General information
Constantinople, the capital city of
the Byzantine Empire,
occupied the
triangular peninsula
formed by
the Golden Horn,
the Bosphorus
and
the Sea of Marmara.
The city was
founded on the site
of a Megaran colony named after its founder,
Byzas. Constantine
the Great
recognized the strategic
importance of the area, which dominated the
Bosphorus and
controlled
trading routes
between
the
Aegean
and
the Black Sea.
The
city was protected by the sea on three sides, while the strong Bosphorus
currents
made
approach
particularly
difficult. Between 324
and 326 Constantine
celebrated all the pagan rituals necessary
for founding and
establishing the
new capital.
The official inauguration
was held on May 11, 330,
along with celebrations for
the 25th
anniversary of
his ascension to the throne; from
then on the anniversary of the city’s inauguration was always formally celebrated.
Late antiquity
Constantine
sought to create
a new capital to rival Rome
in splendour, wealth and power. Although few
buildings from his time survive,
sources
stress
that it was an imperial city with all the preconditions for
prosperity. It was protected
by a wall,
adorned
with
magnificent
monuments and works
of art from
all cities
and
provinces
in the empire, and
had
large public
buildings
such as a senate, a Hippodrome, theatres,
baths, temples and churches. Imperial
power
was
housed
in the
Great Palace, which
remained
the seat
of the Byzantine
rulers
until the
12th
century.
Centred on
this large
complex, which grew over time as new buildings
were added, Constantinople stood at the
head of the state
and brought together the empire’s political,
religious and
intellectual elite.
Constantinople was not founded as a Christian capital. Greco-Roman temples
outnumbered the few Christian buildings erected during Constantine’s reign. The three temples of
Artemis-Selene, Apollo and Aphrodite on the acropolis of Ancient Byzantium
continued to draw believers, while others were founded, indicating that the old
religion still had adherents. Besides, the Edict of Milan did not impose
Christianity, it simply legalized it. Yet the new religion was undoubtedly
boosted by imperial sponsorship: it spread very rapidly, and the Church became a
powerful state institution.
From being a protective barrier, Constantine’s
land walls soon became an obstacle for the growth of the city, which drew new
residents and their families from all over the empire. Sources mention that
within half a century or so all available space was taken up by buildings,
affluent homes or shacks. The situation was intolerable for a further reason –
no provision had been made for underground or surface water cisterns
capable of catering for the inhabitants and the city’s garrisons in siege time.
Just two years after the conquest of Rome
by the Visigoths under Alaric in 410, Theodosius II extended the city limits to
the west by building new walls, which almost doubled its area (412-413), and
constructed cisterns between the Constantine
wall and the new one. This land wall was furnished with a moat, a rampart and
curtain walls between high rectangular and octagonal towers, while the sea wall
had no rampart or moat. The Theodosian walls served as Constantinople’s
main line of defence up until the end of the Byzantine period.
The urban plan
of Constantinople included several features
reminiscent of Rome
and its immediate past. The city’s main thoroughfare, known as Mese Odos (Middle Street), linked the Golden Gate to the palace complex. It was a wide road
flanked by arcades with houses, clothing and furniture shops, gold and silversmith
workshops, etc. It was on the Mese Odos
that Constantine
founded the Foro (forum) named after
him - a circular or oval plaza with a porphyry column at its centre, crowned by
a statue of him rendered as Apollo or the Sun God. Surrounding the plaza were
the Senate, the old temple of the goddess Rhea and the temple devoted to Tyche (Fortune)
of Constantinople. Emperors Theodosius I and
Arcadius both lent their names to additional forums they established further
west along Mese Odos. It is even claimed that the one dedicated to Theodosius echoed
Trajan’s forum in Rome.
