a. During the third century usurpations and civil wars became commonplace.

b. No emperor could be secure on the throne, and during the 50-year period from A.D. 235 to 284 there were approximately 35 emperors, of whom only one died a natural death.

c. Emperors had to spend most of their time fighting would-be usurpers.

d. Furthermore, at just this time the state had to face and administrative crisis, as it had to provide more and more services because of the weakening and ultimate demise of the old city-state, polis, as the basis of local government.

a. The Germans, the Goths, threatened the northern frontier of the empire.

b. The Persians, under the dynasty of the Sassanids after 226, represented a serious threat in the East.

c. At the height of this crisis separatist states emerged in Gaul and Palmyra, which seriously brought into question the unity of the empire.

a. This was not a totally new phenomenon, but its development was hastened by developments in the third century.

b. Particularly important were the "mystery religions," which promised their devotees happiness and salvation by association with the god: Isis, Osirus, Cybele, Mithras, etc.

c. Similar developments can be traced in philosophy, where Plotinus and Porphyry emphasized man's striving for union with god and made Neoplatonism the dominant intellectual force among the educated.

d. Syncretism was one of the hallmarks of the age and paganism and Christianity moved largely along parallel lines.

.

a. Many new provinces were created by the subdivision of old provinces.

b. Civil and military functions of office were separated; provincial governors no longer had military powers and military commanders had to seek funding from the civil administration.

c. An elaborate civil hierarchy was created alongside a military chain of command: at the top of the civil hierarchy, just below the emperor, was the praetorian perfect (praefectus paetorio), in charge of one of the 3 or 4 prefectures; below the prefect was the vicar (vicarius), in charge of a diocese, and the provincial governor (normally praeses), in charge of a province. Each province was made up of a number of cities (civitates, poleis), each administered by a council of leading citizens (curia, boule).

d. At the top of the military hierarchy, in a position similar to that of the praetorian prefect, was magister militum; below him were the comes (pl. comites) and the dux (pl. duces)

e. In addition there was an elaborate court: such officials as the magister officiorum, comes sacrarum largitionum, comes rei privatae, praepositus sacri cubiculi.

3. The person of the emperor was considerably elevated and separated from ordinary men.

a. The emperor was surrounded by a bodyguard and his everyday activities were associated with elaborate ceremonial.

b. He became an "oriental despot" in theory and practice.

c. The emperor was supposed to be chosen by the gods rather than by the people.

d. The origins of this development were based on Hellenistic kingship,

which was influenced by Mesopotamian ideas; but the immediate model

was probably the example of Sassanid Persia.

4. The Tetrarchy was Diocletian's attempt to solve some of the political problems by creating four emperors and (in effect but not in theory) dividing the empire into four administrative spheres.

a. There were two senior emperors (the Augusti) and two junior emperors (the Caesars [Caesares]).

b. The Caesars were to replace the Augusti when they died or resigned, and they were then to appoint two new Caesars.

c. This was to regulate the problem of the succession, decrease the likelihood of usurpation, and provide for more immediate local rule.

d. Ultimately the Tetrarchy failed, but it left its mark on the administration of the state and showed that the empire as a whole could be divided.

a. The limitanei--the old border troops, stationed permanently along the frontier; now little more than militia (primarily infantry).

b. The comitatenses--mobile field armies stationed in the interior, ready to go wherever the emperor sent them (primarily cavalry).

c. The imperial guards (scholae, etc.)--the "private" army of the emperor, stationed near the emperor's residence.

a. The annona was a land-tax determined by the quality to the land and the manpower available to work it (capitatio-iugatio).

b. The tax base was calculated periodically, eventually every fifteen years (the indictio).

c. The tax was originally collected in kind (normally grain), but money payments were soon substituted.

d. The new system allowed the preparation of annual budgets and put the financial system of the state on a relatively secure footing.

a. Diocletian called himself Jovius and his junior associate Herculius.

b. This probably explains the last great persecution of Christianity, since the Christians naturally refused to support this program.

2. Authoritarianism, uniformity, rigidity, and appeals to strength are usually seen as the characteristics of the age.

a. In 313 he and Licinius issued the so-called Edict of Milan which put an end to the persecution of Christianity.

b. He restored the churches and gave money to Christian bishops.

3. Constantine was now the "chosen ruler" of the Christian God.

a. He expected God to aid him.

b. But he now had responsibilities to Christianity, to support the new religion and spread it, and to maintain the unity of the faith; Constantine didn't fully understand those responsibilities, but the Christian clergy hastened to inform him.

a. Rome had theoretically been a kind of "republic," but as the Empire developed, the emperor had been recognized as an autocrat, who was dependent only on divine support.

b. Many of these ideas were derived from Hellenistic models, taken from Near Eastern sources, especially from Sassanid Persia and from the political philosophies of the Hellenistic monarchies.

2. These ideas were accepted by Diocletian and they came to dominate contemporary thought.

3. When Constantine became a Christian it was natural to adapt these ideas to fit the new religion.

a. Constantine was the vice-regent of Christ, chosen by and responsible to him.

b. The Christian God was the real ruler of the empire.

c. Of course, it is impossible to know who articulated these ideas: Constantine or his advisors.

a. These ideas were based, in part, on the teachings of Neoplatonism

b. Neoplatonism taught that visible objects were imitations or reflections of divine originals; thus, the Roman empire was the human counterpart of a divine, perfect political system--the Kingdom of God

c. The kingdom of God was eternal; the empire was to last as long as the world.

d. God was an absolute monarch; the monarchy of the emperor was limited only by his responsibilities to God.

e. God would support the emperor as long as the emperor did what God wanted.

a. The city was located on a peninsula on the European side of the Bosphoros (modern Istanbul in European Turkey).

b. It was ideally situated between the eastern and northern military frontiers.

c. It was because an important center of trade, located as it was on major north-south and east-west trade routes.

d. Constantine certainly did not set out to "replace" Rome as the capital of the empire: in the fourth century there already were several other capitals and Constantine simply wished to honor his military victory in a typically imperial fashion.

