The Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire, so called from its capital Byzantium or Constantinople was founded in 395 AD when Theodosius at his death divided the Roman Empire between his sons Arcadius and Honorius. In this empire the Greek language and civilization were prevalent; but the rulers claimed still to be Roman emperors, and under their sway the laws and official forms of Rome were maintained. It lasted for about a thousand years after the downfall of the Western Empire.
The Eastern Empire, then comprising Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Greece, Thrace, Moesia, Macedonia, and Crete, fell to Theodosius's elder son Arcadius, through whose weakness and that of several of his immediate successors it suffered severely from the encroachments of Huns, Goths, Bulgarians, and Persians. In 527 the celebrated Justinian succeeded,, whose reign is famous for the codification of Roman law, and the victories of his generals Belisarius and Narses over the Vandals in Africa, and the Goths in Italy, which was henceforth governed for the Eastern Empire by an exarch residing at Ravenna. But his energy could not revive the decaying strength of the empire, and Justin II his successor, a weak and avaricious prince, lost his reason by the reverses encountered in his conflicts with plundering Lombards, Avars, and Persians.
Tiberius, a captain of the guard, succeeded in 578, and in 582 Mauricius; both were men of ability. In 602 Phocas, proclaimed emperor by the army, succeeded, and produced by his incapacity tlie greatest disorder in the empire. Heraclius, son of the governor of Africa, who headed a conspiracy, conquered Constantinople, and caused Phocas to be executed in 610. He was an excellent general, and finally succeeded in repressing the Avars and recovering the provinces lost to the Persians, whose power indeed he overthrew. But a far more dangerous enemy to the Byzantine empire now appeared in the Muslim power, founded amongst the Arabians by Mohammed and the caliphs, which gradually extended its conquests over Phoenicia, the countries on the Euphrates, Judea, Syria, and Egypt from 635-641.
The empire was in sore straits when Leo the Isaurian (Leo III), general of the army of the East, mounted the throne in 716, and a new period of comparative prosperity began. Some writers date the beginning of the Byzantine Empire proper, and the end of the Eastern Roman Empire, from this era.
Numerous reforms, civil and military, were now introduced, and the worship of images was prohibited. Leo repelled the Arabians or Saracens from Constantinople, but allowed the Lombards to seize the Italian provinces, while the Arabians plundered the Eastern ones. Constantine V in 741 recovered part of Syria and Armenia from the Arabians; and the struggle was carried on not unsuccessfully by his son Leo IV. Under his grandson, Constantine VI, Irene, the ambitious mother of the latter, raised a large faction by the restoration of image worship, and, in conjunction with her paramour Stauratius, deposed her son, and had his eyes put out in 797.
A revolt of the patricians placed one of their order, Nicephorus, on the throne, who fell in the war against the Bulgarians in 811. Stauratius, Michael, Leo V and Michael II in 820 ascended the throne in rapid succession. During the reign of the latter the Arabians conquered Sicily, Lower Italy, Crete, and other countries. The long dispute as to image-worship was brought to a close in 842, when the practice was finally sanctioned at the council of Nicaea, under Michael III.
He was put to death by Basil the Macedonian, who came to the throne as Basil I in 867, and whose reign formed a period of great glory in the history of the Byzantine Empire. He founded a dynasty (the Macedonian) which lasted until 1056. Among the greatest of his successors were Nicephorus II (Phocas), and John Zimisces in 969, who carried on successful wars against the Muslims, Bulgarians, and Russians.
Basil II succeeded this prince in 976. He vanquished the Bulgarians and the Arabians. His brother, Constantine IX was succeeded by Romanus III in 1028, who married Zoe, daughter of Constantine. This dissolute but able princess caused her husband to be executed, and successively raised to the throne Michael IV, Michael V, and Constantine X. Russians and Muslims meanwhile devastated the empire. Her sister Theodora succeeded her on the throne in 1054.
After the short reign of Michael VI from 1054 until 1057 Isaac Comnenus, the first of the Comnenian dynasty, ascended the throne, but soon after became a monk. The three chief emperors of this dynasty were Alexius, John, and Manuel Comnenus. During the reign of Alexius I from 1081 to 1118 the Crusades commenced. His son, John II, and grandson, Manuel I, fought with success against the Turks, whose progress also was considerably checked by the Crusades. The Latins, the name given to the French, Venetian, etc, crusaders, now forced their way to Constantinople in 1204, conquered the city, and retained it, together with most of the European territories of the empire.
