History of the Byzantine empire

To write a history of the Byzantine Empire supposes to have defined the period which this description must cover. How to define the period which a “Byzantine history must cover”? If the end of Constantinople can be dated precisely from the May 29th 1453 when the Turks took by storm this capital of a State already dying man, it is differently of its beginnings, on the one hand, and of its heritage on the other hand (without counting the fact that Mistra and Trébizonde fell only in 1460 and 1461).

Indeed, no decisive rupture exists in the slow process which gradually transformed the Roman Empire of the East into what Hieronymus Wolf called at the 16th century “Worsens Byzantine”. Its inhabitants continued to regard themselves as citizens of the “Roman Empire” in spite of its change of nature: of Latin and pagan, it became indeed, with the wire of the centuries, Greek and Christian. Even its conquest as from the 11th century by the Turks did not dissuade its former citizens, become of “striped” (prone not-Moslems of the Sultan) to continue to be defined as “Romées”, and this is why the Turks called them “Roumis”.

Practically all the current historians agree to consider that the Empire can be qualified of “Byzantine” at the latest to the advent of Héraclius in 610. At that time, it acquired definitively its essential characters and gave up de facto the fiction of a suzerainty on the old Roman territories of Occident.

Previously, several dates are important compared to the constitution of this political unit:

Institution of the Tétrarchie by Dioclétien (293): the reform of Dioclétien carries in germ the division of the empire in two parts of the empire, each of Majestic having charges one more particularly with it with these parts;
Foundation of Constantinople by Constantin (330): The new city ( Nova Roma , New Rome) will not be long in attracting the lifeblood of the Empire, with the detriment of Rome;
Fine of the reign of Théodose {{Ier}}, last emperor common to the East and the Occident (395): with its death, its sons Arcadius and Honorius “inherit” each one of part of the empire, as that had been done several times before: but this one is the last;
Deposition of Romulus Augustule, last emperor of Occident (476): the cruel Royaumes replace the centralized authority of Rome in Western Europe, even if certain sovereigns claim Roman heritage and obtain a very theoretical nomination of the emperor reigning in Constantinople.
Fine of the reign of Justinien {{Ier}} (565): this emperor tries to reconstitute the Roman empire by the reconquest (partial) of his old Western territories (Italy, North Africa, south of Spain). After him, the idea will not be taken up any more, but it cost extremely expensive the Byzantine Empire. The name of Romagna , in Italy, recalls this reconquest partial of Italy by the Empire.

Traditionally, modern historiography " cale" the Middle Ages over the duration of existence of the “Byzantine Empire” arbitrarily definite of 476 with 1453. But for certain Greek or Rumanian historians, the period going of the end of the Western Empire (476) to the catch of Constantinople by IVe crusade (1204) is the age “Romée” or “Novel”, and the Middle Ages (Mesa hronia, Evul mediu) go from 1204 to 1573. It is followed of (or, at some, it includes) the “Othoman” age of 1573 (falls of the last Christian fortified towns of which Cyprus, with the hands of the Turks) at 1774 (treaty of Küçük-Kaynarci returning some their rights to the orthodoxe Christians, and inaugurating the modern era).

The Roman Empire of the East (293-518)

Origin

The Édit of Caracalla in 212 makes of all the inhabitants of the Roman Empire of the full citizens, without reference of order or geographical membership. Until there, only the inhabitants of the Latium and later of the Italy could claim with the citizenship without condition. On this date however certain provinces, like Greece or Africa proconsulaire, are more advanced than others (such Egypt, Brittany or Palestine, the more poor and more distant from Rome) in the process already largely started diffusion of the Roman citizenship to the whole of the Empire. The division of the Empire starts with the introduction of the Tétrarchie (Latin: quadrumvirate ) at the end of the 3rd century by the emperor Dioclétien in order to control the vast Roman Empire more effectively. It divides the Empire into two, with two emperors ( Augusti ) reigning from Italy and Greece, each one having as Co-emperor a younger colleague ( Caesares ), intended to succeed to him. After the volunteer renouncement of the throne of Dioclétien, the system tetrarchic starts soon with enliser; the competitions settle between Augustes and Césars; the theoretical distribution of dignities continues to exist until in 324 date on which Constantin I {{er}} (Roman Emperor)|Constantin Large the kills his last rival and remains the only emperor. As for the Romain Empire, the lack of clear and complied with rules of succession will remain a constant data of the Byzantine empire.

Constantin then makes the decision essential - one of the two essential decisions of its reign, the other being the acceptance of the Christianisme - to found a new capital; he chooses Byzance. Rome had for a long time ceased being the effective political capital of the Empire: Urbs, too far away from the septentrional borders in danger and the rich person Eastern provinces, had not had any more of emperor with residence since the middle of the 3rd century. Byzance is well placed: with crossed of two continents and two seas, with the one of the Western ends of the Silk route, also opened on the Road of Spices leading to Africa and the Indies, it is very a good base to keep the absolutely crucial Danubian border, and it was reasonably close to the Eastern borders. Constantin tested his value as a fortress when it was the center of the last pocket of resistance in the war carried out by its Licinius rival and that it resisted.

In 330, the Nova Roma is officially founded on the site of Byzance. However, the population called commonly the city Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις, Constantinoúpolis, the city of Constantin). Constantin undertakes the construction of large strengthened walls which are undoubtedly the work more seizing city. These walls, which will be extended and rebuilt, combined with a strengthened port and a fleet, make certainly of Constantinople a Fortified town virtually impregnable and most important of the Early middle ages. On several occasions in the hundreds of years which will follow, Constantinople will be the last rampart of Roman civilization in the Eastern Mediterranean and on some occasions the last rampart of civilization very whole Judeo-Christian.

The new capital becomes the center of the new administration reformed by Constantin. This last withdrew the civil functions of the Préfet of the court to put them between the hands of regional prefects. At the 4th century, four large regional prefectures were thus created.

Constantin is generally regarded as the first Christian emperor . The legend wants that before a battle with the doors of Rome in 312 against the rival emperor Maxence, a large ignited cross appeared to him in the sky with the words “In Hoc Signo Vinces” (“By this sign you will overcome”). That one believes or not in the legend, there are no doubts that from 312 Constantin starts to support Christianity, and the religion, which was persecuted under Dioclétien, becomes a “authorized religion” and was reinforced with the passing of years, except a short return of the prevalence of the polytheism under Julien the Apostate. Although the Empire cannot be qualified yet of “Byzantine”, Christianity will become an essential characteristic of the Byzantine empire, contrary to the traditional Roman Empire, the origin polytheist.

Constantin introduces also a currency of stable gold, the solidus, which will become the standard currency for centuries, and not only in the Byzantine empire.

Another essential event in the history of the Roman/Byzantine empire was the battles of Turkey-red cotton in 378, in which the emperor Valens is killed and best Roman legions are overcome by the Visigoths. This defeat was sometimes proposed like completion date of the Antiquité and entry in the medieval era .

The Roman Empire is again divided by the successor of Valens, Théodose {{Ier}} (called “the Large one”) which reigns on the two parts since 392: according to the dynastic principles good establish by Constantin, in 395 Théodose gives the two halves of the Empire has its two sons, Arcadius and Honorius; Arcadius becomes the leading one of the oriental party, with her capital in Constantinople, and Honorius the leader of the Western part, with Ravenne for capital. Théodose is the last emperor whose authority entirely covers the traditional extents of the Roman Empire. It is current at that time to name the oriental party “Roman empire of the East” rather than “Byzantine empire”.

