Christian Cultures: Byzantium

Themes

division and conversion of the empire
- Diocletian r. 284-305
- Constantine r. 317-337
- Theodosius r. 379-395
- collapse in the west
Byzantine Empire 4th-7th cen. C.E.
- 340 transfer of govt to Constantinople
- 527-565 Justinian and Theodora
- 726-843 Iconoclastic controversy
high pt: Macedonian dynasty 867-1056
decline, retrenchment, cultural flowering 12th-15th centuries
- 1071 B. of Manzikert
- 12th cen. Komnenian dynasty
- 1202-04 4th Crusade
- 1453 Ottoman Turks

the "three heirs of Rome:"
East versus West
- Diocletian and the tetrarchy
- Constantine's Nova Roma (330)
- Rome and Constantinople
- Greek versus Latin
- Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Roman (Catholic) Christianity: 1054 schism
conversion of the Empire:
- Constantine Battle of Milvian Bridge 312 C.E.
- Theodosius: __________ c. 380 C.E.
- Altar of Victory (Symmachus and Ambrose)
- Hypatia
hegemony of Christianity:
- Council of Nicea, 325; Nicene Creed versus Arianism
- Council of Chaledon, 451: dyophysites (Nestorians), monophysites, and Chalcedonites
"Fall of Rome" in the west:
- sack of Rome, 410: Augustine, Two Cities
- Sept. 4, 476: Romulus Augustulus and Odovacar
Who is the real Roman?

synthesis:
economic and social:
- rural life: Farmer's Law
- urban life: Thessalonica Fair
- The Blues and the Greens: Procopius; Theopanes; in Egypt
political order: emperor and patriarch
- autocratic emperors: Justinian (527-65) and Theodora
  - wars: Procopius, The Reconquest of Africa, 534: general Belisarius
  - revolts: Procopius, On the Nika Revolt, 539
  - law: selections from Corpus Juris Civilis
  - Hagia Sophia
    - Paul the Silentiary
    - Procopius
- caesaropapism: Theodore of Balsamon late 12th cen.; Patriarch Antony 1395
Byzantine commonwealth: expansion
- 988 conversion of Russia; Russian Primary Chronicle
- Slavs and Central Europe: Basil the Bulgar Slayer, 1014
cross-cultural interaction
- Persian conquest of Jerusalem, 614: Antiochus Strategos
- Liutprand of Cremona (Ottonian German) visits Constantinople
- an Arab ambassador in Constantinople
- Muslim expansion
- 4th Crusade, 1204
- Ottoman Turks, 1453

kjolly@hawaii.edu 8/24/01