4. The dedication of the city took place in 330.

a. Constantine himself apparently laid out the general plan of the city and ordered the construction to take place remarkably quickly, within about five years.

b. In general, the city was patterned after Rome and its official title was "New Rome;" there were seven churches, and a great palace, which later became the central part of the Great Palace.

c. On 11 May 330 a great ceremony was held to dedicate the city.

5. The overall form of the city: the Golden Horn was on the north, the Sea of Marmora on the South, and the Bosphoros to the east.

a. Walls protected the city from attack along the west; sea walls were incorporated only later.

b. Great avenues ran from the gates in the wall eastward toward the center of the city; many of these streets were colonnaded and lined with impressive public monuments; the most splendid of these was the Mese, or the "Middle Street."

c. The palace complex lay near the site of the ancient acropolis at the far east end of the city.

6. The development of the Capital.

a. By the middle of the fourth century Constantinople had become the legal equal of Rome and it had most of the same institutions, including a Senate.

b. The importance of the city was enhanced by the emperors from 395 to 611, few of whom left the city for extended periods.

c. Monuments of classical art were brought to the city to decorate it.

d. The construction of the Theodosian Walls in 413 was an important milestone in the development of the city; the enlarged the area of the city and enclosed it in triple, almost-impregnable fortifications.

e. Before long Constantinople came to be known simply as "The City."

a. The word "heresy" means a "choice" or an "opinion," but it came to mean an "incorrect" theological belief.

b. Historians distinguish between heresy and orthodoxy, but both sides in a controversy claimed that they were orthodox (meaning "true belief").

c. Who was heretical and who orthodox was determined by who "won" the controversy.

2. Many elements within Christianity were not fully developed or clear, and

controversy naturally developed.

3. Heresy had existed within Christianity from the earliest time, but with the

involvement of the Roman state, the issue took on a new importance.

a. This involved a serious question about the nature of the church: was it to be a body of the elect?

b. Did the church have the ability to forgive sin?

c. Was the validity of the sacraments dependent upon the sanctity of the person who performed them?

3. Almost immediately after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge representatives of the African church approached Constantine, asking him to intervene in the controversy.

a. Constantine feared that God would desert him if he failed to maintain his part of the bargain.

b. Thus, Constantine set a precedent by involving the Roman state in the affairs of the church.

3. Constantine at first told both parties simply to stop fighting, that they were all Christians, but this did no good.

4. Finally, Constantine supported the orthodox (catholic) party and told the Donatists to reunite with the rest of the church.

5. The Donatists naturally thought they were right and they refused; soldiers were ultimately used to enforce unity, but even this was not a total success and the Donatist church survived until the Arab conquest.

a. This idea naturally appealed to those who feared that the concept of the Trinity led to polytheism: this was avoided by making the Son somehow "less divine" than the Father.

b. Arius' teachings implied that the Father was a "creator" rather than a "generating" god; these teachings were more in keeping with Aristotelian than with Platonic ideas.

2. The teachings of Arius caused a great uproar and confusion throughout the East.

3. Constantine was ultimately persuaded to summon a council of bishops from the whole empire (an ecumenical or empire-wide council).

a. The idea of bishops meeting together to discuss matters of faith was an old one; it was probably patterned on the example of the Roman Senate and the council of Roman cities.

b. Constantine viewed the council as a political assembly and regarded it much the same way that he regarded the Roman Senate: the emperor was to summon the council and approve its decisions.

4. The council met at Nicaea in 325.

a. There was much confusion and disagreement.

b. Finally the opponents of Arius came up with a creed that said that Christ as homoousios with the Father (of the same ousia or substance or essence).

c. Arius could not accept that teaching and he and his followers were condemned, by both the state and the official church.

5. Nevertheless, Arianism remained a vital force in the East for years to come.

a. Constantine himself had second thoughts about the teachings of the Council of Nicaea, especially after some things started to go wrong in his life.

b. His son Constantius II was an outright Arian as was the emperor Valens later in the century.

c. A number of "semi-Arian" groups emerged to confuse the issue further.

6. It was during the Arian dominance of Constantinople that the Goths and many other German groups were converted to Christianity.

a. Ulfilas was the "apostle to the Goths" and he had the Bible translated into their language.

b. Most of the Germanic peoples became Arians, and they were distinguished from the Romans on that point.

7. Theodosius I (379-95) was orthodox and he established orthodoxy once and for all within the empire at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

a. Constantine died in 337 and, after some hesitation and confusion, he was succeeded by his three sons.

b. Constantine II and Constans shared rule in the West until Constantine's death in 340.

c. Constantius II was the strongest of the sons of Constantine and he ruled the East until his death in 361.

d. Constantius II was an Arian and a staunch supporter of a Constantinopolitan-centered view of the empire.

e. All the sons of Constantine were Christians who had been raised as Christians: they viewed things differently from their father.

f. The division of the empire among the sons of Constantine showed that the principle of divided rule, established under Tetrarachy, could work.

g. Constans died in 350 and after that date Constantius II was emperor of an undivided empire, despite some unsuccessful usurpation attempts in the West.