Constantinople experienced moments of upheaval
and turmoil during the reign of Justinian, in the 6th century, but at
the same time was adorned with magnificent monuments. During the suppression of
the Nika riots in 532, imperial troops massacred approximately thirty
thousand people in the Hippodrome; fire caused extensive damage to the
city and destroyed the old church
of Agia Sophia. This
catastrophic event enabled Justinian to draw up an ambitious regeneration
plan for Constantinople, involving the
construction of magnificent edifices, palaces, baths and other public
buildings, and the so-called Royal Cistern, an underground tank with masonry
vaults resting on columns that ended in a variety of reused capitals
from older buildings. The church
of Agia Sophia was
perhaps the most important monument built in the 6th century, serving as the
seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate throughout the Byzantine period.
The dark ages
Constantinople
entered
a
crucial period
in the 7th
century,
exacerbated by sieges, earthquakes,
epidemics and
internal conflicts.
In
626,
during
the reign
of Emperor
Heraclius,
the Avars
besieged the city
but failed to
capture it; two Arab
raids in
674
and
717-718
were
similarly unsuccessful.
The already
weakened
city
was
struck by a major earthquake in 740, and then seven years later by the plague,
which
decimated
the remaining population.
It is
estimated
that
during the Iconoclast Controversy the population
numbered in the
tens of
thousands, and only one of the four seaports
was in
use. From the
8th to
the mid-9th century
there was
very
limited
building
activity, mainly focused on fortifications
designed to protect
the city from
external enemies.
Middle and late Byzantine period
The empire
started to recover in the mid-9th century, when there was a marked population
increase. By the 11th century the number of inhabitants in Constantinople
had grown so much that it was considered the most populous city in Christendom.
Although the majority of inhabitants were Greek-speaking, there were also
Armenians, Russians and a large Jewish community. One indication of the city's
grow was the presence of Italian merchants from Venice, Genoa
and Pisa, and a
small Arab community mainly involved in trade. Added to them were mercenaries
from West Europe and even from Scandinavia, who served as the emperor’s personal guard.
Constantinople’s wealth was reflected in its
public, private and ecclesiastic buildings. In this period the royal family and
the upper class founded numerous monasteries, most of which oversaw charitable
institutions such as hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages or schools. Emperor
Theophilus took personal interest in the construction of new buildings in the Great Palace
and also erected a new palace at Brya on the Asian shore of the capital, while
Basil I funded the construction or renovation of at least twenty-five churches
in Constantinople, and another eight within
the Great Palace. The period from the 9th
up to the 10th century has been characterized as a renaissance,
thanks to the emergence of a notable circle of scholars, and the pains take by
the state to improve higher education in the capital. One focal point was the
interest in studying the classics, which were seen as fundamental to an upper
class education in Constantinople. Prosperity
lasted until the mid-11th century, when economic problems set in due to the
mismanagement of wealth by Basil II’s successors. The defeat suffered at the
hands of the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in Eastern Asia
Minor, and the permanent loss of Baris (present day Bari) in Italy to the Normans under Robert Giscard
in 1071 caused considerable losses and immense disappointment.
The Crusaders or "soldiers of God" from Western
Europe arrived before the walls of Constantinople
without hostile intent during the First Crusade, viewing it as a stopover on
their way to the Holy Land. Although there
were minor disturbances and incidents the crusaders crossed the Bosphorus and
continued their march.
Things were very
different during the Fourth Crusade. After the death of Manuel Comnenus at the
end of the 12th century, Constantinople underwent
a period of instability; six emperors rose to the throne and were dethroned
between1180 and 1204. The Franks arrived before the walls in June 1203, and took
the city in April 1204, by which time Emperor Alexius V had already fled,
abandoning Constantinople to the mercy of the
Crusaders. The looting that followed was truly horrendous: churches, palaces
and monuments were burned down and stripped of precious votive offerings,
stores and vaults were plundered, relics and precious utensils were stolen and
smuggled out, libraries burned or broken up, priests and bishops expelled, inhabitants massacred or captured to be sold
as slaves. For days on end Constantinople
endured a living nightmare.
Once the devastation came to an end, the administration of Constantinople was divided between Baldwin of Flanders
and the Venetians. Baldwin, who was crowned emperor, was granted the greater
part of the city including the palaces of Blachernai and Boukoleon, while the
Venetians took Agia Sophia and a large commercial district, and saw to
it that the Genoese and Pisans were excluded from imperial trade.