End of the Roman Empire of Occident

The Roman Empire of the East is largely saved by the difficulties with the {{IIIe}} and {{IVe}} centuries partly because the urban culture gréco-Roman is firmly established there of long time (since the hellenistic time at the latest) and because the first invasions are initially attracted by the richness of Rome. Throughout the 5th century, various invasions conquer the Western part of the Roman Empire and, sometimes, require tribute of the oriental party. However, the inhabitants of the occident in 476 did not realize that the Empire crumbled: for a long time already, they were accustomed to see " barbares" to engage like legionaries, to populate cities and villages, to climb the levels of the Roman hierarchy, to convert with Christianity, to manage in the name of the Emperor of the provinces as a " foederati" ; and after Romulus Augustule had been deposited and its badges sent to Constantinople, it is during a long time still still in the name of Rome and while trying to always imitate the Roman model, that reigned Odoacre, Théodoric, Clovis, Charlemagne and other Othons, crowned by a church " romaine" …

The Murailles of Constantinople are strengthened under Théodose II making city a Fortified town impenetrable: it will not be victim of a foreign conquest until in 1204. To save the Roman Empire the East an invasion by the Huns of Attila, Théodose pours gold to them. Moreover, it supported the merchants of Constantinople who trade with the barbarians. Its successor, Marcien, refuse to continue to pay these enormous sums. However, Attila is diverted already Roman Empire of Occident and dies in 453 after the Bataille of the fields Catalauniques. The empire hun crumbles and Constantinople is released from the threat represented by Attila. Advantageous relations between the Roman Empire of the East and the remainder of Huns start thus. Some Huns end even up fighting as mercenaries for the Byzantine empire during the following centuries.

In Constantinople also " barbares" can climb the social levels, the such general Alain Aspar, become very powerful at the 4th century. Alains or Ïasses is iranophones of which some (Ossètes) always live in the Caucasus, while others were melted among the Gallo-Roman ones (after being itself established in the basin of the Loire), among Hungarian (area of Jasz) and Rumanian (Moldavie, area of Jassy or Iasi). But Alains are independent of the Empire: their fatherland is at the north of the Black Sea. Leon {{Ier}} succeeds in being released from the influence of these alains chiefs, by supporting the rise of the Isauriens, of the stockbreeders and warriors also iranophones alive in Anatolia southernmost (and whose Kurds assert paternity). Anatolia is the center of the Empire and Isauriens is faithful citizens. Aspar and its Ardabur son are assassinated at the time of a riot in 471: Constantinople is removed from the foreign influences for centuries.

Leon is also the first emperor to receive the crown not hands of a general or an officer of high ranking, like usually in the Roman tradition, but of the hands of the Senate and with the blessing of the patriarch of Constantinople. This habit will become obligatory with the wire of time, and, with the Moyen-âge, the religious aspect of crowning will have completely supplanted the civil procedures. In 468, Leon fails to take again the North Africa to the Vandales. At that time, Roman Empire of Occident east already reduced to Italy. Large the Brittany was conquered by the Germanic ones, the Angles and the Saxons, which drive out the Breton ones towards Armorique Gallic and Iberian Cantabrie. The Hispanie and the southernmost Gaulle are with the hands of the Visigoths. The Vandales reign on the Africa and the islands of the Mediterranean Western. Belgium and the Gaulle septendrionale are with the hands of the Francs, while Burgondes reign on current Switzerland, Burgundy, Dauphiné and Provence.

In 466, to reinforce alliance isaurienne, Leon Marie her daughter Ariadnè in Isaurien Tarasicodissa, which takes the name of Zénon. When Leon dies in 474, Zénon and the son junior by Ariadnè, Leon {{II}} goes up on the throne, Zénon acting as regent. When Leon dies this same year, Zénon becomes emperor. The end of the Western Empire is often dated in 476, at the beginning of the reign of Zénon, when the Germanic general of origin Odoacre deposits the Roman Emperor of Occident in title, Romulus Augustule, and refused to replace it by another puppet. To recover Italy, Zénon can only negotiate with the Ostrogoths of Théodoric which had settled in Mésie. It sends the king ostrogoth in Italy with the title of Magister militum per Italiam . After the fall of Odoacre in 493, Théodoric, which lived in Constantinople during its youth, reigns on Italy in its proper name, recognizing only one souverainté formal with Zénon. It proves to be the most powerful Germanic king of this time, but its successors will be largely lower to him and their kingdom of Italy will start to decline in years 530.

In 475, Zénon is deposited by a conspiracy which replaces it by Basiliscus, the general who had taken again North Africa to the Vandals into 468. Zénon recovers the throne later twenty month. However, Zénon must deal with the threat coming from his/her former comrade in arms, Illus, which wants to crown Léontios. The domination isaurienne ends when an old civil servant of Italic origin, Anastase {{Ier}}, becomes emperor in 491 and after a long war, demolishes Isauriens in 498. Anastase proves to be an energetic reformer and able administrator. It perfect the monetary system of Constantin while defining in a final way the weight of the Follis coppers some, the part used for the transactions of the daily life. It reforms also the system of the taxes and leaves the Treasury with the enormous surplus of: 320000 pounds of gold to its death.

I {{er}} council of Nicée
IIe council of Nicée
Code of Théodose
Law of the quotations
I {{ecumenical er}} council of Constantinople
Council of Éphèse
Council of Chalcédoine
Monophysisme
Mardaïtes
Nestorianisme

Period protobyzantine

It is considered that the period protobyzantine extends from the time of the end of the Roman Empire - gone back according to some with the fall to Rome into 476 or at the beginning of the reign of Justinien in 527 - until the installation of the system of the Thèmes (fine of the 7th century - beginning of the 8th century). During this period which precedes the arrival by the Slaves, the inhabitants of the Empire always regard themselves as Romans (in Latin “Romani”, in Greek Ρωμαίoί ), who they are hellénophones (Greek south of Italy in Western minor Asia and the Delta of the Nile), latinophones (Italic, Valaques of Balkans, Romans of North Africa), arménophones (Armenian in Eastern minor Asia), Semitic (Araméens, Judéens and Arabs of Syria and Palestine) or coptes (Egyptian).

At times of Justinien www.massi123big.skyblog.com; ; ;

The reign of Justinien, which begins in 527, sees one period of imperial conquests of the old Roman territories. The 6th century sees also the beginning of long series of conflicts with the neighbors of the Empire, like the Perses sassanides, the Slaves and the Bulgares. Theological crises, as the Monophysisme dominate also the Empire.

Justinien perhaps already exerted the power during the reign of its predecessor, Justin (518-527). Justin is a former officer of the imperial armed which was chief of the guards under Anastase, and which was proclaimed emperor with died of Anastase - it has then nearly 70 years. Justinien is the son of a peasant of Illyrie, but also the nephew of Justin. Justinien is adopted later by Justin as wire. Justinien will become one of the most refined characters of its time, inhabited by the dream to restore the Roman law on everyone Mediterranean. It reforms the administration and the law, and using general brilliances like Bélisaire and Narsès, temporarily regains some of the old Roman provinces lost in the West, by conquering a good part of Italy and Africa de Nord and by recovering the Bétique.

In 532, Justinien makes safe the Eastern border of the Empire by signing a treaty of “eternal peace” with the king sassanide Khosrau {{Ier}}. However, this peace requires the payment of an enormous gold tribute every year. The same year, the Sedition Nika, or revolts of Nika, lasts nearly one week in Constantinople. It is the most serious explosion of the violence to which the city had to face until there, and with its exit about half is burned or destroyed by it.

