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
The Alani (Alans) were a warlike Tartar tribe which migrated from Asia westwards at he time of the decline of the Roman empire. During the 5th century they merged with the Vandals. Research Alani
Attila (Etzel) was King of the Huns. He was born in 406 and died in 453. The son of Mundzuk, and the successor, in conjunction with his brother Bleda, of his uncle Rhuas, he succeeded to the chieftainship in 434 when his people were masters of eastern Europe north of the Danube, and were terrorising western Europe as far as the Rhine and western Asia. They threatened the Eastern Empire, and twice compelled the weak Theodosius II to purchase an inglorious peace. Attila caused his brother Bleda to be murdered in 444, and in a short time extended his dominion over all the peoples of Germany and exacted tribute from the eastern and western emperors. The Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Gepidse, and a part of the Franks united under his banners, and he speedily formed a pretext for leading them against the Empire of the East. He laid waste all the countries from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea, and in three encounters defeated the Emperor Theodoeius, but could not take Constantinople.
Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece all submitted to the invader, who destroyed seventy flourishing cities; and Theodosius was obliged to purchase a peace. Turning to the west, the 'scourge of God,' as the universal terror termed him, crossed with an immense army the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Seine, came to the Loire, and laid siege to Orleans. The inhabitants of this city repelled the first attack, and the united forces of the Romans under Aetius, and of the Visigoths under their king Theodoric, compelled Attila to raise the siege. He retreated to Champagne, and waited for the enemy in the plains of Chalons.
In apparent opposition to the prophecies of the soothsayers the ranks of the Romans and Goths were broken; but when the victory of Attila seemed assured the Gothic prince Thorismond, the son of Theodoric, poured down from the neighbouring height upon the Huns, who were defeated with great slaughter. Rather irritated more than discouraged, he sought in the following year a new opportunity to seize upon Italy, and demanded Honoria, the sister of Valentinian III, in marriage, with half the kingdom as a dowry. When this demand was refused he conquered and destroyed Aquileia, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, laid waste the plains of Lombardy, and was marching on Rome when Pope Leo I went with the Roman ambassadors to his camp and succeeded in obtaining a peace. Attila went back to Hungary, and died on the night of his marriage with Hilda or Ildico in 453, either from the bursting of a blood-vessel or by her hand. The description that Jornandes has left us of him is in keeping with his Kalmuck-Tartar origin. He had a large head, a flat nose, broad shoulders, and a short and ill-formed body; but his eyes were brilliant, his walk stately, and his voice strong and well-toned. Research Attila
Belisarius or the White Prince, was a Roman soldier. He was born about 505 in Illyria and died in 565. He served in the bodyguard of the emperor, soon after obtained the chief command of an army on the Persian frontiers, and in 530 gained a victory over a superior Persian army. The next year, however, he lost a battle, and was recalled. In the year 532 he checked the disorders in Constantinople arising from the Green and Blue factions; and was then sent with 15,000 men to Africa to recover the territories occupied by the Vandals.
He took Carthage and led Gelimer, the Vandal king, in triumph through Constantinople. Dissensions having arisen in the Ostrogothic kingdom, he was sent to Italy, and though ill supplied with money and troops, stormed Naples, held Rome for a year, took Ravenna, and led captive Vitiges, the Gothic king. He rendered honourable service in later campaigns in Italy and against the Bulgarians, but was accused of conspiracy and flung into prison. He afterwards seems to have recovered his property and dignities, the story of Tzetzes (a twelfth-century monk), that Belisarius wandered about as a blind beggar, being probably an invention. The only weaknesses in the character of Belisarius appear in connection with his profligate wife Antonina, an associate of the EmpressTheodora. Research Belisarius
Gelimer was king of the Vandals from 530 to 534. He was a great-grandson of Genseric, and usurped the throne of his cousin Hilderic in 530, but was defeated by Belisarius at Carthage in 533, and at Bulla in Numidia, where he was taken prisoner, and the Vandal kingdom in Africa overthrown. Research Gelimer
Valentinian III was Roman emperor of the West, from 425 to 455. He was born in 419 and died in 455. Son of Constantius and Placidia, daughter of Theodosius, he succeeded Honorius, his mother acting as regent. The Vandals, who had conquered Roman Africa and set up a kingdom there, concluded an alliance with Attila, who, after defeat by Aetius near Chalons, invaded northern Italy, while the Vandal fleet ravaged the coasts of Sicily. Aetius was treacherously put to death by Valentinian III who a year later shared the same fate. Research Valentinian III
The Vandals were a Teutonic people of the east Germanic stock. Although closely associated with the Goths, they were, unlike them, destitute of the nobler barbarian qualities. Having moved from the shores of the Baltic to the middle Danube, they migrated west. At the beginning of the 5th century they poured into Gaul, and in 409 made their way into Spain. Thither they were soon followed by the Visigoths, who destroyed half of them and penned the rest into the district which still bears their name in the form Andalusia. About 428 they left Spain for North Africa. Upon the Mediterraneanlittoral they established a powerful dominion, and there they ruled for a hundred years. Of their kings the most famous was Gaiseric who carried out the conquest between 429 and 439, and sacked Rome in 455. Their fanatical devotion to Arianism made them fierce persecutors of the Catholics. The pirate fleets of the Vandals spread terror over the whole Mediterranean, but in 533 the emperor Justinian, bent on a full restoration of the dominion of the Caesars, dispatched Belisarius to tame their insolence. The work was done so thoroughly that the Vandal race was wiped out. Research Vandals
The Sphinx is a composite monster which appears in both Greek and Egyptian mythology. Both sphinx have the body of a lion and the head of a man - though the Egyptians had also two other sphinx with the head of a ram or a hawk. The Greek sphinx has wings, the Egyptian does not. In Greek mythology, the Sphinx posed a riddle to all who sought to pass. This riddle was at last explained by Oedipus, where upon the Sphinx destroyed itself. The Egyptian Sphinx was deemed to represent a real creature fabled to haunt the deserts, and was a god of wisdom and knowledge.
