten and en-
feebled; and a short time afterward his death (453)
disrupted the empire he had founded.
In the second half of the fifth century, the Ostro-
goths, in their turn, entered into conflict with the Em-
pire, which was obliged to take them into its service,
to allot lands to them (462), and to heap honors and
money upon their leaders. And so we find them, in
474, actually interfering in the internal affairs of the
monarchy. It was Theodoric who, on the death of the
Emperor Leo (457-474), assured the triumph of Zeno
over the rival who was disputing the throne with him.
From that time on, the barbarians were more exact-
ing than ever. In vain did the Emperor attempt to
turn the chiefs against one another (479): Theodoric
pillaged Macedonia, and threatened Thessalonica, al-
ways demanding more and more; obtaining in 484 the
title of consul; threatening Constantinople in 487.
But he too allowed himself to be tempted by the
charms of Italy, where, since 476, the Western Empire
had been falling into decay, and which Zeno shrewdly
proposed to him to reconquer. Once more the danger
was averted.
Thus the barbarian invasion had passed along the
frontiers of the Eastern Empire, or had encroached
upon it only temporarily; so that New Rome re-
mained intact, made greater, as it were, by the catas-
trophe that had overwhelmed Ancient Rome, and, be-
cause of that catastrophe, forced still farther eastward.
oeFOUNDING OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Ill. THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS
WE can hardly understand today the importance in
the fourthand fifth centuries of all the great herestes —
Arianism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism—which so
profoundly agitated the Church and the Empire of
the East. We commonly think of them as mere quar-
rels of theologians, debating hotly in complicated dis-
cussions concerning finespun and trivial formulas. In
reality, they had a different meaning and greater
scope. More than once they were a cloak for political
interests and controversies which were to have far-
reaching results on the destinies of the Empire. ‘They
had, moreover, a decisive effect in establishing the
connection between Church and State in the East,
and in determining the relations between Byzantium
and the West. For these reasons they deserve to be
carefully studied.
The Council of Nicaea (325) had condemned Arian-
ism and had proclaimed that Christ was of the same
essence as God. But the partisans of Arius did not
yield under the anathema, and the fourth century was
filled with a heated controversy—in which the em-
perors zealously took part— between the adversaries
and defenders of orthodoxy. Arianism, conquering
with Constantius at the Council of Rimini (359), was
crushed by ‘Theodosius at the Council of Constanti-
nople (381); and from that moment was manifest the
contrast between the Greek spirit, enamoured of meta-
physical subtleties, and the candid genius of the
Latin West; the incongruity between the Oriental
episcopate, docile to the will of the prince, and the
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
unyielding and haughty intransigence of the Roman
pontiffs. The discussion that took place in the fifth
century concerning the union of two natures—human
and divine—in the person of Christ emphasized these
differences still more, and agitated the Empire the
more seriously because politics entered into the re-
ligious quarrel. In fact, at the same time that the
popes in the West founded with Leo the Great (440-
461) the pontifical monarchy, the patriarchs of Alex-
andria attempted in the East, with Cyril (412-444)
and Dioscurus (444-451), to establish an Alexandrine
papacy. And, in other matters, under cover of these
disputes, the old national differences, and the sepa-
ratist tendencies, which were still very much alive,
found in the war against orthodoxy a propitious op-
portunity for showing their heads; and thus political
interests and aims were closely intermingled with the
religious conflict.
In 428, Theodostus IT (408-450) had been reigning
for twenty years at Byzantium, under the guardian-
ship of his sister Pulcheria. Always a child, he passed
his time in painting, and in illuminating or copying
manuscripts; hence his nickname, “the Calligrapher.”’
If his memory still lives in history, it is because he
built the strong girdle of ramparts which for so many
centuries protected Constantinople; and because, in
the Theodosian Code, he caused to be brought to-
gether the imperial constitutions promulgated since
Constantine. But, such as he was, he was destined to
show extraordinary weakness and helplessness when
confronted by the quarrels within the Church.
Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, taught that
ie to) aFOUNDING OF CONSTANTINOPLE
in Christ 1t was necessary to separate the divine and
human personalities— that Jesus was only a man be-
come God; and consequently he refused to the Virgin
the appellation of Theotokos (mother of God). Cyril
of Alexandria eagerly seized this opportunity to be-
little the bishop of the capital, and, supported by the
Papacy, he caused Nestorianism to be solemnly con-
demned at the Council of Ephesus (431); after which,
imposing his will upon the Emperor, he reigned su-
preme over the Eastern Church. When Eutyches, sev-
eral years later, amplifying the doctrine of Cyril,
caused the nature of man to disappear more and more
completely in the divine nature (this was Monophy-
sitism), he found at hand, to defend him, the support
of Dioscurus, Patriarch of Alexandria; and the council
known as the “Robber Council of Ephesus” (449)
seemed to assure the triumph of the Church of Alex-
andria.
The Empire and the Papacy, being equally alarmed,
joined forces against these growing ambitions. The
Council of Chalcedon (451), in conformity with the
formula of Leo the Great, established the orthodox
doctrine in regard to the union of the two natures, and
accomplished at one and the same time the ruin of the
Alexandrian dream, and the triumph of the State,
which dominated the Council, and established more
firmly than ever its authority over the Eastern
Church.
But the Monophysites, although condemned, did
not give way before their condemnation. ‘They con-
tinued for a long time to establish churches with sep-
aratist tendencies in Egypt and Syria—a grave men-
[esc ellBYZANTINE EMPIRE
ace to the cohesion and unity of the monarchy. Rome,
too, notwithstanding her victory in the field of dogma,
had to accept, trembling with rage, the extension of
the power of the Patriarch of Constantinople, who be-
came, under the guardianship of the Emperor, the
real pope of the Orient. Herein lay the germ of grave
conflicts. In defiance of the Papacy, which was om-
nipotent in the West, the Eastern Church, hoping to
free itself from the imperial domination, became a
State Church, submissive to the will of the prince; and
by her use of the Greek language; by her mystical
tendencies, at odds with the theology of Rome, and
by her ancient grudges against Rome, she tended
more and more to establish herself as an independent
organism. And thereby, again, the Roman Empire in
the East took on an aspect peculiar to itself. The great
councils were held in the East; the great heresies were
born there; and, finally, the Church of the East, proud
in the renown of its great doctors,— Saint Basil, Greg-
ory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chry-
sostom,—convinced of her intellectual superiority
over the West, tended more and more toward separa-
tion from Rome.
IV. THE ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE EAST AT THE END OF THE
FIFTH AND THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTH CENTURY
Taxus, about the time of the emperors Zeno (474—491)
and Anastasius (491-518), arose the idea of a purely
Oriental monarchy.
After the downfall of the Western Empire in 476,
the Eastern remained the only Roman empire. Al-
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though it retained, for this reason, great prestige in
the eyes of the barbarian sovereigns who had carved
out for themselves kingdoms in Gaul, in Spain, in
Africa, and in Italy; although it still claamed vague
rights of suzerainty over them, yet in reality, by vir-
tue of the territories that it actually possessed, this
Empire was, above all, Oriental. It included the whole
Balkan Peninsula, with the exception of the north-
western portions; Asia Minor as far as the mountains |
of Armenia; Syria as far as the Euphrates; Egypt; and —
Cyrenaica. These countries formed sixty-four prov- |
inces or eparchies, divided between two prefectures of |
the preetorium— that of the East (dioceses of Thrace,
Asia, Pontus, the Orient, and Egypt), and that of
Illyricum (diocese of Macedonia).
Although the government of the Empire was still
administered on the Roman model, and based on the
separation of the civil and military functions, the 1m-
perial power became more and more absolute, after
the fashion of Oriental monarchies; and from 450 on,
the ceremonial of consecration gave to it, in addition,
the prestige of sacred unction and of divine invest-
ture. The intelligent solicitude of the Emperor Anas-
tasius assured to this empire well-defended frontiers,
sound finances, and a more honest administration.
And the political acumen of the sovereigns strove to
restore moral unity in the monarchy by endeavoring,
even at the cost of a rupture with Rome, to bring back
the dissenting Monophysites. This was the object of
the edict of union (Henotikon) promulgated in 482 by
Zeno, the first effect of which was a schism between
Byzantium and Rome. For more than thirty years
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
(484-518), with embittered intolerance, the popes and
the emperors— especially Anastatius, a convinced and
impassioned Monophysite—waged war; and during
these disorders the Eastern Church succeeded in mak-
ing herself into a separate body.
Meanwhile, the civilization of the Empire took on
more and more an Oriental coloring. Even under the
domination of Rome, Hellenism had remained vigor-
ous and strong throughout the Greek Orient. Large
and flourishing cities— Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus
—were the centres of a remarkable intellectual and
artistic culture. Within their sphere of influence, in
Egypt, in Syria, in Asia Minor, a civilization had
sprung up which was thoroughly impregnated with
the traditions of classical Greece. Constantinople, en-
riched by its founder with the masterpieces of Greece,
and thus transformed into the most wonderful of mu-
seums, cherished no less enthusiastically the memo-
ries of Hellenic antiquity. Moreover, the Oriental
world had been awakened by its contact with Persia,
and had become conscious anew of its ancient tradi-
tions; in Egypt, in Syria, in Mesopotamia, in Asia
Minor, the old traditional background reappeared,
and the Oriental spirit reacted upon the countries pre-
viously Hellenized. Because of its hatred of pagan
Greece, Christianity encouraged these national ten-
dencies. And from the blending of these rival tradi-
tions a strong and fruitful activity sprang to life
throughout the East.
Economically, intellectually, and artistically Syria,
Egypt, and Anatolia assumed special importance dur-
ing the fourth and fifth centuries: there Christian art,
EaFOUNDING OF CONSTA?DTINOPLE
slowly, by a succession of scholarly efforts and investi-
gations, prepared the way for its superb culmination
in the masterpieces of the sixth century; and from
that time on, it appeared as an essentially Oriental
art. But while the old indigenous traditions and the
never-forgotten separatist inclination were thus re-
newed in the provinces, Constantinople foreshadowed
her future role by receiving and combining the differ-
ent elements which diverse civilizations brought to
her, by coérdinating the rival intellectual tendencies
and the differing artistic processes and methods in
such wise as to produce a civilization of her own.
Thus the evolution which drew Byzantium toward
the Orient seemed to be accomplished; and one could
well believe that the dream was near realization, of a
purely Oriental empire, despotically governed, well
administered, strongly defended, renouncing all polit-
ical connection with the West, to fall back upon her-
self, and not hesitating to break with Rome in order
to reéstablish religious unity in the East, and to set
up, under the protection of the State, a church almost
independent of the papacy.
Unfortunately for the fulfilment of this dream, this
Empire, at the end of the fifth and the beginning of the
sixth century, was faced by a formidable crisis. After
502, the Persians had renewed the war in the East; in
Europe, the Slavs and Bulgarians were beginning
their incursions south of the Danube. In the interior,
affairs were in extreme confusion. The capital was
convulsed by the quarrels of the circus factions — the
Greens and the Blues; the provinces, discontented,
ruined by the war, crushed by taxes, grasped every
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
occasion to put forward their national demands; the
government was unpopular; a powerful orthodox op-
position fought against its policies and furnished a
plausible pretext for the revolts of the ambitious, of
which the most serious was that of Vitalianus, 1n 514;
finally, the persistent memory of the Roman tradi-
tion, keeping alive the idea of the necessary unity of
the Roman world,—of “Romania,’—turned men's
minds incessantly toward the West. ‘To emerge from
this unstable condition, there was need of a strong
hand, a well-defined policy, with precise and steadfast
aims. The reign of Justinian was to supply this need.CHAPTER» bi
T he Keign of “Fustinian, and the Greek
Empire in the Sixth Century, 518-610
I. THE ACCESSION OF THE JUSTINIAN DYNASTY
N 518, at the death of Anastatius, an obscure in-
trigue placed upon the throne Justin, commander-
in-chief of the imperial guard. He was a Macedonian
peasant, who had come to Constantinople some fifty
years before, to seek his fortune; a brave soldier, but
quite illiterate and without any experience in affairs
of state. This upstart, then, who, at the age of almost
seventy years, was destined to become the founder
of a dynasty, would have been greatly embarrassed
in the position of authority to which he was raised, had
he not had by his side his nephew, Justinian, to ad-
vise him.
Justinian, who was, like Justin, a native of Mace-
donia,— the romantic tradition which makes of him a
Slav is of much later date, and has no historical value,
—had come early in life to Constantinople at the sum-
mons of his uncle, and had received there an educa-
tion wholly Roman and Christian. He had experience
in affairs, a ripe judgment, a well-developed character
—everything that he required to be the coadjutor of
Lrg aBYZANTINE EMPIRE
the new sovereign. And, in fact, it was he who, from
518 to 527, governed in the name of Justin, pending
the time when he himself should reign—from §27 to
565. Thus for nearly half a century Justinian guided
the destinies of the Roman Empire of the East; and
he stamped upon the epoch dominated by his power-
ful figure so deep an imprint, that his will alone suf-
ficed to arrest the natural evolution which was carry-
ing the Empire farther toward the Orient.
Under his influence, a new political orientation was
apparent from the beginning of Justin’s reign. The
first thought of the government of Constantinople
was to be reconciled with Rome, to put an end to the
schism; and, in order to seal the alliance and to give
to the Pope pledges of his orthodox zeal, Justinian for
three years (518-521) savagely persecuted the Mo-
nophysites throughout the East. The new dynasty
was strengthened by this reconciliation with Rome.
Moreover, Justinian was shrewd enough to take, very
cleverly, the measures necessary to assure the strength
of the government. He rid it of Vitalianus, its most re-
doubtable adversary. Above all, he made it popular
by a great show of largess and pomp.
But, thenceforth, Justinian had wider visions: he
fully realized the importance to his ambition of the
reéstablishment_of peace with the papacy. For this
reason, when Pope John I visited Constantinople in
§25—the first of the Roman pontifts to visit “New
Rome’— Justinian arranged a triumphant reception
for him in the capital. He knew how much such an at-
titude would gratify the West, and what comparisons
would inevitably be-drawn_ between the pious em-
a SalREIGN OF JUSTINIAN
perors who ruled in Constantinople and the barbarous
Arian monarchs who held sway in Africa and Italy.
And thus he paved the way for the great designs that
he was destined to achieve when, in 527, the death of
Justin gave him full power.
If. JUSTINIAN’S CHARACTER, HIS POLICY
AND HIS ENVIRONMENT
JusTINIAN resembled in no way his predecessors, the
princes of the fifth century. This upstart elevated to
the throne of the Czesars chose to be a Roman em-
peror, and he was in truth the last of the great em-
perors of Rome. Nevertheless, despite his indisputable
power of application and love of work,—one of his
courtiers called him “the Emperor who never sleeps,”
— despite a genuine and sincere desire for an orderly
and wise administration, Justinian, by reason of his
sombre and jealous despotism, his childish vanity, his
pugnacious activity, and because he was often irreso-
lute and weak in enforcing his will, would have seemed
to be, on the whole, rather a mediocre and ill-bal-
anced person, had it not been for his greatness of
mind. This Macedonian peasant was the eminent rep-
resentative of two great ideas— the imperial idea and
the Christian idea; and because he represented those
ideas;tis name will endure forever.
His mind full of the memories of Roman grandeur,v
Justinian dreamed of reconstituting the Roman Em-
pire as it was of old, of restoring the incontestable
rights of Byzantium, as heir of Rome, over the bar-
barous kingdoms of the West, of reéstablishing the
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
unity of the Roman dominions. Heir of the Ceesars,
like them he was resolved to be the living law, the
fullest incarnation of absolute power, and also the im-
peccable law-giver, the reformer, intent upon main-
taining good order in the realm. Lastly, in his pride in
his imperial rank, he chose to bedeck it with all con-
ceivable pomp and magnificence. By the splendor of
his buildings; by the luxury of his court; by the some-
what childish manner in which he called the fortresses
that he rebuilt, “Justinians,” after his own name; by
the cities he restored; by the system of magistracies he
established, he aimed to immortalize the glory of his
reign, and to make his subjects feel, as he said, their
incomparable good fortune in having been born 1n his
time.
And he had other visions. The elect of God, his rep-
resentative and vicar upon earth, he_took it upon
‘himself to be the champion of orthodoxy, whether in
the wars that he undertook, whose religious character
is incontestable, in the great effort that he made to
propagate the orthodox faith throughout the world,
or in the fashion in which he governed the Church and
combatted heresy. All his life he pursued the realiza-
tion of this two-fold dream, at once magnificent and
ambitious; and to aid him, he had the good fortune to
find capable ministers, such as the jurisconsult Tribo-
nian, and the prefect of the praetorium, John of Cappa-
docia; good generals like Belisarius and Narses; and,
above all, an admirable adviser in “‘the most revered
wife whom God had given him,” in her whom he took
delight in calling “his sweetest charmer,” the Em-
press Uheodora.