Constantinople was retaken in 1261 by Michael VIII Palaeologus, who
took advantage of circumstances and the fact that the walls were poorly
guarded. Michael tried to rebuild most of the destroyed monuments and the
walls, and attempted to reorganize administration in the city and the empire.
However, for all his efforts he proved unable to restore the city to its former
splendour and glory.
Left with no
army or navy to speak of, the empire was unable to fend off the Ottoman threat
effectively. The Ottoman army advanced through the territories of the empire at
a great pace, leading to the loss of many regions in Asia
Minor and the Balkans in the 14th century. The Byzantine
Empire was tributary to the Sultan as early as 1372, and the
emperors were forced to campaign with him, while Constantinople
was virtually under siege. Having settled his family at Mystras, in 1399 Emperor
Manuel Palaeologus set out on a long journey to Paris and London, hoping to secure alliances. The
Ottoman defeat at Battle of Ankara against the Mongols under Tamerlane in 1402 gave
the Byzantines a brief respite, offering Constantinople
the chance to reorganize after years of siege. There followed a period of
relative calm, which lasted until Murad II resumed the siege in 1422. His venture
failed, not only because a chain stretched across the Golden
Horn rendered blockade by sea impossible, but also because the
walls held out.
Constantinople eventually fell to Sultan Mehmed II, who built a fort
on the European shore of the Bosphorus to cut the capital off from the Black Sea ports and the grain supply there. Furthermore,
to ensure that Constantinople would not
receive help from areas of Greek territory still free, he attacked the
Despotate of the Morea in the Peloponnese. The
siege lasted for about two months, once cannon and about an army of about 150,000
regular soldiers had been brought from Adrianople.
The army was deployed along the land walls and the siege was officially
launched on April 7th,
1453. The city's defences initially held out, despite constant
bombardment of the walls. The Sultan realized that Constantinople
could not be conquered as long the Golden Horn
remained in Byzantine hands, so he built a road of greased logs and rolled his
ships across from the Bosphorus to the Golden Horn.
The siege continued and the assaults were repelled until May 21, when Mehmed
sent a delegation to Emperor Constantine XI, requesting that Constantinople
surrender. He promised the emperor and anyone else who wanted to leave that
they could do so with their belongings, while giving reassurances that those who
remained in the city would be favourably treated. When these proposals were
rejected Mehmed launched his final assault, culminating on May 29th, 1453.
According
to the works of Phrantzes and Dukas and subsequent legends, the Turks entered
the city from the so-called Kerkoporta near the palace of Blachernai.
Another bloody battle took place near Agios Romanos Gate, which is where the
emperor was probably killed. After that panic prevailed, as the Byzantines
retreated to the city centre hotly pursued by the Turks, who decimated them.
The merciless, horrific massacre and looting that followed lasted for three
days, until Muhammad officially ordered the end of operations.
The fall of Constantinople marked the end of
the empire. Yet the cultural tradition of Byzantium
remained significant, as many scholars settled in the Venetian colonies in Crete and the Peloponnese,
and also in other European countries, conveying Greek culture to the West.
Glossary (2)
cistern:
reservoir for collecting water. Usually rectangular in shape and roofed with arches.
capital:
uppermost part of a column acting as support for the architrave, usually decorated. The three basic types of capitals are the Doric, the Ionic and the Corinthian. In Byzantine times they were adorned with carvings and used in churches, being mostly variations of the Corinthian type.
Information Texts (13)
Constantine the Great :
Roman emperor from
324 to 337. Born in Naissus c. 272 to Roman Caesar Constantius I Chlorus and
Helena. Constantine
received military training, took part in campaigns alongside his father and attained
the rank of tribuno, head of the
imperial bodyguards. After a series of conflicts in which he eliminated all his
opponents, he ascended the throne in 324. As sole emperor, Constantine reorganized the administrative
and military system, changed the currency and founded Constantinople,
which he made new capital of the empire (330). A perceptive man who realized
the growing power of the new religion, he lent subtle support to Christianity,
and signed the Edict of Milan in 313, establishing the principles of religious
tolerance. He took an active part in religious debates and convened the first
Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which proved crucial to the development of the
Christian Church. Through these actions, and above all by supporting Christians
and transferring the capital to Constantinople,
he was in essence responsible for shaping the future course of the Byzantine Empire.
