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The Byzantine Empire - Pascack Valley Regional School District

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200<br />

New Faith and New Commerce<br />

PART III o <strong>The</strong> Postclassical Period, 500-1450:<br />

bureaucratic corruption, although her severe retaliation<br />

against personal enemies brought criticism.<br />

Supplementing the centralized imperial authority<br />

was one of history most elaborate bureaucracies.<br />

Trained in Greek classics, philosophy, and science in a<br />

secular school system that paralleled ctmrch education<br />

for the priesthood, <strong>Byzantine</strong> bureaucrats could be<br />

recruited fi’om all social classes. As in China, aristocrats<br />

predominated, but talent also counted among this<br />

elite of highly educated scholars. Bureaucrats were specialized<br />

into various offices, and officials close to tire<br />

emperor were mainly eunuchs. Provincial governors<br />

were appointed fi’om the center and were charged<br />

with keeping tabs on military authorities. An elaborate<br />

system of spies helped preserve loyalty while creatmg<br />

intense distrust even among friends. It is small wonder<br />

that the word Byzar~ti’rze came to refer m complex institutional<br />

arrangements. State control of the church and<br />

its appointment of head church oiticials was another<br />

key aspect of the government structure.<br />

Careful military organization arose as well, as Figqare<br />

9.2 suggests. <strong>Byzantine</strong> rulers adapted the later Roman<br />

system by recruiting troops locally and rewarding them<br />

with grants of land in return for their military service.<br />

<strong>The</strong> land could not be sold, but sons inherited its administration<br />

in return for continued military responsibility.<br />

Many outsiders, particularly Slavs and Armenian Christians,<br />

were recruited ibr the army in this way. Increasingly,<br />

hereditary ntilitary leaders assumed regional powm;<br />

displacing more traditional and better-educated aristocrats.<br />

One emperor; Michael II, was a product of dais system<br />

and was notorious for his hatred of Greek education<br />

and his overall personal ignorance. On the other hand,<br />

the military system had obvious advantages in protecting<br />

a state rec~rrendy under attack ii’om Muslims of various<br />

sorts--Persians, Arabs, and later Turks--as well as<br />

nomadic intruders from central Asia. Until the I5th century,<br />

tbe <strong>Byzantine</strong> <strong>Empire</strong> eftkctively blocked the path<br />

to Europe for most of these groups.<br />

Socially and economically, the empire depended<br />

on Constantinople’s control over the countryside, with<br />

tbe bureaucracy regulating trade and centre!ling food<br />

prices. <strong>The</strong> large peasant class was vital in supplying<br />

goods and providing the bulk of tax revenues. Food<br />

prices were kept artificially low, to content the numerous<br />

urban lower classes, in a system supported largely<br />

by taxes on the hard-pressed peasantry. Other cities<br />

were modest in size--for example, Athens dwindled-because<br />

the focus was on the capital city and its food<br />

needs- <strong>The</strong> empire developed a fa~flung trading network<br />

with Asta to the east and Russia and Scandinavia<br />

re the n6rth. Silk production expanded in the empire,<br />

with silkworms and techniques initially imported from<br />

China, and various luxury products, including cloth,<br />

carpets, and spices, were sent north. This gave the<br />

empire a favorable trading position with less sophisticated<br />

lands. Only China produced luxury goods of<br />

comparable quality. <strong>The</strong> empire also traded actively<br />

with India, the Arabs, and east Asia while receiving simpler<br />

products from western Europe and Africa. At the<br />

same time, the large merchant class never gained significant<br />

political power, ira part because of the elaborate<br />

network of government controls. In this,<br />

Byzantium again resembled China and differed<br />

notably from the looser social grid political network.s of<br />

the West, where memhants were gaining greater votce.<br />

<strong>Byzantine</strong> cultural life centered on the secular traditions<br />

of Hellenism, so irrlportant in the education of<br />

bureaucrats, and on the evolving traditions of Eastern,<br />

or Orthodox, Christianity. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Byzantine</strong> strength lay in<br />

preserving and commenting on past forms more than in<br />

developing new ones. Art and architecture were exceptions;<br />

a distinct <strong>Byzantine</strong> style deve!oped ti~irly early.<br />

<strong>The</strong> adaptation of Rotnan domed buildings, the elaboration<br />

of powerful and richly colored religious mosaics,<br />

and a tradition of icon paintings--paintings of saints<br />

FI6~RI~ 9.4 Just as theologians through the (<br />

worked to understand Christ’s message, so to(<br />

struggled to capture his image. This powerful mosaic<br />

at the Church of Chora in Istanbul was created in<br />

of the 14th century. Notice the difference betweer<br />

and the images,of Ghrist common in Western<br />

place more emphasis on suffering end less on divine

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