History of the Byzantine Empire. Byzantine Empire (395–1453)

STATE AND BYZANTINE LAW

In 395, the Roman Empire was divided into the Western (capital - Rome) and Eastern (capital - Constantinople). The first empire ceased to exist in 476 under the blows of the Germanic tribes. The Eastern Empire, or Byzantium, existed until 1453. Byzantium received its name from the ancient Greek colony of Megara, a small town of Byzantium, on the site of which Emperor Constantine
in 324-330 he founded the new capital of the Roman Empire - Constantinople. The Byzantines themselves called themselves “Romans”, and the empire – “Romanian”, therefore for a long time the capital was called “New Rome”.

Byzantium was in many ways a continuation of the Roman Empire, preserving its political and state traditions. At the same time, Constantinople and Rome became two centers political life– “Latin” West and “Greek” East.

The stability of Byzantium had its reasons, hidden
in the features of socio-economic and historical development. Firstly, the Byzantine state included economically developed regions: Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, the Balkan Peninsula (the territory of the empire exceeded 750,000 sq. km
with a population of 50-65 million people), who conducted brisk trade
with India, China, Iran, Arabia and North Africa. The decline of an economy based on slave labor was not felt as strongly here as in Western Rome, since the population was
in a free or semi-free state. Agriculture was not built on forced labor in the form of large slave-owning latifundia, and on small peasant farms (communal peasantry). Therefore, small farms responded more quickly to the changing market conditions and more quickly, compared to large farms, restructured their activities. And in the craft here, the main role was played by free workers. For these reasons, the eastern provinces suffered less than the western ones from the economic crisis of the 3rd century.

Secondly, Byzantium, having large material resources, had a strong army, navy and a strong, ramified state apparatus, which made it possible to restrain the raids of the barbarians. There was a strong imperial power with a flexible administrative apparatus.

Thirdly, Byzantium was built on the basis of a new Christian religion, which, in comparison with the pagan Roman one, had a progressive meaning.

The Byzantine Empire reached its greatest power
during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527-565), who carried out extensive conquests, and again the Mediterranean Sea became an inland sea, this time of Byzantium. After the death of the monarch, the state entered into a long crisis. The countries conquered by Justinian were quickly lost. In the VI century. clashes with the Slavs begin,
and in the 7th century. - with the Arabs, who at the beginning of the 8th century. captured North Africa from Byzantium.

At the beginning of the same century, Byzantium began to emerge from the crisis with difficulty. In 717, Leo III, nicknamed the Isaurian, came to power and founded the Isaurian dynasty (717-802). He carried out a number of reforms. To find funds for their implementation, as well as for the maintenance of the army and administration, he decided to liquidate monastic land ownership. This was expressed in the fight against icons, because the church was accused of paganism - worship of icons. The authorities used iconoclasm to strengthen their political and economic positions, to subjugate the church and its wealth. Laws are issued against the veneration of icons, considering it as idolatry. The fight against icons made it possible to appropriate church treasures - utensils, icon frames, shrines containing the relics of saints. 100 monastic estates were also confiscated, the lands of which were distributed to peasants, as well as in the form of rewards to soldiers for their service.

These actions strengthened the internal and external position of Byzantium, which again annexed Greece, Macedonia, Crete, Southern Italy and Sicily.

In the second half of the 9th century, and especially in the 10th century, Byzantium reached a new rise, because the powerful Arab Caliphate gradually broke up into a number of independent feudal states and Byzantium conquered Syria and numerous islands in the Mediterranean Sea from the Arabs, and at the beginning of the 11th century. annexes Bulgaria.
At that time, Byzantium was ruled by the Macedonian dynasty (867-1056), under which the foundations of a socially centralized early feudal monarchy took shape. Under her, Kievan Rus adopted Christianity from the Greeks in 988.

Under the next dynasty, Comneni (1057-1059, 1081-1185),
In Byzantium, feudalization intensifies and the process of enslavement of peasants is completed. Under her, the feudal institution was strengthened penetration("care"). Feudalization leads to the gradual disintegration of the state, and small independent principalities appear in Asia Minor. The foreign policy situation was also becoming more complicated: the Normans were advancing from the west, the Pechenegs from the north, and the Seljuks from the east. The first crusade saved Byzantium from the Seljuk Turks. Byzantium managed to return part of its possessions. However, soon Byzantium and the crusaders began to fight among themselves. Constantinople was taken by the crusaders in 1204. Byzantium broke up into a number of states, loosely connected with each other.

With the coming to power of the Palaiologan dynasty (1261-1453), Byzantium managed to strengthen itself, but its territory decreased noticeably. Soon a new threat loomed over the state from the Ottoman Turks, who extended their power over Asia Minor, bringing it to the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara. In the fight against the Ottomans, the emperors began to hire foreign troops, who often turned their weapons against their employers. Byzantium was exhausted in the struggle, aggravated by peasant and urban uprisings. The state apparatus was in decline, which leads to the decentralization of power and its weakening. The Byzantine emperors decide to turn to the Catholic West for help. In 1439, the Union of Florence was signed, according to which the Eastern Orthodox Church submitted to the Pope. However, Byzantium never received real help from the West.
Upon the return of the Greeks to their homeland, the union was rejected by the majority of the people and the clergy.

In 1444, the crusaders suffered a severe defeat from the Ottoman Turks, who dealt the final blow to Byzantium. Emperor John VIII was forced to seek mercy from Sultan Murad II. In 1148, the Byzantine emperor dies. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, entered into a fight with the new Sultan Mehmed II Fatih (the Conqueror). On May 29, 1453, under the attacks of Turkish troops, Constantinople was taken, and with its fall, the Byzantine Empire actually ceased to exist. Türkiye is turning into one
of the powerful powers of the medieval world, and Constantinople becomes the capital Ottoman Empire– Istanbul (from “Islambol” - “abundance of Islam”).

Eastern Roman Empire - Byzantium

During its thousand-year history, the Byzantine Empire, which absorbed the magnificent heritage of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the Hellenistic East, went through the same main stages of social development as many countries of the medieval world. The unique geographical location of the empire, which had possessions in Europe and Asia, and in other periods of history in Africa, made the country a kind of connecting link between East and West. The mixture of different cultures - Eastern, Greek and Roman - could not but leave imprints on all aspects of the life of Byzantine society - government, religion, culture and art. The so-called openness of Byzantine civilization arose thanks to the established economic and political relationships that connected Byzantium with many countries in Europe and Asia. At the same time, Byzantium followed its own historical path. She claimed to be the ruler of the entire civilized world. Rulers of Western and South of Eastern Europe sought to imitate the customs and methods government controlled and diplomacy of Byzantium.

In the history of the Byzantine Empire, if we consider its internal development and the role it played in the international life of the Middle Ages, we can distinguish several periods: the formation of the empire, the time of its greatest prosperity, the fall under the blows of the crusaders and the final death under the onslaught of the Seljuk Turks and Turks. Ottomans

At the origins of civilization

In 330, the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople. The city was built on the site of a former Greek colony of Byzantium on the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara. The new capital was named in honor of the emperor Constantinople - “the city of Constantine.” And in 395, the Great Roman Empire split into eastern and western parts. This date is considered to be the beginning of the Byzantine Empire itself. From this time on, the history of Byzantine civilization opens. In its early period, Byzantium had possessions in Europe, as well as in Asia and Africa. After the collapse of the Roman state, the richest regions came under Byzantine rule.

The vast Byzantine Empire included the Balkan Peninsula, the islands of the Aegean Sea, the islands of Crete and Cyprus, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, parts of Mesopotamia, Armenia and Arabia. Byzantine possessions were also in the Northern Black Sea region. The territory of the empire was huge. The nature and climate of this state were very diverse: hot and dry summers with warm and rainy winters in one part of the empire, cold and snowy winters in another.

High mountains in Greece and Asia Minor, wide fertile plains in Thessaly and Thrace, rich lands of the Nile Valley - the Byzantine Empire was rich. Wheat and barley were grown in Egypt and Thrace. The coastal regions of the Aegean Sea were famous for their gardens and extensive vineyards, and Greece for its olive oil. Flax was grown in Egypt, and sericulture was practiced in Syria and Phenicia, which brought Byzantium fame as a producer of valuable silk fabrics. Cattle breeding was developed in the mountainous regions and steppes.

“The large state road leading from west to east passed through Thessalonica and involuntarily inclined travelers to stop and buy everything they needed here. Therefore, we found ourselves the owners of all sorts of benefits you could name. The streets of the city were always filled with a motley crowd of Thessalonians and passing guests, so that it was easier to count the grains of sand on the seashore than the people passing through the market square and engaged in trading…” - this is how the Thessalonian priest John Kameniata described trade in the cities of the Byzantine Empire (beginning of the 10th c.) in his essay “The Capture of Thessalonica.”

The Byzantine lands were also famous for their natural resources: scaffolding, stone and marble, gold and silver, iron and copper. Iron ore was delivered to Byzantium from the distant Caucasian ranges, and silver and copper from Armenia. The most important writing material, papyrus, was brought from Egypt, and a special shell was mined off the coast of Asia Minor and Phenicia, which served as raw material for the production of the famous purple paint. From one shell you could only get one drop of this paint, so it was terribly expensive and was used mainly for coloring imperial clothes. Byzantine merchants went to different countries in search of new goods, sometimes making their way to the most remote corners of the world. Merchants were often also spies: they tried to learn as much as possible about the customs, strengths and weaknesses of the countries they visited. “It is more reliable to defeat the enemy with ingenuity, intelligence, or even cunning than with force of arms,” the Byzantines believed. And although the empire was constantly in a state of war, since its rich lands always attracted invaders, the Romans - subjects of the Byzantine kings - preferred to pay rather than fight. At the same time, they maintained a well-trained professional army. Byzantium managed to happily avoid the fate of the Western Roman Empire - it did not know the complete conquest of the entire country by barbarian tribes and did not experience the death of a centralized state. Until the 7th century. Latin was considered the official language of Byzantium, but books were written in Greek, Armenian, Syriac, and Georgian. The majority of the population were Greeks. The inhabitants of the empire called themselves Romans, their state - the Roman Empire, and Constantinople - New Rome. The ruler of the Byzantine Empire was called basileus. According to the Byzantines, he was the only legitimate heir of the Roman emperors.

Birth of an Empire

The first period of the history of the empire covers three and a half centuries - from the 4th to the mid-7th century. In Byzantium there were about a thousand cities, in which many lived different nations who spoke various languages. But the largest was, of course, Constantinople; it was inhabited by more than half a million people. It had a favorable geographical position: the main trade routes, which led from west to east - to the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, from the Black Sea - to the Mediterranean. On one side the walls of Constantinople were washed by the waters of the Sea of ​​Marmara, on the other there was the Golden Horn Bay. This bay was an excellent harbor for Byzantine ships, and in case of danger, the entrance to the bay was blocked with a special iron chain.

The fortified city walls and towers of Constantinople that have survived to this day are striking in their power and grandeur. He was also largest port throughout the Mediterranean. Byzantium for almost all of its history early Middle Ages was a great naval power. It was the presence of the fleet that contributed to the economic and political influence of Byzantium in the medieval world.

In the 4th century. the products of skilled Byzantine craftsmen were already known all over the world, who made objects of the most refined luxury. The works of jewelers, mosaicists, enamellers, wood and stone carvers and other Byzantine craftsmen served as an unattainable standard for artisans in many countries. The Byzantines called their capital “the vast workshop of the universe.” Luxurious patterned silk fabrics and the finest linen and wool fabrics were famous throughout the world. But merchants were not allowed to sell violet, scarlet, purple fabrics to foreigners, since wearing clothes of such colors was the exclusive privilege of the emperor. The sale of such fabrics was considered an attack on the imperial colors, and therefore on the very dignity of the emperor.