Baldwin, count of Flanders, was made emperor; Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, obtained Thessalonica as a kingdom, and the Venetians acquired a large extent of territory. Theodore Lascaris seized on the Asiatic provinces, in 1206 made Nice (Nicaea) the capital of the empire, and was at first more powerful than Baldwin. Neither Baldwin nor his successors, Henry, Peter, and Robert of Courtenay, were able to secure the tottering throne. John, emperor of Nice, conquered all the remaining Byzantine territory except Constantinople, and at last, in 1261, Michael Palaeologus, king of Nice, conquered Constantinople, and thus overthrew the Latin dynasty.
Thus again the vast but exhausted Byzantine Empire was united under Michael Palaeologus, founder of the last Byzantine dynasty. Internal disturbances and wars with the Turks disturbed the reigns of his descendants Andronicus II and Andronicus III. For a time the Cantacuzenes shared the crown with John Palasologus, son of Andronicus III; but in 1355 John again became sole emperor. In his reign the Turks first obtained a firm footing in Europe, and conquered Gallipoli in 1357. In 1361 Sultan Amurath took Adrianople. Bajazet conquered almost all the European provinces except Constantinople, and was pressing it hard when Timur's invasion of the Turkish provinces saved Constantinople for this time in 1402. Manuel then recovered his throne, and regained some of the lost provinces from the contending sons of Bajazet. To him succeeded his son John, Palaeologus II whom Amurath II stripped of all his territories except Constantinople, and laid under tribute in 1444.
To the Emperor John succeeded his brother Constantine Palaeologus. With the assistance of his general Giustiniani, a Genoese, he withstood the superior forces of the enemy with fruitless courage, and fell in the defence of Constantinople, by the conquest of which on May the 29th, 1453 Mohammed II put an end to the Greek or Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire, which thus lasted for over a thousand years, stemmed the tide of the advance of Islam and instead spread Christianity and maintained a regular system of government, law, and policy in the midst of surrounding conflicting systems. Research Byzantine Empire
Gaparo Baibi was a Venetian dealer in precious stones. He was born about the middle of the sixteenth century. He travelled first to Aleppo and thence down the Euphrates and Tigris to the Malabar coast, sailing finally for Pegu, where he remained for two years. His Viaggio all' Indie Orientale, published on his return to Venice in 1590, contains the earliest account of India beyond the Ganges. Research Gasparo Balbi
Hadrian (real name Publius Aelius Hadrianus) was the fourteenth in the series of Roman emperors. He was born in 76 at Rome and died in 138. His father, who was cousin to the emperor Trajan, died when he was ten years old, and left him under the charge of his illustriouskinsman. He married Sabina, Trajan's grand-niece, accompanied the emperor on his expeditions, filled the highest offices of state, and, on the death of Trajan, assumed the government as his adopted son in 117. He made peace with the Parthians, renouncing all conquests east of the Euphrates, and bought off a war with the Roxolani by payment of a sum of money.
