History of the Byzantine Empire: Rise and fall of the Eastern Roman Empire from Constantine the Great to fall of Constantinople

by Interesting History

The history of the Byzantium Empire is based on Byzantine and non-Byzantine sources. The starting point is given by Byzantine historians and chroniclers who with more or less accuracy write about historical events.
Roman state organization, Greek culture, and Christianity are the foundations of the Byzantine Empire. This merger was due to the displacement of the Roman Empire to the East, caused by the great crisis of the third century. At first, the history of Byzantium was considered only the continuation of the Roman Empire. The name "Byzantium" originates from a later period. Its inhabitants called themselves the Romans, and their rulers were regarded as Roman emperors. Considering itself for the only legal empire of the world, Byzantium wanted the reign of all the countries of the former Roman Empire. Later, everything was reduced to ideological supremacy. By the time, Byzantium faded away from its original Roman foundations - the Empire was Hellenized and theocratized, and economic, social and political development led to the formation of a new economic and social order and a new state order. Thus, at the end of Byzantine history, the only connection with the Roman Empire was the name and some surviving traditions.
The first three centuries of the Byzantine, or the last three centuries of the Roman Empire, are a period called the early-Byzantine, or later Late Roman times. The western part of the empire has experienced an economic collapse. The east was also endangered, but it survived. Characteristic is the steady increase in latifundia, at the expense of tiny possession and imperial domain. The peasant masses are increasingly bound to the fetus. In turbulent times, the principle was replaced by Diocletian's dominant, which is the root of Byzantine autocracy. The old municipal organization of Roman cities was in decline. The state administration was in the hands of the emperor and the craftsman. Car dignity was no longer a supreme magistracy but a despotic authority based on God's will. In the Early Byzantine period imperialism of the emperor was limited by the Senate, the army and the urban population organized in demos. their significance decreases over time, and the influence of the church grows more and more. The conflicts of the world with the dominant world in Byzantine history were roads, but these two components were inspired by the same ideals and related to common interests. Thus, the emperor was not only the supreme commander of the army, the supreme judge and legislator, but also the defense attorney of the church and true religion. All the inhabitants of the empire were emperor's servants. They greeted him prokinese, falling in front of him. Although Christian, Byzantium preserved the cultural treasures of antiquity without distraction from pagan art and wisdom - Roman law, Greek philosophy, poetry and historiography. The power of Byzantium was primarily based on money, rather than on war. The riches of this were merciless fiscalism. The wealth and high culture of the state are paid by misery, injustice and the loss of freedom of the population.

78 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 6, 2019