2. Julian the Apostate (361-63)

a. Julian was the nephew of Constantine, the last member of the House of Constantine; most of the members of his family had been killed at the time of the succession of Constantine's sons, to eliminate possible rivals; Julian's brother was later murdered on orders of Constantius II.

b. Julian was raised as a Christian, but he decided to return to the religion of his ancestors and he attempted a revival of paganism.

c. Julian did not openly persecute Christianity, but he favored paganism and put severe restrictions on Christians (e.g. forbidding them to teach classical literature).

d. He attempted to organize pagan worship to compete with the highly- organized Christian church; he also tried to revive the cities of the empire and make them the economic and cultural bases of society, as they once had been.

e. Julian's primary supporters were members of the educated aristocracy, but one should not assume that he or they represented a rationalist opposition to Christian superstition: the paganism of the fourth century was dominated by magic and theurgy.

f. Julian was an attractive personality and a good general; he died under mysterious circumstances while on campaign against the Persians.

g. It is difficult to know whether Julian's revival of paganism could have succeeded had he lived longer.

3. Julian was succeeded by Jovian (363-64), who was a Christian.

4. After the death of Jovian, the empire was divided between the two brothers Valens (364-78) and Valentinian I (364-75), military officers from Panonia.

a. Valens ruled in the East, Valentinian in the West.

b. Valens was an Arian, Valentinian was orthodox.

c. In 378 the empire experienced one of the worst defeats, at the Battle of Adrianople, by the Visigoths, Germanic allies, who had been settled within the empire.

5. Theodosius the Great (379-95)

a. Upon the death of Valentinian I, his son Gratian (375-83) succeeded him.

b. After the disaster of Adrianople, Gratian selected Theodosius as emperor in the East; Theodosius was the son of a general of Spanish extraction.

c. Theodosius was a capable soldier and a good administrator.

d. He was a convinced Christian, apparently someone who really believed in all that the theories of Eusebius entailed.

e. He was also orthodox and at the Council of Constantinople in 381 he virtually put an end to Arianism, a doctrine which had dominated the East for the past fifty years.

f. Theodosius moved ardently against both pagans and heretics and most would date the establishment of Christianity as the state religion to his reign.

g. After the death of Gratian, Theodosius became involved in the West, and by the time of his death he ruled the whole of an undivided empire-- the last emperor to do so.

a. Clearly is was a minority religion with little significance in A. D. 300, but by the end of the century it had become the dominant religion of the state.

b. Why was this? It cannot simply have been that Christianity was the "religion of the age," since many religious systems of the period resembled Christianity.

2. The reign of Constantius II would seem to have been crucial in this development.

a. He ruled for a long time and was confident of his own position; Christianity had an opportunity to become established.

b. Constantius II established many of the important characteristics of the Christian ruler for centuries to come.

3. One inescapable observation about this period is the growth of intolerance on a higher level.

a. This culminated in the removal of the Statue of Victory from the Senate in Rome and the "debate" between Symmachus and St. Ambrose.

b. Such intolerance was also a characteristic of relations among various Christian groups; the persecution of heresy became commonplace.

a. Certainly ascetic practices and the religious solitary life antedated Christianity.

b. Presumably early Christian monasticism had some connection with Jewish asceticism; the Essences, people like John the Baptist.

c. There may also have been connections with pagan ascetic groups, particularly in Egypt.

2. St. Antony is usually regarded as the first Christian monk.

a. He lived in Egypt in the third century.

b. In fact, there were already solitary ascetics in the Egyptian desert when Antony arrived there, so he was following in an already established tradition.

c. St. Anthansius--an important supporter of orthodoxy against Arianism-- wrote a biography of Antony; this was the first example of Christian hagiography and it set the tone for the genre; this is undoubtedly the reason for Antony's popularity.

3. Monks such as St. Antony were hermits or anchorites, monachoi properly called.

a. They lived alone as hermits.

b. They met together only occasionally, and were thus outside the ordinary organization of the church.

c. They represented the eremetic form of monasticism, which always remained strong within Byzantium.

4. In addition, there was the tradition of the lavra.

a. Lavra means "alley," and it represented a form of monasticism in which the monks lived in their individual cells and followed the practices they wished.

b. They also had a church in common and occasionally some other buildings and they met regularly for church services.

a. Such monks were not solitaries (hermits), although they gave up life in the ordinary world.

b. They lived under the nearly absolute authority of the hegoumenos or abbot.

3. The cenobitic form of monasticism became very popular and it spread rapidly from Egypt to Palestine and into Asia Minor.

a. Much of the history of monasticism in the fourth century involved the attempt of the church hierarchy to control this movement.

b. Monasticism became very popular and men and women flocked to the monasteries.

c. What explains this: growing problems within society or a simple desire for the religious life?

4. One of the leading figures in the spread of monasticism was Basil of Caesarea in Cappadocia.

a. Basil was a bishop and a monk and he wrote two works in which he set down rules for the administration of cenobitic monasteries.

b. These rules have been very influential in the development of eastern monasticism.

c. However, each monastery was still free to establish its own rules, and there is simply no such thing as "Basilian monasticism" or the Basilian order:" in fact, there are no "orders" in the eastern church--only monks and monasteries.

a. The most famous of those were the Stylites, monks who lived on columns, made famous by Symeon Stylites and later Daniel the Stylite.

b. Other monks lived in trees, in caves, behind brick walls, in old abandoned tombs or temples, or they subjected themselves to excessive physical hardship.

c. Excessive asceticism was generally admired by contemporary society.