[ 20 JREIGN OF JUSTINIAN
Theodora also was of humble birth. Daughter of a
bear-keeper in the Hippodrome, she had, if we are to
believe the gossip of Procopius in his Secret History,
scandalized her contemporaries by her life as a fash-
ionable actress and by the notoriety of her adventures;
and even more when she won the heart of Justinian,
succeeded in inducing him to marry her, and ascended
the throne with him. It is certain that, as long as she
lived—she died in 548—she exercised an all-powerful
influence over the Emperor, and governed the Empire
as much as, and perhaps more than, he. ‘The fact is
that, despite her shortcomings—she loved money and
power, and, in order to preserve the throne, she was
often deceitful, cruel, and implacable in her hatreds—
this great ambitious woman had some excellent quali-
ties: energy, determination, a strong and resolute will,
and a shrewd and far-seeing political genius; and it
may be that she had a clearer vision than her imperial
spouse. While Justinian dreamed of reconquering the
West, of propping the rehabilitated Roman Empire
on an alliance with the Papacy, she, like the true
Oriental that she was, turned her eyes toward the
East, with a more exact appreciation of the realities
and necessities of the situation. She would have miti-
gated the religious dissensions which were inimical to
the peace and power of the Empire, would have con-
ciliated the dissident countries, like Syria and Egypt,
by opportune concessions and greater tolerance, and,
even at the cost of a break with Rome, would have
restored the powerful unity of the Eastern monarchy.
And we may well wonder whether the empire of which
she dreamed, more compact, more homogeneous, and
L227PUPP alta a AL
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
stronger, might not have resisted better the attacks of
the Persians and the Arabs. At all events, her hand
was felt everywhere—in the government, in diplo-
macy, in the religious policy; and even to-day, in the
Church of San Vitale at Ravenna, in the mosaics that
embellish the apse, her image, in all the splendor of
sovereign majesty, faces Justinian’s as an equal.
III. JUSTINIAN S FOREIGN POLICY
Ar the time of Justinian’s accession the Empire had
not recovered from the grave crisis through which it
had been passing since the end of the fifth century.
During the last months of Justin’s reign, the Persians,
agerieved by the encroachments of the imperial policy
in the Caucasus, in Armenia, and on the frontiers of
Syria, had renewed the war; and thus the better part
of the Byzantine army was immobilized in the East.
In the interior, the feuds between the Greens and
Blues fostered a dangerous political agitation, which
was aggravated by the deplorable corruption of the
government and the resulting discontent. It was most
essential for Justinian to do away with these embar-
rassments, which delayed the execution of his ambi-
, tious designs upon the West. Not seeing, or not choos-
ing to see, the extent of the Eastern peril, he signed
with the Great King! the treaty of 532, which cost him
' large concessions, but left him entirely free to dispose
of his military forces. On the other hand, he took
stern measures to repress civil commotion when the
formidable uprising of January 532, which has always
' Khusrau I, 531-579. The name is variously spelled Khosru and Chosroes.
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}REIGN OF JUSTINIAN
been called Nzka, from the rallying cry of the insur-
gents, filled Constantinople with conflagrations and
blood during a whole week. In those days of revolu-
tion, when the throne was near foundering, Justinian
owed his salvation to the courage of Theodora and the
energy of Belisartus. But the brutality of the suppres-
sion, which strewed the floor of the Hippodrome with
30,000 corpses, resulted in establishing order in the
capital for a long time, and in making the Emperor’s
power more absolute than ever. In 532, Justinian’s
hands were freed.
The Rehabilitation of Imperial Authority in theWest.—
Conditions in the West favored his projects. In Africa,
as in Italy, the tribes, being governed by heretical
barbarian rulers, loudly demanded the restoration of
the imperial authority; and the prestige of the Empire
was so great that even the Vandal and Ostrogothic
kings acknowledged the legitimacy of the Byzantine
claims. Moreover, the rapid decadence of those bar-
baric kingdoms left them powerless against the at-
tacks of Justinian, and their dissensions prevented
them from making common cause against the com-
mon enemy. When, therefore, in 531, the usurpation
of Gelimer offered Byzantine diplomacy a pretext for
intervening in Africa, Justinian, placing his trust in
the formidable instrument of war which he had at
hand in his excellent army, did not hesitate, being de-
sirous to free the African Catholics from the “Arian
captivity,’ and to make the Vandal kingdom once
more a part of the imperial whole.fIn 533, Belisarius
embarked at Constantinople with an army of 10,000
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
infantry and from 5000 to 6000 cavalry. The cam-
paign was as short as it was successful. Defeated at
Decimum and Tricamarum, Gelimer, surrounded in
his retreat from Mount Pappua, was obliged to sur-
render (534). Within a few months, some regiments
of cavalry —for it was the cavalry that played the
decisive réle, contrary to all expectation—entirely
destroyed the kingdom of Genseric. The victorious
Belisarius received the honors of a triumph at Con-
stantinople. Although it took fifteen years more, from
534 to 548, to put down the revolts of the Berbers and
the uprisings of the mercenary and undisciplined
troops of the Empire, yet Justinian could fairly boast
of having reconquered the larger part of Africa, and
could proudly assume the surnames of Vandalicus and
Africanus.
The Ostrogoths in Italy looked on without raising
a hand at the subjugation of the Vandal kingdom.
Before long, their own turn came. The assassination
of Amalasuntha, daughter of Theodoric the Great, by
her husband Theodahad (534) gave Justinian a pre-
text for interfering; but this time the war was harder
to win, and longer \Belisarius succeeded in conquering
Sicily (535), in taking Naples, and then Rome, where
he withstood for a whole year (March, §37, to March,
538) a memorable siege by the army of the new King
of the Ostrogoths, Vitiges. Later, he took Ravenna
(540), and led Vitiges as a captive to the feet of the
Emperor But the Goths rallied under the leadership
of the shrewd and energetic Totila. Belisarius, being
sent again into Italy with very inadequate forces,
failed there lamentably (544-548). It required the vig-
L 24 JREIGN OF JUSTINIAN
orous leadership of Narses to crush the resistance of
the Ostrogoths at Taginze (552), to beat down the last
opposition of the barbarians in Campania (553), and
to rid the peninsula of the Frankish hordes of Leu-
tharis and Bucelin (554). It had taken twenty years
to reconquer Italy} Again Justinian’s optimism had
led him to believe too soon that the conquest was
complete; and perhaps, too, he postponed too long the
great effort necessary to break the power of the Ostro-
goths at a single blow. It was with altogether inade-
quate forces—scarcely 25,000 or 30,000 troops— that
he undertook to bring Italy back under the imperial
authority; and in consequence the war dragged along
deplorably.
In Spain also Justinian took advantage of favorable
circumstances to interfere in the dynastic quarrels of
the Visigothic kingdom (544) and to reconquer the
southeastern part of the country. }
Thanks to his fortunate campaigns, Justinian could
flatter himself that his dream had come true./Thanks
to his persevering ambition, Dalmatia, Italy, all of
eastern Africa, southern Spain, and the islands of the
western Mediterranean—Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia,
and the Baleares—had returned to the Roman fold:
the Empire was almost doubled in extent of territory.
By the occupation of Septem (Ceuta) the authority of
the Emperor reached as far as the Pillars of Hercules;
and if we except the parts of the coast still held by the
Visigoths in Spain and Septimania,! and by the Franks
in Provence, the Mediterranean was once more a Ro-
man sea. It is true that neither Africa nor Italy re-
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
entered the imperial domain in all its former extent,
and they were exhausted and ravaged by so many
years of war.
But these conquests gave an unquestionable im-
petus to the prestige and glory of the Empire; and
Justinian spared no effort to solidify it. Reconquered
Africa and Italy formed as before two prefectures, and
the Emperor strove to exhibit the Empire to the vari-
ous peoples in the exact form in which it had formerly
been familiar to them. Reparatory measures partially
effaced the disasters of the war. Defensive precautions
—the creation of great military bodies; the delimita-
tion of boundaries (/imites), which were held by spe-
cial troops, the soldiers of the frontier (/imitanez) ; the
construction of a powerful network of fortresses—
guaranteed the security of the country. Justinian
might well flatter himself that he had restored in the
West that perfect peace, that “perfect order,’ which
was in his eyes the symbol of a truly civilized state.
The Wars in the East—Unfortunately, these great
undertakings had sapped the strength of the Empire,
and had caused it to neglect the East; and the East
took its revenge in most formidable fashion.
The first war with Persia (527-532) was only a fore-
runner of the peril that was impending. As neither of
the two adversaries chose to go all lengths, the strug-
gle was indecisive: the victory of Belisarius at Dara
(530) was offset by his defeat at Callinicum (531), and
both sides made haste to conclude a halting peace
(532). But the new King of Persia, Khusrau Nushir-
van (531-579), being active and ambitious, was not
204REIGN OF JUSTINIAN
the man to be content with these results. Seeing that
Byzantium had her hands full in the West, and, above
all, being ill at ease as to the projects of universal
domination of which Justinian made no secret, he de-
scended upon Syria in $40, and pillaged Antioch; in
541, he invaded the country of the Lazi, and took
Petra; in 542, he devastated Commagene; in 543, he
defeated the Greeks in Armenia; in 544, he laid waste
Mesopotamia. Even Belisarius was powerless to con-
quer him. It was necessary to conclude a truce (545),
which was renewed several times, and, in 562, to sign
a fifty-years’ treaty, whereby Justinian bound him-
self to pay tribute to the Great King, and forbade all
religious propaganda in Persian territory. Although at
this price, he retained the country of the Lazi, the an-
cient Colchis, nevertheless the Persian menace, after
this long and disastrous war, was no less to be dreaded
in the future.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the frontier of the Danube
gave way before the attacks of the Huns, who in 540
carried fire and the sword into Thrace, Illyricum, and
Greece as far as the Isthmus of Corinth, and forced
their way even to the neighborhood of Constanti-
nople; of the Slavs, who devastated Lllyricum in 547
and 551, and in 552 threatened Thessalonica; of the
Huns again in §59, when they appeared before the
capital, which was saved with great difficulty by the
bravery of old Belisarius. In addition, other barbari-
ans, the Avars, appeared upon the scene, insolent and
menacing. To be sure, none of these invasions re-
sulted in the permanent settlement of a foreign people
within the Empire; but the Balkan Peninsula was,
E27 alBYZANTINE EMPIRE
none the less, terribly ravaged. The Empire paid dear-
ly in the East for Justinian’s triumphs in the West)
Defensive Measures and Diplomacy.—Justinian,
meanwhile, in the East as in the West, endeavored to
ensure the defense and security of the imperial do-
main. By the institution of high military commands
entrusted to the magistri militum; by the creation on
all the frontiers of military boundaries (/zmites), occu-
pied by special troops (/imitanet), he reconstructed, in
face of the barbarians, what was formerly called the
“bulwark of the Empire” (pretentura imperit). But,
most important of all, he built along all the frontiers
a continuous line of fortresses, which covered all the
strategic points and formed several successive bar-
riers against invasion; behind these, for greater se-
curity, the whole territory was covered with strong-
holds. Even to this day we find in many places the
imposing ruins of these citadels, which were erected
by hundreds in all the provinces of the Empire; and
they bear eloquent witness to the greatness of the ef-
fort by which, according to Procopius, Justinian ver-
itably “saved the monarchy.”
Lastly, Byzantine diplomacy, supplementing the
military measures, did its utmost to ensure the pres-
tige and influence of the Empire throughout the whole
world. By a judicious distribution of favors and money,
by ingenious craft in inciting the enemies of the Em-
pire against one another, it brought under the suze-
rainty of Byzantium the barbarian tribes that drifted
along the frontiers of the monarchy, and made them
harmless. By religious propaganda, too, it brought
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them within the Byzantine sphere of influence. ‘The
missions that carried Christianity from the shores of
the Black Sea to the plains of Abyssinia, and to the
oases of the Sahara, were one of the most characteris-
tic features of Grecian policy in the Middle Ages.
Thus the Empire established for itself a constitu-
ency of vassals: Arabs, from Syria and Yemen, Ber-
bers from North Africa, Lazi and Tzani from the far-
thest confines of Armenia, Heruli, Gepidze, Lombards,
Huns on the Danube, even the Frankish sovereigns in
far-distant Gaul, where they prayed in the churches
for the Roman Emperor. Constantinople, where Jus-
tinian received the barbarian sovereigns in magnifi-
cent fashion, seemed the capital of the universe. And
although it 1s true that, during the last years of his
reign, the aged Emperor allowed the military system
to become disorganized, and took over-much pleasure
in practising a disastrous sort of diplomacy, which, by
distributing money among the barbarians, danger-
ously aroused their cupidity, on the other hand, it 1s
certain that, so long as the Empire was strong enough
to defend itself, his diplomacy, supported by military
force, seemed to his contemporaries a marvel of pru-
dence, wisdom, and good sense (edGBovd ia). Despite the
heavy sacrifices which the formidable ambition of
Justinian cost the Empire, even his detractors have
admitted that “the natural rdle of a high-minded em-
peror 1s to seek to aggrandize his empire and add to
1tsrenown.’’”}
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
IV. THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT OF JUSTINIAN
THE internal government of the Empire gave no less
concern to Justinian than did the defense of its terri-
tory. Urgent administrative reforms forced them-
selves upon his attention. A dangerous religious crisis
demanded his thoughtful care.
Legislative and Administrative Reform—The Em-
pire was in an extraordinarily disturbed condition.
The government was venal and corrupt; disorder and
destitution reigned in the provinces; the administra-
tion of justice, thanks to the obscurity of the law, was
arbitrary and partial; and one of the most serious con-
sequences of this condition was that the taxes came in
very slowly. Justinian had too much taste for order,
a too earnest desire for a centralized government, and
too great solicitude for the public good, to tolerate
such a state of affairs. Besides, he was in constant
need of money for his great enterprises.
Therefore he undertook a twofold reform. In order
to give to the Empire “definite and indisputable laws,”
he entrusted an important legislative task to his min-
ister T'ribonian. A commission, convoked in 528 to re-
form the Code, gathered together and classified in a
single body of laws the principal imperial constitu-
tions promulgated since the time of Hadrian. This
was the Justinian Code, which was published in 529,
and of which a new edition appeared in 534. Soon
after came the Digest, or Pandects, in which another
commission, appointed in 530, brought together and
classified the decisions drawn from the works of the
30) IREIGN OF JUSTINIAN
great jurisconsults of the second and third centuries—
an enormous task, which was completed in 533. The
Institutes sammarized in a single manual, for the use
of students, the principles of the new Code. Finally,
the collection of new ordinances (Novel/e), published
by Justinian between 534 and 565, completed the im-
posing monument known as the Corpus Furis Civilis.
Justinian was so proud of this great legislative work
that he forbade it to be touched in the future, or to be
modified by any commentary; and that he madeitthe
immutable basis of legal instruction in the schools of
law established at Constantinople, at Beirut, and at
Rome. And, in truth, despite certain defects; despite
the haste with which the work was done, entailing
repetitions and contradictions; despite the regrettable
fashion in which the noblest monuments of the Roman
law were torn in pieces, this was a very great work,
one of the most fruitful for the progress of mankind.
If the Justinian law provided the imperial power with
the foundation of its absolute authority, it also, in the
civilization of the Middle Ages, conserved, and, later,
taught again to the West, the idea of the State, and
the principles of social organization. Also, by perme-
ating the rigor of the old Roman law with the new
spirit of Christianity, it introduced into the law a re-
gard, hitherto unknown, for social justice, public
morality, and humanity.
In order to reform the government and the admin-
istration of justice, Justinian, in 535, promulgated two
momentous decrees, outlining for all officials the new
duties that he laid upon them, and enjoining upon
Pai ASy La PE
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
them above all else a scrupulous honesty in the gov-
ernment of the subject. At the same time, the Em-
peror abolished the sale of offices, increased salaries,
suppressed useless departments, and, to ensure better
order in a whole category of provinces, united the
civil and military powers there: a tentative reform
which was destined to be fruitful of results in the ad-
ministrative history of the Empire.
He reorganized the administration of justice and the
civil service in the capital; he gave a great impetus to
public works throughout the Empire, building roads,
bridges, aqueducts, baths, theatres, and churches; and
he rebuilt with incredible magnificence the city of
Constantinople, which had been partially destroyed
in the insurrection of 532. Lastly by a careful eco-
nomic policy, Justinian applied himself to developing
the industrial wealth and commercial activity of the
Empire;! and according to his custom, he boasted of
having, “by his brilliant ideas, given a new flower to
the State.”
