Final Exam Flashcards
Justinian I
Emperor of Byzantine Empire from 527-565. Came from a v. humble background, but was the very active and ambitious advisor of Emperor Justin, but then he kind of seamlessly took the Throne in 527. He changed the law of marriage so that he could marry Theodora, a prostitute, in 527. At the outset of Justinian’s reign was the struggle with Persia, and he was able to annex Crimea. He shut down Plato’s academy in 529 because it was pagan. Honestly, he had a really long reign with lots of fights, such as the Nike Riots in 532, the Conquest of the Vandals (533-534) by his military leader Belisarius. He is v. famous for Justinian’s Code (534) which replaced the incomplete Theodosian’s Code, which still had holes in it but was overall more organized and was essentially a template for autocracy, when in doubt the prince is in charge of everything. He directed the building of the Hagia Sophia, which took 5 years, and is the largest dome on earth. Then the first bits of the Plague appeared between 541-542, which caused lots of economic disruption, the war with Persia recommenced between 540-545, and so much more. Justinian’s conquests are some of his greatest legacy, as he retook bits of northern Africa, northern italy, a little bit of Southern Spain, but by the end of his conquests he had exhausted the treasury and he never fully fulfilled all of his ambitions.
Basil I
Ruled Byzantine Emp btwn 867-886, and was the first of the Macedonian rulers of the Emp, even tho he was an Armenian. Was born a peasant, but killed Emperor Michael III’s uncle for him, and by doing so, was named co-emperor, but by 867 Basil and some other officials were sick of Michael’s incompetence, so they kill him and Basil becomes Emperor, beginning the most impressive Dynasty in Byzantine History. He worked to get rid of and fix Michael’s mistakes, such as deposing Photius and reinstalling Ignatius because he wants peace w/ the Papacy and the West. He stops Michael’s reckless spending habits so that they can use money to win fights. He had mixed results with territories in the West, but he began what is essentially a Byzantine marine corps, creating a new theme specifically for sea battles, not just transports. He faired well in the Balkans, but not in Sicily or Italy, so he loses those. His preferred heir, Constantine, however, died in 879, and thus Basil had no choice but to crown his (not) son Leo. Leo was part of a supposed plot to kill Basil, although it’s unlikely if this actually occurred, but he was arrested until 886, when Basil died and became emperor.
Battle of Manzikert
Occurred Aug 26, 1071 between Byzantine Romanos IV Diogenes and the Arslan Turks Alp. Arslan. Arslan did not actually want to fight, but Romanos wanted to secure the Easter border, so it was mostly a game of avoidance for the Turks, but there were 60,000 Byzantines v. 30,000 very skilled Turks. The Byzantines were holding their own for a while, but then Commander Andronikos Ducas withdrew from the battlefield, and when he did this, the entire Byzantine Operation fell apart. Romanos is surrounded and captured, and there were a few thousand casualties, but Romanos made a deal with Arslan who just wanted peace so he could deal with enemies in Iraq. Romanos was released, but then he was caputred again by the Byzantines, blinded, and killed, so Arslan was upset and called off the deal, and by 1078, almost all of Anatolia was lost. This battle essentially marks the beginning of the end of the Byzantine Emp as a successful military state.
Theodora
Wife of Justinian I, married to him in 527. She is a controversial character to say the least, as she came from an “entertainment” background, as her father was a circus bear tamer, and her and her sister were actressess/prostitutes. There are a lot of very explicit and not very flattering stories of her, and thus when Justinian wanted to marry her, she was not very popular, as she was the unconstrained sexual image of women. However, it seems her and Justinian truly loved each other, and she was faithful after marriage. It was technically against the law for a high ranking official to marry a prostitute, so Justinian changed this law. As Empress, Theodora patronized reform houses for prostitues and provided resources for poor girls to avoid prostitution altogether. She was v. influential on Justinian, convinced him not to be a coward, resist the nike riots. Theodora was overall a big influence on Justinian, and she was very ambitious and many of Justinians ideas were shared with her. When she died in 548, Justinian was never the same.