3. In addition, the monks became the "shock troops" of Christianity in the struggle against, paganism, Judaism, and heresy.

a. Many abbots became famous as leaders of terrorist bands of monks.

b. Many of the monks were uneducated and one must wonder how much they understood of the issues they were defending.

a. Educational and cultural activities were well supplied in the eastern empire; monks did not need to "preserve" culture there.

b. The goals of the monastic life were not primarily social or cultural, but almost entirely spiritual

2. The goal of the monastic life was simply union with God.

a. This was the purpose of the ascetic practices which the monk underwent.

b. Such thinking involved a very special view of man and the relationship between God and man.

c. The monk was to find God within himself, by separating out everything else.

c. Thus, the first goal of the monastic life was apathia--literally "senselessness," but this was only senselessness to the normal feeling and perceptions of the body.

d. Thus, apathia was not primarily negative (an attack on the body as something bad); it was positive in that its goal was the perception (possibly even the physical perception) of God.

a. They all shared a common culture--classical, essentially pagan culture.

b. These families were stronger in the West, where they were responsible for an important revival of Latin culture in the late fourth and early fifth century.

2. Traditional aristocratic families were essentially independent of the emperor.

a. They did not owe their power or prestige to the emperor; in fact, they considered themselves superior to the emperor in most ways. (Remember, most emperors came from lowly social origins, primarily from the army.)

b. Generally the aristocrats lived on their estates and paid little attention to contemporary problems and politics.

3. The traditional aristocracy represented an important group, especially since they controlled the cultural life of at least the western part of the empire, but they had little real power.

a. They rose either because of their military or their administrative ability, but they owed everything to the emperor; frequently these people were of humble origin.

b. This group thus represented an aristocracy of office, as opposed to the hereditary, landowning aristocracy in the West.

2. This new aristocracy dominated the East, where the old Roman social system had never been fully accepted.

3. This group was given land and money and power, but it constantly turned over, as new blood was brought into it by the will of the emperor.

a. In a sense the members of this aristocracy were less refined than those of the traditional aristocracy in the West.

b. Its ideas, however, were not stultified and it developed a determined attachment to the ideas and ideals of the Constantinian monarchy and formed the backbone of early Byzantine society.

4. The imperial aristocracy was naturally largely Christian in sentiment and Greek in outlook.

a. They farmed this land with half-free persons called coloni.

b. The use of coloni was apparently a change from the slave system of the earlier empire, since the coloni were essentially subsistence farmers who lived on and managed their own small plots of land, as sharecroppers.

c. The rise of this system probably represented an absolute decrease in the agricultural productivity of the land, since land now had to be used for crops that did not produce the largest yields; this whole question is a very difficult one to understand fully.

2. Owners of latifundia were powerful individuals who could frequently defy the authority of the state.

a. They frequently had private armies of their own.

b. Tax collectors could rarely collect taxes from farmers on the latifundia since the landowners could defy the power of the state.

c. Thus, large territories passed outside the effective control of the Roman state.

d. It is difficult to know whether this was a cause or an effect of the weakness of the state.

3. In any case, it is clear that the institution of the latifundia was much more widespread in the West than it was in the East.

a. They were associations of business owners and workers in a given "industry."

b. The function of the collegia was originally social or fraternal, but they came to be used by the government to assure services or the production of goods.

2. We know most about the collegia from the Codex Theodosianus (compiled in 438 under Theodosius II), which lists many of the restrictions of members of the guilds.

a. They had to preform certain tasks, as a kind of corvée labor, and they frequently had to supply goods for sale at a price below what their costs of production had been.

b. Frequently individuals were bound to their guild; normally a man could not escape membership and a father was succeeded by his son.

c. Again, the purpose of this was not to make life difficult, but simply to make sure that essential goods and services were produced and that the state was not left in the lurch.

3. This system is one of the reasons for seeing society as a rigid and fixed system, but close analysis shows that it we not quite so inflexible as one might think.

a. The regulations in the codes suggest that the restrictions were frequently ignored.

b. Tight control of the guilds was apparently more common in the West than in the East.

4. The cities of the East continued to be run by the old traditional local aristocracy: the curiales.

a. These families supplied members to the curia, or local senate, which ran the cities.

b. The decuriones, as members of the local senate, were called . frequently had heavy financial responsibilities: they had to cover whatever expenses were not made up through taxation and state endowment.

c. Many of the civil endowments had been destroyed, either through barbarian invasion, change through time, or the confiscation of the temples (which were state property), and burdens on the curiales became heavier and heavier.

d. Many curiales attempted to flee their civic duties, either by entering the imperial aristocracy or the Christian clergy, or by fleeing society altogether; some left the cities and went to live in the desert.

a. There were also taxes on tradesmen (including prostitutes: the chrysargyron), custom duties, a tax on senators (collatio lustralis), and a few others.

b. As time went on the annona was normally commuted to be a payment in money--a sign of recovery for the eastern economy.

4. How sound was the economy, however: What were its bases?

a. Virtually all Christians now accepted this concept, which became the starting point for future discussions: Christ was held to be "fully God."

b. Nevertheless, Christ had also to be a man; this was necessary for man's salvation. How were the two concepts to be rationalized, especially given the fact that God must be perfect, immortal, all-powerful, etc.?

2. Different individuals emphasized either Christ's divinity or his humanity, just as they had done before.

a. Those who emphasized his divinity tended to ignore his humanity: the theological "school" of Alexandria.

b. those who emphasized his humanity did not deny his divinity, they simply made a distinction between divinity and humanity--the "school" of Antioch.

c. Theologians of the school of Alexandria argued that one could not distinguish clearly between Christ's humanity and divinity because a) Christ was fully divine [council of Nicaea] and b) divinity was infinite and could not be limited and human in any way.