As a matter of fact, however, despite the Emperor’s
excellent intentions, the administrative reform came
to nothing. ‘The heavy burden of expenditure and the
constant need of money which resulted from it led to
an atrocious fiscal tyranny, which reduced the Empire
to destitution, and exhausted its resources. And from
this great effort at reform only one thing resulted —
the suppression, in 541, for reasons of economy, of the
consular office.
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* It was in the reign of Justinian, about 577, that two monks brought from
China the secret of raising silkworms, which, by making possible the found-
ing of the silk industry in Syria, partially freed Byzantium from its depen-
dence upon imports from abroad.
eeREIGN OF JUSTINIAN
The Religious Policy —Like all the emperors who
had followed one another on the throne since Con-
stantine, Justinian gave much thought to the Church,
for reasons of state no less than because of his zest for
religious controversy. To show his pious zeal, he had
bitterly opposed the heretics: in 529 he had ordered
the closing of the University of Athens, where several
pagan professors were leading an obscure existence,
and he had vigorously persecuted dissenters. More-
over, he proposed to rule the Church as its master,
and in exchange for his protection and for the favors
he had heaped upon it, he despotically and brutally
imposed his will upon it, proclaiming himself curtly,
“emperor and priest.”
However, more than once he was embarrassed as to
what course he should pursue. For the success of his
Western enterprises he needed to maintain the har-
monious relations that he had reéstablished with the
Papacy; to restore political and moral unity in the
East, 1t was necessary for him to conciliate the Mo-
nophysites, who were still numerous and powerful in
Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia. Between
Rome, which demanded the condemnation of the dis-
senters, and Theodora, who advised a return to the
conciliatory policy of Zeno and Anastatius, the Em-
peror was more than once at a loss what to do; and his
hesitating will labored to find, among many antago-
nisms, a common ground of understanding, 1n order
to solve the dilemma.
First, to please Rome, he allowed the Council of
Constantinople, in 536, to hurl anathema at the dis-
senters, persecuted them relentlessly (537-538), and
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
attacked their stronghold—Egypt; then, to please
Theodora, he allowed the Monophysites to reéstab-
lish their church (543), and endeavored to obtain from
the Papacy, at the Council of Constantinople, in 553,
an ambiguous condemnation of the decisions of Chal-
cedon. This was the affair of the “Three Chapters, ?
which, for more than twenty years (543-565), con-
vulsed the Empire, and provoked schism in the West-
ern Church, without bringing peace to the Orient.
There was no useful result from all the outlay of se-
verity and arbitrariness which Justinian employed
against his adversaries, and of which the Pope Vigilius
was the most illustrious victim. The policy of union
and of tolerance which Theodora advised was, with-
out doubt, wise and prudent; but Justinian’s hesita-
tion in adopting a definite course of action had no
other effect, despite his good intentions, than a revi-
val of the separatist tendencies of Egypt and Syria,
and an aggravation of their national hatred against
the Empire.
V. BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION IN THE SIXTH CENTURY
THE reign of Justinian is a decisive epoch in the his-
tory of Byzantine civilization. Writers of talent, his-
torians like Procopius, Agathias, John of Ephesus,
and Evagrius, poets like Paul the Silentiary, theo-
logians like Leontius of Byzantium, kept alive, not
without distinction, the traditions of classical Greek
' So called because the discussion concerned extracts from the works of three
theologians, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of
Edessa, whose teaching had been approved by the Council of Chalcedon, and
had been condemned by Justinian, to please the Monophysites.
EL 34 aREIGN OF JUSTINIAN
literature; and it was near the dawn of the sixth cen-
tury that Romanos, “‘the prince of melody,” created
religious poetry, perhaps the most perfect and most
original expression of Byzantine genius.
The splendor of the arts was still more remarkable.
This was the time when the slow evolution that the
local schools of art in the East had been passing
through for two centuries reached its final develop-
ment 1n Constantinople. And as Justinian had a taste
for building, as he had the good fortune to find emi-
nent artists to carry out his plans and was able to
place unlimited resources at their disposal, the result
was that the monuments of that perilod—marvels
of skill, of audacity, and of magnificence—marked in
definitive creations the apogee of Byzantine art.
Never has art appeared more varied, more fruitful,
more free; all methods of construction, all types of
buildings, were found there: basilicas like San Apolli-
nare Nuovo at Ravenna and Saint Demetrius at
Salonica; churches on the polygonal plan, like those of
Saints Sergius and Bacchus at Constantinople, or San
Vitale at Ravenna; cruciform buildings crowned by
five cupolas, like the Church of the Holy Apostles;
architectural works, of which Saint-Sophia—built
between 532 and 537, by Anthemius of Tralles and
Isidore of Miletus—is still, because of the originality
of the plan, the lightness of structure, the skilful
audacity of the arrangement, the cleverly managed
balancing of the parts, and the rare harmony of the
proportions, the unrivaled masterpiece.
In the interior of these edifices, the ingenious diver-
sity of coloring of the marbles, the delicate carving of
EO 36r 2BYZANTINE EMPIRE
the sculptures, and the rich decoration of the mosaics
on backgrounds of blue and gold, impart an incom-
parable magnificence, of which, even to-day, lacking
the ruined mosaics of the Church of the Holy Apostles
and those which are scarcely visible under the Turk-
ish patching of Saint-Sophia, we can obtain some idea
in the churches of Parenzo and Ravenna, and in what
remains of the beautiful decorations of the Church of
St. Demetrius at Salonica. Everywhere, in jewels,
fabrics, tvories, and manuscripts, is manifest the same
brilliant splendor and solemn majesty that marked
the advent of the new style. Under the combined in-
fluences of the East and of ancient tradition, Byzan-
tine art knew, in the time of Justinian, its first golden
age.
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VI. THE DISINTEGRATION OF JUSTINIAN S WORK
(565-610)
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Ir we consider Justinian’s reign as a whole, we cannot
fail to realize its incomparable grandeur and the un-
equalled prestige that it momentarily gave to the mon-
archy. We may, however, wonder whether this gran-
deur was not more apparent than real, and whether
this superb effort of imperialism, by arresting the
natural evolution of the Eastern Empire, by draining
its vigor in the interest of overweening ambition, did
not, on the whole, do it more harm than good.
In all the enterprises of Justinian, there was always
a dangerous disproportion between the end to be pur-
sued and the resources available for attaining it; lack
i of money was the constant sore spot, which retarded
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Te te eee LedaREIGN OF JUSTINIAN
the most magnificent projects, and foiled the most
praiseworthy purposes. ‘To remedy this, 1t was neces-
sary to increase the exactions of the treasury to the
point at which they became intolerable; and inasmuch
as, in the last years of his reign, Justinian, in his old
age, neglected everything more and more, the plight
of the realm when he died, in 565, at the age of 87,
was utterly deplorable. The Empire was exhausted
both financially and militarily; on all the frontiers
grave perils were rising above the horizon; in the 1n-
terior, public authority was weakened, in the prov-
inces by the development of a great feudal system of
landholding, in the capital by the incessant feuds be-
tween Greens and Blues; people lived only from hand
to mouth; there was great misery everywhere; and
contemporaries asked themselves with stupefaction,
whither the wealth of the Romans had vanished. A
settlement was inevitable; it was difficult and disas-
trous. It was the work of Justinian’s successors, his
nephew Justin II (565-578), ‘Tiberius (578-582), and
Maurice (582-602).
They resolutely inaugurated a new policy. Turning
away from the West, where, indeed, the invasion of
the Lombards (368) had-atready wrested from the
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Empire the half of Italy, Justinian’s successors con-
finedthemsetves to organizing there a strong defen-
sive, by the creation of the Exarchates of Africa and
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sae Te a
Ravenna- “At this price, they were a le to turn their
“attention toward the East, and to assume a haughtier
attitude toward the enemies of the Empire. Thanks to
the measures that they took for reorganizing the
army, the Persian war, which broke out anew 1n 572,
Ee a7, 3BYZANTINE EMPIRE
and lasted until 591, was ended by an advantageous
treaty, by the terms of which Persian Armenia was
ceded to Byzantium. And although in Europe the
Huns and Slavs savagely ravaged the Balkan Penin-
sula, capturing the fortresses on the Danube, besieg-
ing Thessalonica, menacing Constantinople (591), and
even beginning to make permanent settlements, a
series of victories finally carried the war again beyond
the frontiers, and led the Byzantine troops to the
Theiss (601).
Unluckily the domestic crisis ruined everything.
Justinian had strained to excess the machinery of
absolute government; when he died, the aristocracy
raised its head, the separatist tendencies of the prov-
inces began to manifest themselves anew, and the
factions of the circus to stir up sedition. And, as the
government was powerless to reform the financial
situation, the disaffection constantly increased, aggra-
vated by the administrative disorganization and the
mutinous demonstrations in the army.
The religious policy made the general dissatisfac-
tion even more acute. After a brief trial of toleration,
persecution was resorted to, to put down the dissen-
ters; and although Maurice put an end to it, yet the
inopportune conflict which he allowed to break out
between the Patriarch of Constantinople, pretender
to the title of Gicumenical, and Pope Gregory the
Great, increased the ancient bitterness between the
Hast and the West. Despite his genuinely high quali-
ties, Maurice, because of his rigid economy, was ex-
tremely unpopular; and the relaxation of political
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authority made easy the success of the military revo-
lution, which placed Phocas on the throne (602).
The new prince, who was a common soldier, could
maintain order only by terror (602-610); thereby he
completed the downfall of the monarchy. Khusrau II,
posing as Maurice’s avenger, renewed the war; the
Persians conquered Mesopotamia, Syria, and Asia
Minor. In 608, they were at Chalcedon, opposite
Constantinople. In the interior, revolts, conspiracies,
uprisings, succeeded one another: the whole Empire
cried out for a savior.
Fle came from Africa. In 610, Heraclius, son of the
Exarch of Carthage, overthrew Phocas and founded a
new dynasty. After nearly a half-cen tury of agitation,
Byzantium again had a leader to guide her destinies.
But during that same half-century, Byzantium had
been progressively turning again toward the East.
The transformation to the oriental form, interrupted
by the long reign of Justinian, was now to quicken its
pace and be consummated.a)
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CHAPTER IIl
The Dynasty of Heraclius.—T he Arab
Peril and theT ransformation of the Em-
pire in the Seventh Century, 010-717
HE seventh century was one of the darkest
periods in Byzantine history. It was a time of
grave uncertainty, a critical moment, when it seemed
as if the very existence of the Empire was at stake.
Without, formidable perils, first from the Persians,
and soon after, the more terrible peril from the Arabs,
assailed the exhausted monarchy. Within, a complete
transformation took place, which gave to the Byzan-
tine State and to the Byzantine world in general a
new aspect. Up to that time, the monarchy, in spite
of everything, had continued to be in all respects a
Roman empire: Latin was still the official language,
and the Roman tradition kept alive the titles and
the forms that Rome had established. At the begin-
ning of the eighth century, on the contrary, a really
Byzantine Empire had come into being, all whose
forces were concentrated about Constantinople, and
which became more and more Oriental in character.
fe 4073]DYNASTY OF HERACLIUS
I. THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE EMPIRE BY HERACLIUS
WHEN Heraclius (610-641) ascended the throne, the
plight of the monarchy seemed almost desperate.
Each year the Persians made greater progress: in 612,
they took Antioch, Apamea, Czesarea; in 614, Damas-
cus; in 615, they occupied Jerusalem, whence they
carried away the Holy Cross and the most famous
relics of Christendom to Ctesiphon; in 617, they occu-
pied Egypt, and advanced into Asia as far as Chalce-
don. Meanwhile, the Avars appeared before Constan-
tinople (619); the Lombards gained ground in Italy,
and the Empire finally lost its possessions in Spain.
Disheartened by all these disasters, Heraclius
thought for a moment of leaving Constantinople and
transporting the seat of authority to Africa. One man
revived his courage by his indomitable energy—the
Patriarch Sergius, whose influence was very great in
the whole policy of the reign. Impulsive and _high-
strung, capable of great enthusiasms, as well as liable
to sudden fits of depression, filled with an ardent re-
ligious faith, and burning to avenge Christianity for
the outrages of the Persians; a courageous soldier
too, an excellent administrator, and a great general,
Heraclius reasserted himself. The Patriarch placed at
his disposal the treasures of the Church; he himself,
with untiring diligence, reorganized the army. In 622
he was ready for the struggle. For six years, not allow-
ing himself to be turned aside by anything, not even
by the formidable attack which the united Persians
and Avars launched against Constantinople (626), he
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
fought the armies of the Great King, carrying the war
into the enemies’ territory—into Azerbaijan (623) and
into Persian Armenia (625); victorious at Nineveh
(627), victorious at the gates of Ctesiphon (628), and
entering into legendary history as the first of the Cru-
saders. The death of Khusrau II (628), and the revo-
lution that followed, finally forced upon the Persians
a humiliating peace, by which they restored all their
conquests, and especially the Holy Cross, which He-
raclius carried back in triumph to Jerusalem (629).
After these great military successes, Heraclius en-
deavored, by his religious policy, to restore moral
unity to the Empire and win back the Monophysites
of Syria and Egypt; he strove, in concert with the
Patriarch Sergius and Cyrus of Alexandria, to find a
formula of conciliation which should bring dissenters
back into the orthodox fold. From this sprang the
Monothelite doctrine, which the Emperor defined in
his exposition of faith known as the Ecthesis (638),
and of which he devoted himself to obtaining the ac-
ceptance both by the Monophysites and by the Ro-
man Church.
The Empire, thanks to these efforts, seemed to be
rehabilitated: its prestige in the East was restored;
its influence, by virtue of the conversion of the Croats
and the Serbs, again made itself felt to the northwest
of the Balkan Peninsula. But these brilliant seemings
only partly concealed actual exhaustion. The condi-
tion of the finances was deplorable; the separatist ten-
dencies, which had so materially aided the success of
the Persians, were not exorcised. Within a few years
the Arab invasion was to destroy all the results of the
42;DYNASTY OF HERACLIUS
victories of Heraclius, at the same time that his relig-
10us policy was cultivating the germ of long-con tinued
dissensions and grave conflicts.
Il. THE ARAB PERIL
THE beginning of the seventh century was marked by
a momentous event—the birth of Islam. In twenty
years, through its extraordinary expansion, the new
religion conquered the greater part of the Eastern
world, and made its way, at the expense of Persia and
Byzantium, from the banks of the Oxus to the shores
of the Syrtis Major.
In 634, the armies of the Caliph Omar attacked
Syria. The Byzantine troops were beaten at Ajnadain
(634); Damascus fell into the hands of the Mussul-
mans (635); the disaster of Yermuk (636) determined
Heraclius to bid an eternal farewell to Syria. The
tribes, too, being hostile to the Greeks, made haste to
go over to the victor. Jerusalem capitulated in 637;
Antioch in 638. Then came the turn of Mesopotamia
(629), of Egypt, which Amru conquered in two years
(640-642), without encountering any great resistance;
and Heraclius, aged and ill, died in despair.
Under his successor, Constans II (642-668), the
Arabs continued their progress. Cyrenaica and Tripoli
fell into their hands (642-643); in 647, they invaded
Northern Africa for the first time. They ravaged Asia
Minor (651), and subjugated Armenia (653). Finally,
having built a fleet, they threatened the preponder-
ance which Byzantium had held hitherto in the east-
ern waters. They conquered Cyprus (649), pillaged
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
Rhodes (654), and in 655, on the coast of Lycia, they
inflicted a memorable defeat upon the Greek fleet
commanded by the Emperor in person. Constanti-
nople itself was in danger, and Constans I, deeming
the Orient lost, went westward to pass the last years
of his life (663-668).
This furthered the designs of the Ommiad caliphs,
who had reigned at Damascus since 660. From that
time on, an Arab invasion ravaged Asia Minor every
year. In 668 the Mussulmans penetrated as far as
Chalcedon. At the same time, they assumed the often-
sive in the West, established themselves in Northern
Africa, where they founded Kairwan (669), and
threatened Sicily. Finally, in 673, they made a su-
preme effort: they attacked Constantinople.
But the new Emperor, Constantine IV (668-685),
was an energetic prince. Fruitlessly the Arabs assailed
the Byzantine capital by land and sea for five whole
years (673-678): they did not succeed in taking it.