The conquests of Justinien in the west begin in 533, when Bélisaire is sent to claim the old province of Africa with a small army of: 18000 men - mainly of the mercenaries. Whereas a preceding forwarding in 468 was a failure, this new adventure is a success. The kingdom of the Vandales to Carthage does not have any more the force of the time of Genséric and the Vandals go after some battles against the forces of Bélisaire. Bélisaire goes back to Constantinople to receive the Roman Triomphe with the last king vandal, Gélimer, as prisoner. However, the reconquest of Africa takes some time to be stabilized and it is not before 548 that all the independent local tribes will be entirely subjected.

In 535, Justinien launches its more ambitious countryside, the reconquest of the Italy. At that time, Italy east always under the cut of the Ostrogoths. It sends an army by the ground which makes it tower of the Dalmatian coast , while the principal quota, transported by boats and again under the command of Bélisaire, unloads in Sicily and conquers the island without too many difficulties. The army penetrates the earths and initially the important cities like Naples, Rome or the capital Ravenne fall the ones after the others. Goths seem demolished and Bélisaire is recalled to Constantinople by Justinien in 541. Bélisaire takes along with him the king ostrogoth Vitigès, prisoner and connected. However, Ostrogoths and their supports are quickly reunified under the energetic command of Totila. The Gothic Guerre which follows is a series exténuante of seats, battles and retirements, and which consumes almost all the Byzantine and Italian resources tax, impoverishing a good part of the campaigns. Bélisaire is recalled by Justinien which does not trust him any more. The Byzantines are about to lose all the possessions gained by their army. After having neglected to provide sufficient logistic and financial resources to the troops previously despaired under the command of Bélisaire, Justinien sends an army of: 35000 men (mainly of the mercenaries of German Asia and ) at summer 552. Astute and diplomatic eunuque the Narsès is selected to order. Totala is crushed and killed with the Bataille of Taginae. The successor of Totila, Teias, is also beaten with the Bataille of the mount Lactarius (close to the Vesuvius, in October 552). In spite of a resistance which continues on behalf of some garrisons gothes, and two invasions of the Francs and the Alamans, the war for the reconquest of the Italian peninsula ends.

The plans of conquests of Justinien are wide into 554 when a Byzantine army takes a small portion of Spain to the Visigoths. All the principal Mediterranean islands are also now under Byzantine control. In margin of the conquests, Justinien updates old the Roman law with new the Corpus Juris Civilis. Even if the laws are always written in Latin, the language itself had become antiquated and hardly comprehensible even by those write the new code. Under the reign of Justinien, the church Holy-Sophie is built in years 530. This church will become the center of the Byzantine relieuse life and the center of Eastern Christendom orthodoxe. The 6th century sees also a flourishing culture and although Justinien closes the Académie with Athens, Roman Empire of the East produced of the notable artists like the poet epic Nonnos de Panopolis, the lyric poet Paul Silentiaire, the historian Procope de Césarée, the philosopher Jean Philoponus and others.

The conquests in the west have as a consequence the fact that the Eastern borders are dismantled, although Justinien built good number of fortresses throughout its reign. In 540, Khosrau {{Ier}} broke already the pact previously signed with Justinien and plunders Antioche. The only way for Justinien of preceding quarrelsome inclinations of Khosrau is to pay to each year a sum increasingly more important. The Balkans are prone to repeated incursions of the Slaves, which had already crossed the imperial border during the reign of Justin. They take advantage of the lines of defense dismantled of the Empire and penetrate the Byzantine earths until that with the Golfe of Corinth. The Bulgares (Huns Koutrigours) also attack in 540. The Slavic ones invade the Thrace in 545 and attack the port of Dyrrachium (current Durrës) on the Adriatique, in 548. In 550, the Sklavènes are with less than 65 kilometers of Constantinople. In 559, the Roman Empire of the East is unable to resist a great invasion of Koutrigours and Sklavènes. Divided into three, the invaders reach the Thermopyles, the peninsula of Gallipoli and the surroundings of Constantinople. The Slavic ones fear more the intact power of the Roman fleet of the the Danube and the Bulgarian ones - that the Romans paid - that opposition of the Byzantine army evil prepared. The empire is except for this time, but souverainté Byzantine on Balkans is almost destroyed in the years which follow.

Very quickly after the death of Justinien in 565, the Lombards, an old tribe foederati (federate People), invade and conquer most of Italy. The Visigoths conquer Cordoue, the principal Byzantine city in Spain, first once in 572 and definitively in 584. The last Byzantine fortified towns in Bétique are swept the 20 years which follow. The Turks arrive in the Crimea, and 577, a horde of: 100000 Slavic the Thrace and the Illyrie invade. Sirmium (current Sremska Mitrovica), quoted Byzantine the most important on the the Danube, is lost in 582 but the Roman Empire of the East manages all the same to still keep the control of the river a few years although it gradually loses the control of its provinces.

Attacks of Persians and the Arabs

The successor of Justinien, Justin {{II}}, refuses to pay tribute with the Empire sassanide. He results long and lasts war which lasts until the reign of its successors, Tibère {{II}} Constantin and Maurice {{Ier}} and which will be focused on the control of the Arménie. Fortunately for the Byzantines, a civil war hatches in the Persian empire. Maurice takes the advantage of his friendship with Khosrau {{II}} - which was helped by Maurice for his accession with the throne - to sign a favorable peace treaty in 591. The treaty gives the control of a Western good part of Arménie to the Roman Empire of the East. Maurice Ier reorganizes the remainder of the Byzantine possessions in the West by creating two Exarchat S with Ravenne and Carthage, increases their capacities of self-defense and delegates their direction to local civil authorities.

The Avars and later the Slaves conquer most of the Balkans and at the dawn of the 7th century, the Sassanides invade Egypt, the Palestine, the Syria and the Arménie. Persians are finally demolished and the territories return to the Empire thanks to the emperor Héraclius in 627 following the Bataille of Ninive. However, the unexpected appearance of the Arab lately converted and linked under the banner of the Islam takes the Empire - exhausted by its engagements against Persians - by surprised and the southernmost provinces are lost. The most catastrophic defeat for the Roman Empire of the East is inflicted by the Arabs with the Bataille of Yarmouk, in Syria. Héraclius and the military governors of Syria are slow to react to this new threat and the Mésopotamie, Syria, Egypt and the exarchat of Africa are built-in a permanent way to the Dar Al-Islam as from the 7th century, a process which will be supplemented by the fall of Carthage in favor of the Califat in 698.

Lombards continue their expansion in Italy of North, taking the Ligurie in 640 and conquering most of the Exarchat de Ravenne in 751, leaving to the Byzantines only the control of some small zones in Italy of the South like some coastal towns like Venice, Naples, Amalfi and Gaète.

The loss of territories is counterbalanced to a certain extent by a consolidation and an increased standardization of the Empire. The emperor Héraclius hellénise completely Empire by making Greek the official language, thus putting a term at the last vestiges of use of the Latin and at the old Roman traditions. The use of Latin in the governmental edicts - with Latin titles like Augustus and the concept of Roman Empire of the East doing one with Rome - fall in disuse, which makes it possible the Empire to find its own identity. Héraclius also seeks to unify the inhabitants of the Empire religieusement, adopting the compromise of the Monothélisme.