3. The theological disputes became involved with more secular concerns.

a. The most obvious of these was the rivalry between the bishops of Constantinople and Alexandria.

b. Until 381 the bishop of Alexandria was the most important ecclesiastical figure in the East, but his primacy was challenged by the growing authority of the bishop of Constantinople.

c. In addition, many scholars have seen economic, social, and political motives in the controversies.

d. In particular, some have explained the controversies as motivated by growing nationalism and opposition to the central government in Constantinople.

a. He did not deny that Christ was God.

b. He said, however, that people should not call Mary thetokos, the "mother of God," because she was only the mother of the human aspect of Christ.

c. Great opposition developed against Nestorius' teaching and his opponents charged that he taught "two sons" and that he "divided the invisible."

d. The leader of the opposition to Nestorius was Cyril, bishop of Alexandria.

3. Disturbed by the controversy, the emperor Theodosius II (408-50) summoned a council to meet in 431 in Ephesus.

a. At the council Nestorius was condemned.

b. The bishops asserted that one could no separate the human from the divine nature of Christ.

c. Nestorius was deposed and sent into exile.

d. Nestorians were persecuted and many of them fled to Persia, where they were tolerated by the Persian king.

e. This represented a victory for Alexandrian theology.

f. Theodosius II had originally supported Nestorius but he was unable to impose his will on the church.

a. The leader of this movement was the monk, Eutyches, who taught that Christ had only one nature (physis)--and this was divine.

b. This doctrine can be called monophysitism (mono = "only one," physis "nature").

c. Eutyches was supported by Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, while Flavian, the bishop of Constantinople condemned Eutyches' teaching.

d. the opponents of Eutyches argued that one could not attribute the sufferings of Christ to the divinity.

2. This controversy was to be settled at the second council of Ephesus (449, often called the Robber Council), and this ended in violence, the death of Flavian, and the triumph of Eutyches and Dioscorus.

3. In 451, however, the new emperor Marcian summoned a new council which met at Chalcedon.

a. The Council of Chalcedon condemned Eutyches and monophysitism.

b. It accepted the teachings of Pope Leo I, who said that Christ had two natures, human and divine. (How was this different from Nestorianism?)

c. Dioscorus was deposed.

a. Opposition was greatest in Egypt where dyophysite (Chalcedonian) bishops were maintained only by force

b. Those who opposed imperial rule rallied around the monophysites.

c. Monophysitism also gained strength in Syria.

2. In Egypt the monophysites were called Copts and in Syria they were called Jacobites and in both areas they dominated the church organization and the orthodox were a minority.

3. Constantinople and the western areas maintained a Chalcedonian position.

4. Many emperors made concerted attempts to reconcile the opposition between monophysites and Chalcedonians, but this always failed.

a. Note how the emperor was caught in the middle of this controversy.

b. In 482 the emperor Zeno issued his Henotikon, an edict which tried to impose unity by imperial edict.

c. Anastasius virtually became a monophysite.

d. Even Justianian failed to find a solution, even though he wrote theological tracts on the subject, and Theodora seems to have supported the Monophysites.

5. As time went on and the emperors tried to impose unity, the monophysite eastern provinces drew farther and farther away from Constantinople and its culture.

a. Theodosius I (379-95)

b. Arcadius, son of Theodosius I (395-408)

c. Theodosius II, son of Arcadius; ruled jointly with his sister Pulcheria and his wife Athenais/Eudokia (408-50)

d. Marcian, husband of Pulcheria (450-57)

2. The Successors:

a. Leo I (457-74), came to the throne as the candidate of the Germans under Aspar the Alan: came to reply on the Isaurians for support and in 471 there was a revolt against the Germans.

b. Zeno (474-91), real name was Tarasicodissa, an Isaurian; came to the throne after the death of the young Leo II; survived the revolt of Basiliscus.

c. Anastasius (491-519), a senator and high court official, supported monophysitism and reformed the economy, adding considerably to the treasury.

d. Justin I (519-27), a partly-Romanized soldier from peasant stock who became commander of the palace guard and forced himself on the empire.

a. It is uncertain what caused this movement of peoples (possibly population increase; most peoples wanted farm land), but it was exacerbated by the appearance of people from the steppes (non-Germans).

b. The Romans, following long custom, frequently enrolled barbarians into the Roman army as foederati; this practice worked quite well.

2. The Battle of Adrianople

a. In 378 the Visigothic foederati in Thrace rebelled against what they took to be unfair treatment by Roman government officials.

b. The emperor Valens hastened to meet them and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Adrianople, where he was killed.

c. Theodosius I dealt with the Visigoths by essentially granting their request for land.

3. Alaric and the Visigoths

a. After the death of Theodosius the Visigoths under their first king Alaric again revolted and ravaged Thrace and Greece.

b. Driven from the Balkans, Alaric invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 410.

c. After the Death of Alaric the Visigoths settled in Gaul.

4. Under their king Geiseric the Vandals began their invasion on North Africa in 429; by 442 the Vandals were recognized as an independent kingdom.

