She also expanded the rights of women in divorce and property ownership, instituted the death penalty for rape, forbade exposure of unwanted infants, gave mothers some guardianship rights over their children, and forbade the killing of a wife who committed adultery. A terrible plague swept through the empire, killing Theodora and almost killing him.
The army was also afflicted, and the Ostrogoths were able to effectively regain Italy in CE, through guerrilla warfare against the Byzantine occupiers. In the Roman-Persian Wars, the Persians invaded and destroyed a number of important cities. Justinian was forced to establish a humiliating year peace treaty with them in CE. Still, Justinian kept the empire from collapse. He sent a new general, Narses, to Italy with a small force. Narses finally defeated the Ostrogoths and drove them back out of Italy.
By the time the war was over, Italy, once one of the most prosperous lands in the ancient world, was wrecked. The city of Rome changed hands multiple times, and most of the cities of Italy were abandoned or fell into a long period of decline. The impoverishment of Italy and the weakened Byzantine military made it impossible for the empire to hold the peninsula. Soon a new Germanic tribe, the Lombards, came in and conquered most of Italy, though Rome, Naples, and Ravenna remained isolated pockets of Byzantine control.
At the same time, another new barbarian enemy, the Slavs, appeared from north of the Danube. They devastated Greece and the Balkans, and in the absence of strong Byzantine military might, they settled in small communities in these lands.
Skip to main content. Search for:. Justinian was responsible for the construction of the Hagia Sophia, the center of Christianity in Constantinople. Even today, the Hagia Sophia is recognized as one of the greatest buildings in the world. Justinian also systematized the Roman legal code that served as the basis for law in the Byzantine Empire.
After a plague reduced the Byzantine population, they lost Rome and Italy to the Ostrogoths, and several important cities to the Persians. Terms Hagia Sophia A church built by Byzantine Emperor Justinian; the center of Christianity in Constantinople and one of the greatest buildings in the world to this day. Guided practice: continuity and change in the Byzantine Empire. Byzantine culture and society. Practice: Key concepts: the Byzantine Empire.
Practice: Focus on continuity and change: Byzantine state-building. Next lesson. Current timeTotal duration Google Classroom Facebook Twitter. Video transcript - [Instructor] In previous videos, we talk about how as we exit the fourth century, in the s, the emperor Theodosius, he actually splits the Roman Empire. We already had the city of Constantinople being established as a capital of the empire.
That was done by Constantine in , the city previously known as Byzantium. But as we enter into the fifth century, there is an official split between the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. They're actually governed separately. Now, also in other videos, we talk about the eventual fall of the Western Roman Empire. Now, one thing to keep in mind, sometimes when we talk about the fall of the west, it somehow implies that there's no governance left or there's no kingdoms left.
And nothing could be further from the truth. One of the reasons why the Western Roman Empire fell is repeated attacks by Germanic tribes, and after the Western Roman Empire was gone, the Germanic tribes, for the most part, took over. On the Italian peninsula, you at first have the kingdom of Odoacer, but eventually you have rule, especially as we get into the late fifth century, you have the Ostrogothic Kingdom, Ostrogoths, the Eastern Goths, the Eastern Germanic tribes.
Here in North Africa, you have the Vandals, another Germanic tribe. Here in the Iberian peninsula, you have the Visigoths, the Western Goths, yet another Germanic tribe. Here you have the Burgundians, you have the Franks. The word France comes from the notion of land of the Franks. Once again, all of these are Germanic kingdoms that took over, where before you had the Western Roman Empire.
Now, as you can see from this map, and we've talked about it in previous videos, it was only the Western Roman Empire that fell and fragmented and, for the most part, came into the hands of these Germanic tribes. The Eastern Empire continues on, and it's often known as the Byzantine Empire with its capital at Constantinople.
Now, what we'll see is that the Byzantine Empire lasts for almost another 1, years, but its importance in the region diminishes for most of that period.
It does have one last hurrah, so to speak, with the reign of Emperor Justinian. The person who is given credit for the invention of Greek Fire is Kallinikos, a Syrian living in the Byzantine Empire. Greek Fire was used against the attacking Muslim fleets. The formula for Greek Fire was a secret, and perhaps even the emperors did not know its ingredients. Greek fire was thrown in glass containers and propelled by a pump.
Greek Fire has been lost to history, and no one is absolutely sure how to make it today. Greek Fire helped to save the Byzantine Empire and Christianity for several hundred years. Constantinople finally fell to the cannons of the Turks in The walls of Constantinople fell down, but the culture and ideas of the Byzantine Empire moved to the Christian West, creating a new interest in classic Greek and Roman ideas, called the Renaissance.
Greek Fire, sometimes called Roman Fire, is being thrown at enemy ships in this Middle Ages manuscript. In the next chapter we will read about Islam and its founder Muhammad, a religion and empire that came in conflict with the Byzantines in the East and the barbarian kingdoms in the West. Giotto's Site Penfield. Mister Giotto's Home Page. Class notes. Giotto's Online Textbook. The Stone Ages. Ancient Mesopotamia.
Ancient Egypt. Ancient Greece. Ancient Rome. The Middle Ages ». The Merovingian Franks. Anglo-Saxon England. Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire. Muhammad and Islam. Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire. Viking Invasions of Europe. The Norman Invasion of England. The Norman Kings of England. The Angevin Kings of England.
The Kings of England - the Edwardian Century. The Renaissance. Tudor England. Class Resources. Classroom News. My Booklist.
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