The Grecian fleet, to which the recent discovery of
Greek fire gave an incontestable superiority, forced the
Mussulman squadrons to retreat, and inflicted a ter-
rible defeat upon them in the bay of Syllzeum.
On land, the armies of the Caliph were beaten in
Asia. Moaviyah had to resign himself to sign a treaty
(678). This was the first check for Islam. Constantine
IV might well be proud of his work. The prestige of
the Empire was so far restored that all its adversaries
of the monarchy bent the knee before it; and, says the
chronicler Theophanus, profound tranquillity reigned
in Kast and West.
7445 alDYNASTY OF HERACLIUS
III. THE RELIGIOUS POLICY AND THE WEST
Ar the same time the Emperor restored peace in the
Church. The religious policy of Heraclius had had
serious consequences. Monothelism had aroused keen
disaffection in Africa and Italy, which had found vent
in the uprisings of the exarchs of Carthage (646) and
of Ravenna (650) against the imperial authority, in
the growing discontent of the Italian peoples, and in
the ardent opposition of the Roman pontifts. ‘To no
purpose had Constans IT endeavored to pacify men’s
minds by promulgating the edict called the Type
(648); in vain had he caused Pope Martin I (653) to
be arrested and condemned; in vain had he gone 1n
person to the West. Rome had been obliged to sub-
mit; but by favor of these events the Lombards had
made new conquests.
Constantine IV realized that a different policy was
imperative. The loss of Egypt and Syria made it use-
less thenceforth to seek an agreement with the Mo-
nophysites. In restoring religious tranquillity by an
understanding with Rome, the Emperor hoped at one
and the same time to bind what was left of Italy more
closely to the Empire, and to obtain leisure to devote
himself entirely to the political and military affairs of
the monarchy. Consequently the Gicumenical Coun-
cil of Constantinople (680-681) had the task of re-
storing religious unity; and, in full accord with the
Papacy, it condemned the Monothelite heresy, and
reestablished the orthodox faith.
These were important results. When Constantine
IV died in 685, the Empire seemed to have emerged
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from the crisis in which it had been very near going to
pieces. To be sure, it had emerged terribly curtailed;
to be sure, its economic prosperity was seriously 1m-
paired by the loss of Egypt, whose grain was one of
the chief resources of the Empire, of Syria, whose
flourishing industries were one source of its wealth,
and of those harbors— Alexandria, Gaza, Antioch,
and Beirut—which were the centres of prodigious
commercial activity. To be sure, another black cloud
was rising above the horizon: since 679, the Bulga-
rians, having crossed the Danube, had settled between
that river and the Balkans. But, on the whole, the
monarchy had resisted the furious assaults of Islam;
the defense of its territory had been ensured by great
administrative reforms; and the Empire, more com-
pact, more homogeneous, freed from the danger of
Oriental separatism and from the dead weight of the
West (it was to lose Africa in 698, as it had lost Spain
and half of Italy), seemed a solidly established organ-
ism, capable of surviving in the new and wholly Ori-
ental form that it had assumed in the course of the
seventh century.
IV. THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE EMPIRE
IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY
AA SUBSTANTIAL transformation had, in truth, taken
place. First of all, an ethnographic transformation. In
the devastated and depopulated Balkan Peninsula,
new tribes had established themselves, little by little.
In the northwest, Heraclius had been obliged to toler-
ate the settlement of the Croats and Serbs, on condi-
405DYNASTY OF HERACLIUS
tion that they should be converted to Christianity,
and should become vassals of the Empire. The Slavs
had found their way into other districts. There were
Slavic cantonments in Mcesia and Macedonia, and up
to the gates of Thessalonica, which the barbarians had
attacked at different times, but had failed to capture.
There were Slavs in Thessaly, in Central Greece as
far as the Peloponnesus, and in the islands of the Ar-
chipelago; and, if it is an exaggeration to believe, as
Fallmerayer maintains, that there was a complete
slavization of those regions, the fact remains that
many foreign elements had come in, to mingle with
the Hellenic peoples, and that these invaders caused
much trouble to the emperors of the seventh century,
who succeeded only with difficulty in subduing and
assimilating them. In the northeastern part of the
peninsula, the Bulgarians had, later, settled in a body;
and as they came in contact with the Slavic tribes liv-
ing in the country, they had gradually become s/av-
zed, and had founded a strong state. No doubt, seri-
ous dangers to the Empire resulted from all this; but
there was also an advantage in this blending of races:
the Empire was rejuvenated by this infusion of new
blood.
About the same time a change in government of
great importance had taken effect. In the reign of
Justinian, the system of government set up by Rome
In certain provinces had been modified by the union
of civil and military powers in the same hands. After
Justinian, this practice became general, the better to
ensure the defense of the frontiers. It was with this
end in view that Maurice, at the end of the sixth cen-
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tury, created the Exarchate of Africa for protection
against the Berbers, and that of Ravenna against the
Lombards. In the seventh century, similar measures
were taken in the East against the Arab and Bulga-
rian perils. The successors of Heraclius set up gov-
ernments called themes—so called from a word which
originally meant an army corps, and was very soon
applied to the territory occupied by the corps. In
these districts, supreme authority was entrusted to a
military chief, the strategis, under whom the ctvil ad-
ministration continued, but in a subordinate position.
Thus arose in Asia the themes of Armenia, Anatolia,
and the Opsikion, and in Europe, that of Thrace. The
maritime districts and islands were organized in the
same way; they formed the maritime theme. At the end
of the seventh century, instead of being divided into
eparchis, as in the Roman period, the Empire com-
prised seven or eight themes, of considerable size. Car-
ried to completion and made general by the emperors
of the eighth century, the government by themes was
destined to endure as long as the Empire, and it
marks the evolution toward a military form of govern-
ment which is the characteristic feature of all medi-
eeval states.
But, above all, in the seventh century the Empire
became Hellenized. In the reign of Heraclius, in 627,
there appeared for the first time in the imperial proc-
lamation, in place of the ancient Roman nomencla-
ture, the Greek appelation, ““Basileus faithful in God”
(muaros ev Be@ Bacidrev’s), which thenceforth was the
style used by all the Byzantine emperors. At the same
time, Greek became the official language. Justinian,
[ 48 ]DYNASTY OF HERACLIUS
in his day, although he still regarded Latin as the
“national language” of the Empire, had condescended
to promulgate most of his Novel/e in the “‘vernacular,
which is Greek,” to make them more intelligible. In
the seventh century, all the imperial decrees and all
the edicts of the government were drawn up in Greek.
In the administration, the old Latin titles disappeared,
or were Hellenized, and new ones took their place—
logothetes, eparchs, strategoi, drongaires. In the army,
where Asiatics and Armenians predominated, Greek
became the language of command. And, although the
Byzantine Empire continued, until its last day, to call
itself the “Empire of the Romans,” Latin was scarcely
understood there, and the word “Powpato. meant
Greeks. Finally, in place of the refined and slightly
artificial language used by the writers of the fifth and
sixth centuries, in which they continued the tradition
of classical literature, vulgar Greek made its appear-
ance, and became the spoken language of most of the
peoples of the monarchy.
While the Empire was becoming Hellenized, the re-
ligious imprint with which it had always been stamped
became more profound, because of the larger place
that the Church filled in public life and in society.
Religious questions held a position of essential impor-
tance in the State; the wars of Heraclius were so many
crusades, and the emperors were passionately inter-
ested 1n theological problems. From that time, ortho-
doxy and nationality meant the same thing at Byzan-
tum. Moreover, the Patriarch of Constantinople,
who had now become the sole head of the Byzantine
Church since the Arabs had conquered the patriar-
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chates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, took
on the aspect of a very great personage, whose influ-
ence in the government was often omnipotent.
No less significant facts are the development of
monasticism, the great number and wealth of the con-
vents, the influence which the monks exercised by
their direction of men’s consciences and the venera-
tion which attached to their persons and to the sacred
images which their monasteries possessed. Indeed,
Paganism had disappeared since the end of the sixth
century, and with it the spirit of antiquity; from the
beginning of the seventh century Byzantine literature
assumed a form that was almost entirely religious and
popular; intellectually and artistically, this period
was one of the least productive that Byzantium ever
knew.
But, with all this, Greek, which was always the lan-
guage of the Church in the East, completed its con-
quest of the Empire; and as the ambition of the patri-
archs of Constantinople offended the susceptibilities
of the Romans, the religious policy of the emperors,
who antagonized and outraged the popes, and the in-
creasing misunderstanding and hostility between the
East and the West, paved the way for the rupture be-
tween those two hierarchies, and helped to drive the
Byzantine Empire back toward the East. Thenceforth
the monarchy had two powerful supports, which were
to ensure its existence, and to give it its distinctive
character for centuries to come—Hellenism and the
orthodox faith.DYNASTY OF HERACLIUS
V. THE END OF THE DYNASTY OF HERACLIUS AND THE
DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE (685-717)
A SINGLE vigorous hand would have sufficed to bring
back prosperity to the Empire thus transformed. Un-
fortunately, the imprudence and follies of Justinian II
(685-695) endangered all the results obtained by his
father. War broke out anew with the Bulgarians (689)
and the Slavs; it broke out anew with the Arabs, and
ended in disaster (692). On the other hand, the re-
ligious policy brought on a rupture with Rome, and
led to insurrections in Italy. In 695, a revolution over-
turned the dynasty of Heraclius and opened a period
of twenty years of anarchy (695-717). Six emperors
succeeded one another on the throne, following an
equal number of coups-d’état; and by favor of these
commotions Byzantine Africa fell definitively into the
hands of the Mussulmans (693-698). In the East,
despite the efforts and temporary successes of ‘Tibe-
rius III (698-705), the Arabs ravaged Asia Minor;
invaded Armenia, which had revolted against Byzan-
tium (703), and Cilicia (711); captured Amasia (712),
and Antioch in Pisidia (713); devastated Galatia
(714); besieged Amorium (716), and took Pergamum.
Meanwhile, in Europe the Bulgarians, whose Khan,
Terbel, had restored Justinian II to the throne 1n 705,
invaded the Empire (708), and even appeared before
Constantinople (712). The monarchy had its back to
the wall.
The situation at home was scarcely better. A dan-
gerous intellectual and moral debasement was mani-
fest in the society of this period. During the civil wars
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
a wave of savagery, of cruelty and treachery pene-
trated everywhere; incessant revolts, rampant am-
bitions, insurrections breaking out on all sides, in
Italy as well as in the Chersonese, testify to a growing
lack of faith and loyalty. Superstition made formid-
able progress: worship of relics, belief in the miracu-
lous virtues of the sacred images, in the marvelous
and the supernatural,—witness the rdle ascribed to
the Virgin at the siege of Constantinople in 626, or the
intervention attributed to St. Demetrius in the de-
fense of Thessalonica,— the tendency to fatalism, had
sovereign sway over men’s minds in those days; and
all that we know of the morals of ecclesiastics as well
as of the laity bears witness to an extraordinary de-
moralization. The influence that the monks exercised
and the agitation that they kept alive were another
source of disorder. And because of all this, many peo-
ple were profoundly perturbed and scandalized, and
justly so.
The Empire was awaiting, was loudly demanding,
a savior and a leader. He appeared in the person of
Leo the Isaurian. When, in 717, the strategos of Ana-
tolia, in concert with the strategos of Armenia, rose
against the Emperor whom the troops of the Opsikion
had proclaimed, and marched to Constantinople,
everybody— the Senate and the people, the Patriarch
and the soldiers—pronounced themselves in his
favor. The Isaurian dynasty, which ascended to the
throne with him, was to reéstablish order and security
in the Empire, and gloriously to rehabilitate it.CHAP LEK 1V
T he Lsaurian Emperors and the Iconoclastic
Controversy, 717-867
I. THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE EMPIRE UNDER THE
FIRST TWO ISAURIAN EMPERORS (717-775)
HE new Emperor, Leo III (717-740), was a re-
markable man. Being an excellent general, he
had tried, not without success, to defend Asia against
the Mussulmans; being a shrewd diplomat and good
organizer, he had all the qualities of a statesman. His
son, Constantine V (740-775), whom he early asso-
ciated with himself in power, in order to ensure the
duration of the dynasty, was an able ruler, notwith-
standing the accusations and slanders which his ene-
mies heaped upon him, and notwithstanding the nick-
names, copronymus (an obscene epithet) and cabalh-
nos (ostler), with which they delighted to revile him.
He was intelligent, energetic, a great warrior and a
great organizer; and although he was even more dicta-
torial, violent, harsh, and choleric than his father, it
is none the less true that the first two Isaurians were
very great emperors, whose glorious memory long re-
mained dear to the army and the people of Byzan-
tium, and to whom even their adversaries could not
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refuse to do justice. The fathers at the Council of
Niczea, while criticizing severely the religious policy of
Leo III and Constantine V, praised their bravery, the
victories they won, the wise measures they took for
the well-being of their subjects, the constitutions
they promulgated, their civil institutions—in fact,
everything that had earned for them the gratitude of
the people. And, in very truth, the first two Isaurians
were the glorious artificers of the reorganization of
the Empire.
The Foreign Policy —A few months after the acces-
sion of Leo III, the Arabs appeared before Constanti-
nople and attacked it by land and sea; even the win-
ter, which was very severe, did not interrupt the oper-
ations. But the Mussulman fleets were defeated in
several battles; the land army, exhausted by famine,
underwent a serious disaster. After a year of useless
efforts (from August, 717, to August, 718), the Arabs
raised the siege. For Leo III, it was a glorious begin-
ning of his reign; for Islam, a great catastrophe; and
an event of very different significance from the vic-
tory won fifteen years later (732) by Charles Martel,
on the plains of Poitiers. The onrush of the Arabs was
definitively arrested, and the pious Byzantines might
justly be proud to see that God and the Virgin were
still loyally protecting the Christian City and Empire.
Nevertheless, despite this disaster, the Arabs were
still to be feared. After several years of respite, they
resumed the offensive, and almost every year Asia
Minor suffered from their invasions. But the defeat
that the two emperors inflicted upon them at Akroi-
E54ISAURIAN EMPERORS
non (739) taught them a severe lesson. Constantine
V took advantage of it to assume the offensive in
Syria (745), to reconquer Cyprus (746), and to carry
the war to the Euphrates and into Armenia (751).
Also, the internal conflicts that convulsed the Arab
Empire —the accession to power of the Abbassides
(750), who transferred the capital of the Caliphs from
near-by Damascus to distant Bagdad—were singu-
larly favorable to the successes of the Byzantines.
‘Throughout the reign of Constantine V, the war went
favorably for the Greeks; and after him, his son, Leo
IV, was able to invade Syria in 778, with an army of
100,000 men, and in 779 triumphantly to drive the
Mussulmans out of Asia Minor. The Arab peril, so
portentous in the seventh century, ceased to be a
menace to the Empire.
Constantine V endeavored, at the same time, to
avert the Bulgarian peril. In 755 he took the offen-
sive, and in nine successive campaigns inflicted such
sanguinary defeats upon the barbarians, at Marcelle
(759) and Anchialus (762), that in 764, panic-stricken,
they did not even attempt further resistance, and con-
sented to make peace. The war that began again in
772, and lasted to the end of the reign, was no less
successful; and even if Constantine V did not succeed
in destroying the Bulgarian state, he did, at least, re-
store the prestige of the Byzantine arms in the Balkan
Peninsula. In addition, he suppressed the uprisings of
the Slavs in Thrace and Macedonia (758), and, fol-
lowing the example of Justinian II, he settled some of
their tribes in Asia Minor, in the theme of Opsikion
(762).
E 5G:btate as
BYZANTINE EMPIRE
Internal Reform—While they were imposing re-
spect for the Empire upon its enemies, the two Isau-
rian emperors applied themselves to strengthening it
at home. It was a tremendous work of reorganization
—administrative, economic, and social.
In order to ensure the defense of the frontiers, Leo
III and his son began by coordinating the government
of the themes, cutting up the huge administrative dis-
tricts of the seventh century into a number of circum-
scriptions of smaller size and easier to defend; they
derived therefrom the political advantage of dimin-
ishing the power which the possession of too vast
territories gave to the strategoi, and of lessening the
danger from the revolts which resulted from it. While
the Military Code restored discipline in the army, a
careful and often severe financial administration in-
creased the resources of the treasury. The Rural Code
aimed to restrain the disquieting development of the
great domains, to arrest the disappearance of the
small free estates, and to ensure to the peasants better
living conditions. The Nautical Code encouraged the
development of the merchant marine. But, above all,
the great legislative reform which was marked by the
publication of the civil code called the Ecloga (739)
improved the administration of justice, and intro-
duced into the law, together with greater clearness, a
wholly new and more Christian spirit of humanity
and equality. After a half-century of rule, the first
two Isaurians had made the Empire rich and prosper-
ous, despite the plague which ravaged it in 747, and
despite the agitation caused by the iconoclastic con-
troversy :
i 50.4ISAURIAN EMPERORS
II. THE ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY (726~780)
In order to complete their reconstructive work, Leo
III and Constantine V attempted a great religious re-
form. They proscribed the holy images, persecuted the
monks who constituted themselves their protectors,
and from the serious conflict which they started,
called the Iconoclastic Controversy, they have come to
be known in history under the name of Iconoclasts.