5. Attila the Hun

a. The Huns were a Turkic people who arrived along the Danube frontier in the early part of the fifth century, impelling many of the Germanic peoples into the empire.

b. Attila welded these diverse peoples into a powerful barbarian empire and threatened Constantinople which paid him huge indemnities during the reign of Theodosius II.

c. Marcian refused to pay the indemnity and in 450 the Huns began to move westward.

d. In 451 Attila invaded Gaul but was defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields by a coalition of Romans and Visigoths.

e. In 452 he invaded Italy, where Rome was spared after negotiations with Pope Leo I.

f. Attila died and his empire melted away.

a. This was evident right at the beginning of the fifth century when the people of Constantinople rioted against the barbarians in the army.

b. The presence of the Isaurians gave the Byzantines an alternate source of soldiers who could counter the Germanic threat.

a. Unlike his uncle, Justinian received a reasonable education, which allowed for the development of his truly remarkable intellect.

b. Whatever one ultimately thinks of Justinian, he was competent in a wide variety of areas: theology, politics, military strategy, art, architecture, and science.

c. This is but one example of the remarkable "civilizing" ability of Constantinople

2. At a relatively early age, presumably before Justin became emperor, Justinian married Theodore.

a. She was obviously of low birth, being the daughter of a animal keeper of one of the circus factions.

b. Procopius' treatment of Theodora is one of the most interesting in literature, but much of it is of questionable veracity.

c. Theodora was, like Justinian, a person of many talents (!) and was obviously very intelligent.

3. Justinian had a rare opportunity to learn the job of being emperor when Justin made him his chief advisor; in 527 Justin named him co-emperor and Justinian became emperor when his uncle died.

4. Throughout his reign Justinian's administration was characterized by unabashed totalitarianism.

a. Justinian seems to have believed firmly that he was the chosen instrument of God's rule.

b. He disregarded all opposition and refused to follow any procedures unless he agreed with them.

c. He offended the established aristocracy by choosing men of humble birth as his closest advisors.

d. This totalitarianism was nothing new; Justinian simply carried it to its extreme.

5. In religious affairs Justinian always advocated orthodoxy.

a. Under Justin he was personally responsible for ending the Acacian schism and the restoration of good relations with the pope. Was this done to prepare the way for the western reconquest?

b. Theodora always maintained monophysite sentiments.

c. In 553 Justinian summoned the fifth ecumenical council to meet in Constantinople in another futile attempt to pacify the monophysites.

6. One of Justinian's most lasting achievements was the creation of the Corpus Juris Civilis.

a. This was the ultimate codification of Roman Law, in which form is was passed down to later generations and to Western Europe, where it remains the basis of law today.

b. The codification was carried out by an imperial commission under the direction of Trebonian, one of Justinian's most trusted advisors.

a. The tax collecting activities of John the Cappadocian, in particular, had irritated people.

b. In general, Justinian's heavy-handed ways had caused opposition and many of the aristocrats were angered.

2. The immediate cause of the revolt was the arrest and execution of members of the circus factions.

a. Unlike the emperors of the recent past, Justinian attempted to put a stop to factional violence, and he refused to support one faction against the others.

b. The factions united and the racecource term "Nika" (victory) became the watchword of the revolt.

c. There was rioting in the hippodrome and much of the central part of the city was destroyed.

d. The political revolt.

1) Members of the aristocracy took this opportunity to attempt to overthrow the emperor.

2) Hypatius, nephew of Anastasius, was proclaimed emperor.

3) The situation was serious and Justinian prepared for flight, but he was supposedly restrained by the advice of Theodora.

4) Justinian ordered the commanders Belisarius and Narses to attack the people, and as many as 40,000 people were killed; the autocracy of Justinian was established on an even firmer basis.

a. Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom had been begun by Constantine and it had already been destroyed and rebuilt once before.

b. Justinian's church was one of the greatest monuments of Byzantine civilization. The church of Hagia Irene (Holy Peace) was likewise rebuilt.

4. Justinian also carried out many rebuilding programs in the provinces, especially the construction of fortifications.

5. We know much about this program, since it is described by Procopius in the Buildings (de aedificiis).

a. Legally they were still part of the Roman Empire

b. With the money Anastasius had left in the treasury and with his power confirmed after the Nika Revolt, Justinian felt he was in a position to carry out the task.

3. The papacy was favorable to Justinian's schemes of reconquest because of the ending of the Acacian Schism.

a. The emperor could once again act as the defender of the papacy and catholicism against the heretic (Arian) Germans.

b. Likewise, in North Africa the Catholic landowners longed for a restoration of Roman rule.

c. In 532 Justinian secured an "Endless Peace" with Persia at the cost of paying heavy tribute.

4. The War in Africa

a. In 533 Balisarius sailed for Africa

b. The Vandal fleet made some initial blunders and Belisarius was totally successful.

c. Vandal rule had never been popular in Africa.

d. in 534 Belisarius led Gelimer, the Vandal king, in a triumphal procession in Constantinople.

5. The War in Italy

a. This undertaking was more difficult because the Ostrogoths had established their rule on a firmer basis; they had been more successful at integrating the Roman nobility and persecution had been rare.

b. In 595 Belisarius attacked Italy; he fought on with very small resources.

c. In his absence the Ostrogoths revived under the leadership of Totila.

d. Belisarius returned to Italy, but he was unable to accomplish much.

e. Justinian sent the eunuch Narses as commander in 550 and he completed the conquest--which had taken twenty years.

6. At this time some areas of Spain and Gaul were also secured for the empire.

7. Exarchates were established at Ravenna and Carthage.

a. The Exarch was a military commander who also held political power

b. This was a notable departure from the policies of Diocletian.

8. The churches of Ravenna:

a. San Vitale

b. S. Apollinare Nuovo

c. S. Apollinare in Classe

d. Orthodox and Arian Baptisteries

a. The Byzantines maintained strongholds in the south (Calabria and Apulia) and in the area around Ravenna in the north, but such of the rest of the peninsula was lost to the Lombards.

b. In Rome the pope maintained a precarious independence, relying largely on Byzantine military power to support him against the heretical Germans.

