The rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire Leonora Neville
Most history books will tell you the Roman
Empire fell in the fifth century CE.
But this would’ve come as a great surprise
to the millions of people
who lived in the Roman Empire up
through the Middle Ages.
This medieval Roman Empire,
which we usually refer
to today as the Byzantine Empire,
began in 330 CE.
That’s when Constantine,
the first Christian emperor,
moved the capital of the Roman Empire
to a new city called Constantinople,
which he founded on the site of the
ancient Greek city Byzantion.
When the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410
and the Empire’s western provinces
were conquered by barbarians,
Constantine’s Eastern capital remained
the seat of the Roman emperors.
There, generations of emperors ruled
for the next 11 centuries.
Sharing continuity with
the classical Roman Empire
gave the Byzantine empire a technological
and artistic advantage over its neighbors,
whom Byzantines considered barbarians.
In the ninth century,
visitors from beyond the frontier
were astonished
at the graceful stone arches and domes
of the imperial palace in Constantinople.
A pair of golden lions flanked
the imperial throne.
A hidden organ would make the lions
roar as guests fell on their knees.
Golden birds
sung from a nearby golden tree.
Medieval Roman engineers
even used hydraulic engines
to raise the imperial throne
high into the air.
Other inherited aspects
of ancient Roman culture
could be seen in emperors’ clothing,
from traditional military garb to togas,
and in the courts,
which continued to use Roman law.
Working-class Byzantines would’ve also
had similar lives
to their Ancient Roman counterparts;
many farmed or plied a specific trade,
such as ceramics,
leatherworking,
fishing,
weaving,
or manufacturing silk.
But, of course, the Byzantine Empire
didn’t just rest
on the laurels of Ancient Rome.
Their artists innovated, creating vast
mosaics and ornate marble carvings.
Their architects constructed
numerous churches,
one of which, called Hagia Sophia,
had a dome so high it was said to be
hanging on a chain from heaven.
The Empire was also home to great
intellectuals such as Anna Komnene.
As imperial princess in the 12th century,
Anna dedicated her life
to philosophy and history.
Her account of her father’s reign
is historians’ foremost source
for Byzantine political history
at the time of the first crusade.
Another scholar, Leo the Mathematician,
invented a system of beacons that ran the
width of the empire—
what’s now Greece and Turkey.
Stretching more than 700 kilometers,
this system allowed the edge of the Empire
to warn the emperor of invading armies
within one hour
of sighting them at the border.
But their advances couldn’t
protect the Empire forever.
In 1203, an army of French
and Venetian Crusaders
made a deal with a man
named Alexios Angelos.
Alexios was the son of a deposed emperor,
and promised the crusaders vast riches
and support to help him retake
the throne from his uncle.
Alexios succeeded, but after a year,
the population rebelled and Alexios
himself was deposed and killed.
So Alexios’s unpaid army turned
their aggression on Constantinople.
They lit massive fires,
which destroyed countless works of ancient
and medieval art and literature,
leaving about one-third
of the population homeless.
The city was reclaimed 50 years later
by the Roman Emperor Michael Palaiologos,
but his restored Empire never regained
all the territory
the Crusaders had conquered.
Finally, in 1453, Ottoman Emperor Mehmed
the Conqueror captured Constantinople,
bringing a conclusive end
to the Roman Empire.
Despite the Ottoman conquest,
many Greek-speaking inhabitants
of the Eastern Mediterranean
continued to call themselves Romans
until the early 21st century.
In fact, it wasn’t until the Renaissance
that the term “Byzantine Empire”
was first used.
For Western Europeans,
the Renaissance was about
reconnecting with the wisdom of antiquity.
And since the existence of a
medieval Roman Empire
suggested there were Europeans
who’d never lost touch with antiquity,
Western Europeans wanted to draw
clear lines between the ages.
To better distinguish the classical,
Latin-speaking, pagan Roman Empire
from the medieval,
Greek-speaking, Christian Roman Empire,
scholars renamed
the latter group Byzantines.
And thus, 100 years after it had
fallen, the Byzantine Empire was born.