From the year 121 he spent most of his time in visiting the various provinces of the empire. Hadrian's policy was a peaceful one, because he saw that the further extension of the empire only weakened it. Although avoiding war as much as he could, he kept the armies in excellent condition, fortified the frontiers in Germany, and, crossing over into Britain, constructed the wall known as Hadrian's Wall (or that of Severus), which protected the Roman province from the barbarous tribes of the north. He next travelled into Asia and Africa, and lived in Athens for three years. In 131 he promulgated the Edictum Perpetuum, a fixed code of laws, which forms an important epoch in the development of Roman law. In 132 the Jews revolted, and for four years carried on a bloody war, the only notable one of his long reign. Research Hadrian
The Himyarites are a race or group of races in Arabia, regarded as descendants of Himyar, one of the mythical ancestors of the Arabs. According to tradition they became the dominant race in Yemen about 3000 years before Mohammed, and spread to the Euphrates on the one hand and Abyssinia on the other. Their most successful period appears to have been from about 100 BC until 629 AD, when they succumbed to Mohammedanism. The Himyaritic language, not now spoken, formed, with the Arabic and Ethiopia, the southern branch of the Semitic family of tongues. During the 19th century hundreds of Himyaritic inscriptions were collected, and deciphered by means of alphabets with the corresponding Arabic letters which had been preserved. The Mahrah tribes of south Arabia are the direct descendants of the ancient Himyarites. Research Himyarites
The Sumerians were a people that inhabited the southern part of the alluvial basin formed by the River Tigris and the River Euphrates (in what is now Iraq). Their civilisation started in the fourth millennium BC when the first cities with monumental mud-brick architecture appeared. The economic basis for this civilisation was agriculture, mainly producing grain on irrigated land, as well as livestock. The surplus agriculture was traded for materials lacking in the region. most notably metal, timber and precious stones, which stimulated long-distance trade. The characteristic political unit was the city with its surrounding arable land. In the second half of the third millennium attempts were made to unify the country and impose a centralised political and administrative control. The most successful Sumerian state was that ruled by the Third Dynasty of Ur from around 2113 to 4 BC. In the eighteenth century BC Semitic-speaking groups (known as the Amorites) formed a new state, Babylonia, and Sumerian ceased to be a spoken language, although written Sumerian continued to be used for religious purposes for another thousand years. Research Sumerian
Valerian (Publius Licinius Valerianus) was a Roman Emperor from 253 to 260. He was born in 190 and died in 266. A leading sen ator, and censor in 251, he was sent by the emperor Gallus against the upstart emperor Aemilianus on the Danube, but both Gallus and Aemilianus were murdered, and Valerian, who had been proclaimed emperor in Rhaetia, was acknowledged by the senate. A good soldier and administrator, he deputed his son Gallienus to rule the west, and, after defeating the Goths, in 257, he recovered Antioch from the invading Persians, and pursued their king Shapur I to the Euphrates, but was captured near Edessa, in 260, and lived for the rest of his life in ignominious captivity. Research Valerian
The first battle of Kut was fought between the British and the Turks, from September the 26th until the 28th, 1915 during the Great War. After Townshend had taken Amara, Nixon decided to seize Kut, where the Turks had concentrated, and whence, by way of the Shatt-el-Hai, they could send an outflanking force to Nasrieh, on the Euphrates, which had been occupied by General Gorringe, on July the 25th.
Townshend began his advance on August the 1st, supported by the naval flotilla, his troops proceeded up the banks of the Tigris, and on September the 15th reached a point 15 miles below Kut. Having spent ten days in reconnoitring with cavalry and aeroplanes, he moved forward on September the 26th to within four miles of the Turkish position, which was exceedingly strong, and was defended by 8,000 regulars and a large number of Arabs. Next day his troops advanced on both sides of the Tigris, his main force being on its southern bank.
On the north bank the British pushed forward to within two miles of the Turks and entrenched, Townshend's dispositions led the enemy to expect that the chief assault would be on the south, but during the night he swung most of his main force to the north. In the morning, September the 28th, while demonstrations were made on the south the British, in three columns, commanded by Generals Fry on the left, Delamain in the centre, and Hoghton on the right, attacked on the north. Fry pinned the force in front of him, Delamain made a successful frontalassault and also struck at the flank of the enemy, and Hoghton, moving wide, got in rear and routed the Turkish reserves.
These operations resulted in a complete victory, and only the fall of night saved the Turks from absolute disaster. During the darkness they retreated, having lost 4,000 men, of whom more than 1,100 were prisoners, and 17 guns. The British loss was 1,233.
After his failure at Ctesiphon, on November the 22nd, 1915, Townshend retreated to Kut, reaching it on December the 3rd, and prepared for a siege by sending his cavalry by road towards Amara, and his sick and wounded, as well as his prisoners, by water to Basra. He fortified the U-shaped bend of the Tigris in which Kut stood. For some days from December the 8th the Turks bombarded the town, and also made several assaults, one of particular severity on December the 23rd to 24th; but the British repulsed them all. Then the enemy, hoping to reduce the place by starvation, invested Kut completely.
