Page 14 - All About History - Issue 59-17

the Byzantine empiRe

Byzantine Empire the name ‘Byzantine
Modern
historians use
Empire’ but the
citizens identified
themselves as
Romans
Uncover the Byzantium nEw romE
extraordinary rise and is Born Emperor Constantine the Great
moved the capital of the Roman
fall of one of the world’s Greek colonists founded Empire to
Byzantium to
a city on the European
greatest empires as side of the Bosporus better manage
Strait. Strategically
its eastern
it buckled under the placed between frontiers.
weight of internal conflict Europe and Asia Minor, Endowed by
his name, the
Byzantium prospered,
and foreign invasions though the Greeks and new capital was
Persians warred over it
rechristened
many times. Constantinople.
657 BCE 330 CE

rEstoration of iCons Holy roman EmpirE risE of iConoClasm

After another Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as Emperor Leo III made the veneration of religious icons illegal
period of Holy Roman emperor in an attempt to across the empire, something that continued after his death.
iconoclasm restore the Western Roman Empire. It This vexed the Western Church, which supported their use.
took hold in frustrated the East, who felt that their
814, Empress power was being threatened.
Theodora,
regent for
her son
Michael III,
finally ended
the practice.
Her efforts
led to her
canonisation
as a saint.
The period
between
843 800 726-87 iconoclasm and the
sack of Constantinople
was a high point for
Byzantine art
tHE GrEat saCk of plundErinG away
sCHism ConstantinoplE

After years of After the Fourth Crusade helped put 20,000
disputes, the exiled Emperor Alexios IV on the throne,
Church formally the Byzantines refused to pay. Angered, Estimated number of
separated into the the Crusaders conquered the capital and men in the Crusader army
Roman Catholic established a new Latin Empire.
Church in the Number of
West, led by Pope ships used in
Leo IX, and the the sacking
Greek Orthodox
Church, which
was based in 57
Constantinople. Number of years the
Latin Empire survived

1054 1204 1204

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