Iconoclasm
literally translates to “icon-smashing.” In the 8th century, a conflict arose over the use of icons, or statues and pictures, and the conflict divided Christians in the Empire and increased tensions between the East and West. Icons were used to teach stories, used as symbols, and could inspire religious devotion, but there was a tendency to worship the icons themselves, which was heretical to the Church. Thus, beginning with Leo the Isaurian (r. 717-741), icons began to be banned altogether, because if there were no icons, then they couldn’t be worshipped. However, this undermined monasteries, which had a political and religious bases, and thus iconoclasm failed, even in Byzantium where it was much stronger, but it did increase hostility btwn Rome and Constantinople, as the Pope deemed iconoclasm heretical, and the issue lasted for hundreds of years, leading the church down different paths and then in 1054, the Pope and the Patriarch excommunicated each other.
Monophysitism
Insists on the single nature of Christ where divinity supersede’s humanity. Monophysites believe that God walked the earth as Christ and suffered death in the Crucifixion, but it was illogical to believe God had become as fully human as he was fully divine. They quarreled with the miaphysites, who belived that Jesus had one unified nature which was equally divine and human. Then, at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, it was essentially declared that Christ has two natures in one person, effectively denouncing Monophysitism. However, the beliefs didn’t die out, and there remained many believers, and throughout the next few centuries, emperors went between persecuting and trying to be more tolerant. Finally, at the Third Council of Constantinople in 681, monphysitism was fully denounced and toleration was essentially destroyed.
The Themes
Themes were originally separate military units stationed in provincial areas. In earlier Byzantium, the themes were larger and they often formed military buffers between the empire and Asia. Emperor Constans II (r. 641-668) originally formed the themes in the 7th century as a way to reorganize how Byzantium would defend itself, and he essentially split Turkey up into four different chunks, making the first four themes. Each soldier had a direct connection to the state, as each was given a piece of land in the theme they were placed in, and thus they were not only being paid to fight, they were fighting to protect their land, and thus a greater incentive to fight. The themes lasted grew and expanded, and at one point there were over 30 themes. This system of defense protected the empire for nearly 4 centuries, although as time went on, the themes became less militarily focused, which compromised the protection of the empire.
The Theodosian Walls
The walls were originally built/expanded under Theodosius II during his rule (r. 408-413) with the help of his advisor Anthemius. The walls were a three-layered wall 7 miles long with a 60 ft moat. There was a lower wall with 96 guard towers, and the walls were a hard push for defense for the city of Constantinople. These walls are what kept Constantinople safe from invaders all the way up until the collapse in 1453, when the introduction of gunfire finally brought the walls down, but still not without a long and hard fight.
Mehmet II
(r. 1451-1481) He was the fourth son of one of the concubines of Sultan Murat, and he was a brilliant man with a lot of determination, but he was also known for being extremely cruel. He wanted to be the new Alexander, he made peace treaties with Venice and Hungary in 1451, built a fortification and loaded it with cannons called the “throat-cutter” and began building up a navy in 1452. He wanted Constantinople, and he knew that if he cut off the sea shipments in, he could cut off supplies to starve them out. He also worked with a gunmaker, Urban, to build him guns, because he had plenty of money to do so. He led the siege of Constantinople began April 6, 1453, and ended on May 29, 1453, making Constantinople Mehmet’s and a Muslim city. However, Mehmet didn’t have a problem with Orthodox/Eastern Christians, he just really didn’t like the West, and he revived the Synagogue in Constantinople. He caused terror to arise in the West, and he conquered Trebizond in 1461, taking the last remnant of the Byzantine Emp before he continued moving West. He died in 1481, probably from poison, and who knows what would have happened if he had lived longer.
The Crusade of Varna
occurred in 1444. Sultan Murad II of the Ottoman empire was distracted because of rebellions in Anatolia, and the Catholic Church had been pushing for another Crusade, so it was good timing. The Turks were pushed all the way back to Anatolia, which was the first significant reversal of Turkish conquests in a long time. Then, peace negotiations were made, a ten year truce was signed, but one cardinal convinced the King of HUngary that you don’t make truces with infidels, so they needed to just push the Turks out. This angered Murad, who called back the Ottoman army and crushed the Crusaders, making it an ultimate failure, and no one would try to push the Ottomans out of Europe again for decades.
