Byzantine Empire Flashcards
(20 cards)
The Byzantine empire was an offshoot of this empire
Roman Empire
Capital city of the Byzantine Empire
Constantinople
Name of that city before 330 AD
Byzantium
Official state religion (after 380 AD)
Christianity - Eastern Orthodoxy
Primary language of the Byzantine Empire
Greek
Hunnish invader who the Byzantines battled and paid tribute to
Atilla
Attila and his elder brother Bleda took the Hun throne in 435 - died 453.
During his reign, Attila was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans but was unable to take Constantinople.
In 441, he led an invasion of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the success of which emboldened him to invade the West.
He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul (modern France), crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum (Orléans), before being stopped in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.
He subsequently invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome.
He planned for further campaigns against the Romans but died in 453.
After Attila’s death, his close adviser, Ardaric of the Gepids, led a Germanic revolt against Hunnic rule, after which the Hunnic Empire quickly collapsed. Attila lived on as a character in Germanic heroic legend.
Ancient trade route between China and the Byzantine Empire
Silk Road
Great emperor who reconquered Italy and reformed the legal code
Justinian
Justinian I, also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or “restoration of the Empire”. This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire
Powerful wife of Justinian, a former actress and prostitute
Theodora
Theodora was a Byzantine empress and wife of emperor Justinian I. She was from humble origins and became empress when her husband became emperor in 527. Theodora was one of his chief political advisers
30,000 died in the Nika riots, sparked by dueling fans of this sport
Chariot Races
The Nika Riots were a series of violent disturbances that took place in Constantinople in 532 AD, primarily caused by the rivalry between the Greens and Blues, two fan groups associated with chariot races.
The riots escalated into a major rebellion against the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, ultimately leading to widespread destruction and loss of life.
World’s largest cathedral for over 900 years
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a mosque and former church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey.
The last of three church buildings to be successively erected on the site by the Eastern Roman Empire, it was completed in AD 537, becoming the world’s largest interior space and among the first to employ a fully pendentive dome.
It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have “changed the history of architecture”.
From its dedication in 360 until 1453 Hagia Sophia served as the cathedral of Constantinople in the Byzantine liturgical tradition, except for the period 1204‑1261 when the Latin Crusaders installed their own hierarchy.
After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it served as a mosque, having its minarets added shortly later.
The site became a museum in 1935, and was redesignated as a mosque in 2020. In 2024, the upper floor of the mosque began to serve as a museum once again.
When did the Arabs conquer Egypt?
639 and 642 AD.
This conquest ended the Roman period in Egypt, which had begun in 30 BC, and broader Greco-Roman rule that had lasted about a millennium. The conquest was part of the broader early Muslim conquests.
This napalm-like substance, a state secret, helped win naval battles
Greek Fire
Greek fire was a highly effective incendiary weapon used by the Byzantine Empire from the 7th to the 14th centuries. It was a flammable liquid that could be sprayed from tubes or thrown in pots, and it continued to burn even on water. While the exact composition remains a mystery, it’s believed to have been based on petroleum, possibly with sulfur, quicklime, and other materials
At times, these religious devotional images were banned
Icons
Name for the split of the Catholic and Orthodox church in 1054
Great Schism
Eastern Orthodox version of the Pope
Ecumenical Patriarch
The Latin Empire was established after this ‘Holy War’, in 1204
Fourth Crusade
Italian city-state who seized many territories from the Byzantines in that conflict
Venice
Empire that finally conquered the Byzantines in 1453
Ottoman Turks
In the English language, the word ‘Byzantine’ refers to something that is overly …
Complex
