What was the Byzantine Empire?

1. What was the Byzantine Empire? • The eastern half of the Roman Empire, based in Constantinople, founded by Emperor Constantine in 300 C.E. • Moved the capital East to resist the threat of invasions by Germanic tribes • Officially divided from the Western portion in 395 • After the fall of the western Roman Empire (by 500 C.E.), Byzantine Empire lasted for another 900 years.

3. Emperor Justinian 527 CE

4. Hagia Sophia

5. Byzantine Architecture

7. Why might Christianity develop differently in western and eastern parts of Roman Empire? • Distance between Rome and Constantinople meant traditions developed differently • Byzantines spoke Greek instead of Latin • Eastern Orthodox Church was led by a patriarch, not the pope in Rome • Slowly the churches grew apart – final split (or schism) took place in 1054

9. Why did the Byz. Empire Decline? • Bubonic Plague between 500-700 CE • Attacks from both east and west – land shrank • Crusaders sack the city of Constantinople in 1200 • Ottoman Turks take Constantinople in 1453

10. Crusader Sack of Constantinople

11. Ottomans take Constantinople 1453

12. Byzantine Influence on Russia • Prince Vladimir of Kiev converted to Orthodox Christianity 900 CE and ordered all subjects to also • Russia adopts Cyrillic alphabet • Russian architecture takes inspiration from Byzantine architecture • Russian leader - head of both church and state

13. Kremlin