Byzantium (East Roman Empire)

Question 1

What are the five big ideas from the eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium)?

Answer 1

Barbarians
Sieges
Heresies
Monophysitism 
Iconoclasm

Question 2

What were barbarians

Answer 2

They played a big part in the northwestern borders of the Byzantine empire.

Question 3

What people groups laid siege during the Byzantine empire?

Answer 3

Persians, muslims, barbarians laid siege to Constantinople

Question 4

What is Monophysitism?

Answer 4

Said Jesus was mostly divine and that his divinity overruled his humanity

Question 5

Iconoclasm

Answer 5

Making icons of the saints (this was questioned)

Question 6

What Christian church arose from this empire

Answer 6

The Eastern Orthodox

Question 7

Why was religion so important politically

Answer 7

The popularity and affectivness of rulers was whether they agreed with Christianity on doctrinal issues (gave the church power)

Question 8

Stable society can exist when…

Answer 8

1) there is enough power to suppress the people by the ruling few.
2) to have a middle class of people who can live and have decent lives
3) when there is hope of achieving wealth or a better life

Question 9

In a monarchy what was the only way to move up in society?

Answer 9

The church

Question 10

Why did the church become corrupt

Answer 10

The church became a path to status (power and wealth) and or comfort instead of being there to bring God glory.
They also used scare tactics to get what it wanted politically (armies would be afraid to fight if they thought God wasn’t on their side)
People did almost anything to be sure they wouldn’t be damned(no personal knowledge of Christ)
Justice was traded for favors, bribes, and extortion.

Question 11

What made Constantinoples location strategic

Answer 11

It was harder to attack because water on three sides acted like a moat they also had the Theodosian walls on the side that was not guarded by water. They also have the Bosporus straight they controlled and people how to be nice to them to let them pass

Question 12

The Bosporus strait

Answer 12

Pathway to the east and the Black Sea in Central Asia

Question 13

The date of approximately when the Theodosian walls were built

Answer 13

400

Question 14

What group of people began Byzantium

Answer 14

Greek colonists

Question 15

What are the four names of city of Byzantium?

Answer 15

1) Byzantium
2) Constantinople
3) new Rome - new capital of Roman Empire
4) Istanbul- modern name after Muslim conquest

Question 16

Why did the Byzantine empire survive when the western Roman Empire fell (4 reasons)

Answer 16

Strong monaterry system
Flourishing trade
Law and order continued
Elements of morality and virtue

Question 17

Power couple Justinian and Theodoras year

Answer 17

527

Question 18

What was theodoras influence as empress of Byzantine empire

Answer 18

Had good morals. She Championed monogamous marriage as the only permissible form of sexual activity. She outlawed the selling of young girls for sexual purposes and put it into legal concubinage

Question 19

What icon of Byzantium was built under Justinian

Answer 19

The cathedral Hagia Sophia (means holy wisdom)

Question 20

What was the name of the general who waged long successful wars against the barbarian ostrogoths, vandals, and visigoths and in a sense over expanded the empire
(Under Justinian)

Answer 20

Bellisarius

Question 21

What are some negative consequences when a society doesn’t practice monogamy

Answer 21

1. Get pregnant, stds, and kids grow up without a parent and kids have problems and follow in their parents footsteps

Question 22

Invasion dates

Answer 22

(565-1057)

Question 23

How did Heraclius delay the fall of Constantinople?

Answer 23

He held off a dual-siege from the Avars and the Persians between 610 and 641

Question 24

The rise of Islam threatened the Byzantine empire in the

Answer 24

8th century

Question 25

These Arabs had overrun the

Answer 25

Middle East including Jerusalem and staged two sieges of Constantinople as well

Question 26

What weapon was instrumental in defeating the Arab sieges

Answer 26

Greek fire

Question 27

What is Greek fire

Answer 27

The secret weapon of the eastern Roman emperors. It was hurled onto the ships of their enemies from siphons and burst into flames on contact. It apparently was in extinguishable and burned even on the water. The exact composition is unknown

Question 28

Who was the hero of the victory in the second siege

Answer 28

Emperor Leo III

Question 29

What did Leo the third do

Answer 29

He bannned all icons or images of Christ, Mary, and saints

Theologically rooted in the OT law banning the graven images and idols

Question 30

What year did the second Council of Nicaea meet.

What did they do

Answer 30

787, they sanctioned the veneration of the cross and religious pictures which further the decent of the medieval church in the pagan and anti-scriptural practices

Question 31

What was the main distinction between the western church in Rome and the eastern church in Byzantium

Answer 31

Church in Rome and embraced icons throughout and the banning of these images in the eastern church for extended times begin and growing rivalry

Question 32

What happened in 867 to 1057 A.D.

Answer 32

There was a restoration of Byzantiums power as Basal I drove back the Muslims and gained back Asia minor and the Balkan territory. Basal the second reinforced these borders and his rule marked the peak of the byzantine commercial activity and economic prosperity between 976-1057

Question 33

What does iconoclasm mean

Answer 33

Image destroyer

Question 34

What year did Byzantium fall

Answer 34

1453

Question 35

Why did the Byzantine empire decline and fall?

Answer 35

The empire became soft due to political corruption, excessive luxury, and personal pleasures. In this vulnerable state the Seljuk Turks attacked. The defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert and the Turks overran Asia Minor an threatened the whole empire. In response the church promoted crusades to recover the holy land from the muslims. The Ottoman Turks poured into Asia minor in the 14th century they conquered the byzantine lands and laid siege to Constantinople finally taking it in 1453 and thus ending the empire

Question 36

Who were the two men that conceived a plan in the late 11th century to call on the Roman church and the people of the western Europe to help him drive off the Muslim presence in the Christian world

Answer 36

Emperor Alexius Comnenusand pope urban II

Question 37

Byzantine contributions to civilization

Answer 37

1. The Justinian code (law)
2. Preservation of Greco roman culture
3. Preservation of ancient manuscripts vital to the scholars of the renaissance including the Greek New Testament .
4. Eastern Orthodox Church became the church of the Russians Slavs and bulgars
5. Cyril missionary to Slavs translated religious works into the Slavs language by inventing the Cyrillic alphabet.
6. Architecture (Hagia Sophia )
7. Byzantine art influenced the artists of the Italian renaissance
8. Byzantine empire preserved Christianity and western culture by resisting the Muslim invasions.