The works of Byzantine jewelers were distinguished by their extraordinary beauty and delicate taste. Valuable handwritten books, superbly illustrated with artistic miniatures, were highly valued throughout the civilized world.

“It could not even have occurred to the crusaders that there was such a mighty city in the world before they saw the high walls and powerful towers surrounding it, its magnificent palaces, tall cathedrals. And there are so many of them that you can’t believe it without seeing with your own eyes the breadth and distance of it, the city standing like a king over other cities,” wrote J. Villehardouin from Champagne, who participated in the capture of Constantinople.

The beauty and grandeur of the city amazed contemporaries. Admired by the beautiful appearance of the palaces and temples, writers and poets in their works glorified the splendor and exquisite charm of the Byzantine capital: “The city of cities, the light of the universe, the glory of the world, the mother of churches, the basis of faith, the patron of sciences and art, the fatherland and the center of beauty.”

Merchants from different countries came to Constantinople, and the Byzantines themselves went to the most remote corners of the ecumene. In the east, they traded with such fantastic countries in the minds of Europeans as India and Ceylon, and distant China. In the south they reached Arabia and Ethiopia, rich in gold and ivory, in the north - the harsh shores of Scandinavia and the foggy islands of Albion.

Government structure of the empire

In terms of its state structure, Byzantium was an autocratic monarchy. The autocratic emperor, the basileus, was considered the sovereign ruler of the country. According to Roman tradition, the emperor was elected by the senate, army and people. His power was considered sacred. He had the power to make and amend laws, appoint and remove officials, sentence his subjects to death and confiscate their property. The emperor was the supreme judge, commander-in-chief of the army, and was in charge of all foreign policy. Vasivlevs was the ruler of the country, but still not its owner, which could be observed in the eastern states. The power of the emperor in Byzantium was not inherited. The emperor had to prove himself to be a “faithful servant of Christ God.” In case of unrighteous acts, he lost the support of God. And then anyone could encroach on his power. If the attempt to seize power was successful, then the usurper became emperor, otherwise he was blinded. Many Byzantine rulers reigned for a short time and ended their lives, at best, in a monastery, at worst, death at the hands of hired killers. Researchers noted that “one hundred and nine emperors ruled in Byzantium during its existence, and only thirty-four of them died a natural death.” Thus, the fate of many of them was tragic: “Michael III was stabbed to death at a feast in his country residence, Nikephoros II was killed in his own bedroom, John I was poisoned, Roman III was drowned in a bathtub. In just one hundred years from the beginning of the reign of Basil II (976) to the beginning of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (1081), there were about 50 conspiracies and rebellions.” (S. B. Dashkov, Emperors of Byzantium, M.: 1996). Even a person of no noble origin could become an emperor. For example, Emperor Justinian was the son of a peasant, and his wife, the beautiful Theodora, was a former actress; Vasily I and Roman I also came from peasant backgrounds, and Michael IV was a money changer. However, it was in Byzantium that the Christian Church substantiated the theory of the divine origin of imperial power, laying the foundation for an unlimited Christian monarchy.

The emperor had a powerful but cumbersome administrative system under his command. The entire empire was divided into themes (districts), each headed by a strategist who had military and civil power in it. He governed the district and was obliged to report annually to the basileus. He could have been moved to run another district. Subordinate to the strategist was the judge in charge of the civil administration. Money was needed to maintain such a large state apparatus. Therefore, all the emperor's subjects were required to pay taxes. Special officials determined the amounts of these taxes, and collectors collected them. Each village was jointly responsible for paying the tax. If someone did not pay, then others were obliged to pay for it.

The second person in the state was considered the patriarch, who led all the clergy and was subordinate to the emperor.

Byzantine army

In Byzantium, the traditions of Roman military art were preserved, works on the theory, strategy and tactics of military affairs were published and studied. However, by the end of the empire's existence, the army became mainly mercenary and was characterized by rather low combat effectiveness.

Many written monuments and images have survived to our time, thanks to which we can reconstruct the weapons of Byzantine warriors. Sculptural images confirm that late Italian weapons were preserved until the Emperor Theodosius (346–395). At the same time, the Roman military historian Publius Flavius ​​Vegetius (late 4th - early 5th century) complains that defensive weapons gradually disappeared from the army, especially for light infantry.

The Byzantine army was divided by type of weapons into several classes: heavy cavalry, or cataphracts, light cavalry, heavy infantry and light infantry, artillery, which was not numerous and was used mainly in the siege and assault of cities.

Along with the professional army, there were personal squads of commanders and private individuals, called bucellarii. Guards were recruited from barbarians more often only for the duration of a military campaign, since maintaining such a detachment was quite expensive. To protect the emperor and empress, there were guards - tagmas. They were divided into horse tagmas (schola, escuvites, arithms, ikanates) and foot tagmas - numbers and walls. In addition, there were also hired foreign guards - etheria - and palace guards: cuvicularii, candidates and wiggles.

Etheria is a detachment of several thousand heavily armed infantry under the command of the Eteriarch. Byzantine historians Michael Psellus, Nikephoros Bryennius, Anna Komnena refer to the etheria either as “those who carry swords on their shoulders” or as “armed with axes,” meaning respectively the Anglo-Saxon and Varangian-Russian parts of it. In terms of weapons and methods of combat, they were very good heavy infantry.

The shock part of the army consisted of warrior-horses - cataphracts, whose spear attacks often decided the outcome of the battle. Their weapons are spears, swords, daggers, clubs, shields. The warrior’s body was protected by chain mail, over which they put on a klibanion shell - metal or made of thick leather armor, equipped with pterigs - leather strips on the shoulders. The lower part of the shell, which was called cremasmata, protected the stomach and thighs. The rider's arms and legs were protected from injury by chalcotube greaves and panicel bracers, which covered the arm from elbow to hand, as well as leather gloves. During excavations of a large palace in Constantinople, face masks were found that were worn by cataphract warriors. In addition, the armor also protected the horse. Sometimes some cataphract warriors were armed with bows and javelins instead of spears. “The Byzantine cataphracts were little like the Western European knightly militia, they were quite disciplined, organized into permanent units and even had (this was a common feature of the Byzantine army) elements of the uniform: cloaks and tufts of horsehair on helmets of a certain color, indicating the warrior’s belonging to one or another division." (S. B. Dashkov, Emperors of Byzantium, M.: 1996).

The light cavalry were armed with shields, spears and bows and arrows. The offensive weapons of the heavy infantry were swords, and the defensive weapons were shields and chain mail. Light infantry were armed with bows and arrows, javelins and slings. Often, soldiers were provided with weapons at the expense of the treasury.

Judging by the information presented by Emperor Leo VI in his treatise “Tactics” (early 10th century), the main offensive weapons of heavily armed warriors, both foot and horse, were long spears and swords. The protective weapons of heavily armed infantry warriors (hoplites) consisted of a round or oval shield with a metal umbo covered with thick rawhide, a round helmet with a high crest and ears, a chain mail shirt, sometimes equipped with a hood, and lamellar armor made of interconnected metal plates .

The bulk of the Byzantine army was light infantry. The body of the infantry warrior was protected by soft armor, which was made of multi-layer felt. Infantrymen initially used round shields for protection, which were gradually replaced by elongated almond-shaped ones, which made it possible to cover almost the entire figure of the warrior. The offensive weapons of the lightly armed infantry were slings, darts and daggers, and they also used powerful compound bows and arrows.

At the peak of power

Emperor Justinian the Great (482–565)

The Byzantine Empire reached its greatest prosperity in the early period under Justinian I. During this period, the empire not only successfully repelled the onslaught of barbarian tribes, but also began to implement a broad policy of conquest in the West. The Byzantines conquered North Africa from the Vandals, Italy from the Ostrogoths, and part of Spain from the Visigoths. For some time, the Roman Empire was restored to its former borders. However, under Justinian's successors, most of these conquests were lost again. The future Emperor Justinian was born into the family of a poor Illyrian peasant, and his wife and faithful assistant Theodora was previously a circus actress and courtesan. Her extraordinary beauty and intelligence captivated Justinian, and he made Theodora his wife and empress. Theodora, according to the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (between 490 and 507 - after 562), was “short in stature, beautifully built and graceful, with an amazingly beautiful elongated matte face, witty, cheerful, slanderous and intelligent.” (Procopius of Caesarea. The Secret History. / Translated by S. P. Kondratyev. // VDI. 1938. No. 4).

In the 7th century The Byzantines invented a special flammable mixture called “Greek fire.” It was truly a terrible weapon. The fire even spread through the water and spread from ship to ship.

Justinian was an intelligent and energetic ruler, a tireless reformer who dreamed of reviving the Great Roman Empire. And at the same time, although he gave the impression of a generous, approachable and easy-to-handle person, he was merciless to his opponents, two-faced and insidious. During his reign, a brutal persecution of pagans and heretics began, whose property was taken away from the treasury, and they were also prohibited from entering public service. “It is fair,” wrote Justinian, “to deprive the one who worships God incorrectly of earthly goods.” (S. B. Dashkov, Emperors of Byzantium, M.: 1996), strengthened his power with iron and blood. He literally drowned the largest Constantinople uprising, “Nika,” in blood. By the way, Theodora’s determination played a big role in this. He also mercilessly dealt with the rebellious nobility, taking the property of the convicted to the treasury. Justinian became famous for his legislative and administrative activities. He owns the famous code of civil laws, the Justinian Code, which formed the basis of the legal systems of many states.

Byzantine culture

The Byzantines always believed that culture is what distinguishes them from the barbarians. The historical works of Byzantine historians Procopius, Psellus, Anna Komnena, and George Pachymer and others have survived to this day. From the age of eight, children began to study at a school that provided primary education. Then those wishing to receive a more complete education continued it under the guidance of a teacher paid by their parents. They studied "Homer and geometry, dialectics and other philosophical disciplines, rhetoric and arithmetic, astronomy, music and other Hellenic sciences." It was also possible to enter the University of Constantinople, which was founded by decree of Theodosius II in 425. “The departments of Greek and Latin grammar and rhetoric, law and philosophy were established at the university. Training was conducted in Greek and Latin. Total number teachers were identified as 31 people, of which ten Greek and ten Latin grammarians, three Latin and five Greek rhetoricians, two professors of law and one philosopher" (S. Valyansky, D. Kalyuzhny. From the history of education. Byzantine education).

During the reign of Emperor Justinian, Byzantine art began to flourish. In Constantinople alone, by his decree, 30 churches and the most famous Church of Hagia Sophia (Temple of Wisdom), which became a symbol of the “golden age” of Byzantium, were erected. The cathedral was designed by the Byzantine architects Isidore of Miletus and Anthimius of Thrall. The best masters were invited from all over the country to Constantinople. To decorate the temple, the best types of granite and marble were brought; eight columns were broken out and brought from the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. In the figurative expression of the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea: “In height it (the Church of Hagia Sophia) rises as if to the sky and, like a ship on high waves sea, stands out among other buildings.” The dome of the St. Sophia Cathedral, 54 m high, was “so light, so airy that it seemed that it was not supported by stonework, but was suspended from the sky on a golden chain.”

The interior of the cathedral was filled with light, which was reflected from the sparkling mosaics that decorated the walls of the temple.