Many historians regard in-depth reforms operated during the reign of Héraclius as a rupture with the past of old Rome. It is current to refer to the Roman Empire of the East by describing it as “Byzantine” as from this moment. The rites and religious practices within the empire become also appreciably different from those of the old provinces of Western Europe.

The southernmost imperial provinces differ appreciably from the cultural point of view of those of north, adopting the Monophysisme rather than the orthodoxy chalcédonienne. The losses of these southernmost territories in favor of the Arab reinforces the orthodoxe practices in the remaining territories.

Constant II subdivides the empire in a system of military provinces called “Thèmes” in order to improve the reactivity of the local population subjected to the constant threat of external attacks. Apart from the capital, the urban life declines while Constantinople grows and becomes the largest city of the Christian world.

During the reign of Constant, the Byzantines withdraw themselves completely from Egypt and the Arabs launch many attacks against the islands of the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. Constant sends a fleet against the Arabs to the Bataille of Phoenix of Lycie in 655 (close to current the Finike), but it east demolishes: 500 Byzantine ships are destroyed in the battle and the emperor himself came very close to death. Only a civil war with the Shiite prevents the plan of attack of the Arabs on Constantinople from being carried out.

In 658, the imperial army demolishes the Slaves on the the Danube, temporarily slowing down their advance towards Balkans. Constant, being attracted the hatred of the people of Constantinople, its capital with Syracuse moved temporarily. In 661, it launches an attack on the possession lombarde of the duchy of Bénévent to Southern Italy. After some victories and plunderings, it makes retirement in Naples. He is the last emperor of the East to visit Rome until the 15th century. He is assassinated in Sicily shortly after and no serious action will be undertaken to reconquer Italy of the south before the 9th century.

The Arabs put the seat in front of Constantinople in 672. They will be dislodged only in 678 thanks to the use of the Greek fire. The Arabs return to besiege the Byzantine capital in 717, they there will be still demolished at the summer 718 by the Greek fire, the high walls of the city and competences of the Byzantine generals and the emperor-warrior Leon III Isaurien. After the seat of 718, in which the Arabs underwent enormous losses, the Califat was not any more one serious threat for the heart of the Empire. One will need another civilization, that of the Turks Seldjoukides, definitively to reject the imperial forces of Anatolia Eastern and central.

In his History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire , the historian of the Lumières Edward Gibbon depicts the Byzantine empire of this time as perverted and declining. However, another glance is now carried by the medievists and the byzantinologists and reveals a military Superpuissance with the Early middle ages. The academics put forward the imperial Cavalerie heavy (the Cataphractaire S), its equipments (although inconstant) as good peasant-warriors with to do everything forming the base of recruitment of the cavalry, its extraordinary internal defense system (topics), and its use of diplomatic tricks to make fight its enemies the ones against the others. Other factors can also be added: a very effective system of information of the Empire, communications and logistic system based on the trains of mules, a marine incomparable (although often under-equipped) and doctrines and rational military strategies which recommend the use of the surprise, the dissimulation, the fast operations, and of the gathering of forces crushing with the place and the hour wanted by the commander.

Period mésobyzantine

The period mésobyzantine extends from the beginning of the 8th century to the bag of Constantinople of 1204 by the crusaders at the time of the Fourth crusade. This period sees a succession of retreats and of expansion of the Empire under the reign of the three major dynasties that are the Dynastie amorienne, the Dynastie Macedonian and the Comnène S. During this period only the hellénophones (Greek), the latinophones of Balkans (Aroumains known as Valaques) and the arménophones of Eastern minor Asia (Armenian) are still regarded as Romans (in Greek Ρωμαίoί ).

Period iconoclast (726-843)

The 8th century is dominated by the controversy and the religious division of the Iconoclasme. The failures imposed by Arabic on the imperial armies were interpreted like as many manifestations of divine anger. The Byzantines wondered about the reasons of the divine ire. Had the heresies however been reduced, which were thus the religious practices irritating the Sky? Leon III had observed that the worship of the icons took extreme forms (their dust cures, they are given for godfathers.); by condemning this worship and his excesses, the emperor hoped to alleviate the divine fury. The icons had however always belonged to orthodoxe spirituality. The icons are banished by the emperor Leon III into 730. It is the beginning of the first iconoclasme (730-787) whose history remains to us extremely badly known so much the sources which are referred to it result from the " iconodoules" (partisan of the images). With the remainder the reactions are rather moderate: the German patriarch resigns and withdraws himself in a monastery without being anxious; the pope Gregoire II protests. In 740 Leon III gains the clear victory of Akroinon over Arabic, which reinforced the credit of the iconoclasme. This one took, under his/her son Constantin V, a more radical form, being based on its victories counter the Bulgarian ones and Arabes.Constantin V attacks the mediums monastic, considered favorable to the images. The dispute extends through all the Empire. After the efforts of the empress Irene, the second council of Nicée takes place in 787 and affirms that the icons can be venerated but cannot be the subject of a worship. Irene tries also an alliance by marriage with Charlemagne. In theory, this alliance would cause to join together the two “Roman” empires and to create a European super power comparable in power with old Rome. In practice, the two empires are so different that it is difficult to imagine that such a union can take place. In any event, these plans are abandoned when Irene is deposited five years later.

The controversy iconoclast returns at the beginning of the 9th century, it is definitively solved by the empress Théodora, who restores the icons. These controversies contribute to the disintegration of the relations with the Roman Catholic church and the Germanic Roman Empire, both continuing to increase their power and their independence.

The golden age (843-1025)

Crisis and anarchy (1025-1081)

However, like Rome before it, Byzance sinks soon during a difficult period for it, caused into large part by rise of the aristocracy which denatured the system of the Thèmes. The succession of weak leaders who take the continuation of Basile II relaxes the large armies guarantors of the protection of the Eastern provinces; gold is rather accumulated in Constantinople, openly shown in order to attract Mercenaire S. In fact, the majority of the money is wasted in gifts for the favorites of the emperor, in extravagant banquets for the court, or in luxury items for the imperial family.

During this time, the remainders of the army, formerly formidable, fall in decrepitude up to the point where they are not able any more to function like an army. Under-equipped old men mix with new recruits which never took part in a excercice of drive. Vis-a-vis its old enemies, the Germanic Roman Empire and the Abbasid caliphate, the Roman Empire of the East could have recovered its power, but new enemies appear and the latter do not have any reason to respect its reputation.

In 1040, the Norman , originally of the mercenaries without grounds of the north of Europe living of the spoils of their plunders and plunderings, starts to attack the Byzantine fortresses in Southern Italy. To counter them, a force made up mercenaries and conscripts under the command of Georges Maniakès is sent in Italy in 1042. Maniakès and its army devastate the ground, leaving only ruins and destruction on their passage. Those which are opposed to its advance are tortured with death, much are buried alive. However, before it can finish its annihilation campaign, the general is recalled to Constantinople because of intrigues at the court. Seized of a fatal rage by the insults made with his wife and her goods by one of its rivals, he is proclaimed emperor by his troops and the conduit on other side of the Adriatic to the victory over troops loyal supporters. However, he dies of a serious wound shortly after. With an absence of opposition in Balkans, the Norman ones can finish expelling the Byzantines of Italy in 1071.

