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The Easter has been described as a “living fossil”. When the collapsed during the fifth century CE, the Byzantine Empire (the name historians gave it to confuse students – from the original Greek town before it was taken over by Constantine) survived and was destined to last another millennium. Why such radically different historical fates? The defense of the west had required the deployment of two-thirds of the Late . However, the East generated two-thirds of the tax revenues. When the Roman Empire split I half (in 395 CE) – under mounting military pressure on the frontiers – the West collapsed because it lacked the resources to sustain its army. The East, on the other hand, was not only richer, but was also more secure, its frontiers mostly protected by sea, mountain or desert. Geography allowed a “living fossil” to endure. More than that: it provided the launch pad for an abortive program of revanchist Roman imperialism. The greatest Byzantine Emperor was Justinian who ruled form 527-565 CE. Helped by his former courtesan wife, Theodora, he built the great church Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) and collected the great Roman law code Corpus Juris Civilis. Both of which are still to inform and astonish modern people. Also under Justinian and Theodora, the great Byzantine general Belisarius waged major wars against the in and in , re-establishing “Roman” control sections of the former empire But the effort put unsustainable strain on the empire, especially given the chronic insecurity of the eastern frontiers, where the Byzantine and the Persian Empires (Parthian & Sasanian) engaged in a series of huge, exhausting and inconclusive wars. So for most of their subsequent history, the Byzantines remained on the defensive, trying to hold on to their territory. The Byzantine Empire was a conservative, tributary (existing on forced payments), military state. The emperors imposed taxes and labor services on the peasantry to sustain the imperial administration, to fund the Church, to maintain the army to wage war on the frontiers. The ruling class was formed of palace bureaucrats, church patriarchs (bishop in the Orthodox Church), army officers, and feudal landlords. The dominant ideology was a desiccated, ritualized Christianity, all incense, icons, and chants. The Byzantine world was intellectually lifeless – almost devoid of imagination, creativity, or innovation. It owed its endurance to its geographical coherence and its inheritance of advanced Greco- Roman (Classical) cultural tradition, above all, in relation to military affairs. Byzantine society may have been stagnant, but its total subordination to the state made possible the maintenance of a large, professional, high-tech army. The army was comprised of heavy cavalry known as “” (who wore full chainmail armor and carried a lance and sword), heavy infantry (with round shield, long spear and sword) and light infantry (usually archers equipped with composite bow-a quality bow made by lamination). These disciplined regular units were often supplemented –especially in later Byzantine history by feudal levies, irregular auxiliaries, and foreign mercenaries (especially and Vikings). Equipment and weaponry, of the regulars at least, was technically sophisticated and of the highest quality. Tactics were a matter of close-quarter shock tactics where superior weapons, armor, and discipline were expected to be win. This was the “Western Way of War” developed by the Greeks in Sparta and Athens What eventually defeated the Byzantine Empire was its encounter with an alternative, “Eastern Way of War” – one rooted in the anthropology of the Arabian Desert and the Central Asian steppes. The collapse of the Byzantine Empire was one of history’s longest, slowest declines. (Form 636 to 1453). At the Battle of Yarmuk against an Arab-Islamic Army, the Byzantines lost and the Levant (the victorious Umayyad Caliphs made Damascus the second capital of Islam). Then in 1071, at the Battle of Manzikert, the Byzantine Empire suffered its second catastrophe, losing most of . This time it was at the hands of the Seljuk Turks. Like the Huns and the Mongols, the Turks sere nomadic Asian pastoralists of the Central Asian Steppes, with a military system based on swarms of light horse archers. They were bought in Central Asia as slave soldiers for the Islamic Empire and when it weakened, they took their chance to turn it into the Seljuk Empire The almost final blow was dealt when the Western Knights (fighting like cataphracts) sacked in 1204 CE. These members of the 4th Crusade, who had been sent to defend the Byzantine Christians from the Muslims, but these Catholic “Crusaders” saw their chance to enrich themselves with the treasures of the Orthodox Byzantines. The much reduced Byzantine State hung on for over 200 more years (because of the great defensive position of Constantinople), until the Ottoman Turks, the cousins of the Seljuk were able to blow down the huge walls of Constantinople with huge cannons and put an end to the Byzantine in 1453.

DO THE FOLLOWING ON NOTEBOOK PAPER 1. Define the following – you may use a synonym or diagram a. abortive b. inconclusive c. desiccated d. icon e. innovation f. coherence g. lamination h. catastrophe i. pastoralism j. swarm

2. Define the following – you may use a synonym or diagram a. tributary b. patriarch c. composite bow

3. Identify the following – Tell who/what? and why? a. Theodora b. Cataphracts c. Manzikert d. Ottoman Turks

4. Short Answer – use sentence and paragraph form 1. What parts of the former Western Roman Empire was the great Byzantine general, Belisarius able to re-conquer for Justinian? 2. What were the three great accomplishment of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian? 3. What were the two reasons that the Byzantine Empire was able to endure so long? 4. What style of warfare defeated the great ?