Meanwhile a relief expedition was organized under Aylmer and concentrated at Ali-el-Gherbi, to which Townshend's cavalry had withdrawn from Kut. On January the 4th, 1916, Younghusband advanced to Sheikh Saad, where three days later Aylmer, with the rest of the force, joined him and ordered an attack. South of the river the British carried the enemy trenches, but a turning movement on the north did not succeed. Aylmer again attacked in force on January the 9th, and the Turks retreated to the position known as the Wady, ten miles upstream. The fighting was severe, the British casualties being upwards of 4,000. On January the 13th, Aylmer, whose movements were retarded by the rains, attacked the Turks at the Wady, took some of their trenches, and caused them to withdraw to Umm-el-Hanna, which he assaulted on January the 21st, but failed to take, rains and the muddy ground being greatly against him. His losses were 2,741.
Word now came from Townshend that by rationing his men he could hold out for 84 days, and Aylmer postponed a further advance, pending reinforcements and supplies, especially medical. But he was in little better case when, finding the Turks were growing in strength, he resolved to attack again.
On March the 7th he tried to surprise the enemy by a flank movement south of the Tigris, towards the Shatt-el-Hai. The troops made a wonderful night march, and part were in position close to the Dujaila redoubt at daybreak; but others were not ready, and when the assault was made, three hours later, it failed because the Turks had had time to prepare for it.
On March the 12th Aylmer was replaced by Gorringe, who, reinforced, made a fresh advance on April the 5th. On account of floods, which made flank moves impossible, Gorringe assaulted frontally, took three out of the six positions in front of Kut during the day, and captured the fourth in the evening, after dark. But next day he was checked at Sanna-i-yat, the fifth position, and a second assault on April the 8th and 9th had no better result. On April the 12th to the 17th an attempt was made south of the river on the Turkish position at Beit Aiessa, which was taken; but later had to be given up. On April the 22nd a great effort was made once more at Sanna-i-yat, but failed, with a loss of 1,300 men. Kut was doomed, and on April the 29th Townshend, after a siege of 143 days, surrendered with 9,000 men, 6,000 of whom were Indian troops. In the course of the attempts to relieve him the British loss was upwards of 20,000 men. Townshend surrendered Kut, on April the 29th, 1916, and in December 1916, operations were begun for its recapture.
The British then occupied an entrenched position opposite the Turkish lines at Sanna-i-Yat on the north side of the Tigris, and on its southern bank had pushed on, in the course of the autumn, to within seven miles of Kut, a railway. having been constructed from Sheikh Saad for their forces in that sector. In August General Maude became commander-in-chief in place of General Lake. The Mesopotamia Expedition was largely reinforced, and transport, which had been its great weakness, vastly improved. Railways were built, and large numbers of suitable vessels put on the Tigris.
It was at the head of an adequate and well-equipped army that Maude, on December the 13th, concentrated a force on the south side of the Tigris, about seven miles from Kut, with General Marshall in local command, while another force, under General Cobbe, held the enemy on the north bank. On December the 14th Marshall crossed the Shatt-el-Hai near Atab, six miles. south of Kut, and reached a point near the Shumran bend of the Tigris.
During the next few weeks Cobbe demonstrated at Sanna-i-Yat, and Marshall attacked the Turkish positions on the southern bank, his work, however, being retarded by rains. On January the 18th and 19th, 1917, after a stiff fight, the enemy was driven out of the Khadairi Bend, with heavy losses.
What was known as the Haisalient was reduced on February the 5th. Next day the Dahra Bend positions beyond the Hai were assaulted and captured, on February the 16th. On the next day Cobbe attacked at Sanna-i-Yat, but was unsuccessful. Maude had planned to cross the river at the Shumran Bend, the loop next beyond the Dahra Bend.