The religious policy of the Isaurian emperors has
often been misinterpreted, and its purpose and scope
have been but imperfectly understood. The reasons
that influenced them were at once religious and polit-
ical. Many pious souls, at the beginning of the eighth
century, were shocked by the excesses of superstition,
particularly by the importance attributed to the wor-
ship of images, by the miracles which were expected
of them, and by the manner in which they were in-
volved in all human actions and concerns; and many
good people were justly disturbed by the discredit
which these practices brought upon religion. In Asia,
especially, the hostile feeling against the images was
strong; and Leo III, who was of Asiatic origin, shared
in this feeling. Neither he nor his son was, as has some-
times been thought, a free-thinker, or rationalist, or
precursor of the Reformation or the Revolution: they
were men of their own time—pious, believers, even
theologians, sincerely desirous of reforming religion
and of purifying it of what seemed to them to be
idolatry.
But they were statesmen, also, intent upon increas-
ing the grandeur and tranquillity of the Empire. Now
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
the greater number of monasteries, the constant
growth of monastic wealth, were the source of grave
dangers to the State. The immunity enjoyed by the
possessions of the Church diminished the resources of
the treasury. The multitude of men who entered the
cloisters took laborers from the farms, soldiers from
the army, and officials from the public service. But,
above all, the influence that the monks exercised over
men’s minds, and the power that resulted therefrom,
made them an element of dangerous unrest.
It was this state of affairs which the Isaurian em-
perors attempted to counteract: by proscribing the
images, they aimed at the monks, who found in the
images and in their cult the most powerful sanction
for their acts. It is quite true, that, by the strife which
they thus inaugurated, the Isaurian emperors started
a long era of commotions; it is quite true that this
struggle had very grave political consequences. We
must not forget, however, if we would judge the icono-
clastic sovereigns fairly, that in their undertaking they
found numerous supporters among the higher clergy,
who were jealous of the influence of the monks; in the
army, which was composed mainly of Asiatics; and
not only in official circles, but in a portion of the pop-
ulace itself; and that the work which they undertook
was not without cause or without great importance.
In 726 Leo III promulgated the first edict against
the images, by which, it would seem, he ordered, not
that they should be destroyed, but that they should
be hung higher up, so as to remove them from the
adoration of the multitude. This act aroused extreme
excitement; there were acts of violence in Constanti-
RSSISAURIAN EMPERORS
nople; a revolt—which was, however, quickly sup-
pressed—1in Greece (727); a general uprising in Italy
(727); and while Pope Gregory II confined himself to
protesting vigorously against the Iconoclastic heresy,
his successor, Gregory III, soon inaugurated a bolder
policy, and, not content with anathematizing the ad-
versaries of the images (731), he sought temporarily
the aid of the Lombards against the Emperor. In
Syria, John of Damascus thundered with like zeal
against Leo III. Nevertheless, the edict seems to have
been executed with great moderation; there was no
systematic persecution of the defenders of the images;
and although the Patriarch Germanus was deposed,
and replaced by a partisan of reform (729); although
measures were taken against the ecclesiastical schools,
the insurrection in Greece, on the other hand, was re-
pressed without violence.
But the struggle was inevitably destined to become
embittered. Questions of principle soon entered into
a conflict wherein, in reality, the Emperor’s authority
in matters of religion, and the desire of the Church to
free itself from the guardianship of the State, were
brought face to face. Furthermore, Constantine V,
who was more of a theologian than his father, carried
into the conflict his personal opinions, which were no
longer hostile to the images alone, but to the adora-
tion of the Virgin and the intercession of the saints;
and, as he was also more vehement in his faith, he
conducted the strife with a more fanatical ardor, and
with a more systematic and rigorous bitterness.
When, after ten glorious and prosperous years, he
had made his throne secure, which had tottered mo-
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
mentarily before the revolt of Artavasdus (740-742),
he convoked a council at Hieria (753), which solemnly
condemned the images. Thenceforth, the prince was
In a position to attack his adversaries, not only as
rebels against the emperor, but as in revolt against
God himself. Nevertheless, he flattered himself at
first that he might be able to convince his adversaries
by argument; so that the persecution did not really
begin until 765. The images were destroyed, convents
closed or secularized or transformed into barracks
and inns; the property of the monasteries was confis-
cated; the monks were arrested, imprisoned, mal-
treated, and exiled; a few, like Saint Stephen the
Younger, were condemned to death; others, in der1-
sion, were exhibited in grotesque processions to the
people assembled in the Hippodrome. Several high
dignitaries of the Empire were executed or banished.
The Patriarch Constantine, being first banished, suf-
fered capital punishment (767).
For five years the persecution raged throughout the
Empire; not so terrible perhaps as the adversaries
of the Emperor have represented,—death sentences
seem, on the whole, to have been rare,— but, never-
theless, extremely violent. It seemed, says a contem-
porary, that the purpose of the government was to
extirpate utterly the monastic order.”’ The monks re-
sisted stubbornly; they suffered bravely “for justice
and for truth.” But many yielded, and many fled, es-
pecially to Italy, so that, as a contemporary,—with
some exaggeration, no doubt,— observes, “Byzantium
seemed to be left without any monastic order.”
It 1s certain that the contest was the occasion of
[ 60 ]ISAURIAN EMPERORS
acts of indescribable violence and savagery and of
nameless cruelties, and that it caused a tremendous
excitement in the Empire. It had, moreover, very
momentous consequences. Already Leo III, by at-
tempting to put down the opposition of the Papacy
by force, by detaching Calabria, Sicily, Crete, and
western Illyricum (732) from obedience to Rome, and
placing them under the rule of the Patriarch of Con-
stantinople, had aggravated the discontent of the
popes and the disaffection of Italy. When, in 751, the
Exarchate of Ravenna succumbed under the blows
of the Lombards, Pope Stephen II did not hesitate to
detach himself from the Empire,—heretical as it was,
and powerless to defend the peninsula,—and to seek
with the Franks a protection less onerous and more
effective; and he accepted from the victorious Pepin
territories formerly belonging to Byzantium, which
formed, thenceforth, the temporal domain of the
Papacy (754). This meant a rupture between Rome
and the Empire.
Constantine V spared no pains to punish one in
whom he could see only a treacherous and disloyal
subject, illegitimately usurping that which belonged to
his master. His efforts were fruitless. In 774, Charle-
magne, intervening once more in the affairs of the
peninsula, solemnly confirmed the donation of Pepin.
Byzantium retained nothing in Italy except Venice
and a few towns in the southern part of the peninsula.
And although, because of this, the diminished Empire
was thrown back still a little more toward the East, in
this rupture were germinating the seeds of threaten-
ing complications and grave perils in the future.
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Ill. IRENE AND THE RESTORATION OF THE IMAGES
(780-802)
TuE religious policy of the first Isaurians had scat-
tered abroad many germs of dissension, discontent,
and ferment. These became manifest after the death
of Constantine V.
During his'short tenure of power, Leo IV (775-780)
carried on the tradition of the preceding reign. But
immediately after his death, his widow, Irene, regent
for the young Constantine VI, deemed it more useful
for her ambition to rely upon the orthodox, and to
restore the worship of the images. In order to devote
herself wholly to her great design, she neglected the
war against the Mussulmans, who came back in 782
as far as Chrysopolis, opposite Constantinople; and
she concluded a most humiliating peace with the
Caliph, in 783. On the other hand, she made overtures
to the Papacy, and established cordial relations with
the Frankish kingdom; above all, at home she de-
voted herself to removing from the government the
adversaries of the images, and banished her brothers-
in-law, the sons of Constantine V; and having thus
cleared the path, with the assistance of the Patriarch
Tarasius she caused the iconoclastic heresy to be sol-
emnly condemned at the C&cumenical Council of
Niceea (787), and restored the worship of the images,
amid the applause of the faction of bigots, who saw in
this trrumph assurance of the proximate complete 1n-
dependence of the Church with respect to the State.
Intoxicated by her victory, and encouraged by the
popularity that her pious zeal won for her, Irene did
G2) JISAURIAN EMPERORS
not hesitate to enter into a contest with her son, who
had reached his majority, and to dispute his claim to
the throne. The first time, in face of the discontent of
the army, which remained faithful to the memory of
Constantine V and, too, was exasperated by the de-
feats which the Arabs, Bulgars, and Lombards in-
flicted upon the imperial troops, she had no choice but
to go into retirement (790). But with persistent craft
she paved the way for her return to power: in 797 she
overthrew her son, and did not shrink from having his
eyes put out. From that time she reigned as a verita-
ble emperor (797-802), the first woman who had as
yet ruled the Empire in her own name.
But although, thanks to her, the Church, rehabili-
tated by the struggle, regained its place in Byzantine
society; although the monastic and bigoted party, led
by men like Theodore of Studion, became more pow-
erful and aggressive than ever, yet the too exclusive
attention which Irene paid to the religious question
entailed consequences disastrous for the Empire. De-
spite the temporary successes gained by Constantine
VI against the Arabs and Bulgarians (791-795), the
Caliphate of Bagdad, under the government of Harun-
al-Raschid, triumphantly renewed the offensive in
the East, and compelled the Byzantines to pay him
tribute (798). In the West, confronted by Charle-
magne, the Greek government showed the same weak-
ness; and the great event of the year 800, which re-
stored the Roman Empire in the West for the behoof
of the Frankish King, was a poignant humiliation for
the Byzantine Court.
Shorn of part of its domain abroad, the Empire was
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
enfeebled at home by the too great partiality which
the government showed the Church, by the deep-
seated schisms which the Iconoclastic Controversy
had left behind, and, lastly, by the bad example which
Irene had set, in reopening the era of dynastic revo-
lutions. True, the Iconoclastic epoch was marked by
great intellectual and artistic progress. ‘Uhe Isaurian
emperors were not puritanical: while proscribing the
images, they loved ostentation and the worldly glam-
our of court life; and for the better decoration of their
buildings, they encouraged a profane art, inspired by
ancient tradition as well as by Arab models; and by
this means, as well as through the prominence of the
Asiatics in the eighth century, the Empire had be-
come completely orientalized.
But, great as was the part which the Empire played
as the champion of Christianity against Islam,as guard-
1an of civilization against barbarism, it was, at the end
of the eighth century, threatened on all sides by formid-
able perils, and it was very weak. The fall of Irene, who
was overthrown by the coup-d’état of Nicephorus
(802), opened the door to disaster and anarchy.
IV. THE SECOND PERIOD OF THE ICONOCLASTIC
CONTROVERSY (802-824)
NicEpHoRus (802-811) was an intelligent prince, an
able financier, desirous of repairing the impoverish-
ment of the treasury, even if he were, to that end,
compelled to seize Church property. He was moderate
in his ideas, and repudiated the violence of the Icono-
clasts; but none the less he planned to maintain their
L 04 |ISAURIAN EMPERORS
reforms; and, above all, he deemed inadmissible the
aspirations of the Byzantine Church, which, intoxi-
cated by its victory, aimed frankly at shaking off the
authority of the State, and regaining its liberty. This
is the characteristic aspect of the second phase of the
Iconoclastic Controversy; there took place then in
Byzantium something very like the Investiture Con-
troversy in the West.
The monks of the monastery of St. John of Studion,
under the leadership of their abbot, Theodore, were
the most embittered and the most obstinate in sup-
porting the claims of the Church. With equal bitter-
ness they combatted the wise opportunism of the
Patriarch Nicephorus (806-815), who endeavored to
efface the memories of the Iconoclastic struggle, the
financial policy of the Emperor, and his authority in
respect of religion. The government was obliged to
take severe measures against them (809), to disperse
and banish them. The monks did not hesitate to ap-
peal to the Pope, being ready to acknowledge the pri-
macy of the Roman Church, provided that they could,
at that price, ensure the independence of the Eastern
Church with respect to the State. This attitude in-
evitably provoked an Iconoclastic reaction. This was
the work of Leo V, the Armenian (813-820), and of
the two emperors of the Phrygian dynasty, Michael
IT (820-829) and Theophilus (829-842). Again, for
thirty years, the Empire was in the throes of a most
violent convulsion.
In 815 a council assembled at Saint Sophia again
proscribed the images and revived in full force the
Iconoclastic decrees of 753. Consequently, the de-
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struction of the images recommenced; above all, by
means of condemnation, persecution, and exile, they
pitilessly suppressed the demonstrations and opposi-
tion of the monks. Theodore of Studion died in exile
(826); and the persecution was still more severe under
the rule of the Emperor Theophilus, an ardent Icono-
clast and bigoted theologian. A rigorous edict against
the partisans of the images was promulgated in 832,
and the Patriarch John, called Lekanomantis, under-
took to execute it. Convents were closed, monks were
persecuted and imprisoned, and terror reigned anew.
But, after one hundred and twenty years of fight-
ing, men became weary of this exhausting and futile
strife. After the death of Theophilus, the regent Theo-
dora, his widow, on the advice of her brother Bardas,
decided to bring about peace by restoring the worship
of the images. This was the work of the Council of
843, over which the new Patriarch Methodius pre-
sided, and whose decisions were proclaimed in a sol-
emn ceremony, which, to this day, the Greek Church
commemorates on the nineteenth of February, in the
annual festival of orthodoxy (Kuptakn 77s 6podo€ias).
But, although the images were restored, although the
Church was victorious in this respect, the work of the
Iconoclastic emperors remained intact as to the essen-
tial point. They had aimed to keep the Church indepen-
dence on the State, to increase the imperial power over
it; the Studites had fought bitterly against these pre-
tensions;.they had obstinately denied to the emperor
the right to decide concerning the dogmas of the faith,
and had unyieldingly maintained theChurch’s indepen-
dence of lay authority. On this point the Studites were
[ 66 |ISAURIAN EMPERORS
vanquished. The Iconoclastic controversy had the
undeniable result of making the Church more sub-
missive than ever to the authority of the emperor.
V. THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE EMPIRE AND THE
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE MONARCHY (802-867)
Waite the Empire was thus absorbed 1n these religious
struggles, grave events disturbed its internal tranquil-
lity, and endangered its security from without.
The crime of Irene against her son, by removing the
Isaurian dynasty from the throne, had reopened the
era of revolutions. The coup d'état which placed N1-
cephorus on the throne (802) was followed by the
pronunciamento that elevated Leo V (813) and the
conspiracy which, after assassinating Leo V, put in
his place Michael II (820). In addition to the plots
that succeeded, there was a long series of attempts
that failed, of which the most formidable was the re-
bellion of Thomas (822-824), who, seeking support
among the lower classes, imparted to his uprising an
almost socialistic aspect. For twenty years the coun-
try was a prey to anarchy.
Affairs were in scarcely better case externally. The
treaty of 812, which recognized Charlemagne as Em-
peror, confirmed the loss of Italy, where Byzantium
retained only Venice and a few districts in the south-
ern part of the peninsula. The war with the Arabs,
which broke out again in 804, resulted in two grave
disasters, the occupation of Crete by Mussulman cor-
sairs from Spain (826),—who, from that base, rav-
aged, almost with impunity, the eastern Mediterra-
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
nean,—and the conquest of Sicily (827) by the Arabs
of Africa, who, in 831, captured Palermo. But the
Bulgarian peril was most to be dreaded, since the re-
doubtable Khan Kroumi had extended his empire
from the Balkans to the Carpathians. Nicephorus en-
deavored to hold him in check by invading Bulgaria;
on his return thence, he perished in a sanguinary de-
feat (811), and the Bulgarians, again victorious at
Adrianople, made their way to the very walls of Con-
stantinople (813). The victory of Leo V at Mesembria
(817) saved the Empire. But, if we reflect that to all
these diverse perils were added the insurrections of
half-conquered peoples, like the Slavs of the Pelopon-
nesus (807), we can understand that, after twenty
years of anarchy, the work of the great Isaurian em-
perors seemed to be utterly destroyed.