The oldest example of a statue of a sphinx is the Great Sphinx of Gizeh, in lower Egypt. This is a recumbent image of a man-headed lion, hewn out of a rocky knoll near the pyramid of Khafra. It is 57 meters long, the head nine meters long, the face four meters wide, and the height to the top of the head is 20 meters. The features were originally painted red, but were marred by mediaeval Mamelukevandals. Portions of the beard and uraeus are in the British Museum. In front of the breast Thothmes IV set up a granite slab, mentioning Khafra's name, to commemorate the digging of the image out of the drifted sand. Worshipped as Harmachis, there are the remains of an open-air temple between the paws, with an altar dating to Roman times.
The next oldest pair of sphinxes are a granite pair two meters long, bearing the name of Pepi I, of the Vith dynasty. Several examples from Tanis , once regarded as of Hyksos origin, are attributed to Amenemhat III. Under the New Empire avenues of sphinxes, mostly recumbent rams or ram-headed lions (crio-sphinx), were erected at Thebes from temple to temple. An unfinished Sphinx of that period was found in the Gebel Silsila quarries. Research Sphinx
Algeria (formerly known as Tougourt) is a republic in north Africa. It has a total area of 2,381,740 km2. The climate varies considerably according to elevation and local peculiarities. There are three seasons: winter from November to February, spring from March to June, and summer from July to October. The summer is very hot and dry. In many parts of the coast the temperature is moderate and the climate so healthy that Algeria became a winter resort for European invalids. The terrain is mostly high plateau and desert; some mountains; and a narrow, discontinuous coastal plain. Natural resources are crude oil, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, uranium, lead, zinc. The religion is 99% SunniMuslim (the state religion), 1% Christian and Jewish. The official language is Arabic with French, and Berber dialects also spoken.
Algeria was known to the Romans as Numidia. It flourished greatly under their rule, and early received the Christian religion. It was conquered by the Vandals in 430-431, and recovered by Belisarius for the Byzantine Empire in 533-534. About the middle of the seventh century it was overrun by the Saracens. The town of Algiers was founded about 935 by Yussef Ibn Zeiri, and the country was subsequently ruled by his successors and the dynasties of the Almoravides and Almohades. After the overthrow of the latter, about 1269, it broke up into a number of small independent territories.
The Moors and Jews who were driven out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella at the end of the fifteenth century settled in large numbers in Algeria, and revenged themselves on their persecutors by the practice of piracy. On this account various expeditions were made by Spain against Algeria, and by 1510 the greater part of the country was made tributary. A few years later the Algerians invited to their assistance the Turkishpirate Horush (or Haruj) Barbarossa, who made himself Sultan of Algiers in 1516, but was not long in being taken by the Spaniards and beheaded. His brother and successor put Algiers under the protection of Turkey (about 1520), and organized the system of piracy which was long the terror of European commerce, and was never wholly suppressed until the French occupation, and it was under the pretext of protecting its shipping from these pirates that France invaded in 1830, and by 1860 Algeria was under French rule. In 1954 the F.L.N. began an uprising in Algeria which turned into a war for independence, independence being finally realised in 1962. Research Algeria
The Balearic Islands are a group of five islands, south-east of Spain, including Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera. The popular derivation of the ancient name Baleares has reference to the repute of the inhabitants for their skill in slinging, in which they distinguished themselves both in the army of Hannibal and under the Romans, by whom the islands were annexed in 123 BC. After being taken by the Vandals, under Genseric, and in the eighth century by the Moors, they were taken by James I, King of Arragon, 1220-1234, and constituted a kingdom, which in 1375 was united to Spain. Research Balearic islands
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Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Byzantine Empire
