- the eastern half of the empire - survived and prospered (5th and 6th C.)
- from 400 - in the east: trends toward barbarization and militarization of the administration => reversed;  the vitality and integrity of the empire - was restored

What was different about the East?
- the east => more urbanized and civilized than the west
              => traditions of civil control (antedated the Roman Empire)
=> if in the West the decay of Roman traditions => led to regionalism and tribalism; in the East => a return to the Hellenistic traditions
=> the local aristocrats in the East - did not achieve the wealth and independence of those from the West
=> religion: the Christian bishops - divided over doctrinal issues => did not monopolize the sacred (itinerant holy men and monks) or the secular power (imperial agents)

- the empire under Theodosius and Zeno => survived and prepared for a new expansionist phase - took place under Justinian

==>> the east remained firmly attached to the Roman traditions of government, to the ancient traditions of social complexity, urban life, and religious culture
- the emperors continued to rule - from Constantinople - for 1000 years (BUT: their authority gradually shrank to little more than the city itself) => the empire was profoundly hellenized => it is properly called Byzantine (from the original name of Constantinople) - rather than Roman

Justinian - the creator to the Byzantine state

- remembered as the emperor who never slept
- he was a conservative - But: he transformed the foundations of the imperial state ( institutions + culture)
His goal: to restore the territory, power, and prestige of the ancient Roman Empire (his attempts to return to the past created a new world)
- assisted by Theodora (his wife), Belisarius and Narses (generals), Tribonian (jurist), Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus (his scientists), John of Cappadocia (administrator and tax collector)

- checked the power of the rival political factions and suppressed a riot (532) - left 30,000 dead in Constaninople
- Belisarius + Narses - recaptured North Africa from the Vandals, Italy from the Ostrogoths, and part of Spain from the Visigoths => restoring for one last moment some of the geographical unity of the empire (Augustus and Constantine)
- Tribonian: revised and organized the existing codes of Roman law ==>>Justinian Code (the basis of Western jurisprudence - until today the foundation of most of Europe's legal systems)
- Anthemius and Isidours => combined their knowledge of mathematics, geometry and physics => build the Church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) - in Constantinople => one of the largest and most innovative churches ever constructed

Structure: a huge rectangle (230 by 250 feet); above  - a vast dome (100 feet) in diameter rises to a height of 180 feet - seems to float
* Justinian - upon entering the church for the first time: Solomon, I have vanquished thee!

- John of Cappadocia - squeezed the population of taxes to pay for the conquests, reforms, and building projects

=> after his death => the empire was virtually bankrupt, divided by his attempts to settle religious controversies + poorly protected on its eastern borders ( Sassanid Empire - constant threat)
- most of Italy and Spain - returned to barbarian control
- 602: Sassanid emperor (Cosroes II) invaded the empire => captured Egypt, Palestine, and Syria => threatening Constantinople => Heraclius (610 - 641) managed to crush the Sassanids
BUT:  a new power - Islam - had emerged in the deserts of Arabia => they challenged and absorbed both the Sassanids and much of the eastern Roman Empire ==> the East became less Roman and more Greek (more Byzantine)

Society:

- the classic age of Byzantine society (8th to 10th C): individualism without freedom
Byzantine world: individualistic (the Romans - emphasized public and private associations); different from the western barbarian kingdoms => hierarchical gradations connected everyone from peasant to king ; different from the communal society of Islam

BUT: did not mean creativity or freedom
=> individuals and small family groups stood as isolated units in a society characterized by a direct relationship between an all powerful emperor and citizens of all ranks
- The Byzantine state - an autocracy => all members of the society (since Diocletian) => subjects of the emperor (the only source of law)
- How a person became an emperor?
    in theory: the Senate elected the emperor
    in reality: emperors selected their successors and had them crowned in their lifetimes

* while the empire remained a civilian autocracy - a woman could also rule - as a regent for a minor son or as a sovereign => Irene (780 - 802)

- the emperors => above and beyond their subjects; like God the Father ( closely identified in imperial propaganda) => lords or peasants - attitude toward ruler => adoration and abject humility

- the emperor - the source of all authority
BUT: the actual administration - carried out by a vast bureaucracy - military and civilian officers

- empire divided into 25 provinces (themes) => the soldiers in each theme were warriors and farmers (soldiers held their farms as long as they served in the army)
==>> the farmer - soldiers - the backbone of imperial military and economic system
* kept much of the Byzantine agriculture in the hands of free peasants - not great aristocrats

- the themes - governed by military commanders (strategoi) => presided over military and civilian bureaucrats
* stategoi - appointed, removed from the office, transferred by the emperor

- the central administration: was civil
    - the most important positions at the court - eunuchs (castrated men) => they could not have descendants - could not turn their offices into hereditary positions; they could not aspire to replace their masters on the throne (they were not perfect)

Religion:

- the element that bound the emperor and the subjects together: Orthodox Christianity
- the Patriarch and the Orthodox faith - subordinated to the emperor
    in theory: Patriarchs - elected
    in reality: the emperor appointed them
- the Patriarchs - controlled the Church hierarchy ( metropolitans, bishops, and local clergy)
* ecclesiastical structure reflected the organization of the state bureaucracy; local priests coming from the peasant society - expected to be married and to live like their neighbors; Bishops, Metropolitans and Patriarchs - recruited from monasteries and remained celibate (religious "eunuchs")

- the essence of the Orthodox religion - the liturgy - provided a foretaste of Heaven
- Orthodox religion - beyond the Byzantine state:
- conversion of the Slavs - in the mid - ninth century  => the emperor sent Cyril and Methodius (two brothers from Thessalonica) to the Slavic kingdom of Moravia; Cyril created a Slavonic alphabet in which sacred Scripture and liturgical texts were translated
- Bulgarians - under Boris I (9th C) - adopted the traditions of the Greek Christianity
- late 10th C. - Orthodox Christianity became the religion of Russia (the conversion in 988 of Vladimir the Great - who married a Byzantine princess and adopted the Slavic liturgical traditions of Cyrillic tradition)

Iconoclasm:
monasticism - only aspect of religious life - not entirely under imperial control

- from the 6th century on - many monastic communities - founded throughout the empire (11th C: 300 monasteries within the walls of Constantinople)
- Monasteries - wealth and powerful
    - their religious appeal - based on the possession of miracle - working religious images or icons, posed an independent source of religious authtority at odds with the imperial centralization of all aspects of Byzantine life
***  icons - images of the Divine, to be venerated but not worshiped

BUT:  to the faithful in the Byzantine empire (before the iconoclasm) - icons were not simply representations or reminders of Jesus and the Saints => they had a real if intermediary relationship with the person represented

- the iconoclast ( literally "breakers of images) emperors (Leo III - 8th C) - objected to the mediating role of sacred images in worship => monasteries were closed and their estates confiscated; monks - forced to marry; imperial agents painted over frescoes in churches and destroyed icons, statues and illustrated manuscripts
- Iconodules - the defenders of icons - or image venerators - were imprisoned, tortured, executed
* the majorirty of the people (women) resisted the destruction
- the fight lasted for more than a century