Nevertheless, the Empire survived this crisis. The
reign of Theophilus (819-842) repaired in part the
disasters suffered in the East, thanks to the increasing
weakness of the Caliphate of Bagdad; and even
though, in truth, after the defeat at Dazimon (the
present lokat), and the capture of Amorion (838), it
was necessary to sue for peace to the Arabs, still,
through the energy of her internal government, her
wise financial administration, and the skill of her di-
plomacy, Byzantium recovered her prestige and her
prosperity. In the magnificence of its buildings, in the
splendor of the Sacred Palace, in the preéminence of
its civilization, Constantinople, toward the middle of
the ninth century, rivaled the capital of the caliphs.
And when, at last, the interminable Iconoclastic Con-
troversy was brought to an end, she appeared even
CoreISAURIAN EMPERORS
more brilliant and powerful. On her emergence from
the long period of convulsions, literature and art
seemed to take on fresh vigor; and the University of
Constantinople, reéstablished in the palace of Mag-
naura by Cesar Bardas (about 850), became once
more, under the direction of Leo of Thessalonica, the
centre of a notable intellectual culture.
At the same time, the Church, coming forth reju-
venated from the struggle, placed its renewed activity
at the service of the State. It restored religious unity,
by combatting heresy, especially that of the Pauli-
cians, which the government of Theodora persecuted
severely in Asia Minor; and by achieving the conver-
sion of the Slavs of the Peloponnesus (849); above all,
by the work of its missions, it extended wonderfully
the influence of Byzantium throughout the East. At
the call of the Prince of Great Moravia, Cyril and
Methodius, “‘the apostles of the Slavs,”’ carried Chris-
tianity to the savage tribes that dwelt in Hungary and
Bohemia (863). They did even more: for the benefit of
the new converts they translated the Holy Scriptures
into Slavic; for transcribing their work, they invented
the Glagolitic alphabet, and thus gave to the Slavs both
their alphabet and their literary language; they preach-
ed in Slavic, they celebrated the offices in the Slavic
tongueand witha Slavicliturgy; they strove to organize
a Slavic clergy; and by these wise and tactful methods,
they won over the Slavic peoples to the orthodox faith.
For twenty years (863-885) the two brothers of Thess-
alonica pursued their work of evangelization in Mor-
avia. Andalthough it finally succumbed beforeGerman
hostility and the Magyar invasion, elsewhere these
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same methods procured for Byzantium more durable
triumphs. Christianity made its way into the Jewish
state of the Khazars, on the banks of the Don. Most
important ofall, in 864, Boris, Tsar of Bulgaria, became
a convert to the orthodox faith; and, although in the
years following the neophyte wavered for a moment be-
tween Byzantium and Rome; although he had entered
into relations with Pope Nicholas I, to request from him
the introduction of ritual into his realm (866), none the
less Greek influence became thereafter deeply rooted
in Bulgaria.
These were great achievements. Undoubtedly the
follies of Michael III (842-867), especially after the
young prince escaped from the tutelage of his mother
Theodora (856) and his uncle Bardas, endangered
temporarily the results thus obtained. The piracies of
the Arabs of Crete swept eastern waters bare; in Asia
Minor, during twenty years (844-863), victories al-
ternated with reverses. In the West, the Mussulmans
completed the conquest of Sicily between 843 and 859.
Finally, the Russians appeared before Constantinople
in 860, for the first time; and, in the popular belief, it
required nothing less than a miracle of the Virgin to
save the capital.
Another event of more serious significance marked
the reign of Michael ITI. In place of Ignatius, deposed
by Ceesar Bardas, Photius had become Patriarch of
Constantinople (858). The Pope, Nicholas I, at the en-
treaty of the deposed prelate, took cognizance of the
affair and charged his legates to open an investiga-
tion. The ambition of Photius was at no loss to exploit
in marvelous measure the discontent with which for
72 ylISAURIAN EMPERORS
centuries the Orient had regarded the pretensions of
the pope, and the hostility that it cherished against
the West: as against the claims of the Roman pri-
macy, he shrewdly succeeded in making his personal
cause a veritable national cause. To the excommuni-
cation that Nicholas I hurled against him in 863, he
responded by breaking with Rome. The Council of
Constantinople (867) anathematized the Pope, de-
nounced his illegal interference in the affairs of the
Eastern Church, and consummated the schism. It
was a striking proof of the existence of a national
Byzantine sentiment, which showed itself about the
same time, in no less unequivocal fashion, in the feel-
ing caused by the encroaching policy of Rome in Bul-
garia (866).
Thus, toward the middle of the ninth century, there
really existed a Byzantine nationality, which had
slowly taken shape in the midst of passing events; the
Empire, at the end of the Iconoclastic Controversy
had recovered religious unity, political power, and
intellectual eminence; above all, it had become a
strictly Oriental Empire. ‘The moment was at hand
when this Empire was to reach the apex of its great-
ness. When Basil the Macedonian,! the favorite of
Michael ITI, and associated with him on the throne,
had rid himself of his rival Bardas (866), he next as-
sassinated his benefactor (867), and thus raised a new
dynasty to power. By this coup d'état he gave one
hundred and fifty years of splendor, prosperity, and
renown to the Byzantine Empire.
1 This is his usual designation; but we must note that the family of Basil was
of Armenian origin, and had been very recently transplanted in Macedonia.GH Aw T Bak
The Apogee of the Empire under the
ope! Bee ipa = ot = fab eee HE Pe ree ts pee he ee o ii en Sa ches oie A hat Bt ae SS lel aks ae oe oe ml
Macedonian Dynasty, 867-1081
I. THE SOVEREIGNS OF THE MACEDONIAN LINE AND THE
CONSOLIDATION OF THE DYNASTY
ee ee me em Be
ROM 867 to_1025 the Byzantine Empire knew
nearly one hundred and_sixty years of incompar-
able splendor\For a century and a half, it had the good
fortune to have at its head a succession of sovereigns
nearly all of whom were remarkable men, Basil I, the
founder of the dynasty (867-886), Romanus (I) Leca-
penus (919-944), Nicephorus (II) Phocas (963-969),
John (I) Tzimisces (969-979),—illustrious usurpers,
who ruled under the name of legitimate princes,—and,
lastly, Basil Il, who reigned for a whole half century
(976-1025), were not such men as historians are only
too ready to represent the Byzantine emperors to have
been. ‘These were vigorous men, of stern mould, often
unscrupulous and pitiless, strong-willed and imperi-
ous, more intent upon inspiring fear than upon inspir-
ing love; but they were statesmen, passionately pre-
occupied with the grandeur of the Empire; illustrious
warriors, whose lives were passed in camps, among
soldiers, in whom they recognized and loved the
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source of imperial power. ‘They were skilful adminis-
trators, of persistent and inflexible energy, who hesi-
tated at nothing when the public welfare was in ques-
tion. They had no liking for useless expenditure, they
were intent solely upon increasing the national wealth;
the glittering luxury of the palace, the empty pomp of
processions and ceremonials interested them only in
so far as these things furthered their policies, and up-
held the prestige of the emperor and the empire. Jeal-
ous of their authority, they had, generally speaking,
no favorites; 1f we except such a powerful personality
as the Grand Chamberlain Basil, illegitimate son of
Romanus Lecapenus, who was through five reigns and
for more than forty years (944-988) the soul of the
government, their advisers were in most cases obscure
men, whom they employed, and whose masters they
always were. Enamoured of renown, and with their
hearts filled with the highest ambitions, they aimed
to make the Byzantine Empire the predominant pow-
er in the Oriental world, champion at once of Hellen-
ism and of the orthodox faith; and, by their glorious
exploits of arms, by the supple shrewdness of their
diplomacy, and by the vigor of their government,
they realized their dream, and made of this period an
epoch of veritable rebirth, one of the most resplendent
moments in the long history of Byzantium.
At the moment when Basil I ascended the throne,
the situation of the monarchy was still peculiarly dif-
ficult. It seemed that the whole state must be made
over. The uncultivated peasant, whose crime had ele-
vated him to the supreme power, had all the qualities
necessary to accomplish this stupendous task: he was
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
intelligent; equally desirous of reéstablishing good
order in the interior of the monarchy and of restoring
its prestige abroad; an excellent administrator, a good
soldier, ambitious, above all, to establish the imperial
authority on a solid foundation. During his reign of
twenty years he was able to place the affairs of the
empire on a favorable footing, and at the same time,
through the prestige of services rendered, to ensure
the fortune of his family.
His son, Leo VI (886-912), whose reign occupies an
important place in the administrative history of the
Empire, different as he was from his father by reason
of his rough-and-ready character, his pedantic whims,
and his weakness in dealing with his favorites, pur-
sued with the same tenacity the consolidation of the
dynasty. In order to ensure an heir to the throne, he
did not shrink from scandalizing his contemporaries
by his four marriages, or from entering into a conflict
with the Church and its head, the Patriarch Nicholas.
But, at this price, there came into being, for the first
time in Byzantium, for the benefit of a reigning fam-
ily, the idea of legitimation. It was the preéminent
work of the first two Macedonian emperors, “to fur-
nish,” so writes a contemporary, “robust roots to the
imperial authority, in order that the superb branches
of the dynasty may spring therefrom.” Thereafter it
was more difficult to uproot the tree so firmly em-
bedded in the soil; thereafter there was an imperial
family, whose members received the name of Porphy-
rogeniti; and there grew up a popular attachment, a
loyal devotion to that family. In that monarchy, pre-
viously kept in a turmoil by so many revolutions,
raMACEDONIAN DYNASTY
this was a fortunate novelty, pregnant with conse-
quences.
To be sure, even during this period there was no
lack of revolutions. The commotions that marked the
disturbed minority of Constantine VII, the son of Leo
VI (912-959), enabled Romanus Lecapenus to usurp
power for a quarter of a century (919-944). A little
later, when Romanus II, son of Constantine VII, died
after reigning four years (959-963), the weakness of
the government during the minority of his sons, Basi]
II and Constantine VIII, led to the uprising which
bore Nicephorus Phocas into power (963-969), and to
the tragic coup d’état which, by the assassination of
Nicephorus, made John T'zimisces Emperor (969-976).
But no one of these usurpers dared to exclude from
the throne the legitimate descendants of Basil I. Ro-
manus Lecapenus officially shared the power with
Constantine VII, although in reality he relegated him
to the obscure leisure of his studious activity as a
scholar. Nicephorus Phocas and John ‘Tzimisces al-
lowed the children of Romanus II to reign nominally,
and endeavored, by espousing princesses of the 1m-
perial family, to give an air of legitimacy to their
usurpation. And after them the power devolved
again naturally upon the representative, now past
his minority, of the Macedonian family—the great
Emperor, Basil II. The dynasty was so firmly estab-
lished that in this Oriental monarchy even women
could reign—the nieces of Basil II, Zoé (1028-1050),
who shared the throne with her three successve hus-
bands, and Theodora (1054-1056); and these prin-
cesses were popular,— witness the revolution of 1042,
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
when Michael V was deposed for attempting to de-
throne Zoé, and the disaffection that Constantine
Monomachus encountered when he was suspected of
wishing to set aside the two’empresses. Nothing of the
kind had ever before been known in Byzantium, and
public opinion declared openly that “he who finally
reigns in Constantinople 1s always victorious’ —which
made usurpation not only a crime, but, even worse, a
blunder.
As it happened, however, that the usurpers also
were eminent men and notable generals, the Empire
was able to endure without mishap the political in-
capacity of a Constantine VII, the dissipation of
Romanus II, and the long minority of his sons, and
to maintain, during a century and a half, in the con-
duct of its affairs, a unity of aims and a firm guidance
of which Byzantium had had no experience for many
years.
Furthermore, by favor of the assistance of collabo-
rators of high merit,—generals like the Kurkuas,
the Phocases, and the Scleruses, and ministers like
the Grand Chamberlain Basil,—the emperors of the
Macedonian dynasty were able to bestow upon the
monarchy a vast increase of territory and an incom-
parable splendor. The offensive resumed on all fron-
tiers, and crowned with brilliant successes; diplomacy
complementing the military operations and gathering
around the monarchy an escort of vassals; the Byzan-
tine influence spreading throughout the whole eastern
world, and far into the west; a strong government,
distinguished by great legislative achievements; a cen-
tralized administration, skilful and judicious, which,
7hMACEDONIAN DYNASTY
by the common stamp of Hellenism, and by the com-
mon profession of the orthodox faith, was able to en-
sure to the Empire that unity which the diversity of
races seemed to deny it—these things were what
Byzantium owed to the hundred and fifty years dur-
ing which the Macedonian emperors held sway.
And even if they were not able, notwithstanding
their efforts, to avert the formidable perils that men-
aced this prosperity; to solve the agrarian and social
problem, which was distressingly acute; to checkmate
the feudal aristocracy, always quick to revolt; to pre-
vent the ambitious heads of the Eastern Church from
inciting to schism, and, by separating Byzantium
from Rome forever, impairing the solidity of the Em-
pire; even if the dying Macedonian dynasty left an
Empire powerless to oppose the Normans and the
Turks, and opened the door to a long period of anar-
chy (1057-1081)—nevertheless, for a century and a
half, the dynasty founded by Basil I conferred extra-
ordinary glory upon Byzantium. In the tenth and
eleventh centuries, Constantinople was the most bril-
liant centre of European civilization, and, as someone
has said, “the Paris of the Middle Ages.”
II]. THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE MACEDONIAN
EMPERORS (867-1025)
The War Against the Arabs——Since the Arabs had
conquered Crete, in 826, they had become the scourge
of the waters about Byzantium. Candia, the capital of
the island, was the lair of Mussulman pirates, and
from thence, as well as from Tarsus or from Tripoli in
Syria, Arab corsairs ravaged the whole Aigean Sea.
BeyeBYZANTINE EMPIRE
Despite the efforts of Basil I to reorganize the army
and the fleet, the enemy squadrons dominated the
Archipelago. In 904, Thessalonica was taken by Leo
of Tripoli, and almost its whole population was led
away into captivity. Despite a few successes of the
Byzantine navy in 907, and later in 924, in the waters
about Lemnos, the expeditions against Crete resulted
only in disaster (g11 and 949). It was found necessary
to send against the island “‘accursed of God” the best
general of the Empire, Nicephorus Phocas (960). He
succeeded in landing in Crete, and after a siege of
several months, he carried Candia by assault (March,
961). The conquered island was converted to Chris-
tianity. The mastery of the eastern waters reverted to
the Byzantines.
At the same time, a happy turn of affairs permitted
the resumption of the offensive in Asia Minor. Basil I
had already extended the boundaries of the Empire to
the upper Euphrates, had recaptured Samosata (873),
and had made victorious campaigns in Cappadocia
and Cilicia (878-879). The confusion in the Mussul-
man world in the tenth century facilitated still more
the victories of the Byzantines, especially when, after
927, the Empire was delivered from the Bulgarian
peril. ‘The war was actively pressed under illustrious
generals—John Kurkuas, who commanded in Asia
Minor for twenty-two years (920-942), and deserved
to be called “another Trajan, another Belisarius;”
then under Bardas Phocas and his sons, Nicephorus,
Leo, and Constantine. In 928, Theodosiopolis, the
present Erzerum, was taken; in 934, Melitene; in 944,
Edessa, whence they bore away in triumph the mirac-
i 78MACEDONIAN DYNASTY
ulous image of Christ which was preserved there; in
949, Germanikia; in 957, Amida; in 958, Samosata.
The Byzantine frontier was advanced from the Halys
to the Euphrates and Tigris, and a series of newly or-
ganized provinces (the “hemes of Sebaste, Mesopo-
tamia, Seleucia, and Lycandos) attested the impor-
tance of the Byzantine conquests. Armenia and
Iberia shook off the yoke of Islam, and entered the
Byzantine sphere of influence. Throughout the tenth
century the Armenians were destined to play an 1m-
portant part in the affairs of the monarchy, and to
supply it with soldiers, generals, administrators, dip-
lomats, and even emperors: Romanus Lecapenus and
John Tzimisces were both of Armenian origin.
A genuine crusading movement impelled the By-
zantines against the infidels. In Cilicia and in north-
ern Syria Nicephorus Phocas crushed the power of the
Hamdanid emirs of Aleppo. He captured Anazarbus,
Adana, Mopsuestia (964), Tarsus (965), Laodicea,
Hieropolis, Emesa, Aleppo, and, finally, Antioch (968).
His successor, John Tzimisces, conquered Edessa and
Nisibis in Mesopotamia (974), Damascus and Beirut
in Syria (976), and in Palestine approached the gates
of Jerusalem. “And the people,” says a chronicler,
“feared the wrath of Tzimisces, and the sword of the
Christians mowed down the infidels as with a scythe.”
Basil II completed this reconquest of the Orient.