And this was not accidental: according to the definition of Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea of ​​Cappadocia, “light is the visible form of the Divine.” The columns were decorated with exquisite carvings, the floors and walls were carved from multi-colored marble, and silver lamps like trees descended from the ceiling. “It is famous for its unspeakable beauty... One could say that this place is not illuminated from the outside by the sun, but that the brilliance is born within itself: such an amount of light spreads in this temple. The ceiling is lined with pure gold, combining beauty and splendor; competing in brilliance, its radiance defeats the brilliance of stones. On both sides there are two galleries; and their ceiling is a dome, and the decoration is gold. One of these galleries is designated for men praying, the other for women. Who could count the splendor of the columns and marbles with which the temple is decorated? One would think that one is in a luxurious meadow covered with flowers,” wrote the admiring Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea. (War with the Persians. War with the Vandals. Secret history. Aletheia, St. Petersburg - 1998).

The dome of the cathedral was decorated with a large golden cross. Hagia Sophia still serves as a decoration for the capital of Turkey - Istanbul, formerly Constantinople. The cathedral houses the Hagia Sophia mosque, surrounded by four majestic minarets, and the magnificent mosaics that once adorned its walls have disappeared under a layer of plaster.

In many parts of the empire, temples were erected that resembled Hagia Sophia. The temple, covered with a dome, seemed to personify the image of the universe, the elevated vault of the church was the “heaven of heavens,” and the wide and beautiful arches that supported the dome represented the four cardinal directions. The Byzantines loved to decorate their temples with mosaics. From particles of smalt (pieces of colored glass mass, marble and multi-colored stone) they made amazing pictures. Thus, the mosaic of the Hagia Sophia depicts Emperor Constantine and his wife Empress Zoe, their images embodied the idea of ​​royalty. The mosaics of the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna show a solemn procession: on one side, surrounded by courtiers, Emperor Justinian moves, he carries a precious cup as a gift to the temple; on the other, his wife Theodora, along with the ladies of the court, in her hands is a chalice (a communion cup), which she also brings as a gift to the church. The clothes of the emperor and empress are made of expensive fabrics, decorated with gold embroidery and precious stones, and their heads are crowned with imperial crowns studded with jewels. The figures seem to protrude from the sparkling golden background surrounding them, giving them solemnity and significance.

The Byzantines also decorated their houses with great love: in them one could see expensive fabrics, famous Byzantine silks with woven patterns that were used as curtains, precious utensils, beautiful furniture, magnificent floors. The tables were covered with especially expensive carpets. The rooms in the houses were illuminated oil lamps in the form of lily flowers or a two-humped camel, fish, or the head of a terrible dragon.

Education received in Byzantium was highly valued: “No European could be considered sufficiently educated unless he studied for some time in Constantinople,” wrote Pope Pius II (1405–1464).

Particularly magnificent was the palace of the basileus - the Great Imperial Palace, built on the very shore of the Sea of ​​​​Marmara. The palace was a whole complex of luxurious buildings. Beautiful palaces with beautifully decorated state halls and living rooms, with open terraces and luxurious baths - all this was surrounded by gardens and fountains. Special closed passages led to the imperial box at the hippodrome and to other buildings of the palace complex. The size and scale of the buildings were amazing. Visited Constantinople in 1348–1349. Stefan Novgorodets wrote: “There is a palace right there, called the “Chamber of the Orthodox Tsar Constantine.” Its walls are very high, higher than the city walls, the palace is great, like a city, it stands near the Hippodrome by the sea.” (“The Walk of Stefan Novgorod” in the book by I. Maleto “Anthology of the Walks of Russian Travelers. XII-XV centuries.” M.: Nauka, 2005).

The walls and floors in the palaces were decorated with multi-colored marble and mosaics, many of them were dedicated to the military victories of Emperor Justinian over the barbarians. Not only the walls of the palace, but also the floors were decorated with magnificent mosaic compositions - here in front of us is a peasant milking a goat, a fisherman catching fish on the river bank, a beautiful girl carrying a heavy jug filled to the brim with water, and a young man playing the pipe.

Expensive fabrics decorated the walls and draped window and door openings. Thrones, stools and boxes were inlaid with precious metals and ivory. But the most magnificent room of the palace was, of course, the “Golden Throne Room,” called Chrysotriclinium, where ceremonial receptions of foreign ambassadors took place.

There were legends about the luxury and wealth of the Byzantine imperial palace. “In front of the emperor’s throne stood a gilded bronze tree, on the branches of which sat birds of different breeds, also made of bronze and gilded, singing in different voices according to their bird species. The emperor's throne was so skillfully constructed that one moment it seemed low, the next higher, and then sublime. This throne seemed to be guarded by lions of extraordinary size, I don’t know whether they were made of bronze or wood, but gilded. They hit the floor with their tails, opened their mouths and, moving their tongues, let out a growl. At my appearance, lions roared, birds chirped, each in its own way, when, bowing before the emperor, I bowed for the third time, then, raising my head, I saw him, whom I had just seen sitting on a small dais, now sitting almost under the ceiling of the hall and dressed in different clothes. I could not understand how this happened: it must have been lifted up by a machine..., wrote, without hiding his admiration for the reception held in the Palace of Constantinople, the ambassador of the German Emperor Liutprand of Cremona (Liutprand of Cremona. Anatapodosis, or Retribution). To supply the huge city with water, a whole system of aqueducts and cisterns was built. During the reign of Justinian, the largest and most magnificent reservoir in the city was erected - this structure resembles a beautiful palace, decorated with many elegant marble columns, but located underground and filled with clear water. Water came here through special water pipelines and aqueducts from springs located in the forest 19 km from the city. When the Turks captured Constantinople, they, amazed at the beauty and splendor of the reservoir, called it “A Thousand and One Columns.”

The center of social and cultural life of the capital was the hippodrome. Here, with a huge crowd of people, and the hippodrome could accommodate about one hundred thousand spectators, various celebrations, public executions, chariot races, all kinds of sports competitions, animal hunting and other similar spectacles took place. The hippodrome was decorated ancient monuments, brought to the city from different places as trophies: the snake column from Delphi, the Egyptian obelisk of Thutmose III delivered by order of Constantine from Luxor. The gates to the hippodrome were decorated with magnificent bronze horses, sculpted by the greatest Greek sculptor Lysippos and subsequently taken by the crusaders to Venice. “... Along this square (the hippodrome) there was a wall that was a good 15 feet high and 10 feet wide; and on top of this wall there were figures of men and women, and horses, and bulls, and camels, and bears, and lions, and many other animals, cast from copper. And they were all so well made and so naturally sculpted that neither in pagan countries nor in the Christian world could one find such a skilled craftsman who could imagine and cast the figures so well as these were cast.” (Description of the hippodrome by Robert de Clary, a participant in the Fourth Crusade).

The Byzantine Empire in the 7th–11th centuries.

The Byzantine Empire flourished. However, this greatness was bought at too high a price - ruinous wars gradually undermined the country's economy, and the population became impoverished. And the lands and wealth of the empire attracted powerful neighbors. Justinian's successors no longer thought about campaigns of conquest; they were forced only to defend the borders of the state. Soon, many of the lands conquered by Justinian in the west were lost.

The subsequent 7th century brought Byzantium nothing but hardships - it was one of the most difficult periods in the history of the empire. Sasanian Iran fought with Byzantium for trade routes, and the Slavs launched attacks from the north. Long wars with Persia and confrontation with the Slavic tribes, which poured in an unstoppable stream from across the Danube and settled on the lands of the empire - all this led to the fact that Byzantium began to lose its possessions. By the middle of the 7th century. Slavic tribes captured the Balkan provinces: Dalmatia, Istria, Macedonia, Moesia, Peloponnese and Thrace.

Soon another powerful enemy appeared - the Arab Caliphate. Byzantium lost most of its possessions in Syria and Palestine, then in Upper Mesopotamia and Egypt, and later lands in North Africa; the Arabs even besieged Constantinople. It should be noted that the country itself was also unsettled - many cities were ruined and deserted, internal unrest significantly undermined the country's economy.

The Basilica Cistern is one of the largest and best-preserved ancient underground reservoirs in Constantinople. It is located in the historical center of Istanbul opposite the Hagia Sophia. Construction of the cistern was begun by the Greeks during the reign of Emperor Constantine I (306–337) and completed in 532 under Emperor Justinian. The dimensions of the underground structure are 145 × 65 m, the capacity is 80,000 m 3 of water. The vaulted ceiling of the cistern is supported by 336 columns (12 rows of 28 columns) eight meters high, they stand at a distance of 4.8 m from each other. The 4 m thick walls are made of fire-resistant bricks and covered with a special waterproofing mortar.

Period from VII to XI centuries. turned out to be difficult for the Byzantine Empire. However, the emperors of the new Macedonian dynasty, who came to power during this difficult time, managed not only to lead the country out of the crisis, but also to make the empire more united and monolithic. They carried out a number of reforms in the government and in the army. Greek became the official language. At the end of the 9th century, starting with the reign of Basil I, the Byzantine Empire again experienced a brief heyday, the Macedonian dynasty 867-1081. provided Byzantium with one hundred and fifty years of prosperity and power. During this period, which is often called the “golden age” of Byzantine statehood, successful military campaigns were carried out against the Arabs, the borders of the empire were again expanded to the Euphrates and the Tigris, and Armenia and Iberia were conquered. This period is also characterized by the flourishing of culture.

Decline of the Empire

After a brief flourishing under the reign of the powerful Macedonian dynasty, the Byzantine Empire entered a period of decline. The reasons for the weakness of the empire in these last centuries are complex and varied. They were hidden in the slowness of the socio-economic development of Byzantium, the strengthening of feudal fragmentation - the rulers of the provinces during this period no longer had much regard for the central government. The cities gradually fell into decay, the army and navy weakened. At the same time, the still preserved power and wealth of the Byzantine Empire aroused the envy of its neighbors, and at the beginning of the 13th century. she experienced a severe shock. In 1204, the knights of the Fourth Crusade, supported by the Venetians, captured and sacked Constantinople. The Byzantine historian Nikita Choniates (mid-12th century - 1213), who was in the city at that time, described what was happening with horror: “Breaking the chain, the enemy fleet moved forward: some of our ships were captured, and others, driven to the shore and abandoned by their people were destroyed. One cannot even listen indifferently to the looting of the main temple (Hagia Sophia). The holy lecterns, woven with jewels and of extraordinary beauty that led to amazement, were cut into pieces and divided among the soldiers along with other magnificent things. When they needed to remove sacred vessels from the temple, objects of extraordinary art and extreme rarity, silver and gold with which the pulpits, pulpits and gates were lined, they brought mules and horses with saddles into the vestibules of the temples.” (Nicetas Choniates. Niketas Choniates history, beginning with the reign of John Komnenos. VIPDA. SPb.: 186–862). One of the participants in the assault and the author of the chronicle “The Conquest of Constantinople,” Robert de Clari, amazed by the wealth of the city and the greed of the crusaders, recalls: “There were so many rich utensils made of gold and silver and so many gold-woven fabrics, and so many rich treasures that it was a real miracle , all this enormous stuff that was demolished there. I myself think that in the 40 richest cities in the world there was hardly as much wealth as was found in Constantinople. And the very people who were supposed to protect the goods stole gold jewelry and everything they wanted, and so they stole the goods; and each of the powerful people took for himself either gold utensils, or gold-woven silks, or whatever he liked best, and then carried it away.” After the fall of the empire, the crusaders conquered and divided the entire empire and established their own rules in it. The powerful Byzantine Empire broke up into several independent states: the Empire of Trebizond was formed on the Black Sea coast, the Kingdom of Epirus was formed on the Balkan Peninsula, and the Nicaean Empire was located in Asia Minor. The Crusaders created the Latin Empire, which ruled the lands of Central Greece, Thrace and the Peloponnese Peninsula. In 1261, Michael VIII Palaiologos (1258–1282) managed to liberate Constantinople from the Latins and was re-proclaimed emperor at Hagia Sophia. The city, which was in desolation, was a very sad sight. Most of the palaces, temples, and public buildings were ruins, overgrown with grass and bushes; among these ruins, local residents grazed goats and sheep. “Nothing more than a plain of destruction, filled with debris and ruins,” the Byzantine historian Nikephoros Gregoras later wrote (Roman history of Nikephoros Gregoras, beginning with the capture of Constantinople by the Latins / Translated by M. L. Shalfeev // VIPDA. St. Petersburg, 1862). The empire's possessions were significantly reduced - partly as a result of invasions from the west, partly due to the unstable situation in Asia Minor, which in the middle of the 13th century. The country was torn apart by civil unrest and religious strife.

