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
A uraeus was a representation of a sacredasp or African hooded cobra, worn on the head-dress of ancient Egyptian royalty. The emblem migrated to Phoenicia, and is also found in Mexico and India. Research Uraeus
Antigonus was one of the generals of Alexander the Great. He was born about 382 BC and died in 239 BC. In the division of the empire, after the death of Alexander, Antigonus obtained Greater Phrygia, Lycia, and Pamphylia as his dominion. Being a man of great ambition and ability lie soon managed to consolidate and extend his power, being assisted by his warlike son, Demetrius Poliorcetes. Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lysimachus, who had also been generals of Alexander, alarmed by his ambition, united themselves against him; and a long series of contests ensued in Syria, Phoenicia, Asia Minor, and Greece, ending in 301 B.C. with the battle of Ipsus in Phrygia, in which Antigonus was defeated and slain, his dominions being divided among the conquerors. Antigonus Gon'atas, son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and grandson of the above, succeeded his father in the Kingdom of Macedon and all his other European dominions, but did not obtain actual possession of them for some years. Research Antigonus
Claudius Galenus (Claudius Galen) was an ancient Greek medical writer and physician. He was born in 130, at Pergamus in Asia Minor and died in 200. His father, Nicon, an architect and mathematician, gave him a careful education, and he studied under physicians in Smyrna, Corinth, Alexandria, etc, afterwards visiting Cilicia, Phoenicia, and Palestine. He returned in 103 to Pergamus, where he received a public appointment, but five years later went to Rome, and there acquired great celebrity by his cures.
Driven thence by envy, he again travelled for some time and resumed his labours in his native town, but was soon after invited to Aquileia by the Emperors Marcus Aurelins and Lucius Verus in 169.
He followed Marcus Aurelius to Rome, and appears to have remained there for some years before finally retiring to Pergamus. The closing part of his life, however, is obscure. One Arabic writer says that he died in Sicily, and Suidas states that he died at the age of seventy, and accordingly in the year 200 or 201, but it is not improbable that he lived longer.
The writings attributed to Galen include eighty-three treatises acknowledged to be genuine, forty-five manifestly spurious; nineteen of doubtful genuineness, and fifteen commentaries on different works of Hippocrates, besides a large number of short pieces and fragments, probably in great part spurious. The most valuable of his works were those dealing with anatomy and physiology, and he was the first to establish the consultation of the pulse in diagnosis and prognosis. Untill the middle of the 16th century his authority in medicine was supreme. Research Claudius Galen
Thothmes IV was a king of Egypt of the XVIIIth dynasty. He reigned for about nine years from about 1447 BC until 1438 BC. He undertook military campaigns against Nubia and Phoenicia and maintained friendly relations with Babylon and Mitanni, marrying the Mitannian woman Mutemua, the first foreign alliance made by an Egyptian monarch. He arranged the removal of the sand drift which buried the great Sphinx at Gizeh Research Thothmes IV
In Greek mythology, Agenor was a son of Poseidon and Libya. He became king of Phoenicia. He married Telephassa who bore him Europa, Cadmus, Phoenix and Cilix. When Zeus abducted Europa, Agenor sent his sons to find her, they went accompanied by their mother and none returned. In Greek mythology Agenor was a son of Antenor. He fought in the Trojan War, and saved the Trojans by challenging the Greek champion when Achilles was about to storm the Scaean Gates. Apollo kept Agenor safe, and later assumed the shape of
Agenor to divert Achilles' attention. In Greek mythology, Agenor was a king of Pleuron, and the father of Thestius. Research Agenor
In Greek mythology, Cadmus was the son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, and the brother of Europa. He settled in Thrace and then in Boeotia where he founded the ancient city of Cadmeia. He gave the Greeks an alphabet. Research Cadmus
Babylonia was an old Asiatic empire occupying the region watered by the lower course of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and by their combined stream. The inhabitants, though usually designated Babylonians, were sometimes called Chaldeans, and it is thought that the latter name represents a superior caste who at a comparatively late period gained influence in the country. At the earliest period of which we have record the whole valley of the Tigris and Euphrates was inhabited by tribes of Turanian or Tatar origin. Along with these, however, there early existed an intrusive Semitic element, which gradually increased in number until at the time the Babylonians and Assyrians (the latter being a kindred people) became known to the western historians they were essentially Semitic peoples. The great city Babylon, or Babel, was the capital of Babylonia, which was called by the Hebrews Shinar. The country was, as it still is, exceedingly fertile, and must have anciently supported a dense population. The chief cities, besides Babylon, were Ur, Calneh, Erech, and Sippara. Babylonia and Assyria were often spoken of together as Assyria.
The discovery and interpretation of the cuneiform inscriptions have enabled the history of Babylonia to be carried back to about 4000 BC, at which period the inhabitants had attained a considerable degree of civilization, and the country was ruled by a number of kings or princes each in his own city. About 2700 BC Babylonia came under the rule of a single monarch. Latterly it had serious wars with neighbouring nations, and for several hundred years previous to 2000 BC Babylonia was subject to the neighbouring Elam. It then regained its independence, and for a thousand years it was the foremost state of Western Asia in power, as well as in science, art, and civilization. The rise of the Assyrian empire brought about the decline of Babylonia, which latterly was under Assyrian domination, though with intervals of independence, Tiglath-Pileser II. of Assyria (745-727) made himself master of Babylonia; but the conquest of the country had to be repeated by his successor, Sargon, who expelled the Babylonian king, Merodach-Baladan, and all but finally subdued the country, the complete subjugation being effected by Sennacherib. After some sixty years the second or later Babylonian empirearose under Nabopolassar, who, joining the Modes against the Assyrians, freed Babylon from the superiority of the latter power, 625 BC The new empire was at its height of power and glory under Nabopolassar's son, Nebuchadnezzar (604-561), who subjected Jerusalem, Tyre, Phoenicia, and even Egypt, and carried his dominion to the shores of the Mediterranean and northwards to the Armenianmountains. The capital, Babylon, was rebuilt by him, and then formed one of the greatest and most magnificent cities the world has ever seen. He was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach, but the dynasty soon came to an end, the last king being Nabonetus or Nabonadius, who came to the throne in 555 BC, and made his son, Belshazzar, co-ruler with him. Babylon was taken by Cyrus the Persian monarch in 538, and
e second Babylonian empire came to an end, Babylonia being incorporated in the Persian empire. Its subsequent history was similar to that of Assyria.
Babylonian culture was similar to that of Assyria, but with some differences. In Babylonia stone was not to be had, and consequently brick was the almost universal building material. Sculpture was thus less developed in Babylonia than in Assyria, and painting more. Babylonian art had also more of a religious character than that of Assyria, and the chief edifices found in ruins are temples. Weaving and pottery were carried to high perfection. Astronomy was cultivated from the earliest times. The Babylonians had a number of deities, but latterly the chief or national deity was Bel Merodach, originally the Sun-god. Education was well attended to, and there were schools and libraries in connection with the temples. On the inscribed tablets that have been discovered are writings relating to religion, law, magic, poems, etc. Research Babylonia
Galilee, in the time of Jesus Christ, was the most northern province of Palestine, bounded on the east by the river Jordan, on the south by Samaria, on the west by the Mediterranean Sea and Phoenicia, and on the north by Syria and the Mountains of Lebanon. It was in some sense the cradle of Christianity, Nazareth, Cana, Capernaum, Nain, and other places being intimately associated with the life of Jesus.
Phoenicia was a country in the ancient world. It was located on a narrow strip of land along the coast of what is now called Lebanon. Research Phoenicia
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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