The Byzantine Empire

The Split of Alexander's empire

Alexander the Great did not have an heir when he was alive, and because Alexander's son was not born yet, or younger than one year old, the Macedonian Empire was split in to four parts. These four parts were:

1. The Kingdom of Egypt
2. The Kingdom of Syria
3. The Kingdom of Persia
4. The Kingdom of Macedonia

Alexander's descendants could not decide on who took over the empire, so it was forced to split or else the fight between the descendants would end up having someone dead.


Constantine The Great
Constantine was the person who started the Byzantine Empire, and moved it to Constantinople, Greece (current day Istanbul). Maxentios, was one of the two kings of the Western Roman Empire. He wanted to take over Constantine's (the other king of the west) part, leaving Maxentios being the only King of the west. Constantine would not stand for it, and would not let Maxentios' army conquer him. His army was not as strong though. So he looked every where to find a solution to his problem, and beat Maxentios. He found the answer to victory where he least suspected it. He was looking in the sky and he saw a glitter, some thing bright. There were letters in the sky saying "En toutw nika (en touto nika)." Meaning you are going to win this one. In Constantine's dream, he saw Jesus Christ holding a cross. Now he knew then that he was not seeing things in the sky, and that Jesus was going to help him in the battle. Constantine's army was the first to attack. Maxentios got scared and ran to save himself, but ended up drowning in a lake. On the other hand, Constantine was glorious and took Maxentios' part of the empire. Constantine gave back the favor to Jesus and made a law, which gave any one the right to follow any religion.

Later on, after his victory, Constantine vowed to move the Roman Empire from west to east. Rome had gotten old and washed out. Most of the Romans were still idolaters. Rome was far away from the trade center in the east. Constantine now wanted to change the location of Rome. His first stop was the city of Troy. He started to build there, but the topography was not what he was looking for. Therefore, he kept on looking for another area. Constantine looked in some other places, but he found a spot in Greece, that had a king named Byzantin. So Constantine built a colony and named in Byzantium. Before he did anything more there, he ordered Magyaris (his assistant)to ask the oracle of Delphi where to build, and god answered back. "Build near the country of the blind."

Later they realized that Hrisopoli (meaning "Gold City" in Greek) was the city of the blind that the oracle spoke of. It is often argued about how they found out that Hrisopoli was the City of the Blind. Some say Byzantin told him, others have other stories. Constantine was building in Troy one day, when he looked up; he saw lots of birds flying around his head. A little while later he saw that the birds had picked up the artisan's tools and then they dropped them where he was building in Byzantium. That's when he knew that god wanted him to build there. The reason it was called the country of the blind is because it was a beautiful land to build on, and it was right under their noses.

The Byzantine City

They started to build The Byzantine City in 324. Just like Rome, this city was not built in a day, but 2185 days, 6 years. It was filled with parks, churches, markets, town squares, entertainment centers, and reservoirs. Constantine originally named the city New Rome. The populace on the other hand disagreed. They wanted to name it after the founder. They wanted to name it Constantinople. Constantinople, then became the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

The death of Constantine

Constantine died on May 21st, 337. History named him Constantine the Great. The church said that him and his mother were equal to an apostle. Today, there are several churches named after Constantine and his mother Eleni.

Julian The Apostate

Julian took the throne after Constantine's death. Becoming the second King of the Byzantine Empire. The problem with him is, he wanted to bring back the religion of idolaters (polytheism), but it did not work out. To make sure that it was not a bad thing that he failed to change the religion, he asked the Oracle of Delphi. The oracle answered back saying that it was not a good idea to change the people's religion. The Christian religion had prevailed.

The Byzantine Empire becomes Greek

Obviously, the Byzantine Empire up to now has been a Roman Empire in Constantinople. Slowly but steadily, it started becoming more Greek. The first major thing to change was language. After a while, it changed from Latin, to Greek. All of the countries in the Empire were Greek, and spoke Greek. This brings us back to Alexander the great. Although he has been dead since 323 BC, the countries he conquered were almost the same that the Byzantine Empire had. The populace spoke Greek, most of the people were Christian, the language of the church was also Greek, there were lots of Greek philosophies, and most of the cultures were Greek cultures. By the fifth century, the Byzantine Empire was a Greek, and was nicknamed the Greek Empire.