In the 15th century The Byzantine Empire faced a new, much more formidable enemy - the Ottoman Turks. In April 1453, a huge (according to various historians, from eighty to three hundred thousand people) Turkish army led by Sultan Mehmed II besieged the Byzantine capital. The city’s defenders fought valiantly and managed to repel several attacks, but the forces were too unequal, the ranks of the defenders were thinning, and there was no replacement for them. And already at the end of May, despite the stubborn resistance of the city residents, Turkish troops broke into Constantinople and subjected it to a three-day pogrom. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos (1405–1453), fought alongside the city's defenders as a common soldier and died in battle. The picture of the plundered city was truly terrible. “Military happiness was already leaning towards the side of the Turks, and one could see a spectacle full of trembling, for the Romans and Latins, who were preventing those moving the ladders to the walls, some were cut by them, while others, closing their eyes, fell from the wall, crushing their bodies and horribly losing their lives . The Turks now began to put up ladders without hindrance and climbed the wall like flying eagles,” wrote the Byzantine historian Michael Duka about the last hours of the siege of Constantinople by the Turks. According to eyewitnesses, “in many places the ground was not visible due to the multitude of corpses.” About 60,000 inhabitants were enslaved. Magnificent temples and palaces were looted and burned, and many beautiful monuments of art were destroyed. On May 30, 1453, Sultan Mehmed II solemnly entered the capital and, struck by the beauty and grandeur of the Hagia Sophia, ordered the central temple of the city to be converted into a mosque. With the fall of Constantinople, the once majestic Byzantine Empire, which amazed contemporaries with its luxury, also ceased to exist. high level culture and enlightenment. Its thousand-year history, which had such a beneficial effect on the culture of Western Europe and Ancient Rus', has ended.

One of the greatest state entities antiquity, fell into decline in the first centuries of our era. Numerous tribes standing at the lowest levels of civilization destroyed much of the heritage of the ancient world. But the Eternal City was not destined to perish: it was reborn on the banks of the Bosphorus and for many years amazed contemporaries with its splendor.

Second Rome

The history of the emergence of Byzantium dates back to the middle of the 3rd century, when Flavius ​​Valerius Aurelius Constantine, Constantine I (the Great), became Roman emperor. In those days, the Roman state was torn apart by internal strife and besieged by external enemies. The condition of the eastern provinces was more prosperous, and Constantine decided to move the capital to one of them. In 324, the construction of Constantinople began on the banks of the Bosphorus, and already in 330 it was declared New Rome.

This is how Byzantium began its existence, whose history goes back eleven centuries.

Of course, there was no talk of any stable state borders in those days. Throughout its long life, the power of Constantinople either weakened or regained power.

Justinian and Theodora

In many ways, the state of affairs in the country depended on the personal qualities of its ruler, which is generally typical for states with an absolute monarchy, to which Byzantium belonged. The history of its formation is inextricably linked with the name of Emperor Justinian I (527-565) and his wife, Empress Theodora - a very extraordinary and, apparently, extremely gifted woman.

By the beginning of the 5th century, the empire had become a small Mediterranean state, and the new emperor was obsessed with the idea of ​​​​reviving its former glory: he conquered vast territories in the West and achieved relative peace with Persia in the East.

History is inextricably linked with the era of Justinian's reign. It is thanks to his care that such monuments exist today ancient architecture, like the mosque in Istanbul or the church of San Vitale in Ravenna. Historians consider one of the emperor's most notable achievements to be the codification of Roman law, which became the basis of the legal system of many European states.

Medieval mores

Construction and endless wars required huge expenses. The emperor endlessly raised taxes. Discontent grew in society. In January 532, during the appearance of the emperor at the Hippodrome (a kind of analogue of the Colosseum, which accommodated 100 thousand people), riots began that escalated into a large-scale riot. The uprising was suppressed with unheard-of cruelty: the rebels were convinced to gather in the Hippodrome, as if for negotiations, after which they locked the gates and killed every single one.

Procopius of Caesarea reports the death of 30 thousand people. It is noteworthy that his wife Theodora retained the emperor’s crown; it was she who convinced Justinian, who was ready to flee, to continue the fight, saying that she preferred death to flight: “royal power is a beautiful shroud.”

In 565, the empire included parts of Syria, the Balkans, Italy, Greece, Palestine, Asia Minor and the northern coast of Africa. But endless wars had an unfavorable effect on the state of the country. After the death of Justinian, the borders began to shrink again.

"Macedonian Renaissance"

In 867, Basil I, the founder of the Macedonian dynasty, which lasted until 1054, came to power. Historians call this era the “Macedonian Renaissance” and consider it the maximum flowering of the world medieval state, which Byzantium was at that time.

The story of the successful cultural and religious expansion of the Eastern Roman Empire is well known to all states of Eastern Europe: one of the most characteristic features of the foreign policy of Constantinople was missionary work. It was thanks to the influence of Byzantium that the branch of Christianity spread to the East, which after 1054 became Orthodoxy.

European Capital of Culture

The art of the Eastern Roman Empire was closely connected with religion. Unfortunately, for several centuries, political and religious elites could not agree on whether the worship of sacred images was idolatry (the movement was called iconoclasm). In the process, a huge number of statues, frescoes and mosaics were destroyed.

History is extremely indebted to the empire; throughout its existence, it was a kind of guardian of ancient culture and contributed to the spread of ancient Greek literature in Italy. Some historians are convinced that it was largely thanks to the existence of New Rome that the Renaissance became possible.

During the reign of the Macedonian dynasty, the Byzantine Empire managed to neutralize the two main enemies of the state: the Arabs in the east and the Bulgarians in the north. The story of the victory over the latter is quite impressive. As a result of a surprise attack on the enemy, Emperor Vasily II managed to capture 14 thousand prisoners. He ordered them to be blinded, leaving only one eye for every hundredth, after which he sent the crippled people home. Seeing his blind army, the Bulgarian Tsar Samuel suffered a blow from which he never recovered. Medieval morals were indeed very harsh.

After the death of Basil II, the last representative of the Macedonian dynasty, the story of the fall of Byzantium began.

Rehearsal for the end

In 1204, Constantinople surrendered for the first time under the onslaught of the enemy: enraged by the unsuccessful campaign in the “promised land,” the crusaders burst into the city, announced the creation of the Latin Empire and divided the Byzantine lands between the French barons.

The new formation did not last long: on July 51, 1261, Constantinople was occupied without a fight by Michael VIII Palaiologos, who announced the revival of the Eastern Roman Empire. The dynasty he founded ruled Byzantium until its fall, but it was a rather miserable reign. In the end, the emperors lived on handouts from Genoese and Venetian merchants, and naturally plundered church and private property.

Fall of Constantinople

By the beginning, only Constantinople, Thessaloniki and small scattered enclaves in southern Greece remained from the former territories. Desperate attempts last emperor Manuel II's Byzantine efforts to secure military support were unsuccessful. On May 29, Constantinople was conquered for the second and last time.

The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II renamed the city Istanbul, and the main Christian temple of the city, St. Sofia, turned into a mosque. With the disappearance of the capital, Byzantium also disappeared: the history of the most powerful state of the Middle Ages ceased forever.

Byzantium, Constantinople and New Rome

It is a very curious fact that the name “Byzantine Empire” appeared after its collapse: it was first found in the study of Jerome Wolf in 1557. The reason was the name of the city of Byzantium, on the site of which Constantinople was built. The inhabitants themselves called it nothing less than the Roman Empire, and themselves - Romans (Romeans).

The cultural influence of Byzantium on the countries of Eastern Europe is difficult to overestimate. However, the first Russian scientist who began to study this medieval state was Yu. A. Kulakovsky. “The History of Byzantium” in three volumes was published only at the beginning of the twentieth century and covered events from 359 to 717. In the last few years of his life, the scientist was preparing the fourth volume of his work for publication, but after his death in 1919, the manuscript could not be found.

Fall of Constantinople (1453) - the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Turks, which led to its final fall.

Day May 29, 1453 , undoubtedly, is a turning point in human history. It means the end of the old world, the world of Byzantine civilization. For eleven centuries there stood a city on the Bosphorus where deep intelligence was admired and the science and literature of the classical past were carefully studied and treasured. Without Byzantine researchers and scribes, we would not know much about literature today ancient Greece. It was also a city whose rulers for many centuries encouraged the development of a school of art that has no parallel in the history of mankind and was a fusion of the unchanged Greek common sense and deep religiosity, which saw in the work of art the embodiment of the Holy Spirit and the sanctification of material things.

In addition, Constantinople was a great cosmopolitan city where, along with trade, the free exchange of ideas flourished and the inhabitants considered themselves not just some people, but the heirs of Greece and Rome, enlightened by the Christian faith. There were legends about the wealth of Constantinople at that time.

The beginning of the decline of Byzantium

Until the 11th century. Byzantium was a brilliant and powerful power, a stronghold of Christianity against Islam. The Byzantines courageously and successfully fulfilled their duty until, in the middle of the century, a new threat from Islam approached them from the East, along with the invasion of the Turks. Western Europe, meanwhile, went so far that it itself, in the person of the Normans, tried to carry out aggression against Byzantium, which found itself involved in a struggle on two fronts just at a time when it itself was experiencing a dynastic crisis and internal turmoil. The Normans were repulsed, but the price of this victory was the loss of Byzantine Italy. The Byzantines also had to permanently give the Turks the mountainous plateaus of Anatolia - lands that were for them the main source of replenishing human resources for the army and food supplies. In the best times of its great past, the well-being of Byzantium was associated with its dominance over Anatolia. The vast peninsula, known in ancient times as Asia Minor, was one of the most populated places in the world during Roman times.

Byzantium continued to play the role of a great power, while its power was already virtually undermined. Thus, the empire found itself between two evils; and this already difficult situation was further complicated by the movement that went down in history under the name of the Crusades.

Meanwhile, the deep old religious differences between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches, inflated in political purposes throughout the 11th century, they steadily deepened until, by the end of the century, a final split occurred between Rome and Constantinople.

The crisis came when the Crusader army, carried away by the ambition of their leaders, the jealous greed of their Venetian allies and the hostility that the West now felt towards the Byzantine Church, turned on Constantinople, captured and plundered it, forming the Latin Empire on the ruins of the ancient city ( 1204-1261).

The Fourth Crusade and the formation of the Latin Empire

The Fourth Crusade was organized by Pope Innocent III to liberate the Holy Land from infidels. The original plan for the Fourth Crusade included organizing a naval expedition on Venetian ships to Egypt, which was supposed to become a springboard for an attack on Palestine, but was later changed: the crusaders moved on the capital of Byzantium. The participants in the campaign were mainly French and Venetians.

Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople on April 13, 1204. Engraving by G. Doré

April 13, 1204 Constantinople fell . The fortress city, which withstood the onslaught of many powerful enemies, was captured by the enemy for the first time. What was beyond the power of the hordes of Persians and Arabs, the knightly army succeeded. The ease with which the crusaders captured the huge, well-fortified city was the result of the acute socio-political crisis that the Byzantine Empire was experiencing at that moment. A significant role was also played by the fact that part of the Byzantine aristocracy and merchant class was interested in trade relations with the Latins. In other words, there was a kind of “fifth column” in Constantinople.

Capture of Constantinople (April 13, 1204) by the Crusader troops was one of the epoch-making events medieval history. After the capture of the city, mass robberies and murders of the Greek Orthodox population began. About 2 thousand people were killed in the first days after the capture. Fires raged in the city. Many cultural and literary monuments that had been stored here since ancient times were destroyed in the fire. The famous Library of Constantinople was especially badly damaged by the fire. Many valuables were taken to Venice. For more than half a century, the ancient city on the Bosphorus promontory was under the rule of the Crusaders. Only in 1261 did Constantinople again fall into the hands of the Greeks.

This Fourth Crusade (1204), which evolved from the "road to the Holy Sepulcher" into a Venetian commercial enterprise leading to the sack of Constantinople by the Latins, ended the Eastern Roman Empire as a supranational state and finally split Western and Byzantine Christianity.

Actually, Byzantium after this campaign ceased to exist as a state for more than 50 years. Some historians, not without reason, write that after the disaster of 1204, actually two empires were formed - the Latin and the Venetian. Part of the former imperial lands in Asia Minor was captured by the Seljuks, in the Balkans by Serbia, Bulgaria and Venice. However, the Byzantines were able to retain a number of other territories and create their own states on them: the Kingdom of Epirus, the Nicaean and Trebizond empires.

Latin Empire

Having established themselves in Constantinople as masters, the Venetians increased their trading influence throughout the territory of the fallen Byzantine Empire. The capital of the Latin Empire was the seat of the most noble feudal lords for several decades. They preferred the palaces of Constantinople to their castles in Europe. The nobility of the empire quickly became accustomed to Byzantine luxury and adopted the habit of constant celebrations and cheerful feasts. The consumer nature of life in Constantinople under the Latins became even more pronounced. The crusaders came to these lands with a sword and during the half-century of their rule they never learned to create. In the middle of the 13th century, the Latin Empire fell into complete decline. Many cities and villages, devastated and plundered during the aggressive campaigns of the Latins, were never able to recover. The population suffered not only from unbearable taxes and levies, but also from the oppression of foreigners who disdained the culture and customs of the Greeks. The Orthodox clergy actively preached the struggle against the enslavers.

Summer 1261 Emperor of Nicaea Michael VIII Palaiologos managed to recapture Constantinople, which entailed the restoration of the Byzantine and destruction of the Latin empires.

Byzantium in the XIII-XIV centuries.

After this, Byzantium was no longer the dominant power in the Christian East. She retained only a glimpse of her former mystical prestige. During the 12th and 13th centuries, Constantinople seemed so rich and magnificent, the imperial court so magnificent, and the piers and bazaars of the city so full of goods that the emperor was still treated as a powerful ruler. However, in reality he was now only a sovereign among his equals or even more powerful ones. Some other Greek rulers have already appeared. To the east of Byzantium was the Trebizond Empire of the Great Comnenos. In the Balkans, Bulgaria and Serbia alternately laid claim to hegemony on the peninsula. In Greece - on the mainland and islands - small Frankish companies arose feudal principalities and Italian colonies.

The entire 14th century was a period of political failures for Byzantium. The Byzantines were threatened from all sides - Serbs and Bulgarians in the Balkans, the Vatican in the West, Muslims in the East.

Position of Byzantium by 1453

Byzantium, which had existed for more than 1000 years, was in decline by the 15th century. It was a very small state, whose power extended only to the capital - the city of Constantinople with its suburbs - several greek islands off the coast of Asia Minor, several cities on the coast in Bulgaria, as well as on the Morea (Peloponnese). This state could only be considered an empire conditionally, since even the rulers of the few pieces of land that remained under its control were actually independent of the central government.

At the same time, Constantinople, founded in 330, was perceived as a symbol of the empire throughout the entire period of its existence as the Byzantine capital. Constantinople long time was the largest economic and cultural center of the country, and only in the XIV-XV centuries. began to decline. Its population, which in the 12th century. together with the surrounding residents, amounted to about a million people, now there were no more than one hundred thousand, continuing to gradually decline further.

The empire was surrounded by the lands of its main enemy - the Muslim state of the Ottoman Turks, who saw Constantinople as the main obstacle to the spread of their power in the region.

The Turkish state, which was quickly gaining power and successfully fought to expand its borders in both the west and the east, had long sought to conquer Constantinople. Several times the Turks attacked Byzantium. The offensive of the Ottoman Turks on Byzantium led to the fact that by the 30s of the 15th century. All that remained of the Byzantine Empire was Constantinople and its surroundings, some islands in the Aegean Sea and Morea, an area in the south of the Peloponnese. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks captured the richest trading city of Bursa, one of the important points of transit caravan trade between East and West. Very soon they captured two other Byzantine cities - Nicaea (Iznik) and Nicomedia (Izmid).

The military successes of the Ottoman Turks became possible thanks to the political struggle that took place in this region between Byzantium, the Balkan states, Venice and Genoa. Very often, rival parties sought to enlist the military support of the Ottomans, thereby ultimately facilitating the expanding expansion of the latter. The military strength of the strengthening state of the Turks was especially clearly demonstrated in the Battle of Varna (1444), which, in fact, also decided the fate of Constantinople.

Battle of Varna - battle between the Crusaders and the Ottoman Empire near the city of Varna (Bulgaria). The battle marked the end of the unsuccessful crusade against Varna by the Hungarian and Polish king Vladislav. The outcome of the battle was the complete defeat of the crusaders, the death of Vladislav and the strengthening of the Turks on the Balkan Peninsula. The weakening of Christian positions in the Balkans allowed the Turks to take Constantinople (1453).

Attempts by the imperial authorities to receive help from the West and to conclude a union with the Catholic Church for this purpose in 1439 were rejected by the majority of the clergy and people of Byzantium. Of the philosophers, only admirers of Thomas Aquinas approved the Florentine Union.

All neighbors were afraid of Turkish strengthening, especially Genoa and Venice, who had economic interests in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, Hungary, which received an aggressively powerful enemy in the south, beyond the Danube, the Knights of St. John, who feared the loss of the remnants of their possessions in the Middle East, and the Pope Roman, who hoped to stop the strengthening and spread of Islam along with Turkish expansion. However, at the decisive moment, Byzantium's potential allies found themselves captive to their own complicated problems.

The most likely allies of Constantinople were the Venetians. Genoa remained neutral. The Hungarians have not yet recovered from their recent defeat. Wallachia and the Serbian states were vassals of the Sultan, and the Serbs even contributed auxiliary troops to the Sultan's army.

Preparing the Turks for war

Turkish Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror declared the conquest of Constantinople as his life's goal. In 1451, he concluded an agreement beneficial for Byzantium with Emperor Constantine XI, but already in 1452 he violated it, capturing the Rumeli-Hissar fortress on the European shore of the Bosphorus. Constantine XI Palaeologus turned to the West for help and in December 1452 solemnly confirmed the union, but this only caused general discontent. The commander of the Byzantine fleet, Luca Notara, publicly stated that he “would prefer that the Turkish turban dominate the City rather than the papal tiara.”

At the beginning of March 1453, Mehmed II announced the recruitment of an army; in total he had 150 (according to other sources - 300) thousand troops, equipped with powerful artillery, 86 military and 350 transport ships. In Constantinople there were 4973 inhabitants capable of holding weapons, about 2 thousand mercenaries from the West and 25 ships.

The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who vowed to take Constantinople, carefully and carefully prepared for the upcoming war, realizing that he would have to deal with a powerful fortress, from which the armies of other conquerors had retreated more than once. The unusually thick walls were practically invulnerable to siege engines and even standard artillery at that time.

The Turkish army consisted of 100 thousand soldiers, over 30 warships and about 100 small fast ships. Such a number of ships immediately allowed the Turks to establish dominance in the Sea of ​​Marmara.

The city of Constantinople was located on a peninsula formed by the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Golden Horn. The city blocks facing the seashore and the shore of the bay were covered by city walls. A special system of fortifications made of walls and towers covered the city from land - from the west. The Greeks were relatively calm behind the fortress walls on the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara - the sea current here was fast and did not allow the Turks to land troops under the walls. The Golden Horn was considered a vulnerable place.

View of Constantinople

The Greek fleet defending Constantinople consisted of 26 ships. The city had several cannons and a significant supply of spears and arrows. There were clearly not enough fire weapons or soldiers to repel the assault. The total number of eligible Roman soldiers, not including allies, was about 7 thousand.

The West was in no hurry to provide assistance to Constantinople, only Genoa sent 700 soldiers on two galleys, led by the condottiere Giovanni Giustiniani, and Venice - 2 warships. Constantine's brothers, the rulers of the Morea, Dmitry and Thomas, were busy quarreling among themselves. The inhabitants of Galata, an extraterritorial quarter of the Genoese on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, declared their neutrality, but in reality they helped the Turks, hoping to maintain their privileges.

Beginning of the siege

April 7, 1453 Mehmed II began the siege. The Sultan sent envoys with a proposal to surrender. In case of surrender, he promised the city population the preservation of life and property. Emperor Constantine replied that he was ready to pay any tribute that Byzantium was able to withstand, and to cede any territories, but refused to surrender the city. At the same time, Constantine ordered Venetian sailors to march along the city walls, demonstrating that Venice was an ally of Constantinople. The Venetian fleet was one of the strongest in the Mediterranean basin, and this should have influenced the Sultan's resolve. Despite the refusal, Mehmed gave the order to prepare for the assault. The Turkish army had high morale and determination, unlike the Romans.

The Turkish fleet had its main anchorage on the Bosphorus, its main task was to break through the fortifications of the Golden Horn, in addition, the ships were supposed to blockade the city and prevent aid to Constantinople from the allies.

Initially, success accompanied the besieged. The Byzantines blocked the entrance to the Golden Horn Bay with a chain, and the Turkish fleet could not approach the walls of the city. The first assault attempts failed.

On April 20, 5 ships with city defenders (4 Genoese, 1 Byzantine) defeated a squadron of 150 Turkish ships in battle.

But already on April 22, the Turks transported 80 ships overland to the Golden Horn. The attempt of the defenders to burn these ships failed, because the Genoese from Galata noticed the preparations and informed the Turks.

Fall of Constantinople

Defeatism reigned in Constantinople itself. Giustiniani advised Constantine XI to surrender the city. Defense funds were embezzled. Luca Notara hid the money allocated for the fleet, hoping to pay off the Turks with it.

May 29 started early in the morning final assault on Constantinople . The first attacks were repulsed, but then the wounded Giustiniani left the city and fled to Galata. The Turks were able to take the main gate of the capital of Byzantium. Fighting took place on the streets of the city, Emperor Constantine XI fell in the battle, and when the Turks found his wounded body, they cut off his head and hoisted it on a pole. For three days there was looting and violence in Constantinople. The Turks killed everyone they met on the streets: men, women, children. Streams of blood flowed down the steep streets of Constantinople from the hills of Petra into the Golden Horn.

The Turks broke into men's and women's monasteries. Some young monks, preferring martyrdom to dishonor, threw themselves into wells; the monks and elderly nuns followed the ancient tradition of the Orthodox Church, which prescribed not to resist.