2. Roman bases in Spain were lost to the Visigoths by 584.

3. North Africa remained in Byzantine hands until the Arab conquests of the seventh century.

a. Nevertheless, even this area was not secure since the Berber tribesmen attacked the settled centers and made Roman control very difficult.

b. It was during this time that the area began to lose the agricultural fertility that had characterized it throughout antiquity.

4. Persia became a particularly dangerous enemy once again.

a. During the reign of Justinian peace had been bought at the price of heavy subsidies.

b. Justin II refused to pay the tribute to the Persians and a long war was begun, fought largely over Armenia.

a. Justinian had built fortresses in the area, but these could not withstand heavy barbarian pressure.

b. In the early sixth century there was little threat from this direction.

2. Later in Justin's reign, however, large numbers of Slavs began to cross the border: Antes and Sclaveni.

a. Some Slavs entered the Roman army as foedereti, but most simply settled on former Roman territory.

b. In the last quarter of the century the Slavs were unified (i.e., conquered) by the Avars, a mixed people, probably Turkic, from central Asia.

c. Under Avar leadership the Slavs began to make concerted attacks on Byzantine territory.

3. At first the Romans were preoccupied with the war against Persia and the Slavs met virtually no resistance.

a. They took Sirmium, a former imperial capital, in 582.

b. There was massive destruction throughout the Balkans, as city after city was destroyed; typically there was no recovery from this destruction for three or four hundred years.

c. Slavs settled down in small villages, and Byzantine political control came to an effective end in large areas of the Balkans: from this time called Sklaveniai.

4. In 582 Maurice finally turned his attention to the northern frontier and he made some progress against the barbarians.

a. In 602, however, Maurice's soldiers revolted and killed the emperor, leaving the northern frontier virtually undefended; the "tyrant" Phokas took no serious steps to defend the frontier.

b. It was to be another two hundred years before a Byzantine emperor could successfully campaign in Sklavenia.

5. Virtually all of the northern and central Balkans were overrun by the Slavs, but some Byzantine control remained in cities along the southern coasts.

a. In the north there were no cities left; only Slavic tribes.

b. In Greece some cities and fortified places remained under Byzantine control: Korinth, Korone, Monemvasia.

c. There is much historiographical debate about the continuity of the "Greek nation" through this difficult period.

d. Much of the debate turns on the interpretation of the so-called Chronicle of Monesvasia.

6. Just as the Slavs were conquering the Balkans, the Persians attacked in the East and there was universal catastrophe.

a. Chosroes claimed to be the avenger of Maurice against the tyrant Phokas.

b. The Persians ravaged all of Asia Minor and a detachment of their army even reached as far as Chalcedon.

c. They took Antioch, Jerusalem, and most of Egypt.

a. Most seriously, the Avers/Slavs and the Persians crossed the frontiers virtually unchecked.

b. There was chaos in Constantinople as the circus factions engaged in continuous violence and Phokas persecuted many members of the aristocracy.

2. Heraclius, the Exarch of Carthage, rose in revolt against Phokas

a. His fleet sailed along the coast of Africa toward Constantinople, gathering strength as it went.

b. Heraclius the exarch was an old man, and he designated his son--also called Heraclius--as the leader of the revolt.

3. In 610 Phokas was overthrown and killed and Heraclius (the younger) was proclaimed emperor.

a. Clearly these were years of crisis.

b. We know about this period primarily from the Chronicle of Theophanes.

2. During these years Heraclius may have introduced the system of the themes.

a. This question is still hotly debated by scholars, since the evidence is so difficult.

b. Essentially the question turns on a passage in Theophanes and one in Constantine Porphyrogenitus, both of whom seem to attribute the creation of the themes to Heraclius; both of these writers are late (9th and 10th century) and they may not reflect the situation in the seventh century.

c. A crucial question is whether the "reform" was introduced at one time by one emperor as an act of policy, or whether it developed slowly over the course of years or even centuries.

d. There is another fundamental problem, since the term theme (thema) was originally used to describe an army unit; later it was used as a political subdivision of the empire: how is one to distinguish the two in the sources?

3. The theme system had three basic elements:

a. The creation of themes (themata which were large administrative units governed by a strategos (general) who had both civil and military power.

b. The creation of stratiotika ktemata (soldiers' lands or military properties), which were given to soldiers by the state in return for military service.

c. The virtual replacement of the praetorian perfect by the logothetes, as the highest civil and financial officials of the state:

4. Whatever its origin, the theme system developed as time went on, and new themes were added as the state extended its military control over new areas.

a. The first themes were located in Asia Minor: Anatolikon, Armeniakon, Opsikion.

b. As time went on the large themes tended to be split into smaller units.

c. Until the end of the seventh century there apparently were no themes in the European part of the empire.

5. Although this may not have been the original purpose in creating the themes, the system did tend to solve the financial and administrative problems of the state.

a. Less revenue was needed to pay the soldiers.

b. The strategos maintained effective control over the theme and the thematic army was able to respond quickly to military emergencies.

c. This rendered revolt more likely, however, as the strategos was a very powerful individual.

a. They invaded Syria in 613 and (probably) in 614 they took Jerusalem, carrying off the Holy Cross to Persia.

b. In 616 they invaded Egypt, conquering most of it easily; the monophysite inhabitants of this part of the empire did not oppose the Persians.

