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
Alexander Stambolisky (also known as Alexander Stamboliski) was a Bulgarianstatesman. He was born in 1879 and died in 1923. Born into a peasant family, he was educated in Germany and became a journalist and in 1902 edited the leading journal of the agrarian party in Bulgaria. In 1911 he became a member of the Sobranje. Always in opposition to the royal party, in 1913 he headed the agrarians in outspoken criticism of Ferdiand I's actions and government, and when in 1915, Bulgaria was definitely committed to assist Germany in the Great War, Alexander Stambolisky registered an emphatic protest warning the tsar of the consequences. He was subsequently arrested and imprisoned for three year. On his release from prison Alexander Stambolisky headed the insurgent troops who deposed Ferdinand I. In 1919 he became premier, and signed the peace treaty in Paris in 1920. As premier he organised an authoritive, anti-communist regime. In 1923 he was overthrown in a military coup and was tortured and executed by beheading by members of the VMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation). Research Alexander Stambolisky
Antipater was a general and friend of Philip of Macedon. He was the father of Alexander the Great. On the death of Alexander, in 323 BC., the regency of Macedonia was assigned to Antipater, who succeeded in establishing the Macedonian rule in Greece on a firm footing. He died in 317 BC at an advanced age. Research Antipater
Aratus of Sicyon was a statesman of ancient Greece. He was born in 272 BC. In 251 B.C. he overthrew the tyrant of Sicyon and joined it to the Achaean League, which he greatly extended. He accepted the aid of Antigonus Doson, king of Macedon, against the Spartans, and became in time little more than the adviser of the Macedonian king, who had now made the League dependent on himself. He is said to have been poisoned by Philip V of Macedon in 213 BC. Research Aratus of Sicyon
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and naturalist. He was born in 384 BC at Stagira, in Macedonia, died in 322 BC.. He was the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy, His father, Nicomachus, was physician to Amyntas II, king of Macedonia, and claimed to be descended from Aesculapius. Aristotle had lost his parents before he came, at about the age of seventeen, to Athens to study in the school of Plato. With that philosopher he remained for twenty years, became pre-eminent among his pupils, and was known as the Intellect of the School. Upon the death of Plato in 848 BC, he took up his residence at Atarneus, in Mysia, on the invitation of his former pupil Hermeias, the ruler of that city, on whose assassination by the Persians in 343 BC, he fled to Mitylene with his wife Pythia, the niece of Hermeias.
During his residence at Mitylene he received an invitation from Philip of Macedon to superintend the education of his son Alexander, then in his fourteenth year. This relationship between the great philosopher and the future conqueror continued for five or six years, during which the prince was instructed in grammar, rhetoric, poetry, logic, ethics, and politics, and in those branches of physics which had even then made some considerable progress. On Alexander succeeding to the throne Aristotle continued to live with him as his friend and councillor until he set out on his Asiatic campaign in 334 BC. He returned to Athens and established his school in the Lyceum, a gymnasium attached to the temple of Apollo Lyceius, which was assigned to him by the state. He delivered his lectures in the wooded walks of the Lyceum while walking up and down with his pupils. From the action itself, or more probably from the name of the walks (peripatoi), his school was called Peripatetic. Pupils gathered to him from all parts of Greece, and his school became by far the most popular in Athens. The statement that he had two circles of pupils, the exoteric and the esoteric has given rise to much controversy.
By some it has been held that Aristotle published during his lifetime popular discourses with a view to make way for his doctrines in Athenian society, then impregnated with Platonic theories, and that these are called exoteric in contradistinction to those in which are embodied his matured opinions. It was during the time of his teaching at Athens that Aristotle is believed to have composed the great bulk of his works. On the death of Alexander a revolution occurred in Athenshostile to the Macedonian interests with which Aristotle was identified. He therefore retired to Chalcis, where he soon after died.
According to Strabo he bequeathed all his works to Theophrastus, who, with other disciples of Aristotle, amended and continued them. They afterwards passed through various hands, until, about 50 BC, Andronicus of Rhodes put the various fragments together and classified them according to a systematic arrangement. Many of the books bearing his name are spurious, others are of doubtful genuineness. The whole are generally divided into logical, theoretical, and practical. The logical works are comprehended under the title Organon (instrument). The theoretical are divided into physics, mathematics, and metaphysics. The physical works (including those on natural history) are on the General Principles of Physical Science, The Heavens, Generation and Destruction, Meteorology, Natural History of Animals, On the Parts of Animals, On the Generation of Animals, On the Locomotion of Animals, On the Soul, On Memory, Sleep and Waking, Dreams, Divination. In mathematics there are two treatises, On Indivisible Lines and Mechanical Problems. The Metaphysics consist of fourteen books: the title (Tametata Physika, 'the things following the Physics') is the invention of an editor. The practical works embrace ethics, politics, economics, and treatises on art, and comprise the Nicomachaean Ethics (so called because dedicated to his son Nicomachus), the Politics, (Economics, Poetry, and Rhetoric). Among the lost works are the dialogues and others to which the term exoteric is applied, and which were published during Aristotle's lifetime. His style is devoid of grace and elegance. His works were first printed in a Latin translation, with the commentaries of Averroes, at Venice in 1489; the first Greek edition was that of Aldus Manutius (published in five volules between 1495 and 1498). Research Aristotle
Basil I 'the Macedonian' was a Byzantine Emperor and founder of the Macedonian Dynasty. He was born in Thrace and died in 886. He was emperor from 867 to 886, at first jointly with Michael III but assassinated him in 868. Research Basil I
The most famous Cleopatra was Cleopatra VI, who was the last Queen of Egypt. According to Roman propaganda and legend she was born in 69 BC of Macedonian descent and became joint ruler with her brother, Ptolemy XIV in 52 BC. Exiled by her brother she retired to Syria and secured the aid of Julius Caesar. Ptolemy XIV was killed and Cleopatra was made Queen whereupon she returned to Rome with Caesar as his mistress.
