Byzantine EmpireDuring the Middle Ages, the Eastern Roman Empire started to get called the&nbsp;Byzantine Empire. And, as with the Western Empire in antiquity,&nbsp;the government was in the hands of the emperor, who was said to be God&#39;s chosen one and therefore had absolute authority.Faced with the economic and administrative crisis suffered by the Roman Empire from the third century on, access to the Mediterranean Sea, which had been the main mean of communication of the Empire,&nbsp;ceased to be exclusive to the Romans. Although they militarily unified various people and brought different civilizations into contact, the same did not happen in the economic field. In the&nbsp;eastern part of the Mediterranean, an economic model similar to the ancient Hellenistic kingdoms was maintained, with large cities like Alexandria, Antioch, and Pergamos. In&nbsp;the western part, however, an agricultural and livestock economic structure couldn&#39;t overcome the face of the powerful production of the East. Thus,&nbsp;the West was limited to exporting wine, oil, and minerals.Given the circumstances, in the early 4th century,&nbsp;the emperors abandoned Rome, the old capital and original city of the Empire, for Constantinople.Constantinople: the Byzantine CapitalThe major cities of the Byzantine Empire until the 7th century were&nbsp;Alexandria, Ephesus, Jerusalem, Thessalonica, and Antioch. None of them, however, could be compared to the capital Constantinople.Constantinople was formed over an ancient Greek colony called Byzantium by Emperor Constantine. Initially, it was called New Rome, later named Constantinople after the emperor.&nbsp;The strategic positioning of the city was fundamental for it to become an important city.For many centuries,&nbsp;Constantinople monopolized the silk, spice, and slave trade.&nbsp;There were so many foreign merchants that they even had their very own district. The city had a population of about one million at the time of Emperor Justinian, and throughout the Middle Ages was the most important European city.Economics and PoliticsIn the&nbsp;Western part of the old Roman Empire, there was a process of ruralization, while in the Eastern the large urban centers remained. Trade and handicraft activities were important in the Byzantine economy. And Constantinople was a kind of corridor between East and West. International trade supplied the city, and labor was slave labor. Egypt was the Empire&#39;s principal agricultural supplier, Syria was the province where the most varied craft products came from, and Alexandria and Antioch acted as commercial centers.However, after the Arab invasions in the 7th and 8th centuries, the cities of Egypt and Syria left the dominions of the Byzantine Empire, which lost a large part of its population and wealth. In this context, the urban, artisanal, and commercial world became concentrated only in the city of Constantinople.In the political field, the power of the emperor and the officialization of laws and measures were fundamental elements in the process of unifying the political unity of the Empire, considering that Byzantine civilization was composed of Egyptians, Jews, Syrians, Greeks, and others.The Byzantine Empire was a theocratic state in which the emperor was considered an envoy from God. His power was grounded by the Church, supported by officials of the Empire, and secured by a strong army.Until the 7th century, Roman culture had a lot of influence on Byzantine administration, but as the centuries passed, people of Greek origin became the principal influence. The return of Greek as the official language and the abandonment of Latin indicated that the Byzantine Empire was abandoning the old Roman structures. Justinian&#39;s great work, the Corpus Juris Civilis, was also not maintained. Thus, his successors were obliged to establish new codes.Justinian&#39;s GovernmentAmong the Byzantine emperors, Justinian stood out. He ruled from 527 to 565, seeking to restore the old Roman Empire. To do so, he attempted to annex its Western portion and valued the Roman culture. The Byzantine Empire, during his rule, &nbsp;reached its maximum extension, dominating almost the entire Italian Peninsula, part of the Iberian Peninsula, and North Africa. Justinian reorganized Roman law, which became known as Corpus Juris Civilis.&nbsp;Society and culture&nbsp;The social hierarchy of the Byzantine Empire was very similar to that of other empires of medieval Europe, in which religion was one of the main dominant forces in societies. The Church and the imperial government were constantly united to keep society cohesive with the &quot;true faith.&quot; The nobles and the clergy formed the privileged group, assuming high administrative positions.Merchants could not attain significant political positions and remained in non-privileged sectors of Byzantine society.&nbsp;Byzantine artisans were organized into guilds, each of which was dedicated to the manufacture of a specific product, also depending on the imperial administration. Crafts were a very prosperous activity in the Byzantine Empire. The peasants made their social contribution with agriculture and cattle-raising. They were the ones who suffered most from economic crises and ended up being enslaved by debt. And, when enslaved, they did not have any political or social rights.Art and literatureBetween the 3rd and 4th centuries, the eastern regions of the Roman Empire began to have a very independent way of life, based on the Hellenistic culture, derived from kingdoms that made up the ancient empire of Alexander the Great. Therefore, the separation into two blocks was not only a political and military division. But mainly a historical and cultural one.Literature and art were also at the service of both the imperial power and the Orthodox Church. High culture was developed at court, in universities, and monasteries. And one of its main characteristics was the resignification of the Greco-Roman world. Likewise, the architecture was fundamentally religious and palatial.The main decorative element in the Byzantine Empire was mosaic, which covered large walls or the vaults of churches. They had an aesthetic and didactic function because they taught about the life of Christ and of the saints and emperors. The themes of the panels also dealt with the religious world of the saints or the political world.End of the Byzantine EmpireIn the year 1453, the city of Constantinople collapsed in the face of the Turkish-Ottoman offensive, consolidating the end of the Eastern Roman Empire. Its culture, however, was not entirely lost; many people ended up migrating to European and Asian cities, giving continuity to their philosophical and artistic works. Russia, for example, emerged as the cultural heir of the Byzantine Empire.

World History

Byzantine Empire<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-ser

Byzantine Empire

Lívia Leites

View the note Byzantine Empire: Byzantine EmpireDuring the Middle Ages, the Eastern Roman Empire started to get called the Byzantine Empire. And, as with the Western Empire in antiquity, the government was in the hands of the emperor, who was said to be God's chosen one and therefore had absolute au...