Basil II
Sole Emperor from 976-1025, called the “Bulgar Slayer.” He had a regency period from 963-969 under Nicephorus II Phocas, and then again from 969-976 under John I Tzimiskes. Basil was originally seen as unserious and incompetent, and thus his acension was rocky, but he proved that to be wrong. There was lots of scrambling between clans and people trying to gain power, but Basil held his own and took the throne. He wanted to prove his power, so he led a campaign against the Bulgarians in 986, but it was a total failure and his army was ambushed and forced to retreat, which didn’t help his credibility. This caused another rebellion of Phocas and Sclerus to occur, from 986-989. Basil was losing, so he made a deal with Vladimir of Kiev, a barbarian, giving him his sister to marry, and it works. Vladimir converted with all of the russians to Orthodoxy, and he sent 6000 viking warriors to defeat the rebels, and it works. Then the Bulgarian War occurred from 991-1004, where Basil conquered lots of territory. Another Battle, the Battle of Kleidon occurred July 29, 1014, and this is where he gets his nickname, and the story goes that he took 15,000 prisoners and blinded them all, except for 1/100 he would lead with 1 eye so they could walk back home. He is the high point of the Byzantine Empire, because he expanded the empire to the largest in centures, even managing to get crete. Everything went downhill from here.
The Council of Florence-Ferrara
The Council occurred in 1439, led by Pope Eugenius IV, where they essentially principle adopted was mutual toleration of all existing practices and doctrines, with the Westerners accepting Hesychasm and the Easterners accepting the right of the Pope to call ecumenical councils. Final acceptance of the council’s decisions was almost unanimous, with only one vote against. This was essentially an attempt, and a fairly successful one, at ending the schism between the eastern and western churches. However, after the council ended, many Greeks took back their support, such as Gregorios Scholarios, who became a leader of an anti-group against the council and its decrees.
Enrico Dandolo
he was the leader of the Venetians during the 4th Crusade, and we don’t fully know how old he was but he was maybe in his late 80s. he was old but very intelligent and driven. He had beef with the Byzantines bc he got caught up in the anti-Western riots in the empire in the 12th century, and they blinded him. During the time when the 4th Crusade was being talked about, he was making negotiations with both the Byzantines to attack Egypt, and with the Egyptians to make trade concessions, we don’t know who he would have betrayed. However, there was a lack of money to pay the Venetians or the crusaders, so Dandolo made a deal with the crusaders to help him get back the port city of Zara which had rebelled and was now under the control of Hungary. They agreed, and although Dandolo wanted them to peacefull surrender, he was betrayed and then had to attack the city and plunder it to get money for the crusade and take it back under Venetian control in Nov 1202. Pope Innocent was upset by this attack on fellow Christians, so he excommunicated the Venetians, but Dandolo didn’t care bc he didn’t think he did anything wrong and the Pope should mind his own.
Heraclius
started the Heraclian Dynasty, ruled from 610-641 after overthrowing Phocas. He had no claim on the throne and he took a troubled empire. He had a failed counter attack in Syria which led to the fall of Antioch in 611, then the Persians conquered Jerusalem and seized the True Cross in 614, which was the holiest relic in Christendom, and this is Persia’s preparation to keep coming. But Heraclius cuts the army pay in half bc he’s broke and can’t afford to fight and no one really minds because everyone’s scared of Persia, so Heraclius tries to ask for peace in 618 and is rejected. Then, Patriarch Sergius I gave him church gold to use to pay for war, and Heraclius began a counter-attack in 622, and in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh he crushed Persian forces and peace happened the same year, which is financially great for everyone. He was defeated at the Battle of Yarmouk in 636 and he questioned if God was mad at him, and died in 641.
Constantine V
aka “Copronymus” (r. 741-775)
or “Shiteater,” he was the oldest son of Leo III, but coup led by Artavasdas from 741-42, which initially defeated Constantine’s forces, but after a year Constantine was able to put it down. He broke up the Opsician theme because it was too large and close to the capital, thus posing too much of a threat since it was also the most rebellious. He created the Tagmata, a new branch of the army, with six “units.” Three units were more cavalry like, the Scholae, Excubitors, and Vigla, each having 4,000 men each. The other three were the Walls and the Numera with 2,000 each acting as garisons, and the Optimates with 2,000 men which were transport mules. He created a mobile and well-equipped army which could fight alone or with the other themes. He is known for his military victories in the North and East, but not in Italy. He’s also known for the Synod of Hieira in 754 which condemned icons, and he gained controversy over his iconoclast positions.