It is however in Asia Mineure that the greatest disaster will take place. The Turks Seldjoukides, which are mainly interested by the possession Egyptian women of the Fatimides, carry out a series of raids on the Arménie and the Anatolia, which was the grounds of predilection of the Empire for the recruitment of its armies. ' With imperial armies weakened by years of insufficient budgets and wars internal, the emperor Romain IV Diogène realizes that the time of the reform and the reorganization of the army came. He thus tries to conduct a defensive campaign in the East until its forces could enough be restored to beat Seldjoukides. However, because of a treason before the battle, it wipes a defeat surprised vis-a-vis Alp Arslan with the Bataille of Manzikert in 1071. Romain IV is captured and, although the terms of peace with the sultan are not excessive, the consequences of the battle appeared catastrophic for the empire.

With his release, Romain found his rivals conspiring against him and having placed their own candidates on the imperial throne during his absence. After two defeats on the battle field, Romain goes and is cruelly tortured to death. The new sovereign Michel VII Doukas refuses to honor the treaty that Romain signed with the Turks. In answer, the latter start to move in Anatolia in 1073, not meeting any opposition of the defensive system Byzantine dilapidated completion. To still make the things more difficult, chaos reigns while the remaining resources of the Empire are wasted in a series of disastrous civil wars. Thousands of tribes turcomanes cross the not kept border and move in Anatolia. In 1080, close to: 80000 km ² of grounds are lost for the Empire. The significance of these events should not be underestimated. Indeed, in less than one decade, the Empire lost half of its labor and the majority of its supplies grain. Thus the battle of Manzikert is the heavy blow carried to the Byzantine empire during its 700 years of existence.

Under Comnène (1081-1203)

Alexis 1st Comnène

After Manzikert, a rectification partial of the Empire is operated thanks to the efforts of the dynasty Comnène. The first emperor of this royal line is Alexis {{Ier}} Comnène (whose life and actions are reported to us by his daughter Anne Comnène in her Alexiade ). The long reign of almost 37 years of Alexis is marked by keen fights. To its avènenement in 1081, the Byzantine empire is plunged in chaos and emerges one prolonged civil period of war resulting defeat of Manzikert.

At the beginning of his reign, Alexis 1st must face the frightening attack of Norman of Robert Guiscard and his son Bohémond de Tarente which takes Dyrrhachium and Corfou and puts the seat in front of Larissa (Thessalie). Alexis carries out his troops in person against the Norman ones, but in spite of its efforts its army is destroyed on the battle field. Alexis himself is wounded in the battle, and, for a time, it seems that the Empire is about to know its last hour. However, in this moment of supreme crisis, the destiny becomes a little more lenient for unfortunate Alexis, and the Norman danger is isolated for always with the death of Robert Guiscard in 1085. The military aid brought by the young republic of Venice then in full expansion is of an invaluable help for the Empire against the Norman ones.

However, the tests and the tribulations of Alexis do nothing but start. At the time when the emperor has an urgent need raise as much money than possible of his empire of pieces, the system of taxes and the economy are in a complete distress. Inflation is out of control, the strongly devaluated currency, the tax system in prey with confusion (there are then six Nomisma your in circulation), and the empty imperial Treasury. In cause of despair, Alexis is forced to finance his campaigns against the Norman ones while using of the richnesses of the orthodoxe Church which were placed at its disposal by the patriarch. He must also open the markets of the empire to the tradesmen of the Italian cities in compensation of the assistance that it bring to him against the Norman ones; thus Venice obtains it, by the Chrysobulle of 1082, the right to negotiate of frankness in the main ports of Syria, minor Asia, the greques islands, of Greece, of Epire, macedoine, Thrace and Constantinople itself. If in the short run the military aid brought by the Venetian ships protects the Empire on its western side, in the long run the privileges granted to the merchants of Sérénissime will place the Empire under their economic domination.

In 1087, the position of Alexis is with most badly when the news of a new invasion comes from to him. This time, the invaders are a horde of: 80000 Petchenègues come from the north of the Danube and moving towards Constantinople. Without enough of troops to push back this new threat, Alexis employs a skilful diplomacy to overcome his enemies. After having bribed the Coumans, another Turkish-speaking people, to make them come to its assistance, it advances against Petchenègues, which, taken by surprise, are destroyed with the Bataille of the hill of Lebounion on April 29th 1091

With the stability finally restored in the west, Alexis is likely now to solve the economic difficulties and to rebuild the defense traditional of the Empire. To reconstitute the army, Alexis starts to constitute a new form based on ground concessions according to the feudal manner (Proniai) and prepares a campaign against Seldjoukides which conquered Asia Mineure and were established with Nicée.

However, it still does not have enough power to recover the territories lost in Asia Mineure, it thus finds once again a solution intelligent with its annoying situation. Having been impressed by the prowesses of the cavalry Norman in Dyrrachium, it sends its ambassadors to the west to ask reinforcements in Europe. The ambassadors carry out their mission successfully - with the Concile of Pleasure in 1095, the pope Urbain II is moved by the call using Alexis who speaks about the sufferings of the Christians in the East and implies a possible union of the Western and Eastern Churches. The Urbain pope wants to also find a discharge system with quarrelsome inclinations of the Western nobility and seeks to channel this energy for the benefit of the Church. The call of Alexis offers not only the means of achieving this goal, but also of being able to consolidate the authority of the pope on Christendom by unifying all the Christian nations under the same banner.

The First crusade

November 27th, 1095, the pope joins together the Concile of Clermont. There, it enjoint the crowd of the thousands of people who had come to listen to her words to take the weapons under the banner of the Cross and lance an holy war to take again Jerusalem with the “inaccurate” Musulmans. Attracted by the promise of the hello of the eternal damnation to all those which would take part in this large company, much promise to obey the commands of the pope and soon the will to cross is spread through all Europe.

The assistance that Alexis expects to accommodate West are troops of Mercenaire S and not immense the Ost which arrives soon, with its great embarrassment and its consternation. The first group, under the direction of Pierre the Hermit, is sent in Asia Mineure with for order remaining close to the coast and awaiting reinforcements. However, the undisciplined crusaders refuse to listen and start to plunder the local inhabitants who all are Christian. Whereas they go on Nicée, in 1096, they are attacked by the Turks and are almost massacred until the last.

The second and much more important ost was carried out by Godefroy de Bouillon; Alexis also sent it on Asian bank with provisioning and supply in return of an oath of homage. With the victories of this troop, Alexis can recover for the Empire a big number of cities and islands - the reconquest starts with the Siège of Nicée, then Chios, Rhodos, Smyrna, Éphèse, Philadelphia, Sardes, and, in fact, the majority of the Asia Mineure is taken again of 1097 to 1099. According to his/her daughter Anne Comnène, this is to be put at the credit of its political and diplomatic smoothness, but its good relationships with the crusaders do not have nothing to do there. The crusaders think that their oaths are null and void when Alexis do not help them at the time of the head office of Antioche (it has in fact half-turn on the road of Antioche, persuaded by Etienne of Blois that all was lost and that forwarding was a failure). Bohémond, that is done itself prince d' Antioche, briefly enters in war against Alexis, but agrees to become its vassal in 1108 by the Traité of Déabolis.

Rectification partial of the Empire by Alexis Comnène

In spite of his many successes, during the twenty last years of his life, Alexis loses much of his popularity. It is largely due to drastic measurements that it is forced to take to save an empire in almost continual war. The conscription is introduced, causing resentment among the farming community, in spite of the need pressing for new recruits for the imperial army. To restore the imperial Treasury, Alexis taxes the aristocracy heavily; he cancels also many the exemptions of taxes granted previously to the Church. To make sure that all the taxes are paid entirely, and to put an end to a cycle deterioration of the economy and inflation, it reforms the Byzantine currency completely, while emitting to be made a new gold coin hyperpyron (highly refined). In 1109, he managed to give of the order while establishing a suitable foreign exchange rate for all the currency. Its new hyperpyron will be the standard Byzantine currency for the two hundred years to come.