The Great Palace:
The Great Palace, the
palace of the Byzantine emperors, occupied much of the east side of Constantinople,
a short distance from the Hippodrome and Agia Sophia. It was not so much a
single building as a complex, consisting of large banqueting and reception halls,
libraries, churches, barracks, arcades, baths, courtyards and gardens, and the
so-called Purple Room, where the children of ruling emperors were born. The
original royal residence was the Palace of Daphne, built by Constantine the
Great when Constantinople was founded; very little is known about the buildings
of this early period, as some of them were destroyed in the Nika riots and
renovated immediately thereafter by Justinian.The main Constantine
complex was added to and extended over time, which led to the Great Palace acquiring
the shape and character of a city within a city. The imperial villas to the
south of the Hippodrome, such as the so-called Palace of Marina, named after the
unmarried daughter of Emperor Arcadius, and the Palace of Hormisdas,
Justinian’s mansion, were eventually incorporated into the palace. The historian
Procopius relates how Justinian I built the portico of the Chalke (bronze) Gate
and adorned it with mosaics depicting him and his wife Theodora triumphing over
the kings of the Vandals and Goths, as well as scenes from his
victorious wars and bucolic and hunting scenes.Between the portico
and the old buildings of Constantine the Great there were galleries and the triclinium,
the great hall where official imperial banquets were held. At the end of the
6th century Justin II built the Chrysotriklinos, an octagonal hall, which became
the throne room where imperial ceremonies took place. Emperor Tiberius rebuilt
the north part of the palace and converted it into apartments for himself and
his family.The palace was
expanded in the reign of Emperor Theophilus, when the Trikonchos, a two-storey
building and several pavilions were erected. To the south of the Chrysotriklinos
Basil I built the "Kainourion" (New) Palace, the five-domed
Pentakoubouklon and many chapels and churches, the most famous being Nea
Ekklesia (New Church), dedicated to Christ, the archangel Gabriel, Elijah the
prophet, the Virgin Mary and St Nicholas. Nicephorus Phocas limited the
extensive complex of palaces to the Boukoleon Palace, which he surrounded with
walls in 969, leaving out the old, rarely used Daphne complex. It was then that
this part of the ensemble became known as the Sacred Palace.The
Great Palace
housed
imperial
power and
remained
the seat
of
Byzantine
rulers
until
the 12th
century, when greater import was
accorded to
the Blachernai Palace
near the north-east corner
of the
city walls, by the Golden Horn.
The
palace sustained extensive damage and was looted when
Constantinople fell to the
Crusaders in
1204.
However, its buildings retained their
prestige
and importance
in imperial
ritual
until 1453. With
the palace complex as its hub, Constantinople brought together all the
political, religious
and
intellectual
life
in the empire.
Edict of Milan:
Decree establishing religious tolerance in the Roman
Empire. It was signed in Mediolanum, modern Milan, between Constantine and Licinius, in
313 AD. The decree acknowledged the Christian Church as an "authorized
religion." Although the decree came into effect in 313, the persecutions
only stopped when Constantine
became sole emperor in 324.
Visigoths:
An offshoot of the
German Goths, who arrived in the Balkans in the 4th century. Known
for their special fighting skills, they participated in several campaigns
against the Eastern and Western Roman Empire. Their relations with the
Byzantine Empire were complicated, as they were both enemies and invaders, but
also served as mercenaries in the Byzantine army. They settled in south France
and created their own kingdom centred on Toulouse, later expanding into the
Iberian Peninsula. In the early 8th century the Visigoths were defeated by the
Arabs and lost control of their territories.