On Caesar's death in 44 BC Cleopatra returned to Egypt and declared Caesarion, her son by Caesar, joint ruler. Mark Anthony now became her lover and put Caesarion to death. Cleopatra killed herself with the bite of an asp after failing to win favour with the new Roman Emperor Octavius and fearing capture.
It is far more likely that the Arabic accounts of Cleopatra are more accurate than the Roman, as Cleopatra was a political enemy of the Roman Empire. The Arabic accounts describe Cleopatra as an accomplished and effective ruler, scholar, alchemist, scientist and physician who effectively challenged Roman rule in the Eastern Mediterranean and who was the antipathy of Roman values.
Whether Cleopatra committed suicide or not is not known. The Roman propaganda, so popular with the Victorian British would have us believe so, but modern scholars researching Cleopatra consider it unlikely that Cleopatra would have killed herself. Research Cleopatra
Darius III was the twelfth king of Persia. He ascended the throne in 339 BC, when the kingdom had been weakened by luxury and the tyranny of the satraps under his predecessors, and could not resist the attacks of a powerful invader. Such was Alexander of Macedon; and the army which was sent against him by Darius was totally routed on the banks of the Gramcus, in Asia Minor. Darius then hastened with 400,000 soldiers to meet Alexander in the mountainous region of Cilicia, and was a second time totally defeated near the Issus, 333 BC. Two years afterwards, all proposals for peace having been rejected by Alexander, Darius collected a second army, and meeting the Macedonian forces between Arbela and Gaugamela was again routed and had to seek safety in flight in 331 BC. Alexander now captured Susa the capital, and Perse polls, and reduced all Persia. Meanwhile Darius was collecting another army at Ecbatana in Media, when a traitorous conspiracy was formed against him by which he was murdered in 330 BC. Alexander married his daughter Statira. Research Darius III
Demetrius Phalereus was a Greek orator and statesman. He was born in 345 BC. In 317 he was made Macedonian governor of Athens, and embellished the city by magnificent edifices. He fled to Egypt when Athens was taken by Demetrius Poliorcetes, where he is said to have promoted the establishment of the Alexandrian Library and of the museum. Demetrius Phalereus wrote on several subjects of philosophical and political science, but the work on rhetoric, which has come to us under his name, belongs to a later age. Research Demetrius Phalereus
Demosthenes was an ancient Greek orator. He was born in 382 or 385 BC at Athens and died in 322 BC. He was the son of a sword-cutler at Athens. His father left him a considerable fortune, of which his guardians attempted to defraud him. Demosthenes, at the age of seventeen, conducted a suit against them himself, and gained his cause. He then set himself to study eloquence, and though his lungs were weak, his articulation defective, and his gestures awkward, by perseverance he at length surpassed all other orators in power and grace. He thundered against Philip of Macedon in his orations known as the Phi lippics, and endeavoured to instil into his fellow-citizens the hatred which animated his own bosom. He laboured to get all the Greeks to combine against the encroachments of Philip, but their want of patriotism and Macedonian gold frustrated his efforts.
He was present at the battle of Chaeroneia in 380 BC in which the Athenians and Boeotians were defeated by Philip, and Greek liberty crushed. On the accession of Alexander in 336 Demosthenes tried to stir up a general rising against the Macedonians, but Alexander at once adopted measures of extreme severity, and Athens sued for mercy. It was with difficulty that Demosthenes escaped being delivered up to the conqueror.
In 324 he was imprisoned on a false charge of having received a bribe from one of Alexander's generals, but managed to escape into exile. On the death of Alexander next year he was recalled, but the defeat of the Greeks by Antipater caused him to seek refuge in the temple of Poseidon, in the island of Oalauria, on the coast of Greece, where he poisoned himself to escape from the emissaries of Antipater in 322 BC.
The character of Demosthenes is by most modern scholars considered almost spotless. His fame as an orator is equal to that of Homer as a poet. Cicero pronounces him to be the most perfect of all orators. He carried Greek prose to a degree of perfection which it never before had reached. Everything in his speeches is natural, vigorous, concise, symmetrical. We have under his name sixty-one orations, some of which are not genuine. The great opponent - and indeed enemy - of Demosthenes as an orator was AEschines. Research Demosthenes
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Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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