The end of the reign of Alexis is marked by the persecution of the followers of the heresies paulician and bogomile - one of its last acts will be to send to roughing-hew the chief bogomil Basile the Healer, with whom it had engaged a theological controversy of order. Because of the disorder created by new confrontations with the Turks (1110-1117), the succession of Alexis is marked by intrigues at the imperial Court, his Irene wife supporting the husband of her daughter Anne, Nicéphore Bryenne (for which besides, the title of panhypersebastos (“honoured above all”) is created) with the detriment of his/her Jean oldest son, heir apparent. This intrigue disturbed even its last hours. Nevertheless, the heroic efforts of Alexis to save the Empire of a complete annihilation and the carried out reforms were absolutely and urgently necessary, in spite of their unpopularity. Alexis 1st Comnène was a brave and determined emperor, and it is necessary to carry to its credit to have made possible the restoration of the Empire which will proceed under the reign of its successors.

Restoration of the Empire by Jean II

Jean II Comnène succeeds his/her Alexis father in 1118, and reigns until in 1143. Because of its reign peaceful and right, Gibbon compares it with Marc-Aurèle. The leniency and the absence of cruelty of Jean are unusual and, in spite of its long reign, it will make kill or enucléer nobody. He is liked of his subjects which name it “Jean the Good”. He is also an energetic emperor-warrior, passing the majority of his time to shift and supervising personally seat S.

A short glance with the life of Jean II gives an indication of the difficulties that Byzance must surmount at that time: the enemies tackle the Empire on all sides. An invasion of wandering riders coming from north threaten the control which the Byzantines exert on the Balkans. The Turks badger the Byzantine possessions in Asia Mineure. However, it is an age where the actions and the personal will of the emperor make the difference. In truth Comnène, Jean is at the same time committed and determined. Its intelligent defense forces the wandering riders to stop their devastations and to fight and, with the Bataille of Beroia, they are crushed with the assistance of the Garde varangienne. The border of the the Danube is thus made safe.

Jean can then concentrate on Asia Mineure, which becomes the principl object of its attention for the majority of its reign. The Turks pressed themselves in mass at the Byzantine border in Asia Mineure Western, and Jean is determined to push back them. Thanks to an energetic campaign, the expansion of the Turks is stopped and Jean can carry the combat at the enemy. In order to restore the Byzantine authority on the area, Jean launches a series of campaigns prepared well against the Turks. These campaigns are a success, the ancestral residence of the Comnène is even taken again in Kastamonu. Jean quickly gains a reputation of excellent combatant, taking the fortresses as of his enemies the ones after the others. Areas which were lost by the Empire after the battle of Manzikert are brought back under the imperial supervision and are provided in troops. Resistance to this Byzantine reoccupying is strong - particulièrment on behalf of the Danishmendides - and the difficult nature of the maintenance of the new conquests is illustrated by the fact that Kastramonu is recaptured by the Turks while at the same time Jean celebrated in Constantinople his return under the Byzantine authority. Jean perseveres, however, and Kastramonu changes hands once again. Jean advances his army in Anatolia Eastern, causing the attack of the Turks. The forces of Jean are able to keep their cohesion, and the Turkish attempt to inflict second Manzikert with the army of the emperor fails. The Sultan, discredited by his failure, is killed by his own people.

Jean, like Basile II before him, conducts his campaigns slowly but surely. Its armies gain ground prudently, being seldom exposed at the excessive risks, but advancing nevertheless unrelentingly. However, the Turks hold good and will never undergo decisive defeat in their various engagements with the Empire. They know pertinently that it is difficult for the emperor to remain on a face of war in a prolonged way, whereas events require its attention elsewhere.

Jean consolidates his conquests and the Byzantine possessions in Asia Mineure by the construction of a series of forts. The historian Paul Magdalino explains this process in his book The worsens Manual I Komnenos off by replaçant it in the context of the restoration comnénienne; he stresses the fact that whereas Alexis had primarily strengthened the coast, his son extends Byzantine control towards the interior of the grounds by strengthening cities like Lopadion, Achyraous or Laodicea, which kept the access to the valleys and the coasts of Asia Mineure. The found order of these areas under the reign of Jean makes it possible agriculture to know a new prosperity and these areas become again the important production center which they had been close to be devastated by years of war.

Towards the end of his reign, Jean tries to take again Antioche. On the road, it takes the south-eastern coast of Asia Mineure and the Cilicie. It advances then on Syria with the head of its army of veterans, aguerris by a life of countryside and combat almost uninterrupted. Although Jean fights for the Christian cause in this countryside of Syria, a famous incident takes place with its allies, the prince d' Antioche Raymond of Poitiers and tells it of Édesse Josselin II of Courtenay. Raymond and Josselin play dice while Jean puts the seat in front of an enemy city. These frank princes maintained some suspiscion one towards the other and towards the Byzantine emperor and none wants to see the other gaining what it is of one participation in the countryside of Jean. Raymond wants to as preserve Antioche as he promised to return if the countryside is a success. Ultimately, Raymond and Josselin conspire to maintain Antioche out of reach Jean. Whereas this last prepares for a Pèlerinage in Jerusalem before continuing its campaigns, it is wounded accidentally with an arrow poisoned during a hunting. The poison makes its work and Jean dies about it little of time afterwards.

The historian J. Birkenmeier recently supported that the reign of Jean was most advantageous of the period comnénienne. In The development off the Komnenian army, 1081-1180 it puts forward L wisdom of Jean in the approach of the military things, which was focused on the behavior of seat S rather than on risky specific battles. Birkenmeier supports that the strategy of Jean of launching annual campaigns with limited but realistic objectives is much more advised that of Manuel I {{er}}. According to this point of view, the campaigns of Jean II profit with the Empire because they protect its heart all while regularly extending it in Asia Mineure. The Turks are constrained with being on the defensive, in same time, Jean keeps his relatively simple diplomatic situation while being combined with the emperor of Occident against the Normands of Sicily.

In a general way, Jean II Comnène leaves the Empire in better state than when it received it in succession. Many territories were recovered and its successes against the invaders Pétchenègues, Serbes and Turkish Seldjoukides, like its attempts to establish Byzantine suzerainty on the cross states of Antioche and Édesse is there for much in the restoration of the reputation of its empire. Its methodical and careful approach of the military things protected the empire from a sudden defeat while its determination and its competence enabled him to align the successes in its seats and attacks against the enemy fortresses. With its death, it gained an almost universal respect, even Crusaders, for his courage, its devotion and its piety. Its early death made of its queque work thing of unfinished - its last countryside could have resulted in substantial profits reality and for Byzance and the Christian cause.

Handbook Ier Comnène

The heir chosen by Jean is his fourth wire, Manuel I {{er}} Comnène. According to Nicetas Choniates, a historian of Byzance, Manuel is preferred with his/her older brother thanks to his capacity to listen to the councils. Handbook is known for its charismatic and lively personality; it is known for its taste of all the things coming from Occident. Handbook organizes Joutes, even takes part in it, which is rather unusual for the Byzantines. Handbook is generally regarded as more brilliant of the four emperors of the Comnène dynasty; and unusual fact for a Byzantine emperor, his reputation is particularly good in Occident and in the Latin states of the East, in particular after its death. The Latin historian Guillaume de Tyr makes his praises and Robert de Clari describes it “a man generous and full with wisdom”.

