46 Facts About Byzantine Empire

1.

Byzantine Empire, referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople.

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2.

The Libri Carolini published in the 790s made the first mention of the term "Byzantine Empire of the Greeks" and Imperator Graecorum (Emperor of the Greeks), which was an insult first formally attributed to Pope John XIII, with western medieval sources thereafter using the same terminology.

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3.

The name millet-i Rum, or "Roman nation, " was used by the Ottomans until the 20th century to refer to the former subjects of the Byzantine Empire, that is, the Orthodox Christian community within Ottoman realms.

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4.

Byzantine Empire's convening of both the Synod of Arles and the First Council of Nicaea indicated his interest in the unity of the Church and showcased his claim to be its head.

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5.

Byzantine Empire introduced a new coinage system of the copper follis, the coin used in most everyday transactions.

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6.

Byzantine Empire reformed the tax system and permanently abolished the chrysargyron tax.

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7.

The massive cultural and institutional restructuring of the empire consequent on the loss of territory in the 7th century has been said to have caused a decisive break in east Mediterranean Romanness, and that the Byzantine state is subsequently best understood as another successor state rather than a real continuation of the Roman Empire.

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8.

In 680, Byzantine Empire forces sent to disperse these new settlements were defeated.

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9.

Byzantine Empire was driven from power in 695 and took shelter first with the Khazars and then with the Bulgarians.

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10.

Rus'–Byzantine Empire relations became closer following the marriage of Anna Porphyrogeneta to Vladimir the Great in 988, and the subsequent Christianisation of the Rus'.

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11.

Byzantine Empire fell into a period of difficulties, caused to a large extent by the undermining of the theme system and the neglect of the military.

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12.

Incompetent efforts to revive the Byzantine Empire economy resulted in severe inflation and a debased gold currency.

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13.

Byzantine Empire required its leaders to swear to restore to the empire any towns or territories they might reconquer from the Turks on their way to the Holy Land.

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14.

Byzantine Empire thwarted Hungarian and Serbian threats during the 1120s, and in 1130 he allied himself with German Emperor Lothair III against Norman King Roger II of Sicily.

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15.

Byzantine Empire defeated the Danishmend Emirate of Melitene and reconquered all of Cilicia, while forcing Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch, to recognise Byzantine suzerainty.

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16.

Byzantine Empire eliminated Alexios II and took his 12-year-old wife Agnes of France for himself.

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17.

Byzantine Empire was finally overthrown when Isaac II Angelos, surviving an imperial assassination attempt, seized power with the aid of the people and had Andronikos killed.

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18.

The Nicaean Byzantine Empire struggled to survive the next few decades, however, and by the mid-13th century it had lost much of southern Anatolia.

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19.

Byzantine Empire emperors appealed to the West for help, but the pope would only consider sending aid in return for a reunion of the Eastern Orthodox Church with the See of Rome.

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20.

Therefore, the last remnant of the Roman Byzantine Empire had officially ceased to exist, after 2, 228 years of Roman civilization, since the legendary Founding of Rome in 753 BC.

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21.

Byzantine Empire lived in the Morea until its fall in 1460, then escaped to Rome where he lived under the protection of the Papal States for the remainder of his life.

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22.

Byzantine Empire eventually served twice as grand vizier under Mehmed's son, Bayezid II.

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23.

Byzantine Empire had married Andreas' sister, Sophia Palaiologina, whose grandson, Ivan IV, would become the first tsar of Russia.

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24.

Byzantine Empire diplomacy managed to draw its neighbours into a network of international and inter-state relations.

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25.

Byzantine Empire science played an important and crucial role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world and to Renaissance Italy.

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26.

Therefore, Byzantine Empire science was in every period closely connected with ancient philosophy, and metaphysics.

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27.

Byzantine Empire was a theocracy, said to be ruled by God working through the emperor.

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28.

Jennifer Fretland VanVoorst argues, "The Byzantine Empire became a theocracy in the sense that Christian values and ideals were the foundation of the empire's political ideals and heavily entwined with its political goals.

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29.

Constitution of the Byzantine Empire was based on the conviction that it was the earthly copy of the Kingdom of Heaven.

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30.

The Byzantine Empire state inherited from pagan times the administrative and financial routine of administering religious affairs, and this routine was applied to the Christian Church.

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31.

Byzantine Empire art was highly prestigious and sought-after in Western Europe, where it maintained a continuous influence on medieval art until near the end of the period.

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32.

The building material used by Byzantine Empire architects was no longer marble, which was very appreciated by the Ancient Greeks.

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33.

Good examples of mosaics from the proto-Byzantine Empire era are in Hagios Demetrios in Thessaloniki, the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the Basilica of San Vitale, both in Ravenna (Italy), and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

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34.

Greco-Roman temples and Byzantine Empire churches differ substantially in terms of their exterior and interior aspect.

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35.

Byzantine Empire literature is often classified in five groups: historians and annalists, encyclopaedists and essayists, and writers of secular poetry.

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36.

Ecclesiastical forms of Byzantine Empire music, composed to Greek texts as ceremonial, festival, or church music, are, today, the most well-known forms.

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37.

Greek and foreign historians agree that the ecclesiastical tones and in general the whole system of Byzantine Empire music is closely related to the ancient Greek system.

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38.

The first of these, the early bowed stringed instrument known as the Byzantine Empire lyra, came to be called the lira da braccio, in Venice, where it is considered by many to have been the predecessor of the contemporary violin, which later flourished there.

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39.

Apart from the Imperial court, administration and military, the primary language used in the eastern Roman provinces even before the decline of the Western Byzantine Empire was Greek, having been spoken in the region for centuries before Latin.

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40.

Indeed, early on in the life of the Roman Byzantine Empire, Greek had become the common language of the Church, the language of scholarship and the arts, and to a large degree the lingua franca for trade between provinces and with other nations.

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41.

Byzantine Empire nobles were devoted to horsemanship, particularly tzykanion, now known as polo.

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42.

Position of women in the Byzantine Empire essentially represents the position of women in ancient Rome transformed by the introduction of Christianity, with certain rights and customs being lost and replaced, while others were allowed to remain.

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43.

Eastern Roman and later Byzantine Empire women retained the Roman woman's right to inherit, own and manage their property and signs contracts, rights which were far superior to the rights of married women in Medieval Catholic Western Europe, as these rights included not only unmarried women and widows but married women as well.

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44.

Byzantine Empire economy was among the most advanced in Europe and the Mediterranean for many centuries.

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45.

The Palaiologoi tried to revive the economy, but the late Byzantine Empire state did not gain full control of either the foreign or domestic economic forces.

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46.

From a different perspective, since the 7th century, the evolution and constant reshaping of the Byzantine Empire state were directly related to the respective progress of Islam.

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