Justinian I:
Byzantine Emperor
(527-565), nephew and successor of Justin I. One of his first acts was to
reform the tax system and recode Theodosius’ laws. He was personally involved
in religious conflicts and convened the 5th Ecumenical Council
(553). Justinian considered himself primarily an orthodox emperor and took
harsh measures against the remaining pagans. Many of his political and fiscal
actions provoked strong reactions on the part of the senate and the factions
and led to the Nika Riots. Justinian instigated numerous building projects,
erecting approximately 30 churches in Constantinople,
including the famous church
of Agia Sophia.
Regarding foreign policy, he successfully confronted the Persians and the
Vandals in the East and focused on the recovery of the West. This he temporarily
achieved, but at such cost that the Empire was left exhausted; the barbarians in
the Balkans plundered the Greek peninsula as far as the Isthmus and barbarian
tribes settled at the borders. His military operations exhausted Byzantium financially and
militarily and had no real effect, as Italy and other areas he conquered
were soon lost again. After his death, the weakened empire had to face new
attacks, culminating in the Arab conquests, which negated the majority of
Justinian’s conquests beyond the borders.
The church of Agia Sophia:
Agia Sophia, which now serves as a museum, lies on the north-eastern
side of Sultan
Αhmet Square, opposite the Blue Mosque. The present day
church is the third built on the same site: the original Agia Sophia, founded
by Constantine the Great, was destroyed by fire in 404, when riots broke out in
Constantinople over the dethronement of
Patriarch John Chrysostom; the church renovated by Emperor Theodosius II
suffered irreparable damage in 532, also by fire during the Nika Revolt.
Agia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) and Agia Irene (Holy Peace) were dedicated to
attributes of God, and together served as the churches of the Patriarchate.
However, only Agia Sophia went down in history as the "Great Church".Construction work began immediately after Emperor Justinian had
suppressed the Nika revolt, and was assigned to engineers Anthemius of Tralles
and Isidore of Miletus. The building was completed in five years and eleven
months, and was inaugurated in December 537. Agia Sophia is considered one of
the most splendid buildings of its time – even if this church was the only
surviving Byzantine building, it would still be worth our while to study and
admire Byzantine culture. In his work On
Buildings, the historian Procopius describes the splendour and magnificence
of the church, which stunned the faithful on account of its size and beauty, and
the variety and richness of its decoration. The book also gives an account of
the construction process and recounts the technical problems faced by the
architects in erecting such a large building. As he writes, these were
corrected thanks to the genius of Justinian, who gave the architects
wise advice. Agia Sophia had to be larger, more majestic and more sumptuously decorated
than the church
of Agios Polyeuctus
founded a few years earlier by the affluent Anicia Juliana,
who hoped to put her son Olybrius on the throne.Agia Sophia is a combination of a domed basilica and a centrally
planned building. Its construction was revolutionary and innovative for its
time: the ground plan of the church forms a rectangle 77 by 71 metres, ending
in and apse to the east and in a narthex and an exonarthex
to the west. Inside, four large pillars stand in the corners of the nave,
forming a 31 metre sided square. The pillars are connected to four
arches, of which the north and south are very shallow, while the east and west end
in four large conches to the east and west of the central square. The dome
rests on forty ribs flanking forty windows in the lower section, pouring light
into the central nave. The side aisles have galleries, of which the
south was used by the emperor, his family, his senior officials and palace
courtiers to attend the liturgy. Access to the nave is gained via five doors in
the narthex, the middle one being known as the Royal Door.The church is famous not only for its architecture, but also for the mystical
atmosphere created by light as it bounces off the precious materials glittering
in the interior. The windows around the dome diffuse light and lend an
impression of weightlessness and evanescence, creating the illusion that the vaults
are floating and the dome is hanging from the sky. On the inside, the opulence
and luxury of the materials used is awe-inspiring. According to Procopius,
columns, marble, works of art and precious materials were brought from all the
provinces of the empire to realize Justinian’s vision. The walls and
pillars of the nave are dressed with green and dark blue-grey marble revetments,
arranged so that the veins form symmetrical designs, while the columns in the
niches on either side of the sanctuary apse and the entrance are of
expensive, purple granite (porphyry). The architectural sculptures in the
church - capitals, cornices and door frames - have delicate relief
decoration, often attributed to the use of a small drill, so as to create
embossed designs resembling lace around the main architectural members.All that remains of the exquisite mosaics in the church are a few
fragments. Parts of the Justinian decoration are preserved in the intrados
of the arcades in the central nave, the side aisle and the gallery vaults, and around
the edge of the apse. The decoration is non-figurative
(it
does not include human figures), consisting of floral motifs and geometric shapes
arranged on a gold background.