Handbook is devoted to the restoration of the glory of the Empire and its statute of power impossible to circumvent in the Mediterranean. The foreign policy of Handbook is at the same time ambitious and expansive, concerning all the actors of the Mediterranean world. It establishes several alliances, with the Western pope and Christian kingdoms, and manages to manage the potentially dangerous passage of the Second crusade through its empire and fact of the cross states of Outremer of Byzantine protectorates.

Latin States of the East
the Mediterranean world in XIIe century

The Latin Empire of Constantinople (1204-1261)

Fourth crusade
Latin Empire of Constantinople
Empire of Nicée
Greek Empire of Trébizonde
Despotat d' Épire
Kingdom of Thessalonique
Duchy of Athens
Principality of Morée
Duchy of Naxos

The slow decline (1261-1453)

Chronology

293 : Introduction of the Tétrarchie

4th century

324 : Constantin I {{er}} becomes the only emperor
325: I {{er}} council of Nicée
330: Foundation of the Nova Roma , Constantinople, by Constantin I {{er}}
337: Died of Constantin
361: Julien makes build a port for its enormous fleet in Constantinople
362: conquest of the Persian by Julien
363: The loss of the Mésopotamie and the Arménie is ratified by a treaty with the Perses
364: Valens becomes emperor of occident
365: Attempt at usurpation of Procope to Constantinople
369: Valens force the king Visigoth Athanaric to accept a treaty which is unfavorable to him on the border of the the Danube
378: The Aqueduc of Valens is completed with Constantinople
379: Théodose I {{er}} assembles on the imperial throne
380: I {{ecumenical er}} council of Constantinople where the Arianisme is condemned
390: Théodose makes set up an obelisk of the Temple of Karnak on the Hippodrome of Constantinople
395: Arcadius becomes emperor of the East to dead of his/her father

5th century

404 : A Earthquake is interpreted by the people of Constantinople like divine anger with regard to the empress Eudoxie and of the patriarch Theophilus for their bad conduct towards Jean Chrysostome
408: Théodose II succeeds his/her father
410: The Visigoth Alaric I {{er}} plunders Rome
413: Beginning of the contruction in Constantinople of the Wall Théodosien, triples line of ramparts
414: Pulchérie becomes regent of the Roman Empire of the East
422: Théodose II pay a tribute with the Huns and signs a peace treaty with the Perse S
447: The walls of Constantinople are damaged by a Earthquake. Attila devastation the Peloponnese until the Thermopyles
448: Beginning of the crisis of the Monophysisme
449: New council with Éphèse. Théodose II tries to negotiate with Attila.
450 : Beginning of the reign of Marcien.
474 : Zénon becomes Co-emperor
476: Fall of the Roman empire of Occident
478: The Greek doctor Anthime is banished of Byzance.

Théodoric, king of Ostrogoths, go on Constantinople. Zénon then allots to him the title of “Master of the militia” and sends it to conquer Italy held by Odoacre to control it in the name of the Empire.

479 : New revolt organized against the Zénon emperor. It is organized by two brothers of the ex-empress Vérine, Romulus and Procope and one of her Marcien sons-in-law. The revolt fails thanks to the intervention of the general isaurien Illus.
483 : May 11th: Birth of Justinien Ier, Byzantine emperor.
484 : First Schism between the churches of the East and Occident until in 519
488: Zénon is restored on the throne of the East.

Zénon puts an end to the disorders which marked its reign by paying the king ostrogoth, Théodoric the Large one so that it leaves the Byzantine Empire and drives out Odoacre of Italy.

491 : April 9th: died of Zénon, Byzantine emperor. Anastase Ier, a senior official marries his ARIANE widow, girl of Leon Ier and of Hook rope and succeeds to him.

Isauriens enter in revolt against Anastase Ier which put an end to their influence, dominating under Zénon, itself isaurien, in Constantinople. They are crushed with the battle of Cotiæum.

496 : The emperor of the East Anastase makes deposit the patriarch of Constantinople chalcédonien Euphemios.
497 : Anastase sends the imperial badge of the West to Théodoric the Large one, recognizing it like its representative in Occident.
498 : The threat isaurienne on the Byzantine Empire is eliminated.

The mountain fortresses of Isauriens are pacified in the South of Asia Mineure.

6th century

512 : riots due to the religious oppositions. Anastase, monophysite convinced, succeed in calming the crowd of the Hippodrome while being presented in front of it.
518 : Justin I {{er}}, however resulting from a family of peasants, becomes emperor.
523 : Justinien wife Théodora.
525 : Antioche is destroyed by an earthquake.
527 with 565: Reign of Justinien I {{er}}, reconquest of Africa, of Italy, south of Spain.
529 : new the Codex of Justinien, reforms old Roman laws adapted to Christianity, between into force. It also makes close the Académie of Plato.
532 : Holy-Sophie and other buildings are burnt during the Sédition Nika. Justinien to make it rebuild and modernizes the city by creating underground cisterns and equips it with many other buildings like the church Saint-Saver-in-Chora.
533 : Bélisaire overrides the Vandales with the battles of the AD Decimum.
565 : Justin II becomes emperor.
572 : the Visigoths attack Cordoue, principal city of the Byzantine Bétique.
578 : Tibère II Constantin, the adoptive son of Justin II and Sophie, becomes emperor.
590 : Gregoire Large the becomes pope.

7th century

610 with 641: Reign of Héraclius; winner of the Persian after a long and difficult war, it loses Syria and Egypt against the Arab
614: Jerusalem falls to the hands from Persians.
626 : Sit of Constantinople by Persians and the Avars.
635 : The first successes of the Arabs of the caliph Omar on Persians.
638 : Jerusalem fall to the hands from the Arabs.
639 : Invasion of the Byzantine Egypt by the Arabs.
641 : Two emperors are successively assassinated. Constant II becomes emperor.
642 : Alexandria falls to the hands from the Arabs.
649 : The first maritime forwarding of the Arabs against the Byzantine empire.
667 : Creation of the first topic.
668 : Constantin IV Pogonat becomes emperor.
674 : Maritime head office of Constantinople during 4 years by the Arabs.
685 : Justinien II becomes emperor.
697 : Carthage falls to the hands from the Arabs. End of the Exarchat de Carthage.

8th century

705 : Justinien II goes up on the throne with the support of the Bulgarian khan Tervel.
708 : Tervel invades Thrace and beats the Byzantines with Anchialos.
712 : tervel besieges Constantinople.
717 : Leon III Isaurien deposits Théodose III on March 25th. August 15th, an immense Arab fleet makes the head office of Constantinople.
718 : The Arab fleet is put in rout by the Greek fire and destroyed by a storm.
726 : The basileus Leon III launches the controversy iconoclast.
739 : Leon III beats the Arabs with Akroïnon.
751 : The Exarchat de Ravenne is taken by the Lombards.
762 : Decisive Victoire of the Byzantines on the Bulgarian ones with the battles of the plain of Anchialos.
777 : The Bulgarian khan Telerig is baptized in Constantinople.
780 : Constantin VI becomes emperor.
787 : The II {{E}} council of Nicée condemns the iconoclasme.
797 : Irene makes burst the eyes of his/her son Constantin VI and proclaims “emperor”.