Justinian

Justinian was one of the greatest kings the Byzantine Empire has ever seen. He ruled for 38 years (527-565). 5 years after he became king, he ran into some trouble that almost sent him running from Constantinople. Constantinople was separated into four parts. They were named by the color of the hippodrome's charioteers. The colors were: Green, Blue, White, and Red. The two most powerful parts were the Green, and the Blue. People started to get a little to into the games and started to riot. Justinian decided he could not deal with it. He was ready to leave Constantinople and hide his identity.

In the meantime, the rioters just got worse, they torched churches, hippodromes, houses, and killed random people in the streets. They even tried to burn down the Hagia Sophia, which was built by Constantine. Personally, that makes me really mad.

The rioters were ready to set the palace on fire. Justinian gathered Belisario's army. At that point, there was a huge slaughter. About 30 thousand rioters were killed. In the end, Justinian stayed at the throne.

Heraclius

In the year 610, Heraclius became the new king of Constantinople. Up until Heraclius, the Byzantine Kingdom was still Roman, they were still called Caesar. Heraclius brought back an ancient Greek word for king, Basilias. His problem was that the east was bringing in lots of enemy's. Chorsoe, the king of the Persians, had gotten all the way to Halkidiki. He was a huge threat to Constantinople. Heraclius was ready to make peace with Chorsoe, but that was the last thing Chorsoe wanted to do. Heraclius decided to fight him. In the battles between Heraclius and Chorsoe, Heraclius beat the Persians, and they were forced to surrender and leave the Byzantine Kingdom. He was forced to give back all the slaves, and the Holy Cross. Heraclius ran into some more trouble, even after he beat the Persians. The Persians teamed up with the Arabs and were planning an attack on Constantinople. The city of Constantinople found itself in a big crisis. Heraclius and his army were nowhere to be found in the city, and there were not enough people to fight.

The Arabs launched and attack but they did not have what it took to take over Constantinople. The defenders were fighting and the Byzantine fleet destroyed the enemy's boats because they could not come close to the power of the Byzantine Navy.

The Byzantine/Arabic Siege

It was quite predictable that the Arabs were going to take an attack on the Byzantine Empire, by themselves this time. Why not, they were the richest, most powerful empire at that time. The Arabs got a big fleet together. They had a battle in the Mediterranean. From 672 to 679, the Arabs tried to come and conquer. In the end, the Arabs just gave up, and left the Byzantine's alone.

The reason the Byzantines had an amazing navy and kept the Arabs back so easily is because of Greek fire. Greek fire was amazing. The Greeks would shoot it out of a hose that was attached to their boats. That was pretty amazing. That was not the amazing part though. The amazing part was it could not be extinguished by water, the fire would literally float on the water. The way they did that remains a mystery today! It was a major government secret back then. It is said that an Egyptian man came up with the idea, and his country declined the idea, so then he went to the Byzantines. Nobody knows if that is true or not, but it is a possibility.


The Byzantine/Bulgarian Siege



During the reign of King Basil the II, Samuel of the Bulgarians conquered Albania, Epirus, Macedonia, and Thessaly, which were all provinces of the Byzantine Empire. Not only that, but they were going to try and take over the rest of Greece. Basil sent out his army, and found the Bulgarians ready to fight near a lake that was flooding. The army got by the flooding lake some how, and got to the Bulgarians. Fifteen thousand Bulgarians were taken prisoner. Basil blinded 99 out of every 100 prisoners, and the100th person, he let go with only one eye blinded. When Basil took them all back to Samuel, Samuel died. In the brutalities of the Bulgarians, Basil showed how brutal and inhuman he could be. Even today, every one who hears what happened, shutters in disgust. Basil was later nicknamed the Bulgarian killer.

The fal l

After the fourteenth century, the Byzantine Empire became weak. What did it was the Turks charging in and putting the city under siege, just like hungry wolves. They charged into the city and just started slaughtering people, burning buildings, and doing anything they wanted. The massacre lasted about three days. Forty thousand Greeks were slaughtered and sixty thousand were taken prisoner and were put to work. The Turks robbed the Holy Vessels, bibles, religious icons, and anything else they found in the Churches. On the third day of the massacre, Muhammad walked into the Hagia Sophia (the one Constantine The Great built) and said, "From this day forward, this building will be a mosque."

