15b: The Romaioi and their World

What we call the Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire, was not just a mere continuation of the Roman Empire. No matter how little it resembled the original Roman Empire in language or culture, the Byzantine Empire literally was the Roman Empire, proudly tracing its history back to Rome's foundation on the morning of April 21, 753 BC. Almost all of the Eastern Empire had belonged to Alexander the Great's empire in the fourth century BC, and so shared a common bond of Hellenistic culture. By the time of Augustus, the Romans had conquered the entire Greek East and had finally figured out how to rule its empire well. Consequently, the Greek-speaking Eastern Empire benefited just as much from the Pax Romana as the Latin-speaking Western Empire did. At the same time, the Romans themselves and the Western Roman Empire eagerly embraced Hellenistic culture. The result was a truly Greco-Roman culture shared equally (if in different ways) by both halves of the Roman Empire. Thus it makes sense that the decline and fall of the Western Empire - whatever date one assigns to that - didn't affect the Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire's self-image as the legally constituted Roman Empire. Roman law and political institutions remained in force, and Latin remained as the language of government. We best know the people of the Eastern Roman Empire as the Byzantines, so that is what I will call them. Remember, though, that they never considered themselves anything less than completely Roman. In the everyday Greek of the Byzantine Empire, the inhabitants called themselves Romaioi - an Ancient Greek word meaning "Romans."

Constantine picked a fine place to found his "New Rome." Dedicated in 330 AD and better known as "Constantine's City" or Constantinople, the former Byzantium occupied an easily fortified peninsula overlooking the Hellespont, which divided Europe and Asia. Because Constantinople was closer than Rome to the Empire's dangerous frontiers, both Western and Eastern, it made an excellent military base. Yet its advantages were not only military. Because Constantinople controlled the shipping lanes connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean, it controlled the trade routes between Europe and Asia, making Byzantine merchants rich and raking in revenue for the state. Constantinople's central location also made it a cultural center, bringing in artists, poets, painters - and teachers. By contrast, the Western Empire was saddled with the brunt of the barbarian incursions, its agricultural economy was dying, it had no access to the trading riches of the East, and it suffered from hopelessly weak leadership.

The Eastern Empire, on the other hand, was blessed with a fair share of strong leaders. Under the reign of Justinian I (527-565 AD) the Byzantine Empire reached its greatest size, conquering back Italy and North Africa. The last Byzantine Emperor to consider himself more Roman than Greek, Justinian also codified Roman law and built the beautiful cathedral of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) - which would so impress the Russian ambassadors five centuries later. Yet Justinian's imperialistic program of reconquest was destined to fail. Soon after he died, Italy and North Africa fell back into Western hands. Worst, Justinian left no clear successor to rule an Eastern Empire completely surrounded by enemies. To the west were the states of the former Western Roman Empire, and later, the Crusaders. To the north were Slavs, Vikings, and other ferocious peoples. To the east was the ancient and menacing Persian Empire, and to the south and southeast were the Arabs. Up to the 7th century AD, the tribes of the Arabian peninsula were harmless nomads. But the founding of the Islamic faith in the early 600s also united the Arab tribes culturally and politically. After the death of Muhammad in 632 AD, the Muslim Arabs became the Byzantine Empire's biggest immediate threat. Islamic kingdoms would remain a threat until the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople in 1453. One result of the Byzantine Empire being surrounded by enemies was it gradually became isolated from Western Europe. Not that the Byzantines - or Romaioi - saw this as a major cultural problem. If anything, they saw it as Western Europe's problem.  Indeed, under the emperor Heraclius (610-641 AD), the Empire was reorganized into "themes" instead of provinces and its official language went back from Latin to Greek, for good.

This enforced isolation of East from West also meant that the Western and Eastern branches of the Christian Church began to grow apart from each other. Meanwhile, powerful popes such as Gregory I were cementing the Roman church's spiritual and secular power in the West. On Christmas Day 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, king of the Franks, as Emperor of the West - and rival of the Eastern emperor in both politics and religion.  For its part, the Eastern church was consumed with seemingly trifling theological disputes. The most violent of these disputes concerned the role of icons in worship, and caught up emperors and common folk alike until the iconoclastic or "icon-smashing" faction was shut down permanently - and violently -in 843 AD. The Eastern branch of the Christian Church became more "orthodox" in that both theology and worship were very strictly regulated. Church life was subordinated to the interests of the Byzantine state. The  Eastern Church also functioned more and more as the "social workers" of the Byzantine state, much as the Western Church had done after the fall of the Western Empire. The Eastern Church routinely sent missionaries to the newly conquered pagan lands, especially in the Balkans, demonstrating further the close tie between church and state in Byzantine culture. This close tie would eventually be passed on when the Russians accepted the Greek Orthodox faith in 988 AD.

Meanwhile the Western Church became more "catholic" in its assumption that the entire Church was one and indivisible, guided by the Bishop of Rome. The Eastern Church continued to pride itself on its "orthodox" beliefs and practices. The formal break between the Eastern and Western churches took place in 1054 AD over what would seem to be a minor issue. The Western church held, as the Roman Catholic church still holds today, that the Holy Spirit is descended from the Father and from the Son. The Eastern church held, as Eastern Orthodox churches still hold today, that the Holy Spirit is descended only from God the Father. The Patriarch of Constantinople and the Bishop of Rome declared each other heretics and broke off all relations. The Byzantines hung on to some of the trappings of the old Roman state, they had gone thoroughly and indisputably Greek. For all that, we must never forget that in the Byzantines' hearts they were the Romans, and that the Westerners had fallen by the wayside.