9th century

802 : Nicéphore {{Ier}} goes up on the throne after a coup d'etat.
811 : Nicéphore is killed by Bulgarian the Krum.
813 : The Byzantine army under the orders of Michel {{Ier}} Rangabé is demolished with the Bataille of Versinikia. Leon V the Armenian goes up on the throne.
815 : A synod in Constantinople launches the persecution of the iconodules.
820 : Michel II becomes emperor following a plot.
824 : The Sarrasins seize the Crete and until in 961 occupy it.
829 : Theophilus succeeds his father Michel II.
843 : End of the iconoclasme.
860 : The Russian attack Constantinople for the first time.
867 : Basile {{Ier}} becomes the first of the Dynastie Macedonian and reforms the State.
870 : The Bulgaria is equipped with an orthodoxe patriarchat which depends on that of Constantinople.

10th century

904 : Thessalonique is razziée by the Arab .
913 : Beginning of the reign of Constantin VII.
927 : A peace treaty is signed between Romain Lécapène and Pierre {{Ier}} of Bulgaria.
941 : The Rus' of Kiev attack banks of the the Bosphorus and put the seat under the Murailles of Constantinople where their fleet is finally destroyed by the Greek fire.
944 : New commercial treaty signed between Igor of Kiev and Byzance.
957 : The Russian princess Olga Prekrasa is received in Constantinople with the honors.
963 : Nicéphore II Phocas is proclaimed emperor after a short period of instability and is named regent of the princes Porphyrogénète S Basile and Constantin.
969 : Jean {{Ier}} Tzimiskès goes up on the throne by assassinating Nicéphore II.
976 : Basile II, the Killer the Bulgarian ones, goes up on the throne.
989 : The prince de Kiev Vladimir {{Ier}} converted with the orthodoxe faith, and with him all the Russian nation .

11th century

1007 : Basile II appendix Low macedoine.
1018 : Basile II enters the Bulgarian capital and integrates Bulgaria into the Byzantine empire after twenty years of continuous war.
1025 : Died of Basile II and end of the period of expansion of the Empire.
1028 : Romain III Argyre becomes emperor.
1034 : Michel IV Paphlagonien succeeds Romain III
1054: Great schism of the East, the East and Occident clash on religious questions.
1064 : The Hungarian take Belgrade. The Turks Seldjoukides conquer the Arménie.
1071 : Battle of Manzikert against the Turks Seldjoukides, the Empire loses it Anatolia central. The Normands take Bari and unload in Sicily.
1081 : Alexis I {{er}} Comnène seizes the imperial capacity.
1095 : The Council of Clermont lance the First crusade.
1099 : The crusaders take Jerusalem.

12th century

1104 : The Byzantine forces take Laodicée.
1111 : Alexis Ier concedes important commercial laws to Pisa.
1118 : Jean II Comnène becomes emperor.
1143 : Manuel I {{er}} Comnène succeeds his/her father.
1147 : Second crusade
1149: The Byzantine forces, helped by the Venetian navy, take again Corfou with the Normands.
1171 : Manuel I {{er}} makes stop the Venetian ones and confiscate their goods.
1176 : The Byzantines undergo a major reverse with the Bataille of Myriokephalon which signs the beginning of the inexorable decline for the Empire.
1182 : Massacre of Latin of Constantinople.
1198 : The pope Innocent III calls with a new crusade after the resumption of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187.

13th, 14th centuries, bursting and anguish of the Roman Empire

1204 : Bag of Constantinople by the Crusaders (Fourth crusade) and constitution of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Byzantine resistance of the Empire of Nicée, Despotat d' Épire and the Empire of Trébizonde
1261: The basileus Michel Paléologue takes again Constantinople with cross the
1331: Catch of Nicée by the Othoman Turks : it was one of the last Roman fortified towns in Anatolia
1373: The basileus Jean V Paleologist pay tribute with the Othoman sultan
1395: Crusade against the Turks
1443: New German, Hungarian and Rumanian crusade against the Othoman Turks (defeat with Varna in 1444)
1453: Catch of Constantinople by the Othoman Turks
1460: the despotat of Mistra in the Peloponnese, falls to the hands from the Othoman Turks.
1461: The Empire of Trébizonde, last Roman state, falls to the hands from the Othoman Turks.

The heritage of Byzance

The Roman Empire of the East contributed to sédentariser and to christianize the Slavic people come from the east of Europe. Byzance thus had, for the current countries of Eastern Europe, as much of influence than Rome on those of Western Europe. The Byzantines indeed gave to these people an alphabet Cyrillique adapted to their languages, a political model which will make it possible some of them (Russia) to compete with Byzance itself, and a church which is still theirs today.

They are also the Byzantines who transmitted to us, while making him cross the obscure ages which followed the fall of the Western Empire, the most universal heritage of the Roman empire, namely coding of the right, thanks to the Corpus juris civilis or Code of Justinien . It is still them which perpetuated the use of the Greek and safeguarded the old libraries concealing the treasures of the ancient knowledge.

The Arab and the Turks were strongly influenced on the plans technique, intellectual, architectural, musical and culinary. Many architectural forms, technologies of water conveyance, knowledge medical, musics or dishes which we believe invented by Arabic or Turkish in fact are inherited the Roman Empire of the East, via the Grande Bibliothèque of Alexandria, and work on the philosophy aristotelician by well-read men such Averroes or Maïmonide. The Ottoman Empire, although controlled by Moslem Turks, was the continuation of this Roman Empire of the East in the field of civilization: the Turkish main cities kept their names of origin besides: Ankara = Ancyre, Izmir = Smyrna, Iznik = Nicée, Ismit = Nicomédie, Foça = Phocée, Sivas = Sébastée, Trabzon = Trébisonde, Kayseri = Césarée, Konya = Icônion, Tarsus = Tarsus, Iskernderun = Alexandrette, Antakya = Antioche…

Initiatory brotherhoods of the Roman Empire of the East (pythagoricians, gnostic…) transmitted their mysteries on the one hand to the halévis and the soufis Turkish, on the other hand with the Western templiers, while the builders of basilicas transmitted theirs to the Italian architects such Brunelleschi.

In Italy, the Byzantine refugees such Ioannis Bessarion or Ioannis Lascaris, transmit to famous disciples such Marsile Ficin or Pic of Mirandole the knowledge and philosophy antiques, transmission which caused the Renaissance 15th century at the 17th century. Venice in particular abounds in treasures taken with the Byzantine Empire and its architecture is of Byzantine inspiration.

The Christian Egyptians (Coptes), the Ethiopian ones, the Armenians, although monophysites, are also attached to the Byzantine tradition, just as the orthodoxe Arabs of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. The Roumanians, the Bulgarian ones, the Serb ones, the Ukrainians, the Belorusses, the Russians and Géorgiens chose the orthodoxe form of the Christianity, which also attaches them to Byzance; moreover, with the fall of Constantinople, Moscow proclaimed the Third Rome . Byzantine imperial families (Cantacuzène S, Paleologists,…) sovereigns to the Rumanian Principalities, generals in Russia, and a consequent number gave well-read men and scientists with these two countries and France.

The Greeks, them also, affirm to have continued Byzantine civilization even under the Othoman cane, and that in Constantinople even where a Greek university and a seminar of the Patriarchate functioned until 1924. Today, the last heirs to the Empire in his old capital are the patriarch of Constantinople and its 3000 faithful, the last Roumis (in modern Turkish, this term indicates the orthodoxe last exclusively hellénophones, citizens Turkish). It is only into 1936 that the Turkish post office definitively ceased conveying the letters being marked " Constantinople".

Random links: