Causes

The Roman Empire (unit) is divided into 293 by the emperor Dioclétien, who founds the Tétrarchie. Itself manages the areas located in Orient, and its comrade in arms Maximien those in Occident. Each one is assisted of an Co-emperor. This division was conceived like an administrative and nonpolitical division, the college of the emperors representing the authority on the unit, and each emperor having to make his decisions in agreement with his/her colleague.

In IVe century all the Roman Empire formed four prefectures, containing fourteen together Diocèse S, which themselves included/understood more than one hundred provinces; Rome and Constantinople remaining apart from any division.

Territorial organization Empire after Dioclétien

See also: Dioceses of the Roman Empire

Constantin the Large one

In 305, Dioclétien abdicates, which is a first in the history of the empire, by obliging Maximien to imitate it in favor of their Galère Co-emperors and Constance Chlorinates, father of Constantin I {{er}}.

At the end of many power struggles between the applicants, which Constantin leaves victorious at the end of 323, the administrative unit of the empire is temporarily restored.

Constantin can be regarded as the spiritual father of the Byzantine empire, being the founder of Constantinople which it builds with the site of a Greek colony of the name of Byzance (Byzantium, today Istanbul). This capital is first of all named Nova Roma (“New Rome”) then, in the everyday usage, Constantinople ( Constantinou polished , town of Constantin). Constantin Ier was also the first emperor to support the Christianisme. He contributes even to the foundation of his doctrines by convening the first council œucumenic Christian with Nicée into 325.

The division of the empire

The unit of the empire only is temporarily restored under Constantin, because after its death, the recourse to a coemperor becomes almost systematic.

Division final with died of Théodose the Large one into 395. The Western parts and Eastern fall to its two sons. Honorius establishes its capital in Rome and Arcadius in Constantinople. Consequently, the political ambitions of the coempereurs will come never again to encroach the prerogatives of the other. And with the accession with the throne of Leon Ier in Constantinople in 457, the dynastic bonds which linked until there the emperors of the East and Occident are definitively broken.

In 476, during the fall of the Roman Empire of occident, the emperor of the East Zénon becomes the single agent of the Roman imperial authority. As at the time of the separation of 395, the event was not perceived at the time as final (Odoacre recognized the authority - nominal - of Zénon in Italy, just as Théodoric will make him allegiance), but this event marks the birth of the Byzantine Empire, which is detached from Roman antiquity. It had been initially carried out on the administrative level, then extends to religious dimension at the time of the Concile of Chalcédoine into 451. The title of patriarch is then recognized with the bishop of Constantinople, which makes the equal one of the bishop of Rome, the pope. Finally in 484, the pope Felix III excommunicates the patriarch of Constantinople Acace to protest against the nomination of a bishop monophysite with Alexandria; in reprisals, Acace excommunicates in its turn Felix III.

The Byzantine empire is regarded as “Roman” by his inhabitants, but is in fact a State of Greek culture. The Greek language was language current, of culture, church and commercial. The Eastern empire was multi ethnic, with hellenistic centers of radiation like Constantinople, Antioche, Éphèse, Thessalonique, and Alexandria.

Attempts at reconstitution of the empire

In 488, Théodoric has taken along the federate Goths , installed for one century in the north of the Thrace, for a great exodus towards Italy, in agreement with the Zénon emperor. It must relieve Odoacre and reign in its place in the name of the emperor. The Byzantine empire finally overcame the period of the Great invasions in this end of 5th century thanks to its diplomacy, which it then continues vis-a-vis the Croats and in Avars by fixing them on its ground (to read late migrations) .

After the death of Théodoric, the assassination of his/her daughter in 535 offer with the emperor Justinien Ier the pretext to complete the restoration of the unit of the empire which it initiated while working with the reconciliation of the churches of the East and Occident in 519, then by reconquering North Africa in 533. The Byzantine army, ordered by the general Bélisaire, unloads in Sicily in 536, then, four years later, reconquers all Italy. But Goths take again Rome, kind Justinien to send a new army in 552 under the command of eunuque the Narsès. Goths are definitively overcome this same year, in the valley of Sarno, and are driven out of Italy. Some troops are sent in Spain, making pass South-east under Byzantine suzerainty. Thus, Justinien remade of the Mediterranean a Roman lake, however that Constantinople becomes more the big city in the world.

But its nephew Justin II is completely impotent in front of the invasion of the Lombards in Italy in 568. This same year, the Avars invade Balkans, followed in 577 by the Slaves. In 588, the Royaume Visigoth takes again the fringe of Raising to the Byzantines. During this time, the empire entered in conflict with the Perses in 572. Vis-a-vis the collapse of the work of Justinien, the emperor Maurice reorganizes the last Byzantine possessions in Italy and Africa. He constitutes the exarchats of Ravenne and Carthage, intended to facilitate the defense of these areas by the concentration of the capacities civilian and soldier in the hands of only one man, the exarque one. They make it possible to ensure the empire a durable presence in Occident. Lastly, the peace obtained with Persians in 591 makes it possible Maurice to launch an offensive in the Balkans. But the war is long and painful, and in 602, the army and the people revolt and lead a new emperor to the capacity. The Byzantines definitively give up driving out Slavic empire.

This 6th century was also marked by the theological crises with the development of the Monophysisme, in spite of its judgment at the time of the council of Chalcédoine. This problem is the cause of the disagreements between Rome and Constantinople during all this century.

The work of Justinien is not summarized with its attempt to restore the territorial and religious unit empire. He asks Tribonien to revise the Roman laws. Its monumental work leads to the drafting of the Corpus juris civilis in 529. It makes rebuild in addition the church of Holy-Sophie (Holy Wisdom (of God), Αγια Σοφια ), destroyed at the time of the Sédition Nika during which it failed to lose the capacity in 532. It was completed at the end of five years, in 537.
After the reign of Justinien, Italy was lost with the profit of the Lombards, and during the 7th century, the Arab Musulman S conquered the provinces of the south under the reign of Héraclius.
The conquests of the Moslems left the more homogeneous empire: Greek and more Christian who it was not before.

See too

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