The houses of the inhabitants were also robbed one after another; Each group of robbers hung a small flag at the entrance as a sign that there was nothing left to take from the house. The inhabitants of the houses were taken away along with their property. Anyone who fell from exhaustion was immediately killed; the same thing was done with many babies.

Scenes of mass desecration of sacred objects took place in churches. Many crucifixes, adorned with jewels, were carried out of the temples with Turkish turbans dashingly draped over them.

In the Temple of Chora, the Turks left the mosaics and frescoes untouched, but destroyed the icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria - her most sacred image in all of Byzantium, executed, according to legend, by Saint Luke himself. It was moved here from the Church of the Virgin Mary near the palace at the very beginning of the siege, so that this shrine, being as close as possible to the walls, would inspire their defenders. The Turks pulled the icon out of its frame and split it into four parts.

And here is how contemporaries describe the capture of the greatest temple of all Byzantium - the Cathedral of St. Sofia. "The church was still filled with people. The Holy Liturgy had already ended and Matins was underway. When noise was heard outside, the huge bronze doors of the temple were closed. Those gathered inside prayed for a miracle that alone could save them. But their prayers were in vain. Very little time passed, and the doors collapsed under blows from outside. The worshipers were trapped. A few old people and cripples were killed on the spot; The majority of the Turks were tied up or chained to each other in groups, and shawls and scarves torn from women were used as fetters. Many beautiful girls and the youths, as well as the richly dressed nobles, were almost torn to pieces when the soldiers who captured them fought among themselves, considering them their prey. The priests continued to read prayers at the altar until they were also captured..."

Sultan Mehmed II himself entered the city only on June 1. Escorted by selected troops of the Janissary Guard, accompanied by his viziers, he slowly rode through the streets of Constantinople. Everything around where the soldiers visited was devastated and ruined; churches stood desecrated and looted, houses uninhabited, shops and warehouses broken and plundered. He rode a horse into the Church of St. Sophia, ordered the cross to be knocked off it and turned into the largest mosque in the world.

Cathedral of St. Sofia in Constantinople

Immediately after the capture of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II first issued a decree “providing freedom to all who survived,” but many residents of the city were killed by Turkish soldiers, many became slaves. To quickly restore the population, Mehmed ordered the entire population of the city of Aksaray to be transferred to the new capital.

The Sultan granted the Greeks the rights of a self-governing community within the empire; the head of the community was to be the Patriarch of Constantinople, responsible to the Sultan.

In subsequent years, the last territories of the empire were occupied (Morea - in 1460).

Consequences of the death of Byzantium

Constantine XI was the last of the Roman emperors. With his death, the Byzantine Empire ceased to exist. Its lands became part of the Ottoman state. The former capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, became the capital of the Ottoman Empire until its collapse in 1922 (at first it was called Constantine and then Istanbul (Istanbul)).

Most Europeans believed that the death of Byzantium was the beginning of the end of the world, since only Byzantium was the successor to the Roman Empire. Many contemporaries blamed Venice for the fall of Constantinople (Venice then had one of the most powerful fleets). The Republic of Venice played a double game, trying, on the one hand, to organize a crusade against the Turks, and on the other, to protect its trade interests by sending friendly embassies to the Sultan.

However, you need to understand that the rest of the Christian powers did not lift a finger to save the dying empire. Without the help of other states, even if the Venetian fleet had arrived on time, it would have allowed Constantinople to hold out for a couple more weeks, but this would only have prolonged the agony.

Rome was fully aware of the Turkish danger and understood that all of Western Christianity might be in danger. Pope Nicholas V called on all Western powers to jointly undertake a powerful and decisive Crusade and intended to lead this campaign himself. From the moment the fatal news arrived from Constantinople, he sent out his messages calling for active action. On September 30, 1453, the Pope sent a bull to all Western sovereigns declaring a Crusade. Each sovereign was ordered to shed the blood of himself and his subjects for the holy cause, and also to allocate a tenth of his income to it. Both Greek cardinals - Isidore and Bessarion - actively supported his efforts. Vissarion himself wrote to the Venetians, simultaneously accusing them and begging them to stop the wars in Italy and concentrate all their forces on the fight against the Antichrist.

However, no Crusade ever happened. And although the sovereigns eagerly caught reports of the death of Constantinople, and writers composed sorrowful elegies, although the French composer Guillaume Dufay wrote a special funeral song and it was sung in all French lands, no one was ready to act. King Frederick III of Germany was poor and powerless because he had no real power over the German princes; Neither politically nor financially he could participate in the Crusade. King Charles VII of France was busy rebuilding his country after a long and ruinous war with England. The Turks were somewhere far away; he had more important things to do in his own home. England, which suffered from Hundred Years' War even more than France, the Turks seemed an even more distant problem. King Henry VI could do absolutely nothing, since he had just lost his mind and the whole country was plunging into the chaos of the Wars of the Roses. None of the kings showed any further interest, with the exception of the Hungarian king Ladislaus, who, of course, had every reason to be concerned. But he had a bad relationship with his army commander. And without him and without allies, he could not dare to undertake any enterprise.

Thus, although Western Europe was shocked that a great historic Christian city had fallen into the hands of infidels, no papal bull could motivate it to action. The very fact that the Christian states failed to come to the aid of Constantinople showed their clear reluctance to fight for the faith if their immediate interests were not affected.

The Turks quickly occupied the rest of the empire. The Serbs were the first to suffer - Serbia became a theater of military operations between the Turks and Hungarians. In 1454, the Serbs were forced, under the threat of force, to give up part of their territory to the Sultan. But already in 1459, the whole of Serbia was in the hands of the Turks, with the exception of Belgrade, which until 1521 remained in the hands of the Hungarians. The neighboring kingdom of Bosnia was conquered by the Turks 4 years later.

Meanwhile, the last vestiges of Greek independence gradually disappeared. The Duchy of Athens was destroyed in 1456. And in 1461, the last Greek capital, Trebizond, fell. This was the end of the free Greek world. True, a certain number of Greeks still remained under Christian rule - in Cyprus, on the islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas and in the port cities of the continent, still held by Venice, but their rulers were of a different blood and a different form of Christianity. Only in the south-east of the Peloponnese, in the lost villages of Maina, into the harsh mountain spurs of which not a single Turk dared to penetrate, was a semblance of freedom preserved.

Soon everything Orthodox territories in the Balkans ended up in the hands of the Turks. Serbia and Bosnia were enslaved. Albania fell in January 1468. Moldavia recognized its vassal dependence on the Sultan back in 1456.

Many historians in the 17th and 18th centuries. considered the fall of Constantinople to be a key moment in European history, the end of the Middle Ages, just as the fall of Rome in 476 was the end of Antiquity. Others believed that the mass flight of Greeks to Italy caused the Renaissance there.

Rus' - the heir of Byzantium

After the death of Byzantium, Rus' remained the only free Orthodox state. The Baptism of Rus' was one of the most glorious acts of the Byzantine Church. Now this daughter country was becoming stronger than its parent, and the Russians were well aware of this. Constantinople, as was believed in Rus', fell as punishment for its sins, for apostasy, having agreed to unite with the Western Church. The Russians vehemently rejected the Union of Florence and expelled its supporter, Metropolitan Isidore, imposed on them by the Greeks. And now, having preserved their Orthodox faith unsullied, they found themselves the owners of the only state surviving from the Orthodox world, whose power was also constantly growing. “Constantinople fell,” wrote the Metropolitan of Moscow in 1458, “because it retreated from the true Orthodox faith. But in Russia this faith is still alive - the Faith of the Seven Councils, which Constantinople passed on to Grand Duke Vladimir. There is only one true Church on earth - the Russian Church."

After his marriage to the niece of the last Byzantine emperor from the Palaiologan dynasty, the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III declared himself heir to the Byzantine Empire. From now on, the great mission of preserving Christianity passed to Russia. “The Christian empires have fallen,” the monk Philotheus wrote in 1512 to his master, the Grand Duke, or Tsar, Vasily III, - instead of them stands only the power of our ruler... Two Romes have fallen, but the third stands, and there will be no fourth... You are the only Christian sovereign in the world, the ruler over all true faithful Christians.”

Thus, in the entire Orthodox world, only the Russians derived some benefit from the fall of Constantinople; and for the Orthodox Christians of the former Byzantium, groaning in captivity, the consciousness that in the world there was still a great, albeit very distant sovereign of the same faith as them, served as consolation and hope that he would protect them and, perhaps, someday come save them and restore their freedom. The Sultan-Conqueror paid almost no attention to the fact of the existence of Russia. Russia was far away. Sultan Mehmed had other concerns much closer to home. The conquest of Constantinople certainly made his state one of the great powers of Europe, and henceforth it was to play a corresponding role in European politics. He realized that Christians were his enemies and he needed to be vigilant to ensure that they did not unite against him. The Sultan could fight Venice or Hungary, and perhaps the few allies the pope could muster, but he could fight only one of them at a time. No one came to the aid of Hungary in the fatal battle on the Mohacs Field. No one sent reinforcements to the Johannite Knights to Rhodes. No one cared about the loss of Cyprus by the Venetians.

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK

BYZANTIUM(Byzantine Empire), the Roman Empire in the Middle Ages with its capital in Constantinople - New Rome. The name "Byzantium" comes from the ancient name of its capital (Byzantium was located on the site of Constantinople) and can be traced according to Western sources no earlier than the 14th century.

Problems of ancient succession

The symbolic beginning of Byzantium is considered to be the year of the founding of Constantinople (330), with the fall of which on May 29, 1453 the empire ceased to exist. The “division” of the Roman Empire 395 into Western and Eastern represented only a formal legal boundary of eras, while the historical transition from late antique state legal institutions to medieval ones took place in the 7-8 centuries. But even after that, Byzantium retained many traditions of ancient statehood and culture, which made it possible to distinguish it into a special civilization, modern, but not identical to the medieval Western European community of peoples. Among its value guidelines, the most important place was occupied by the ideas of the so-called “political orthodoxy,” which combined the Christian faith, preserved by the Orthodox Church, with the imperial ideology of the “Sacred Power” (Reichstheologie), which went back to the ideas of Roman statehood. Together with the Greek language and Hellenistic culture, these factors ensured the unity of the state for almost a millennium. Periodically revised and adapted to the realities of life, Roman law formed the basis of Byzantine legislation. Ethnic identity for a long time (until the 12th-13th centuries) did not play a significant role in the self-identification of imperial citizens, who were officially called Romans (in Greek - Romans). In the history of the Byzantine Empire, one can distinguish the early Byzantine (4-8 centuries), middle Byzantine (9-12 centuries) and late Byzantine (13-15 centuries) periods.

Early Byzantine period

In the initial period, the borders of Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire) included lands east of the dividing line 395 - the Balkans with Illyricum, Thrace, Asia Minor, Syro-Palestine, Egypt with a predominantly Hellenized population. After the barbarians captured the western Roman provinces, Constantinople rose even more as the seat of emperors and the center of the imperial idea. From here in the 6th century. under Emperor Justinian I (527-565), the “restoration of the Roman state” was carried out, after many years of wars, which returned Italy with Rome and Ravenna, northern Africa with Carthage and part of Spain under the rule of the empire. In these territories, Roman provincial government was restored and the application of Roman legislation in its Justinian edition ("Justinian Code") was extended. However, in the 7th century. The appearance of the Mediterranean was completely transformed as a result of the invasion of the Arabs and Slavs. The Empire lost the richest lands of the East, Egypt and the African coast, and its greatly reduced Balkan possessions were cut off from the Latin-speaking Western European world. The rejection of the eastern provinces resulted in an increase in the dominant role of the Greek ethnos and the cessation of polemics with the Monophysites, which had been such an important factor in the internal policy of the empire in the east in the previous period. Latin language, formerly the official state language, falls out of use and is replaced by Greek. In the 7th-8th centuries. under the emperors Heraclius (610-641) and Leo III (717-740), the late Roman provincial division was transformed into a thematic structure, which ensured the viability of the empire for subsequent centuries. Iconoclastic upheavals of the 8th-9th centuries. on the whole, did not shake its strength, contributing to the consolidation and self-determination of its most important institutions - the state and the Church.

Middle Byzantine period

The empire of the Middle Byzantine period was a global "superpower" whose stable, centralized statehood, military might, and sophisticated culture stood in stark contrast to the fragmented powers of the Latin West and Muslim East of the period. The "Golden Age" of the Byzantine Empire lasted from approximately 850 to 1050. During these centuries, its possessions extended from southern Italy and Dalmatia to Armenia, Syria and Mesopotamia, the long-standing problem of the security of the northern borders of the empire was solved by the annexation of Bulgaria (1018) and the restoration of the former Roman border along the Danube. The Slavs who settled Greece in the previous period were assimilated and subordinated to the empire. The stability of the economy was based on developed commodity-money relations and the circulation of gold solidus, minted since the time of Constantine I. The fem system made it possible to maintain the military power of the state and the immutability of its economic institutions, which ensured dominance in the political life of the capital's bureaucratic aristocracy, and therefore was steadily supported throughout the 10th century. - early 11th centuries The emperors of the Macedonian dynasty (867-1056) embodied the idea of ​​chosenness and permanence of the power established by God, the only source of earthly blessings. The return to icon veneration in 843 marked reconciliation and the resumption of the symphony of “concord” between the state and the Church. The authority of the Patriarchate of Constantinople was restored, and in the 9th century. it already claims dominance in Eastern Christendom. Baptism of Bulgarians, Serbs, and then Slavic Kievan Rus expanded the boundaries of Byzantine civilization, outlining the area of ​​spiritual community of Eastern European Orthodox peoples. In the Middle Byzantine period, the foundations were laid for what modern researchers have defined as the “Byzantine Commonwealth,” the visible expression of which was the hierarchy of Christian rulers who recognized the emperor as the head of the earthly world order, and the Patriarch of Constantinople as the head of the Church. In the east, such rulers were the Armenian and Georgian kings, whose independent possessions bordered the empire and the Muslim world.

Soon after the death of the most prominent representative of the Macedonian dynasty, Basil II the Bulgarian Slayer (976-1025), decline began. It was caused by the self-destruction of the feminine system, which occurred as the stratum of the landowning, military-dominated aristocracy grew. The inevitable increase in private forms of dependence of the Byzantine peasantry weakened state control over it and led to a clash of interests between the capital's bureaucrats and the provincial nobility. Contradictions within the ruling class and unfavorable external circumstances caused by the invasions of the Seljuk Turks and Normans led to the loss of Byzantium in Asia Minor (1071) and southern Italian possessions (1081). Only the accession of Alexei I, the founder of the Komnenos dynasty (1081-1185) and the head of the military-aristocratic clan that came to power with him, made it possible to bring the country out of a protracted crisis. As a result of the energetic policy of the Komnenos, Byzantium in the 12th century. reborn as a powerful nation. She again began to play an active role in world politics, keeping the Balkan Peninsula under her control and claiming the return of Southern Italy, but the main problems in the east were never completely resolved. Most of Asia Minor remained in Seljuk hands, and the defeat of Manuel I (1143-80) in 1176 at Myriokephalon ended hopes of its return.

In the economy of Byzantium, Venice began to play an increasingly important place, which, in exchange for military assistance, sought from the emperors unprecedented privileges in eastern trade. The femme system is being replaced by a system of pronias, based on private legal forms of exploitation of the peasantry and which existed until the end of Byzantine history.

The emerging decline of Byzantium occurred simultaneously with the renewal of life in medieval Europe. The Latins flocked to the East, first as pilgrims, then as merchants and crusaders. Their military and economic expansion, which did not stop since the end of the 11th century, aggravated the spiritual alienation that was growing in relations between Eastern and Western Christians. Its symptom was the Great Schism of 1054, which marked the final divergence of Eastern and Western theological traditions and led to the separation of Christian denominations. The Crusades and the establishment of the Latin Eastern Patriarchates further contributed to the tension between the West and Byzantium. The capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 and the subsequent division of the empire brought an end to the thousand-year existence of Byzantium as a great world power.

Late Byzantine period

After 1204, several states, Latin and Greek, were formed in the territories that were once part of Byzantium. The most significant among the Greeks was the Nicene Empire of Asia Minor, whose rulers led the struggle to recreate Byzantium. With the end of the "Nicene exile" and the return of the empire to Constantinople (1261), the last period of the existence of Byzantium begins, called after the ruling dynasty Paleologus (1261-1453). Its economic and military weakness in these years was compensated by the growth of the spiritual authority of the primate of the See of Constantinople within the Orthodox world, and the general revival of monastic life caused by the spread of the teachings of the hesychasts. Church reforms of the late 14th century. unified the written tradition and liturgical practice and spread it to all areas of the Byzantine Commonwealth. The arts and learning at the imperial court experienced a brilliant flourishing (the so-called Palaiologan Renaissance).

From the beginning of the 14th century. The Ottoman Turks took Asia Minor from Byzantium, and from the middle of the same century began to seize its possessions in the Balkans. Of particular importance for the political survival of the Palaiologos empire were relations with the West and the inevitable union of churches as a guarantee of assistance against foreign invaders. Church unity was formally restored at the Ferraro-Florence Council of 1438-1439, but it had no effect on the fate of Byzantium; the majority of the population of the Orthodox world did not accept the belated union, considering it a betrayal of the true faith. Constantinople is all that remains of the 15th century. from the once great empire - was left to its own devices, and on May 29, 1453 fell under the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks. With his fall, the thousand-year-old stronghold of Eastern Christianity collapsed and the history of the state founded by Augustus in the 1st century ended. BC e. The subsequent (16-17) centuries are often distinguished in the so-called post-Byzantine period, when there was a gradual decline and conservation of the typological features of Byzantine culture, whose stronghold became the monasteries of Athos.

Iconography in Byzantium

Characteristic features of Byzantine icons are the frontality of the image, strict symmetry in relation to the central figure of Christ or the Mother of God. The saints on the icons are static, in a state of ascetic, dispassionate peace. The gold and purple colors on the icons express the idea of ​​royalty, blue - divinity, white symbolizes moral purity. The icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir (early 12th century), brought to Rus' from Constantinople in 1155, is considered a masterpiece of Byzantine icon painting. The image of the Mother of God expresses the idea of ​​sacrifice and maternal love.

M. N. Butyrsky

The Eastern Roman Empire arose at the beginning of the 4th century. n. e. In 330, the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, founded the city of Constantinople on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium (hence the name given by historians to the “Christian Empire of the Romans” after its fall). The Byzantines themselves considered themselves "Romans", i.e. "Romans", the power - "Roman", and the emperor - Basileus - a continuer of the traditions of the Roman emperors. Byzantium was a state in which a centralized bureaucratic apparatus and religious unity (as a result of the struggle of religious movements in Christianity, Orthodoxy became the dominant religion of Byzantium) were of great importance for maintaining the continuity of state power and territorial integrity during almost 11 centuries of its existence.

In the history of the development of Byzantium, five stages can be roughly distinguished.

At the first stage (IV century - mid-VII century), the empire is a multinational state in which the slave system is replaced by early feudal relations. The political system of Byzantium is a military-bureaucratic monarchy. All power belonged to the emperor. Power was not hereditary; the emperor was proclaimed by the army, the senate and the people (although this was often nominal). The advisory body under the emperor was the Senate. The free population was divided into classes. The system of feudal relations almost did not develop. Their peculiarity was the preservation of a significant number of free peasants, peasant communities, the spread of colony and the distribution of a large fund of state lands to slaves.

Early Byzantium was called the “country of cities,” numbering in the thousands. Centers such as Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch each had 200-300 thousand inhabitants. In dozens of medium-sized cities (Damascus, Nicaea, Ephesus, Thessaloniki, Edessa, Beirut, etc.) 30-80 thousand people lived. Cities that had polis self-government occupied a large place in the economic life of the empire. The largest city and shopping center was Constantinople.

Byzantium traded with China and India, and after conquering the Western Mediterranean under Emperor Justinian, it established hegemony over trade with Western countries, turning the Mediterranean Sea into a “Roman lake” again.

In terms of the level of development of crafts, Byzantium had no equal among Western European countries.

During the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527-565), Byzantium reached its peak. The reforms carried out under him contributed to the centralization of the state, and the Justinian Code (a code of civil law), developed during his reign, was in effect throughout the existence of the state, having a great influence on the development of law in the countries of feudal Europe.

At this time, the empire was experiencing an era of grandiose construction: military fortifications were being erected, cities, palaces and temples were being built. The construction of the magnificent Church of St. Sophia, which became famous throughout the world, dates back to this period.

The end of this period was marked by a renewed intensification of the struggle between the church and the imperial power.

The second stage (second half of the 7th century - first half of the 9th century) took place in an intense struggle with the Arabs and Slavic invasions. The territory of the power was halved, and now the empire became much more homogeneous in national composition: it was a Greek-Slavic state. Its economic basis was the free peasantry. The barbarian invasions created favorable conditions for the liberation of peasants from dependence, and the main legislative act that regulated agrarian relations in the empire was based on the fact that the land was at the disposal of the peasant community. The number of cities and the number of citizens are sharply decreasing. Of the large centers, only Constantinople remains, and its population is reduced to 30-40 thousand. Other cities of the empire have 8-10 thousand inhabitants. In small ones, life freezes. The decline of cities and the “barbarization” of the population (i.e., the increase in the number of “barbarians,” primarily Slavs, among the basileus’ subjects) could not but lead to the decline of culture. The number of schools, and therefore the number of educated people, is declining sharply. Enlightenment is concentrated in monasteries.

It was during this difficult period that the decisive clash took place between the basileus and the church. The main role at this stage is played by the emperors of the Isaurian dynasty. The first of them - Leo III - was a brave warrior and a subtle diplomat, he had to fight at the head of the cavalry, attack Arab ships in a light boat, make promises and immediately break them. It was he who led the defense of Constantinople when in 717 the Muslim army blocked the city from both land and sea. The Arabs surrounded the capital of the Romans with a wall with siege towers opposite the gates, and a huge fleet of 1,800 ships entered the Bosporus. And yet Constantinople was saved. The Byzantines burned the Arab fleet with “Greek fire” (a special mixture of oil and sulfur, invented by the Greek scientist Kallinnik, which was not extinguished by water; enemy ships were doused with it through special siphons). The naval blockade was broken, and the strength of the Arab land army was undermined by the harsh winter: the snow lay for 100 days, which is surprising for these places. Famine began in the Arab camp; the soldiers ate first the horses and then the corpses of the dead. In the spring of 718, the Byzantines defeated the second squadron, and the empire’s allies, the Bulgarians, appeared in the rear of the Arab army. After standing under the city walls for almost a year, the Muslims retreated. But the war with them continued for more than two decades, and only in 740 Leo III inflicted a decisive defeat on the enemy.

In 730, at the height of the war with the Arabs, Leo III brought down brutal repressions on supporters of icon veneration. Icons were removed from the walls in all churches and destroyed. They were replaced by an image of a cross and patterns of flowers and trees (the emperor's enemies quipped that the temples began to resemble gardens and forests). Iconoclasm was the last and unsuccessful attempt of Caesar to spiritually defeat the church. From this point on, emperors were limited to the role of defenders and guardians of tradition. The appearance of the iconographic subject “The Emperor Bowing Before Christ” at precisely this time reflects the significance of the change that had taken place.