The surviving representations were created after the end of Iconoclasm
in 843, and were preserved because they were plastered over for as long as the
church functioned as a mosque. The semi-dome in the sanctuary apse has a
depiction of an enthroned Virgin and Child flanked by archangels; six-winged
seraphim have survived on the dome pedentives. Prelates and prophets
appear high up on the nave walls, between the windows. On the tympanum
above the door in the corridor leading from the palace to the narthex,
an enthroned Virgin and Child are shown flanked by Constantine the Great
offering an effigy of Constantinople,
and Justinian offering an effigy of Agia Sophia, so as to remind later
emperors who founded the city and
the church. The semicircular tympanum above the central (Royal) door in the narthex
bears a depiction of an emperor doing penance before the enthroned Christ,
flanked by the Virgin Mary and an archangel in medallions. The emperor is
probably Leo VI; he is shown in this position as a sign of penitence for
his fourth marriage, which was illegal under canon law.
In the north gallery there is a mosaic depiction of Leo’s VI brother,
Alexander, clothed in imperial robes, which was probably painted during his
short reign in 912-913. The east wall of the south gallery has two mosaic
votive representations of Emperors Constantine Monomachus and Zoë, dating to
around the year of Constantine’s
ascension in 1044, and of John Comnenus and Irene, from around 1118. The south
gallery also has an enormous representation of the Supplication, where Christ
is flanked by the figures of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist interceding
for the salvation of men. This may have been sponsored by Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus
himself, following the recovery of Constantinople
in 1261.
The monument has undergone several repairs and alterations down the
centuries. The original dome collapsed in an earthquake in 558 and was rebuilt 6
metres higher by Isidore the Younger. The enormous weight was probably not
sufficiently supported, causing the base of the dome to deform, the pillars and
buttresses to bend backwards and the east and west arch to widen. In 989 the
Armenian architect Trdat was called to Constantinople
to carry out restoration work on the west arch and parts of the dome,
which had collapsed after an earthquake. The east part of the dome
collapsed once again in 1346. In the 16th century additional repairs were
carried out, and the four minarets still seen today were added to the corners
of the building. Swiss architects Gaspar and Giuseppe Fossati oversaw another
major repair project between 1847 and 1849.
The church was the seat of the Patriarchate throughout the Byzantine period.
Following the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders
in 1204 it became a Catholic archbishop’s cathedral, and after 1453 was
converted into a mosque. It remained a place of worship from then until 1935,
when it was declared a museum.
Heraclius:
Byzantine Emperor from 610 to 641, son of the exarch
of Carthage. He
was proclaimed emperor in 610, when he invaded Constantinople
with a big army from Carthage
and ascended the throne with the support of the Greens and Patriarch Sergius I.
When Heraclius came to power the empire was in a very precarious situation, being
threatened by the Slavs and the Avars in the northern Balkans, and the Persians
in the east. The Persians even seized Jerusalem
in 614 and Egypt
in 619. At the same time, he also faced domestic enemies who coveted the
throne. In general, Heraclius constantly conducted defensive and offensive wars,
in which he managed to trounce the Persians and Avars. However, Islam soon
replaced the Persian danger. Muslims occupied territories in Palestine which the emperor was unable to
recover. Heraclius was a great warrior and military man, who reorganized the
army and recaptured many of the lost territories of the empire. However, he
does not seem to have been an efficient governor and was unable to resolve the
religious controversies that arose during his reign.
Avars:
Nomadic people who
appeared in the mid-6th century on the steppes north of the Black Sea. Nothing is known of their previous history. Renowned
for their military prowess, their power increased over time to the extent that
they became a major threat to Byzantium.
