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
In sculpture, a colossus is a statue of enormous magnitude. The Asiatics, the Egyptians, and in particular the Greeks, have excelled in these works. The most celebrated Egyptian colossus was the vocal statue of Memnon in the plain of Thebes, supposed to be identical with the most northerly of two existing colossi (60 feet high) on the west bank of the Nile.
Among the colossi of Greece the most celebrated was the Colossus of Rhodes, a brass statue of Apollo 70 cubits high, esteemed one of the wonders of the world, erected at the port of Rhodes by Chares, 290 or 288 BC. It was knocked down by an earthquake about 224 BC. The statue was in ruins for nearly nine centuries, when the Saracens, taking Rhodes, sold the metal, weighing 720,900 lbs, to a Jew, about 653. There is no authority for the popularly-received statement that it bestrode the harbour mouth, and that the Rhodian vessels could pass under its legs.
Among the colossi of Phidias were the Olympian Zeus and the Athena of the Parthenon; the former 60 feet high and the latter 40 feet.
The most famous of the Roman colossi were the Jupiter of the Capitol, the Apollo of the Palatine Library, and the statue of Nero, 110 or 120 feet high, and from which the contiguous amphitheatre derived its name of Colosseum.
Among modern works of this nature is the colossus of San Carlo Borromeo, at Arona, in the Milanese territory, 60 feet in height; the 'Bavaria' at Munich, 65 feet high; the statue of Hermann or Arminius near Detmold, erected in 1875, 90 feet in height to the point of the upraised sword, which itself is 24 feet in length; the height of the figure to the point of the helmet being 55 feet;
the statue of Germania, erected in 1883 near Rudesheim, a figure 34 feet high, placed on an elaborately-sculptured pedestal over 81 feet high; and Bartholdi's statue of Liberty presented to the United States by the French nation, and which measures 104 feet or to the extremity of the torch in the hand of the figure 138 feet. It is erected at New York harbour on a pedestal 114 feet, is constructed for a lighthouse with what was at one time was one of the most powerful fixed lights in the world, and stands 317 feet above mean tide. Research Colossus
Carmelites are mendicant friars of the order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. From probably the 4th century holy men took up their abode as hermits on Mount Carmel in Syria, but it was not until about the year 1150 that pilgrims established an association for the purpose of leading a secluded life on this mountain, and so laid the foundation of the order. Being driven by the Saracens to Europe in 1247 they adopted all the forms of monastic life and a somewhat milder rule. In time they became divided into several branches, one of them distinguished by walking barefooted. The habit of the order is of a dark-brown colour, and over it when out of doors they wear a white cloak, with a hood to cover the head. Research Carmelites
Charles Martel was a ruler of the Franks. He was a son of Pepin Heristal. His father had governed as mayor of the palace under the weak Frankish kings with so much justice that he was enabled to make his office hereditary in his family. Chilperic II, king of the Franks, refusing to acknowledge Charles Martel as mayor of the palace, the latter deposed him, and set Clothaire IV in his place. After the death of Clothaire he restored Chilperic, and subsequently placed Thierri on the throne. Charles Martel rendered his rule famous by the great victory which he gained in October, 732, over the Saracens, near Tours, from which he acquired the name of Martel, signifying hammer. He died in 741. Research Charles Martel
Edward Augustus Freeman was an English historian and archaeologist. He was born in 1823 and died in 1892. Educated at Trinity College, Oxford, of which he was scholar and fellow, he received various academical distinctions, and in 1884 became Regius professor of modern history at Oxford.
Harold III (Harold Hardrada, the Hardy), was a King of Norway. The son of Sigurd, a descendant of Harold I (Harold Haarfager). In his youth he went to Constantinople (Istanbul), joined the Varangian Guard, and took part in the expedition to Italy and Sicily against the African pirates. He was ultimately appointed commander of the imperial bodyguard, and defeated the Saracens. About 1042 he returned to Norway, after having, on his way through Russia, married the daughter of the Grand-duke Jaroslav. In 1047 he succeeded his nephew, Magnus the Good, as sole king of Norway. In 1066 he joined Tostig, the brother of Harold II of England, in an invasion of that country, but was defeated and slain at the battle of Stamford Bridge. Research Harold III
Robert Guiscard (Robert the Cunning) was Duke of Apulia and Calabria. A son of Tancred de Hauteville he was born in 1015 and died in 1085. His brothers, having acquired large possessions in Italy, Robert followed them about 1053, and in the same year captured Pope Leo IX at Civitella. On the death of his brother Humphrey he was proclaimed count of Apulia in 1057. He then conquered Calabria, and PopeNicholas II made him gonfalonier of the Church. Having become a tributary of the holy see, and suppressed the privileges of the Apulian nobility, he sent his youngest brother, Roger, to seize Sicily.
Robert himself arrived in Sicily in 1061, and, in conjunction with his brother, defeated the Saracens at Enna. Returning to Italy, Robert conquered the towns still remaining in the hands of the Saracens, being detained from 1068 to 1071 at the siege of Bari. In 1074 he was excommunicated by Gregory VII for refusing to become his vassal, but the ban was removed in 1080. As his daughter Helen was betrothed to the son of the Byzantine emperor, Michael VII, Robert Guiscard, on the latter's deposition, took up arms in his favour, and defeated Alexis Comnenus at Durazzo in 1082. As Gregory VII. had been meanwhile imprisoned by the invading forces of Henry IV of Germany, Robert Guiscard delivered the pontiff in 1084. He then went again to Epirus, where he repeatedly defeated the Greeks, and, by means of his fleet, made himself master of many of the islands of the Archipelago. He was upon the point of advancing against Constantinople (Istanbul), when he died in the island of Cephalonia in 1085. Research Robert Guiscard
The name Saracens was a general name applied by the Greeks and Latins to the Arab tribes along the edge of the Syrian desert, and was later used by European mediaeval writers to indicate Muslims in general, especially those encountered in European countries. Research Saracens
The Battle of Hattin was a major defeat for the Crusaders by Saladin on the 4th of July 1187 at a village in Palestine 8 km north-west of Tiberias. A force of Frankish Crusaders was completely wiped out, destroying the military power of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. A column of Frankish Crusaders was marching to the relief of the citadel of Tiberias which was under siege by Saladin. The column was attacked by a Saracen army and brought to a halt at Hattin, a place with no water. Harassing attacks during the night ensured that the Crusaders had no rest, and the lack of water demoralised them. On the following morning they were in no condition to withstand attack; the Saracens swept around in two wings and completely annihilated the Crusader force. Research Battle of Hattin
The Battle of Tagliacozzo was a victory for Charles I of Naples and Sicily over the Imperial army of Conradin, on August the 23rd 1268. After the death of Manfred, the imperial nominee to the throne of Sicily, and the assumption by Charles of the crowns of Sicily and Naples, Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufens invaded Italy with an army comprised of Italians, Germans and Saracens, and marched to about a mile north of the village of Tagliacozzo where he was met by the army of Charles, and defeated. Conradin was captured and later executed. Research Battle of Tagliacozzo
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Abbreviations
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