On February the 22nd Cobbe again attacked the strong positions at Sanna-i-Yat, and captured the first two lines of trenches. After feints at other points, Maude crossed the Tigris at the southern end of the Shumran Bend on the night of February the 22nd, and while the crossing was proceeding Cobbe took the third and fourth lines at Sanna-i-Yat. The whole position was in his hands on February the 23rd, when he marched on to Kut, which passed into the possession of the British once more, while the Turks retreated with all speed towards Baghela. 24 miles up the river. Research Battles of Kut
HMS Enterprise was a British cruiser of 7580 tons displacement of the Emerald Class designed in 1918 and launched in 1919 that saw action during the Second World War. HMS Enterprise was armed with seven 6-inch 50 calibre guns; five 4-inch anti-aircraft guns; four 3-pounder guns; nine smaller guns and sixteen 21-inch torpedo tubes arranged in four quadruples. HMS Enterprise was powered by eight Yarrow small tube oil boilers providing a top speed of 33 knots and carried a complement of 572 and one aircraft. HMS Enterprise was sister ship to HMS Emerald, a third ship in the class, HMS Euphrates was ordered but cancelled. Research HMS Enterprise
Armenia is a republic in east Europe. Armenia is a mountainous country of great historical interest, as the original seat of one of the oldest civilized peoples in the world. Armenia is intersected by the Euphrates, which divides it into the ancient divisions, Armenia Major and Armenia Minor. The country is an elevated plateau, enclosed on several sides by the ranges of Taurus and Anti-Taurus, and partly occupied by other mountains, the loftiest of which is Ararat. Several important rivers take their rise in Armenia, namely, the Kur or Cyrus, and its tributary the Aras or Araxes, flowing east to the Caspian Sea; the Halys or Kizil-Irmak, flowing north to the Black Sea; and the Tigris and Euphrates, which flow into the Persian Gulf. The chief lakes are Van and Urumiyah. The climate is rather severe. The soil is on the whole productive, though in many places it would be quite barren were it not for the great care taken to irrigate it.
Little is known of the early history of Armenia, but it was a separate state as early as the eighth century BC, when it became subject to Assyria, as it also did subsequently to the Medes and the Persians. It was conquered by Alexander the Great in 325 BC, but regained its independence about 190 BC. Its king Tigranes, son-in-law of the celebrated Mithridates, was defeated by the Romans under Lucullus and Pompey about 69-66 BC, but was left on the throne. Since then its fortunes have been various under the Romans, Parthians, Byzantine emperors, Persians, Saracens, Turks, etc.
Armenia was the first country to proclaim Christianity as its official religion, in 300. During the Monophysitic disputes they held with those who rejected the twofold nature of Christ, and being dissatisfied with the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451) they separated from the Greek Church in 536. The popes have at different times attempted to gain them over to the Roman Catholic faith, but have not been able to unite them permanently and generally with the Roman Church. There are, however, small numbers here and there of United Armenians, who acknowledge the spiritual supremacy of the pope, agree in their doctrines with the Catholics, but retain their peculiar cere monies and discipline. But the far greater part are yet Monophysites, and have remained faithful to their old religion and worship. Their doctrine differs from the orthodox chiefly in their admitting only one nature in Christ, and believing the Holy Spirit to proceed from the Father alone. Their sacraments are seven in number. They adore saints and their images, but do not believe in purgatory. Their hierarchy differs little from that of the Greeks. The Catholicus, or head of the church, has his seat at Etchmiadzin, a monastery near Erivan, the capital of Russian Armenia, on MountArarat.
The inhabitants are chiefly of the genuine Armenian stock, a branch of the Aryan or Indo-European race; but besides them, in consequence of the repeated subjugation of the country, various other races have obtained a footing. Many thousands of Armenians in Armenia were massacred by the Turks during the 19th century.
The Armenian language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, and is most closely connected with the Iranic group. The Old Armenian or Haikan language, which is still the literary and ecclesiastical language, is distinguished from the new Armenian, the ordinary spoken language, which contains a large intermixture of Persian and Turkish elements. The most flourishing period of Armenian literature extended from the fourth to the fourteenth century. It then declined, but a revival began in the seventeenth century, and at the present day wherever any extensive community of Armenians have settled they have set up a printing-press. The ArmenianBible, translated from the Septua-gint by Isaac or Sahak, the patriarch, early in the fifth century, is a model of the classic style.
In 1828 a large part of Armenia was acquired by Russia, and following the Russian revolution Armenia was briefly independent again from 1918 to 1922 when it became part of the Transcaucasian SovietRepublic and in 1936 a separate union republic. In 1990 Armenia declared itself independent, and in 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union its independence was recognised and in 1992 Armenia joined the United Nations.
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