ANTH 489 Romans, Arabs and Vikings. Seafaring in the Mediterranean during the Early Christian Era. Class 9: From Theodosius to Heraclius (379-641 AD) Theodosius I (AD 379-395) Roman emperor of the East (379–95) and emperor of the West (94–95). By 381 the Byzantines had achieved an advantageous peace, permitting the Ostrogoths to settle in Pannonia and the Visigoths in Northern Thrace. In return he secured their services as soldiers. In 394 Theodosius I named his son Arcadius as his co-emperor in the East. Theodosius died the following year, and the Roman Empire remained divided into West and East. His reign is notable for its prominence in the history of the Christian Church. Baptized in 380, Theodosius soon afterward issued an edict condemning Arianism and making “belief in the Trinity the test of orthodoxy;” His persecutions practically extinguished Arianism and paganism within the empire. More Christians died in quarrels between Christians than in persecutions by pagans, Muslims, etc. He also imposed a crushing burden of taxation, to fight the Germans. TIMELINE 378-395: Theodosius I the Great 395-408: Arcadius 408-450: Theodosius II (son of Arcadius) 450: Pulcheria (sister of Theodosius II) 450-457: Marcian (soldier; married Pulcheria after Theodosius's death) 457-474 – Leo I 474 – Leo II Decline of Rome On August 24, 410, led by Alaric, the Goths entered Rome. In AD 455 Vandals took Carthage. Making it a naval base, they sacked Rome. 1 With the destruction of the Pax Romana the medieval west became a splintered world of tiny cells separated by forests, moors, and wastes. By the beginning of the 5th century Orosius (c. AD 385-420) had written: “in the middle of the debris of the great cities, only scattered groups of wretched peoples, witnesses to past calamities, still attest to us the names of an earlier age.” Cities were targets of the invaders, who destroyed, ruined, impoverished, isolated, and reduced them. City populations fed themselves through imports and fell victims of the decline on trading commodities. Lack of coins left the townsfolk without buying power. Cities moved (took refuge) near places of food production. The rich fled to their lands and the poor followed them, becoming close to rural slaves. Roads declined and most transports were done on river barges. Cities on road intersections declined. Cities on rivers developed and grew. One very important consequence of this and an important social aspect of the Middle Ages is a professional and social compartmentalization: “like father like son.” Late Roman emperors had already made certain trades hereditary and encouraged landlords to attach the farmers to the land as slaves were becoming scarce. The result was a stratified society, boxed off horizontally and vertically. The total number of barbarians never exceeded 5% of the total population on the Roman west. Preserving identity meant that in the same town people would be judged according to the law of his ethnic group. The church became the social glue and the only force against parochialism. Threefold barbarism: The invader’s; The declining Roman’s; The local barbarism, buried under the Roman civilization. Roads, buildings, bridges, warehouses, workshops, irrigation systems and cultivated areas fell in decay. Treasures were lost, old monuments were used as quarries. This weakened, starved, and impoverished world fell to bubonic plagues in AD 543 (Italy, Spain, and Gaul). The 7th century was an all time low. But there was a small period of expansion and reorganization during the 6th century… 2 TIMELINE 474 – Leo II 474-491 - Zeno the Isaurian 491-518 – Anastasius I 518-527 – Justin I 527-565 – Justinian Justinian (AD 527-565) Paganism lost its struggle to survive, but the schism in Christianity between the Monophysite east and the Chalcedonian west became insurmountable. This was the last time that the Roman Empire went on the offensive with success. Africa and Italy were recovered, and a foothold was established in Spain. When Justinian died, the frontiers were still intact although the Balkans had been devastated by a series of raids and the Italian economy was in ruins. His extensive building program has left us the most celebrated example of Byzantine architecture that still survives: Hagia Sophia TIMELINE 527-565 – Justinian 565-578 – Justin II 578-582 – Tiberius II 582-602 – Maurice 602-610 – Phocas 610-641 - Heraclius With the death of Justinian his nephew Justin II became emperor 565-578. His reign is marked by the loss of most of the Italian territories conquered by Justinian, invaded by the Lombards. Ignoring his uncle's policies, he refused to pay tributes to his border enemies and was invaded by the Avars (in the North) and the Sassanids (to the East). In 574 he reportedly lost his mind and decided to abdicate. Leaving the empire to one of his generals, Tiberius, who ruled with Justin’s wife Sophia until his death in 578. In 578 Tiberius took the throne as Tiberius II (578-582) and ruled until his death. 3 Although it was difficult to hold the empire against all the aggressions in all the frontiers, Tiberius made peace with the Visigoths in Iberia and the Berbers in the North of Africa. When he died, however, the problems in the Persian frontier were pressing. He was succeeded by Maurice, his adopted son. Maurice (582-602) ruled for 20 years and reorganized the empire, trying to deal as best as possible, with the frontier problems. He organized his dominions in Italy and Africa as almost independent provinces (exarchates) ruled by military governors (exarchs). When he died the court still spoke Latin, and his court perceived itself as Roman. He was succeeded by Phocas, a military leader that usurped the throne upon his death. Phocas reigned 8 years (602-610) and was deposed by Heraclius. Heraclius (AD 610-641) Deposed emperor Phocas in 610. In 627 defeated the Sassanid king Chosroes II (k. 590-628), captured Jerusalem and took the Holy Cross away. When Heraclius took power, the Empire was in a desperate situation. Phocas' revolt against Maurice had stripped the Danube frontier of troops, leaving the most of the Balkans at the mercy of the Avars. Maurice had restored Chosroes II of the Sassanid Empire to his throne and they had remained allies. Using the death of his ally Maurice as an excuse, the Sassanid king launched a war against the Byzantines and demanded them to accept as emperor a man in his court who claimed to be Maurice's son Theodosius. Phocas did not manage to keep the Sassanid army at bay and the empire began to crumble. Heraclius usurpation of the throne resulted in civil war and the Sassanids invaded the Middle East, took Damascus in 613 and Jerusalem in 614, capturing the Holy Cross. In 621 Heraclius left Constantinople defended and took an army East to fight Chosroes II and restore the eastern borders. Chosroes II was defeated in 627 (Battle of Nineveh) and in 630 Heraclius marched bear feet to Jerusalem and restored the True Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The True Cross had allegedly been found, through a miracle, by empress Helena, the mother of emperor Constantine, sometime between AD 312 and 330. After his victory against the Persians Heraclius fell hill. The Arabs, united through conversion to a new faith (Islam) crushed his powerful army in 636 (Battle of Yarmuk) and conquered Syria and Palestine. By 640, when Heraclius died, Egypt had also fallen to the Muslim Empire. 4 Heraclius Hellenized the empire, replaced Latin with Greek in court, and is sometimes credited with being the first Byzantine emperor. (The Byzantines always called themselves Romans: Byzantine is an expression that was created in the 16th century after the early name of Constantinople (Byzantium). History has celebrated Heraclius as the restorer of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem and historians have perhaps sometimes inflated his importance. It was not Heraclius that created the later Thematic System of defense, although he kept the exarchates created by Maurice. After Heraclius died, in AD 640, he was succeeded by one of his sons, Constantine III, who died 4 months later, and another of his sons, Heraklonas, who was deposed and exiled after having his nose cut of by a general named Valentinus. The new emperor, Constans II, ruled until 668. Next Class we will talk about roads, canals, and the supply of the Roman armies from the end of the Roman Empire to the 7th century. 5 .