In 582 they allied with the Slavs and conquered part of the Balkan
Peninsula. Conflict with the Byzantine Empire
culminated in 626, when the Avars and Persians mounted an unsuccessful siege on
Constantinople. In the early 9th century, internal
conflicts and external pressures led to the dissolution of the Avar state,
which was divided between the Franks and the Bulgarian Empire.
Iconoclast Controversy :
movement that condemned the worship of images depicting God or the
saints. Initiated in 726 or 730 by Leo III, temporarily halted in 787 by
Empress Irene, resumed again in 815 by Leo V and finally ended in 843
by Empress Theodora. During the two periods of Iconoclasm, the
iconographic programmes in churches were replaced by geometric shapes,
floral motifs, the sign of the cross, etc. Iconodules, those remaining
true to the worship of icons, suffered persecution.
Battle of Manzikert:
The Battle of
Manzikert was fought on 26th
August 1071 between the Byzantine army of Emperor Romanus IV
Diogenes and the Seljuk Turks under Sultan Alp Aslan. Emperor Romanus was
defeated, captured and released after a ransom was paid, while Byzantium was
forced to surrender under humiliating terms, being obliged to pay annual tax
and to hand over several forts to the Seljuk Turks. The rout of the Byzantine
army and, more importantly, the internal political situation that followed, led
to the permanent establishment of the Seljuk Turks in Asia
Minor. The Byzantines lost control of the roads leading to the
eastern provinces, and control of the local residents. The defeat at Manzikert
is considered a milestone in the conversion of the local population to Turkish
ways, and the permanent loss of the eastern provinces.
Michael VIII Palaeologus :
Byzantine emperor
from 1259 to 1282, founder of the Palaeologan dynasty. Having begun his career
as a soldier, he took advantage of confusion following the death of Theodore to
participate in conspiracies led by the aristocracy in order to ascend the
throne. On 13th July 1261 he captured Constantinople
and was crowned emperor, sidelining his young co-emperor John IV Lascaris. Michael
III was a skilful diplomat and military man who reorganized Constantinople’s
defences and conducted victorious wars in an attempt to revive the Empire’s
fortunes. However, what ultimately hallmarked his reign was the effort to
reunite the two churches, as he believed that this would ensure the viability
of the state. He died at Pachomio in Eastern Thrace
in December 1282. His successor Andronicus brought his body to Thrace, where
he was buried without a funeral, as Michael Palaeologus was considered a
"Latin sympathizer".
Manuel II Palaeologus :
Emperor of Byzantium (1391-1425).
Born in Constantinople to Emperor John V
Palaeologus and Helen Cantacuzena. As a member of the royal family he was
educated from an early age and became involved in public affairs. He ascended the
throne in 1391, after overpowering those of his relatives who challenged the
order of succession. The Ottoman threat intensified in the early years of his
reign; his time on the throne was marked by invasions and diplomatic efforts to
secure help from the West. When these proved unsuccessful he was forced to sign
a humiliating peace treaty with Ottoman Murad II, acknowledging Byzantium’s subordination
to the sultan. He died on 21st
July 1425, at a monastery where he had taken the name Matthew. Manuel
II was a prolific writer.
Despotate of Morea (or Despotate of Mystras) :
semi-autonomous region of the Byzantine Empire in the Peloponnese,
including the castles of Mystras, Monemvasia and Great Mani. The capital
of the region was the castle of Mystras, founded in 1249 by William II
Villehardouin, Frankish ruler of the Principality of Achaia. The
Despotate of Morea was established in 1262 and remained under the
influence of Byzantium until 1460, when it was captured by Mehmed V.
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2. Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Εκδοτική Αθηνών, 1976
3. Mango, C., Studies on Constantinople, Aldershot, 1979
4. Constantinople and its Hinterland: Papers from the Twenty-Seventh Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, April 1993, Aldershot, 1995
5. Ράνσιμαν Σ., Βυζαντινός Πολιτισμός, Γαλαξίας Ερμείας, Athens, 1978
6. Kazhdan, A.P., The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Washington D.C., 1991
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