Perhaps the most obvious change was one of scale, as the Byzantine Empire never approximated the size of its Roman predecessor (see Map 10.1). The western Roman Empire was permanently lost to Byzantium, despite Emperor Justinian’s (r. 527–565) impressive but short-
You must know examples of the structures of postclassical empires, such as the Byzantine.
In its heyday, the Byzantine state was an impressive creation. Political authority remained tightly centralized in Constantinople, where the emperor claimed to govern all creation as God’s worldly representative, styling himself the “peer of the Apostles” and the “sole ruler of the world.” The imperial court tried to imitate the awesome grandeur of what it thought was God’s heavenly court, but in fact it resembled ancient Persian imperial splendor. Aristocrats trained in Greek rhetoric and literature occupied high positions in the administration, participating in court ceremonies that maintained their elite status. Parades of these silk-clad officials added splendor to the imperial court, which also included mechanical lions that roared, birds that sang, and an immense throne that quickly elevated the emperor high above his presumably awestruck visitors. Nonetheless, this centralized state touched only lightly on the lives of most people, as it focused primarily on collecting taxes, maintaining order, and suppressing revolts. “Personal freedom in the provinces was constrained more by neighbors and rival households,” concluded one historian, “than by the imperial government.”6
Be able to list the causes of the decline of the Byzantine Empire.
After 1085, Byzantine territory shrank, owing to incursions by aggressive Western European powers, by Catholic Crusaders, and by Turkic Muslim invaders. The end came in 1453 when the Turkic Ottoman Empire, then known as the “sword of Islam,” finally took Constantinople. One eyewitness to the event wrote a moving lament to his fallen city:
And the entire city was to be seen in the tents of the [Turkish] camp, the city deserted, lying lifeless, naked, soundless, without either form or beauty. O city, head of all cities, center of the four corners of the world, pride of the Romans, civilizer of the barbarians…. Where is your beauty, O paradise … ? Where are the bodies of the Apostle of my Lord … ? Where are the relics of the saints, those of the martyrs? Where are the remains of Constantine the Great and the other emperors? … Oh, what a loss!7