The Byzantine Empire

9C3

Notes

The Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire formed from the Eastern Roman Empire after Rome fell.

Included lands of Greece, Asia Minor, the Holy Land, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain.

Lasted until its capital, Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Turks in AD 1453.

Notes

Christianity in the Byzantine Empire

Christianity was very important to the Byzantines.

Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire around AD 330.

Theodosius made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire in AD 395.

Christianity in Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire was different.

Notes

Emperor Leo III smashed religious art in Byzantine Churches in AD 726.

– Earned him the nickname “Iconoclast.”

– Horrified Christians in Western Europe.

Friction caused the Roman Catholic Church to split from the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Great Schism of AD 1054.

Byzantines exported their religion to other people.

Notes

Byzantine Law

Justinian the Great ruled from AD 527 to AD 565.

Wrote the Corpus Juris Civilis or Body of Civil Law.

Written from the laws written by “the Good Emperors.”

Made sure the law agreed with Christian beliefs.

Formed the basis of many legal systems in Europe, the Americas and beyond.