In 995 he took Aleppo, Homs, and Schaizar. Magnifi-
cent triumphs celebrated the downfall of the Mussul-
man power; the Empire extended its boundaries in
the east, and was powerfully defended against every
fresh aggression by a chain of strong fortresses. ‘The
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
annexation, perhaps not altogether wise, of the Ar-
menian principalities by Basil I] (1020), and the sub-
mission of Iberia completed these glorious conquests.
Since the time of Justinian, the authority of the Em-
pire had never stretched so far toward the East.
The War Against the Bulgarians —Even more than
the Arab war, the Bulgarian war is of capital impor-
tance in the external history of Byzantium in the
tenth century.
At the beginning of that century the Bulgarian
menace was more formidable than ever. Territorially,
the Bulgarian state extended from the regions north
of the Danube to the Balkan Peninsula, and to the
west it reached as far as the peaks of the Pindus.
Morally, by the fusion, now complete, of the Bul-
garian and Slav elements, Bulgaria formed a homo-
geneous state, where the monarchical power was
strongly developed; where conversion to Christianity
assured unity of faith; where, through contact with
Byzantium, the country had risen to quite a high de-
gree of civilization. And all this tempted the Bulga-
rian sovereigns to dispute with the Byzantine em-
perors the hegemony of the Balkans.
To realize these ambitious dreams, it was enough
that one man should come to the front: this man was
the son of Boris, the Tsar Symeon (893-927). Edu-
cated at Byzantium, where he had been held as a
hostage, and deeply enamoured of the magnificence
and the civilization of the Byzantines, he dreamed of
conquering Constantinople, and of placing on his own
head the crown of Constantine’s successors. For more
ie SonaMACEDONIAN DYNASTY
than a century a genuine race-war was waged between
Greeks and Bulgarians.
The war began in 889, and, strange to say, the
Causes were economic in their nature. When Leo VI
ordered the warehouses of the Bulgarian merchants in
Constantinople to be removed to Thessalonica, Sym-
eon declared war. An invasion of the Hungarians, sub-
sidized by the Byzantines, finally forced the Bulgarian
King to retreat (893). But after the death of Leo VI,
the disturbances that marked the minority of Con-
stantine VII gave him an opportunity to return. In
913 he appeared before Constantinople; in 914 he took
Adrianople; 1n 917 he crushed the imperial armies in
the battle of Anchialus.
Intoxicated by success, Symeon proclaimed him-
self “T’sar of the Bulgarians and Emperor of the Ro-
mans.’ He installed an independent Bulgarian patri-
archate in his capital of Preslav; it only remained for
him to take Constantinople. He attempted it in 924.
But to take the Byzantine capital, it was necessary
to attack it both by land and by sea, and Symeon had
no navy. It appears, also, that in the interview that
he had with Romanus Lecapenus, like Attila before
St. Leo, he submitted to the influence of all the pres-
tige and civilization of that ancient imperial majesty.
He retreated, he abandoned the golden dream he had
cherished. And although, in his own kingdom, espe-
cially in Preslav the Great, his capital, Symeon had
fostered an intellectual and artistic culture which has
earned for him the name of the Charlemagne of Bul-
garia, the check at Constantinople marked the down-
fall of Bulgarian ambition. When Symeon died (927),
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
the decadence had already begun. It continued at in-
creased speed in the long reign of his son Peter (927-
968). During those forty years Bulgaria became more
and more a satellite of the Empire; and while Byzan-
tium grew stronger, her ancient rival grew weaker day
by day. In face of the waning royal power, feudalism
again raised its head; religious unity was endangered
by the heresy of the Bogomiles; the Bulgarian na-
tionality was disintegrating. The Byzantines’ hour of
revenge was at hand.
It struck in 967. Nicephorus Phocas refused the
tribute which the Empire had always paid to the Bul-
garians, and, with the aid of the Russians under
Sviatoslaff, the Grand Prince of Kiev, he attacked
Bulgaria. But Sviatoslaff found the conquered land
greatly to his taste; he settled there, and refused to
leave (968). The death of the Tsar Peter and the
assassination of Nicephorus (969) increased the diffi-
culties of the situation. When John Tzimisces ascended
the throne, the Russian invasion was threatening the
Empire itself: Sviatoslaff crossed the Balkans, sacked
Philtppopolis (970), and spread panic as far as the
capital. Luckily, the Russians were beaten at Arcadi-
opolis, the present Lulé-Bourgas (970), and the Em-
peror had time to organize a great expedition against
them (971). While the Byzantine fleet sailed up the
Danube, Tzimisces crossed the Balkans, took Preslav,
besieged Sviatoslaff in Dorostol (Silistria), and ob-
liged him to submit and to evacuate the country. Bul-
garla was annexed to the Empire, and the autono-
mous patriarchate was suppressed; victorious Hel-
ozMACEDONIAN DYNASTY
lenism carried the boundaries of the Empire to the
banks of the Danube.
Nevertheless, in the Bulgaria of the Pindus, about
Prespa and Ochrida, the national element, under the
leadership of Count Sischman and his sons, resisted
obstinately. Under cover of the commotions that dis-
turbed the early days of the reign of Basil II, one of
Sischman’s sons, the Tsar Samuel (from between 977
and 979 to 1014) reconstituted Bulgaria. In ten years,
from 977 to 986, he liberated Danubian Bulgaria,
conquered Macedonia and Thessaly, even forced his
way into the Peloponnesus. It required thirty years of
war (986-1018) for the Greeks to overthrow this re-
doubtable empire, which extended from the Danube
to the Adriatic. This was substantially the work of
the Emperor Basil II, whose unrelenting energy and
cruel victories won for him the terrible nickname of
Bulgaroctonos — the slayer of Bulgarians.
In 986 Basil II took the offensive and penetrated
into Bulgaria; but he was badly beaten at the pass of
the Trajan Gate in the Balkans. Ten years passed
before the Emperor was able to resume the struggle,
and during those ten years Samuel continued to add
to the extent of his kingdom, from the Danube to the
Adriatic and to the Aigean Sea. But in 996 the T’sar
was defeated on the banks of the Sperchtus, and
Greece was lost to him; he failed before Thessalonica,
and a part of Danubian Bulgaria fell into the hands
of the imperial troops (1000). But Western Bulgaria
was impregnable. In root, Basil II undertook to sub-
due it. One after another, he conquered the adjacent
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
territories— Berrhoea, Servia, Vodena. Surrounded in
the mountains, Samuel extricated himself and sacked
Adrianople (1003). But the Emperor pursued him un-
relentingly, and drew the net closer, taking Skopi,
conquering lower and middle Macedonia (1007), and
carrying on the war with savage brutality. Samuel
avoided pitched battles; finally, however, his troops
were crushed at the pass of Kimbalongou, on the road
from Seres to Melnik (July 29, 1014). The Tsar did
not survive this defeat: he died a few days later (Sep-
tember 15, 1014). This was the end of Bulgaria.
To be sure, the successors of the great Bulgarian
Tsar, while quarrelling over his throne, continued the
war for a further period of four years. But in 1018 the
country was wholly pacified and the Emperor, in a
trrumphal tour, set about reconstructing it. He did
this with wisdom and tact, respecting the customs
and governmental methods of the vanquished, trying
to win over the great feudal aristocracy, and preserving
the ancient religious organization, which had at its
head the autocephalous Archbishop of Ochrida.
Thus, after many years, Byzantium again became
mistress of the whole Balkan Peninsula; and in the
journey that he made through Greece, as far as
Athens, as well as in the triumph which he celebrated
with great pomp at Constantinople (1019), Basil II
could fairly boast of having restored the Empire to a
height of power it had not known for centuries.
The Recovery of Southern Italy and the Byzantine
Policy in the West.—While the princes of the Mace-
ore alMACEDONIAN DYNASTY
donian line were gloriously pushing forward the fron-
tiers of the Empire in the East, in the West they re-
sumed the ambitious traditions of Byzantine state-
craft. The Byzantines had never renounced their
claim of dominion over Italy. Memories of Rome, the
ancient capital of the Roman sphere, and of Ravenna,
the ancient capital of the exarchate, haunted their
dreams incessantly. The weakness of the last Carolin-
gian emperors, the anarchy in southern Italy, divided
between the Lombard princes, and the increasing
menace of the Mussulman offensive, gave Basil II the
desired excuse for intervention in the peninsula and
for attempting to realize his ambitions.
The Emperor had taken upon himself the task of
reviving the prestige of Byzantium throughout the
Mediterranean, of driving the Mussulman corsairs
from the Adriatic and from the Tyrrhenian Sea, and
of fighting the Saracens of Africa and Sicily. From the
time of his accession, then, he pursued a vigorous pol-
icy in the West. It is true that he did not succeed in
recovering Sicily, where Syracuse fell into the hands
of the infidels, in 878. But he restored order in the
Adriatic, renewed the Byzantine alliance with Venice,
and brought the Croats back into vassalage to Greece.
Above all, he reoccupied Bari (876) and Tarentum
(860), reconquered Calabria (885), and imposed a
Byzantine protectorate upon the Lombard princes.
Two new themes, those of Longobardia and Calabria,
were formed in southern Italy. It was a notable com-
pensation for the loss of Sicily.
The weakness of Leo VI endangered momentarily
BoyBYZANTINE EMPIRE
these fortunate results. Having achieved the conquest
of Sicily by the capture of ‘Taormina (902), the Arabs
were able to invade Calabria, and even to establish
themselves in Campania. The victory of Garigliano
(915) assured anew Byzantine supremacy in Italy,
and, during a whole century, despite the persistence
of Saracen invasions and the rivalry of the German
emperors, the Greeks maintained their authority
throughout the southern half of Italy. There, too, the
glorious reign of Basil II brought to consummation
the ambitions of the Macedonian dynasty.
The victory of Cannes (1018), won by the imperial
troops over the rebellious tribes of Apulia, restored
Byzantine prestige, from Reggio and Bari up to the
gates of the Papal States. And under the imperial
government, skilful in spreading the influence of Hel-
lenism, southern Italy, thanks above all to its Greek
clergy and Greek convents, became a veritable Gre-
cia Magna—a remarkable proof of the power of ex-
pansion, and of the force of the civilization that assim-
ilates, which constituted the greatness of the Byzan-
tine Empire in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
But the entry on the scene of the German Em-
perors, about the middle of the tenth century, ham-
pered to some extent the Byzantine policy. When
Otto went down into Italy, when he assumed the title
of Emperor, Greek pride endured with impatience
what seemed to it a usurpation. It was even worse
when Otto extended his suzerain ty over the Lombard
princes, vassals of Byzantium; when he invaded Gre-
clan territory and attacked Bari (968). Nicephorus
Phocas retaliated vigorously. But his death modified
EcoMACEDONIAN DYNASTY
the Byzantine policy: an agreement supervened,
which was confirmed by the marriage of Otto II and
Theophano (972). Nevertheless, the good understand-
ing lasted only a short time; German ambitions could
not be reconciled with the Byzantine demands. But
the German emperors had little success: Otto I in-
vaded Calabria, and was defeated at Stilo (987);
Henry II resisted in vain the Apulian revolt, and
failed in his attacks on Greek Italy (1022). At the
death of Basil II, Byzantium was all-powerful in
Italy, as well as in Asia and Bulgaria.
Diplomacy: the vassals of the Empire——Thanks to
its great military successes, the Greek Empire, in the
tenth century, extended from the Danube to Syria,
and from the shores of Italy to the plains of Armenia.
But clever diplomacy was destined to extend its sphere
of influence far beyond these limits. All about the Em-
pire was grouped a succession of vassal states, which
formed a first line of defense beyond the frontier,
and, above all, spread proudly through the world the
political influence and the civilization of Byzantium.
In Italy, Venice, wholly Greek in origin and in cus-
toms, was the most faithful and the most docile of the
vassals of the Empire. The emperors had, therefore,
entrusted to her the task of policing the Adriatic; and
from the end of the tenth century (992) they had
granted her those ample commercial privileges which
paved the way for her future greatness. In southern
Italy the republics of Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi re-
volved in the orbit of Byzantium; lastly, the Lombard
princes of Salerno, Capua, and Beneventum, although
[ez 4BYZANTINE EMPIRE
of less assured fidelity, accepted, generally the Greek
protectorate. In the northwest of the Balkan Penin-
sula and along the whole shore of the Adriatic, the
Slavic states of Croatia and Serbia, brought back by
Basil I to Christianity and the authority of Byzan-
tium, were useful allies of the Empire, particularly
against the Bulgarians. In the East, on the shore of
the Black Sea, Cherson, a vassal rather than a subject
state, was a valuable post of observation and means of
political and economic action against the barbarian
tribes — Khazars, Petchenegs, and Russians — which
inhabited the neighboring steppes. In the Caucasus,
the princes of the Alani, the Abasges, and Albania,
took pride in bearing the titles and receiving the sub-
sidies of Byzantium. And, finally, the states of Ar-
menia, wrested in the tenth century from Arab influ-
ence, furnished the Empire with generals and soldiers
by the thousand. The Bagratid King of Armenia, too,
as well as the princes of Vasparokan, Taron, and
Iberia, were faithful adherents and retainers of the
Empire, pending the time when their domains should
be annexed, one after another, by Basil II.
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Keligious Policy: The Conversion of Russia —But
outside of these regions brought under the Greek pro-
tectorate, the civilizing influence of Byzantium ex-
tended still farther. As always, the missionaries sec-
onded the work of the diplomats. Of this fact, the
conversion of the Russians to Christianity offers a
striking proof.
Since the middle of the ninth century Byzantium
ecSSelMACEDONIAN DYNASTY
had had relations with Russia. Several times after the
ageressive enterprise of 860, adventurers from Kiev
had threatened Constantinople with their attacks
(907 and 941); on the other hand, the emperors freely
recruited soldiers from among these fearless fighters,
and Russian merchants traded in the Byzantine mar-
ket. The visit of the Tsarina Olga to Byzantium (957),
and her conversion to Christianity, made these rela-
tions even closer.
But the conversion of Vladimir, Great Prince of
Kiev, at the end of the tenth century, was the most
decisive event of all. In 988, in order to subdue the
feudal uprisings, Basil I] obtained from the Prince of
Sn -itntmenenes™ ee
Kiev a force of six thousand mercenaries; in exchange, —
Vladimir requested the hand of a Byzantine princess;
and, the better to stimulate the wavering will of the
imperial court, he seized Cherson. Basil II acceded to
the demands of the barbarian prince, but persuaded |
him to receive baptism. Vladimir was baptized at
Cherson (989), then imposed Christianity upon his
people at Kiev. And Russia, thenceforth a Christian
nation, formed herself on the model of Byzantine civ-
‘lization; she borrowed from Byzantium, together
with the orthodox faith, her art, her literature, ‘and
her manners. After Vladimir, his son Yaroslaff (1015—
1054) continued and consummated the work, and —
made of Kiev, his capital, the rival of Constantinople,
and one of the most beautiful cities in the Orient.
Vladimir was the Clovis of Russia; Yaroslaff was her
Charlemagne. But both owed to Byzantium all the
elements of their greatness.
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BYZANTINE EMPIRE
Ill. INTERNAL GOVERNMENT OF THE EMPIRE, AND
BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION IN THE TENTH CENTURY
So it was that, in the tenth century, the Byzantine
Empire was truly the universal empire, whose influ-
ence and ambition extended over nearly the whole of
the civilized world. Its internal organization, as it ap-
pears at that time, afforded an equally solid foundation
for its power and its prestige.
The Government of the Empire—The Greek em-
peror — the Basz/eus, as he was officially styled— was,
in truth, a very great personage. Heir of the Roman
Ceesars, he, like them, was at once the supreme head
of the army and the living voice of the law. Through
his relations with the Oriental monarchies, he became
the all-powerful master (despot, autocrator), the em-
peror par excellence, the rival and successor of the
Great King. Christianity had given him additional
sanctity and prestige. The elect of God, set apart by
the consecration of a divine investiture, vicar and
representative of God on earth, he partook, in some
sort, of his divinity. In the ceremonial of the Court; in
the complications of its etiquette, magnificent, and at
the same time a bit puerile, whose rites Constantine
Porphyrogenitus amused himself by codifying in the
"Book of Ceremonies”; in all the manifestations of
that policy of ostentation and magnificence by which
Byzantium had always boasted of astonishing and
dazzling the barbarians, the emperor appeared as a
superhuman being. And so, whatever touched his per-
son was declared to be “‘sacred,” and art encircled his
oor 4MACEDONIAN DYNASTY
head with the halo, as it did those of the divine per-
sons and the saints.
Sovereign by divine right, absolute and despotic,
the emperor held in his own hands all authority; and
it is easy to see how much the Empire gained by this
unity of direction, when it was a strong hand that
held the reins; and it often was. In the Byzantine con-
stitution there was no balance to this supreme power.