In all areas of the life of the empire, conservative and protective traditionalism is increasingly established.

The third stage (second half of the 9th century - mid-11th century) takes place under the rule of the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty. This is the “golden age” of the empire, a period of economic growth and cultural flourishing.

Even during the reign of the Isaurian dynasty, a situation arose when the predominant form of land ownership was state, and the basis of the army was made up of stratiot warriors who served for the land allotment. With the Macedonian dynasty, the practice of widespread distribution of large lands and empty lands to the nobility and military commanders began. Dependent peasants-parikis (communal members who lost their land) worked on these farms. From the layer of landowners (dinats) a class of feudal lords is formed. The character of the army also changed: the militia of the stratiots was replaced in the 10th century. heavily armed, armored cavalry (cataphracts), which became the main striking force of the Byzantine army.

IX-XI centuries - period of urban growth. An outstanding technical discovery - the invention of the oblique sail - and state support for craft and trading corporations made the cities of the empire masters of Mediterranean trade for a long time. First of all, this applies, of course, to Constantinople, which becomes the most important center of transit trade between the West and the East, the richest city in Europe. The products of Constantinople artisans - weavers, jewelers, blacksmiths - will become the standard for European artisans for centuries. Along with the capital, provincial cities are also experiencing growth: Thessaloniki, Trebizond, Ephesus and others. Black Sea trade is reviving again. The monasteries, which became centers of highly productive crafts and agriculture, also contributed to the economic rise of the empire.

Economic recovery is closely linked to the revival of culture. In 842, the activities of the University of Constantinople were restored, in which the largest scientist of Byzantium, Leo the Mathematician, played an outstanding role. He compiled a medical encyclopedia and wrote poetry. His library included books by the church fathers and ancient philosophers and scientists: Plato and Proclus, Archimedes and Euclid. Several inventions are associated with the name of Leo the Mathematician: the use of letters as arithmetic symbols (i.e., the beginning of algebra), the invention of light signaling connecting Constantinople with the border, the creation of moving statues in the palace. Singing birds and roaring lions (the figures were moved by water) amazed the foreign ambassadors. The university was located in the hall of the palace called Magnavra, and received the name Magnavra. Grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, arithmetic, astronomy, and music were taught.

Simultaneously with the university, a theological patriarchal school was created in Constantinople. The education system is being revived throughout the country.

At the end of the 11th century, under Patriarch Photius, an exceptionally educated man who had collected the best library of his time (hundreds of titles of books by outstanding minds of antiquity), extensive missionary activity began to Christianize the barbarians. Priests and preachers trained in Constantinople are sent to the pagans - the Bulgarians and Serbs. The mission of Cyril and Methodius to the Great Moravian Principality is of great importance, during which they create Slavic writing and translate the Bible and church literature into Slavic. This lays the foundations for spiritual and political upsurge in the Slavic world. Then he accepted Christianity and Kyiv prince Askold. Another century later, in 988, the Kiev prince Vladimir was baptized in Chersonesos, took the name Vasily (“royal”) and took the sister of the Byzantine emperor Vasily Anna as his wife. The replacement of paganism with Christianity in Kievan Rus influenced the development of architecture, painting, literature, and contributed to the enrichment of Slavic culture.

It was during the reign of Vasily II (976-1026) that the Roman power reached the apogee of its foreign policy power. The intelligent and energetic emperor was a harsh and cruel ruler. Having dealt with his internal political enemies with the help of the Kyiv squad, the basileus began a difficult war with Bulgaria, which lasted intermittently for 28 years, and finally inflicted a decisive defeat on his enemy, the Bulgarian Tsar Samuil.

At the same time, Vasily waged constant wars in the East and by the end of his reign he returned Northern Syria and part of Mesopotamia to the empire, and established control over Georgia and Armenia. When the emperor died during preparations for a campaign in Italy in 1025, Byzantium was the most powerful state in Europe. However, it was his reign that demonstrated a disease that would erode its power for centuries to come. From the point of view of Constantinople, the introduction of barbarians to the Orthodox religion and Greek culture automatically meant their subordination to the Basileus of the Romans, the main custodian of this spiritual heritage. Greek priests and teachers, icon painters and architects contributed to the spiritual awakening of the Bulgarians and Serbs. The attempt of the basileus to preserve the universal character of their power, relying on the power of a centralized state, contradicted the objective course of the process of Christianization of the barbarians and only depleted the strength of the empire.

The tension of all the forces of Byzantium under Vasily II led to a financial crisis. The situation became even more aggravated due to the constant struggle between the capital and provincial nobility. As a result of the unrest, Emperor Roman IV (1068-1071) was betrayed by his entourage and suffered a severe defeat in the war with a new wave of Muslim conquerors - the Seljuk Turks. After the victory in 1071 at Manzikert, the Muslim cavalry took control of all of Asia Minor within a decade.

However, the defeats of the end of the 11th century. were not the end of the empire. Byzantium had enormous vitality.

The next, fourth (1081-1204) stage of its existence was a period of new growth. The emperors of the Komnenos dynasty were able to consolidate the forces of the Romans and revive their glory for another century. The first three emperors of this dynasty - Alexei (1081-1118), John (1118-1143) and Manuel (1143-1180) - proved themselves to be brave and talented military leaders, subtle diplomats and far-sighted politicians. Relying on the provincial nobility, they stopped the internal unrest and conquered the Asia Minor coast from the Turks, bringing the Danube states under control. The Komnenos entered the history of Byzantium as “Westernizing” emperors. Despite the split between the Orthodox and Catholic churches in 1054, they turned to Western European kingdoms for help in the fight against the Turks (for the first time in the history of the empire). Constantinople became a gathering place for participants in the 1st and 2nd Crusades. The Crusaders promised to recognize themselves as vassals of the empire after they reconquered Syria and Palestine, and after the victory, Emperors John and Manuel forced them to fulfill their promises and recognize the power of the empire. Surrounded by Western knights, the Komnenos were very similar to Western European kings. But, although the support of this dynasty - the provincial nobility - also surrounded itself with dependent vassals, the feudal ladder did not arise in the empire. The vassals of the local nobility were simply warriors. It is also characteristic that the basis of the army in this dynasty were mercenaries from Western Europe and knights who settled in the empire and received lands and castles here. Emperor Manuel subjugated Serbia and Hungary to the empire. His troops fought in Italy, where even Milan recognized the power of the empire; tried to subjugate Egypt by making expeditions to the Nile Delta. The century-long reign of the Komnenos ends in unrest and civil war.

The new dynasty of Angels (1185-1204) only deepens the crisis by patronizing Italian merchants and dealing an irreparable blow to domestic crafts and trade. Therefore, when in 1204 the knights of the 1st Crusade suddenly changed their route, intervened in the internal political struggle of the empire, captured Constantinople and founded the Latin Empire on the Bosphorus, the disaster was natural.

The inhabitants and defenders of Constantinople outnumbered the crusaders tens of times, and yet the city fell, although it withstood the siege and onslaught of a more serious enemy. The reason for the defeat was, of course, that the Byzantines were demoralized by internal turmoil. An important role was also played by the fact that the policy of the Komnenos in the second half of the 12th century. (for all its external success) was contrary to the interests of the empire, because the limited resources of the Balkan Peninsula and parts of Asia Minor did not allow them to claim the role of a “universal empire”. At that time, the real universal significance was no longer so much the imperial power as the power of the ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. It was no longer possible to ensure the unity of the Orthodox world (Byzantium, Serbia, Rus', Georgia) relying on the military power of the state, but relying on church unity was still quite realistic. It turned out that the religious foundations of the unity and strength of Byzantium were undermined, and for half a century the Latin Empire of the Crusaders established itself in the place of the Roman Empire.

However, the terrible defeat could not destroy Byzantium. The Romans retained their statehood in Asia Minor and Epirus. The most important stronghold for gathering forces was the Nicene Empire, which, under Emperor John Vatatzes (1222-1254), accumulated the economic potential necessary to create a strong army and preserve culture.

In 1261, Emperor Michael Palaiologos liberated Constantinople from the Latins, and this event began the fifth stage of the existence of Byzantium, which would last until 1453. The military potential of the power was small, the economy was devastated by Turkish raids and internal strife, crafts and trade fell into decline. When the Palaiologi, continuing the policy of the Angels, relied on Italian merchants, Venetians and Genoese, local artisans and merchants could not resist the competition. The decline of the craft undermined the economic power of Constantinople and deprived it of its last strength.

The main significance of the Palaiologos empire is that it preserved the culture of Byzantium until the 15th century, when the peoples of Europe were able to adopt it. Two centuries are the flowering of philosophy and theology, architecture and icon painting. It seemed that the disastrous economic and political situation only stimulated the rise of the spirit, and this time is called the “Palaeologian revival.”

The Athos Monastery, founded in the 10th century, became the center of religious life. Under Komnenos it grew in number, and in the 14th century. The Holy Mountain (the monastery was located on the mountain) became a whole city in which thousands of monks of different nationalities lived. Great was the role of the Patriarch of Constantinople, who led the churches of independent Bulgaria, Serbia, and Rus' and pursued universal policies.

Under the Palaiologos, the University of Constantinople was revived. There are trends in philosophy that seek to revive ancient culture. An extreme representative of this trend was George Plithon (1360-1452), who created an original philosophy and religion based on the teachings of Plato and Zoroaster.

The "Palaeologian Revival" is the flowering of architecture and painting. To this day, viewers are amazed by the beautiful buildings and amazing frescoes of Mystras (a city near ancient Sparta).

The ideological and political life of the empire from the end of the 13th century. to the 15th century takes place in the struggle over the union between Catholics and Orthodox. The growing onslaught of the Muslim Turks forced the Palaiologos to seek military assistance from the West. In exchange for saving Constantinople, the emperors promised to achieve the subordination of the Orthodox Church to the Pope (union). The first such attempt was made by Michael Paleologus in 1274. This caused an explosion of indignation among the Orthodox population. And when, just before the death of the city, in 1439, the union was nevertheless signed in Florence, it was unanimously rejected by the inhabitants of Constantinople. The reasons for this were, of course, the hatred that the Greeks felt for the “Latins” after the pogrom of 1204 and the half-century of Catholic domination on the Bosporus. In addition, the West was never able (or did not want) to provide effective military assistance to Constantinople and the empire. The two crusades of 1396 and 1440 ended in the defeat of European armies. But no less important was the fact that union for the Greeks meant abandoning the mission of guardians Orthodox tradition which they took upon themselves. This abdication would have erased the centuries-old history of the empire. That is why the monks of Athos, and after them the overwhelming majority of the Byzantines, rejected the union and began to prepare for the defense of the doomed Constantinople. In 1453 a huge Turkish army besieged and took “New Rome” by storm. The "Power of the Romans" ceased to exist.

The importance of the Byzantine Empire in the history of mankind is difficult to overestimate. In the dark ages of barbarism and the early Middle Ages, she conveyed to her descendants the heritage of Hellas and Rome and preserved Christian culture. Achievements in the field of science (mathematics), literature, fine arts, book miniatures, decorative and applied arts (ivory, metal, artistic fabrics, cloisonne enamels), architecture, and military affairs had a significant impact on the further development of the culture of Western Europe and Kievan Rus. And the life of modern society cannot be imagined without Byzantine influence. Sometimes Constantinople is called the "golden bridge" between the West and the East. This is true, but it is even more correct to consider the power of the Romans as a “golden bridge” between antiquity and modern times.