Later, Muhammad asked that his men find the dead body of the King. It was not very hard to find his body, because he was wearing images of the eagle. Muhammad wanted to cut off his head and put it on a pole in the town square, where every one could see it.

In about two or 3 years, Muhammad had conquered Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea. That was when obviously, the Byzantine Empire fell.

Double-headed eagle

The double-headed eagle was the symbol of the Byzantine Empire. The double-headed eagle obviously had two heads. The one head looked to the right, and the other looked to the left. It symbolized the authority and power that the Byzantine Empire had from the west to east. Many flags and currency still use the double-headed eagle on it.

The Greek Independence

In the year 1821, the Greeks got their independence; I am not going to tell you detail about this. This article is about the Byzantine Empire, but after 400 years, the Greeks had not been an independent state, and somehow, they pulled themselves together to become the beautiful nation that they are today. This proves that the Greeks had been a magnificent culture through the history of time. From the Amazing archaic empire, too the Greek golden ages, to the time of Christ, to the Byzantine Empire, to the Greek independence, to what they are today.

The Byzantine Emperors

Diocletian Maximian Constantius I Chlorus Galerius Maxentios (replaced Constantius) Constantine I the Great Licinius Constantine I Sole Emperor Constantine II Constantius II Constans Constantius II Sole Emperor Julian Jovian Valentinian I Valens Gratian Theodosius Valentinian II (replaced Gratian) Theodosius I Arcadius Theodosius II Marcian Leo I Leo II Zeno Basiliscus Anastasius I Justin I Justinian I Justin II Tiberius II Constantine Maurice Phocas Heraclius Constantine III Heraclonas Constans II 'Pogonatus' Constantine IV Justinian II 'Rhinotmetus' Leontius Tiberius III Justinian II 'Rhinotmetus' Philippicus Bardanes

Anastasius II Theodosius III Leo III Contantine V 'Copronymus' Artabasdus Contantine V 'Copronymus' Leo IV Constantine IV Irene Nicephorus I Stauracius Michael Rhangave Leo V Michael II Theophilus Michael III Basil I Dimitrios Leo IV Alexander Honorius Constantius III Johannes Valentinian III Petronius Maximus Avitus Marjorian Libius Severus Anthemius Olybrius Glycerius Julius Nepos Romulus Augustulus Lewis the Pious Lothair I Lewis II Charles the Bald Charles the Fat Guy Lambert Arnulf Lewis III

Cibstabtube VII 'Porphyrogenitus' Romanus I Lecapenus Romanus II Nicephorus II Phocas John I Tzimisces Basil II 'Bulgaroctonus' Constantine VIII Romanus III Argyrus Michael IV the Paphlagonian Michael V "Calaphates" Zoe and Theodora Constantine IX Monomachus Theodora Michael VI Isaac I Comnenus Constantine Ducas Romanus IV Diogenes Michael VII Ducas Nicephorus III Botaneiates Alexius I Comnenus John II Comnenus Manuel I Comnenus Alexius II comnenus Andronicus I Comnenus Isaac II Angelus Isaac II Angelus and Alexius IV Alexius Murzuphlus John III Ducas Vatatzes Theodore II Lascaris John IV Lascaris Michael VIII Palaeologus Andronicus II Palaeogus Andronicus III Palaeogus John V Palaeologus John VI Cantacusenus John VII Palaeologus Berengar Otto I Otto II Otto III Henry II Conrad II Henry III Henry IV Baldwin I of Flanders Henry of Hainault Peter of Courtenay Yolanda Robert of Courtenay Baldwin II John of Brienne Manuel II Palaeologus John VIII Palaeologus Constantine XI Palaeolgus

By: Dimitrios Karagiannis

This article titled "The Byzantine Empire", is strictly made for three sites and three sites only. AoKMonastery (http://www.ageofempires2.homepad.com), and Chris the Great's site. The Third site is Age of Kings Heaven. NO OTHER SITE MAY USE THIS ARTICLE WITHOUT MY CONSENT, YOU MAY NOT CHANGE THIS IN ANY WAY! My email adress is dimitrios_k_@hotmail.com