The Senate was no more than a council of state, com-
posed of docile high functionaries; the people was only
a plebeian multitude, often turbulent and factious,
which had to be fed and amused. The Church, not-
withstanding the high position she held in the Byzan-
tine social hierarchy, notwithstanding the danger due
to her wealth and ambition, was more submissive
than ever to the State after the close of the Iconoclas-
tic Controversy. The army alone was a power which
had often made itself manifest by military uprisings
and revolutions. Without wholly averting the peril
from this quarter, the progress of the idea of legiti-
macy rendered it less frequent and less dangerous to
the dynasty.
Byzantine Government and its Achievement.— This
despotic government, no less absolute and infallible in
the spiritual than in the temporal domain, was served
by a trained administrative hierarchy, strongly cen-__
tralized and under admirable discipline. In the capital,
surrounding the prince, the ministers, who were the
heads of the chief departments, directed the State
from above, and transmitted throughout the mon-_
archy the will of the master. Innumerable bureaus
EourBYZANTINE EMPIRE
worked under their orders, where the details of public
affairs were studied, and decisions were prepared. As
Rome did in the old days, Byzantium governed the
world by the strong organization of its-bureaucracy.
In the provinces, where the system of themes had be-
come the sole base of the administrative organization
(there were thirty themes in the middle of the tenth
century, eighteen in Asia and twelve in Europe), all
authority was concentrated in the hands of an all-
powerful personage, the strategos, appointed directly
by the emperor, and responsible directly to him. Thus,
from the top to the bottom of the administrative
ladder, the whole personnel, being well recruited, well
trained, wholly devoted to its task and encouraged to
give good service by the advancement vouchsafed by
the prince in the shrewdly devised system of offices
and dignities, acquitted itself with far-sighted zeal of
the double rdle assigned to it by the emperor.
The first task of the administration was to supply
the government with money—a difficult task; for in
Byzantium the receipts of the treasury and the in-
numerable outlays caused by the imperial policies and
magnificence never balanced; the grandiose projects
and the insufficient resources were always out of pro-
portion to each other.
The other task of the imperial government was,
perhaps, still more difficult. The Byzantine monarchy
had neither unity of race nor unity of language. It
was, as someone has said, “an artificial creation, gov-
erning twenty different nationalities, and binding
them together with this formula: one master, one
faith.” It was the admirable achievement of the gov-
fh 0204MACEDONIAN DYNASTY
ernment to give to this state with no nationality the
necessary cohesion and unity, by the common 1m-
print of Hellenism and by the common profession of
the orthodox faith. Greek was the language of the
government, of the Church, and-ofsociety.It assumed
in the cosmopolitan Empire the false aspect, as it
were, of a national language. By its skill in propagat-
ing Greek culture, by the deft art which it brought to
bear in managing and assimilating the conquered peo-
ples, the imperial administration placed a common
stamp upon the discordant elements that formed the
monarchy; and there 1s no stronger testimony to the
Empire’s vitality and power of expansion. By the
propagation of the orthodox faith, by the shrewd way
in which it used the Church to effect a moral conquest
of the countries subdued by force, the government
succeeded in bringing together and fusing the diverse
races ruled by the Basz/eus. It was, in very truth, the
stout armor that upheld the monarchy and made of it
a strong and homogeneous body.
Legislation —The emperors of the Macedonian line
strove to strengthen this cohesion even more by a
great legislative undertaking: they restored the an-
cient body of law created by Justinian, adapting it to
the new conditions of social life. Basil I took the 1n-
itiative in this great enterprise, by collecting in the
Prochiros Nomos (879), the most important portions
of the Corpus Furis Civilis, and by having prepared,
under the title of Epanagoge (886), a manual of cus-
tomary law. His son, Leo VI, completed the work by
having published, under the title of Basilica (887-
E o3 JBY ZAN TINE- EMPIRE
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the reign of Justinian. The successors of the first two
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an eleventh-century writer, tne giory or the Ko-
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} , ; ° = 7 1
most Valuable servitors of the m mnarchy, the oreat
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sMiteR eT Amnarne el i Peas ] oi Bo
Mmiuitary emperors of the Maced nian dynasty had a
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CONStTANC a | WaCChiu ude: they aererminec
j ' j 4 j . hn “1
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sa ° ¥ 1 t 1 4 17 ]
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POSSIDIC COMSICCTa Tis nat lands should be ALOUCTCU
+
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} 1 . } ° , ae ®
oO tnem and their ners: and tnat they should recelve
the homage due to the defenders of the Empire and
of Christendom. And the wonderful epic of the wars
; : S oacded ens Ors ona tbs: I . ml ; arel ‘
In Asia, the unt oO ruthiessness of the struggie with
BN ad at Wee . - a eee
the Bulgarians, showed what could be expected from
those incomparable troops, inured to the profession
of arms, and capable of sustaining suffering, fatigue,
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. it itBYZANTINE EMPIRE
of its merchants, the power of its navy, and the cen-
tres of exchange offered by its ports and its great
markets, Byzantium monopolized the wealth of the
whole world. Because of her position between the
Kast and the West, at the outlet of all the routes of
world-commerce, Constantin ple was the great ware-
house where all nations gathered, where all the prod-
ucts of the universe were exchanged. It has been esti-
mated that, in the capital alone, the receipts from
traders royalties and from customs brought into the
treasury annually 7,300,000 sous in gold— equivalent
> than §oo, . to-day.
Distinction in Arts and Letters —This devel pment
of industrial and commercial life was acc mpanied by
| es oe - Lit :
of intellectual life. In the re-
at } ‘ - ic ; : . + ine on =) :
habilitated University of Cons antinople, eminent
1°
teachers, under the solicitous patronage of the sov-
ereign, taught philosophy, rhetoric, and the sciences;
3 | sot 7
and around their chairs students crowded, coming
\
from all points of the Byzantine and Arabian Orient.
On emerging from the Iconoclastic Controversy,
at the touch of rediscovered antiquity, a new birth
took place in all the domains of thought, and the
emperors themselves did not disdain to become
authors.
On the initiative of Constantine (VII) Porphyrogen-
itus, the tenth century made an inventory of the
riches which the past had bequeathed to it. It was the
age of encyclopeedias of history, of law, of adminis-
tration, of grammar, of science, of hagi graphy. Upon
~—
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LC. OoMACEDONIAN DYNASTY
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jBYZANTINE EMPIRE
Side by side with the religious art there appears a
profane art, for the behoof of the emperor and gran-
SN ; em ee ~
lees. deriving its inspiration from classical history
) — i i 5 ;
and mythology, and finding expression in genre sub-
jects and in historical paintings and portraits. In the
7 . , : cs a - ee
decoration of the churches, as in that of the palaces,
| | ek ;
rnere 1s manifest a ronaness for ostentation and amaz-
; a ad :
ing magnincence. VI SAICS LIKE thi se 1n the convent of
| To : } ?
rne master-
. f Byzantine art: or th »of St. Sonhia at Kiev
pie eC OF DVZa CP alt. OF EROUSC Ul st » OOpiila aU INICV,
which attest the immense influence that this art ex-
oie a shout the Fast: wonderful manuscript
erced ii] wnouw Lille ast: wWonderrmll Manusc | tS,
liuminated ror the emperors, line the ¢ ITeyvOry Nazian-
Icons representing St. Michael, preserved in the treas-
urv of St. Marks: the ivories, too, and the rich fabrics
7 } . ) a
} ' ‘ me : : » : ‘ » Ort r¢
Sumce to snow what n asterpleces Byzantine art Was
capable of creating at that time. It created something
even more remarkabl the skilful disposition of the
decorations, which made paintings a means of in-
- of the Church: and that new
raphy so varied and so rich, which corresponds
to the renaissance of the ninth century. And by all
these means. Byzantine art exerted its influence po-
in Bulgaria as in Russia,
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in Armenia as in Southern Italy.
‘ . } 4 2 | ] “72 r } he
Constantinople was the resplendent source of thrs
marvelous harvest, the queen of refinement, the capt-
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- ;BYZANTINE EMPIRE
IV. CAUSES OF THE EMPIRE S WEAKNESS
OTHER more imminent perils threatened the continu-
ance of this prosperit
The Social Question and Feudal Revolts —At the end
of the ninth century, and throughout the tenth, a for-
midable social questi n perturbed the Byzantine Em-
pire. Iwo classes were face to face the poor (1 TEVNTES)
id the powerful dSuvarot : and through the 1 Inces-
int encroachments of the latter upon the property
and liberty of the former, little by little a preat feudal
aristocracy had grown up within the Empire, - espe-
cially in the Asiatic provinces,— possessed of vast do-
mains, dependents, and v assals, whose influence was
still further augmented by the high administrative
offices which it held, and by the military commands
which placed the army in its hands. Ri ich, powerful,
popular, this nobility was a political as well asa social
menace to the government.
The emperors realized this, and fought with all
their might against these undisciplined barons, who
flattered themselves that they could impose their will
on the Basil/eus, and who, at all events, by the 1m-
munities they claimed, d ee shed the resources of
the treasury, and by usurp! ng the military fiefs al-
lotted to the soldiers, dried | up one of the most fruitful
sources of recruitment of the army.
Basil I, in this as in everything else, inaugurated the
policy of the dynasty, and endeavored to limit the en-
croachments of the ankle . His successors carried on
his work. A series of decrees promulgated by Romanus
[ 100 7MACEDONIAN DYNASTY
1 j ' . ~
by Romanus I], and by N: ephoru Phocas, had for
, ee 7s F , ,
theirobject toensure protection ¢t mali holdings, and
. , me , 7. ‘ . ,*%
to prevent the feudal noble from swallowing the
7 '
POSSESSIOI r the poor. a nstant renewal oO!
, , ,
these measures prov that the danger was constantly
increasing. [he events of the second half of the tenth
century were t W th n striking fashion
Soon after t nation of Nicenho! Ph
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dm : ; »]
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ror he p aga lal pretende! marca n Ls
, 1 ; ) .
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cit PCacctl ( i iif Lit ; WJ oA MN «fh il j i «A i
hed tl 3 |
- + . . « 1 . a * . t
eal ici iit I Ll] ‘ 1} 13 . «A I ‘ v\ Tt \ rs Af { :
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Seemed fo threate! tne arist racy Phe asand ocie
“er
rus, the foes OFT Ve terday, be aire re nciued, TO Frise
a | }
avains Tne I] wero! {) Bit rCIMArAaAvDK VIVOT ' I
> + x os ieee >
Ba il | triumphed everywhere, | nocas, beaten al
“ +‘ : .
Chry SOpOHs, Opposite Constantinople, to which he
! Eh | Be } ;
had aiready laid eye (Ge , Was Killed on the neid ofBYZANTINE EMPIRE
Abydos (989); Sclerus was compelled to submit. But
the E mperor never forgot these feudal insurrections,
and in the decree of 996 he struck at the great usurp-
ing barons w ith savage ferocity. It seemed that the
crown had taken a decisive revenge upon the feudal
rebels of Anatolia.
But in fact, all these measures proved unavailing.
The government endeavored in vain to restrain the
devel: pment f great estates, to crush the barons with
taxes, to lessen their influence over the army: nothing
lished. The feudal aristocracy was des-
tined to triun ph over the imper! al power; anc 1 in the
weakness and anarchy which marked the second half
3 that
of the Comneni, which ensured the salvation of the
; el ] cwecr oe anna —
of the eleventh century, 1t Was a feudal famil
ver hs
monarcny.
The Relisious Aristocracy.—Side by side with lay
- > .
: [ > B WS.
y RB } j
»\APPENDIA II
Victory over the Arabs.
Iconoclastic Council of Hieria.
Gift of Pippin to the papacy. Loss of Byzantine Italy.
; .
Pp f t fenders of Images.
Q f Nicwa
Reconstruction of the Roman Empire of the West.
Invasion of Krum, the Bulgar Khan.
}
Che Emperor Nicephorus killed in the war with Bulgars.
Cou f ¢ tantinople. and restoration of the ortho-
\ of ¢ inti
Publicat f the & ica
Brea h Sy , the Bulgarian Tsar.
Capture of Taormina by the Arabs. Loss of Sicily.
| nessaionica captured DY the Arabs.
Battle of the Garigliano.
Vict y of tne Bulga S Bt nchialus.
— cr t m9 11 . en :
| Surpation Oj Re manus | ecapenus.,
L 164 JAPPENDIA 1)APPENDIX I]
) ' F | .
’ . 14 ser)
LECVOIT Oo] cach Lon Nnenus.
( alon
e W; hian-Bule Kmp
1189 | Barbarossa in the Orient
119 Isaac A lus defeated by the Bulgar
1197-1207 Johannit he Bul in Isa
1204 Capture of Constantinople by the Latins. Foundation of
he Latin Emy f Constantinoplh
120¢ 1) fi at of th - Latins at A ir int le.
drianoj
1206 Theodore Lascaris crowned Emperor at Nicza.
[21 Parliament of Ravennika.
1222 Recapture of Thessalonica by the Greeks of Epirus.
[ 186 J4 5
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APPENDIX
Battle of Angora.
; ¥ 5 . . ‘ ; , by
Siege of Constantinople by the
‘ih. wl re 14 loons
[he ssaionica soid to Venice.
bE xpedition of the Turks in Mor
Capture of Thessa
Council of Flore:
Batt! { f Vari a
Turkish invasion in Morea.
a DY the
I]APPENDIX IIIAPPENDIX II]
grad, 1917), covers in its first volume the period from the fourth
century to 1081. Finally, one must cite the Ivropia rijs “EAAados
of Lambros, of which volumes III to VI Athens, 1692-1906)
;
tell the story of t
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In default of a general nistory of Byzantium, there are some
ae ry smh ] t eorhss h eh, } + er . (Selzer qT eget fay Pe a tg 1+]
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171 S CREF \@i j Ul il, Jj/y5 @AL UIC CHa O che
; ; ji r 7 }
; ‘ oat » t } oe ° * ,
Geschichte der ntiniscl itteratur, by Krumbacher); Jorga,
et ee tc | las =) id k — The B oo
i fe Hyzanlin i Ipi7 ONC hay Ig - and OOT | ME } VZG7}-
a
fy I , ¥
bi? i? p/Jait Li i‘ tp AY I .
i
B ne H
oti 40 Peas eh
Vi tt p/h Mi D VARESE SiC bs .
> i ’ a
y y ,
“7 + : , ry ¥ r rT yr TY
ON the otner ha Lh, Yvt h ivC¢ any ¥ 8s COVE!ILIIY I! re Or
] a ) ‘ t . ‘ } 7 Y c B a + 7 T}
it 5 Cxten ¥\ | 4S i is i Lit i Y UI »VZal 1ULTT) Ait most
' et ~—* .
Important a\e
‘ ‘ » * *
- ; ¢ 7 + —¢ . +
Kor tl Pp I A i IT} il Cl iV 1) I ul i Centu’y o the end
| ) fq) j Ta ] a , f-
of the ninth: Bury, 4 History of the Later Roman Empire, from
f | j . , } » | 1, | f / ' , }
1} idilu i i | » J» ¥ * ) I} * Tid Si7il fs Ce ia
peral Erac Florence, 1905); Schwarzlose, Der Bilderstreit
Gotha, 1890): Bréhier, La guerel les 1m Paris, 1904);
Lombard, (¢ in V, empereur des Romains (Paris, 1902);
Bury, History of the Ea n Roman Empire, 800-867, (London,
1912
For th pe! | from the end of the ninth century to the be-
ginning of the thirteenth: Vogt, Basile J (Paris, 1908); Ram-
bau l, re j } au X (ec Paris, 1670); Schlumberger,
\ a Pi ‘ Pr iris, ] ‘ ~ fe ’ Det }" 771117 a la fin au
\ cle, 969-1057 (Paris, 1896-1905, 3 vols.); Bréhier, Le
by riental du X1 >cle (Paris, 1899); Neumann, Die
Weltstellung des byzantinischen Reiches vor den Kreuzziuugen
(Leipzig, 1894; French translation, Paris, 1905); Chalandon,
Essai sur le régne d’ Alexis Comnéne (Paris, 1900); Jean II
Comnene et Manuel Comnéne (Paris, 1912): Cognasso, Partiti
litict e lotte dinastiche in Bit io (Turin, 1912); Isaac Ange
;
]
Bessarione, 1915; Luchaire, Innocent III: la question d’Orient
(Paris, 1907); Norden, Der vierte Kreuzzug (Berlin, 1898).i
,)
‘7
re
J a
.
-
APPEN DIX
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