2. The Counter-Attack

a. Heraclius made elaborate preparations, perhaps involving the creation of the basis of the theme system, but certainly involving important military reforms.

b. He made the campaign against the Persians something of a religious crusade: Christianity against Zoroastrianism.

c. The church supported him in this crusade, even to the point of contributing its own wealth toward the campaign.

d. In 622 Heraclius set off against the Persians and defeated them, reaching Gerzak, the ancestral Sassanid capital, which was destroyed in retaliation for the destruction of Jerusalem.

e. The Persians made an alliance with the Avars, and Heraclius was forced to divide his attention while both his enemies besieged Constantinople in 626.

f. At the Battle of Nineveh in 627 Heraclius was totally successful and the Persian king Chosroes II was overthrown.

g. In 628 (?) the weak king Kavad-Shiruya signed a peace treaty favorable to Byzantium.

h. Heraclius became the guardian of the Persian king: he had won the war against tremendous odds.

a. The teachings of Monoergetism (that there was one Energy) in the person of Christ had not satisfied either party.

b. Sergios wrote a document called the Ekthesis, which Heraclius promulgated in 628.

c. The Ekthesis forbade discussion of Monoergetism and stated that the two natures of Christ were joined in a single Will (=Monotheletism).

3. Monotheletism failed to secure harmony and it was condemned by both Monophysites and Chalcedonians.

4. Heraclius did not strongly push the idea.

a. The Arabs had served as foederati for Byzantium along the eastern frontier.

b. Some Arabs even settled down and became Christians

c. Nevertheless, the cultural center of the Arab tribes lay deep in the Arabian peninsula, where they preserved their traditions of fierce individualism and oral poetry.

d. Most Arabs were thus pagans who practiced a kind of animism.

2. Sometime around A.D. 610 Muhammed began to have religious experiences, which were ultimately recorded in the Qu'ran.

a. Islam accepted the historical validity of Judaism and Christianity, but saw the revelations of Muhammed as the final stage in the plan of God.

b. Central to Islam is the idea that Allah (God) alone is god; strict monotheism.

c. Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammed were the prophets of Allah.

3. In A.D. 622 Muhammed made his great migration (the hijrah) and the conversion of the Arabs to Islam began; this date is accepted by Muslims as the beginning of the Islamic era (A.H. dates).

4. At first Muhammed opposed the spread of Islam by force, but he later came to accept this idea.

a. It was forbidden to make war on other Muslims.

b. Non-believers could (indeed, should) be attacked and brought within the sphere of Islam, but "people of the book" (i.e., Jews and Christians) were to be tolerated.

c. Non-Muslims were, however, to pay heavy taxes to support the Muslim state.

d. This is the basis of the distinction between the Dar-al-Islam and the Dar al-Harb (the "House of Islam" and the "House of War"), an idea which postulated continuous warfare between Muslims and those areas not yet controlled by Islam.

5. Muhammed perceived no distinction between secular and religious institutions and rules.

a. Qu'ran was to be the basis of law governing all Muslim areas.

b. Muhammed was both a political and a religious leader.

6. The Prophet died in A.D. 632 and there was considerable controversy about appointing a successor.

a. Utlimately it was decided to appoint a successor (khalipha, caliph) who would be both political and religious leader of the Islamic community.

b. Nevertheless, there was much controversy about the succession and this led to an important schism within Islam (Suni and Shiite communities).

a. The first serious Arab attacks on Byzantine territory took place in 633- 34.

b. The general Yazid defeated the Byzantine commander Sergios at Gaza.

c. Byzantine forces were then commanded by Theodore, the brother of Heraclius, who was then in Antioch.

d. Damascus fell in 635.

e. After the Battle of the Yarmuk in 636 all of Syria and Palestine lay open to the Arabs.

f. Most of the cities of Syria and Palestine surrendered without a struggle, especially since the Arabs promised not to sack any city that did not offer resistance.

g. Jerusalem, defended by the orthodox patriarch Sophronios, held out until 637.

3. The conquest of Egypt began in 641 and was complete by 642.

a. The razzia had been part of the economic basis of Arabia for centuries.

b. Islam forbade armed attacks on other Muslims, so the Arabs turned their attention to non-Muslims.

c. In Persia and Byzantium they encountered little opposition.

4. The long war between Persia and Byzantium (from about 602 to 628) exhausted both sides.

a. Many of the most productive areas of both states were overrun and burned during the course of the war.

b. The psychological strain of the Arab attacks, so soon after the great war, with Persia must not be discounted.

5. It is difficult to evaluate the importance of Monophysite dissatisfaction in the Arab successes.

6. Some scholars have argued that the Arabian peninsula was progressively drying up during this period, forcing the Arabs to move into the surrounding territories.

7. Many scholars now are arguing that the Roman world suffered a significant crisis about the middle of the sixth century, as a result of plague and perhaps the overspending of Justinian, and that it was in serious declince already, well before the appearance of the Arabs.

a. Heraclius left the throne to his sons Constantine III (son by a first marriage) and Heraclonas (son of Martina).

b. Martina dominated the court, but she was rejected in part because she was a woman.

2. Constantine forced Martina into the background, but he soon died and she found herself in power as guardian for the young Heraclonas.

3. Opposition to Martina centered in the Senate, and Heraclonas was deposed late in 641.

a. Both Martina and Heraclonas were mutilated, which rendered them unable to rule.

b. Constans II, the young son of Constantine III (grandson of Heraclius), was named emperor.

c. Because of Constans' youth, the Senate exercised unusual authority.

a. Muawija, the governor of Syria, made attacks into Asia Minor and in 649 built the first Arab navy--the first to challenge Roman naval superiority in centuries.

b. Muawija captured Cyprus (649), Rhodes (654), and Kos (654).

c. He defeated Constans at the Battle of the Masts at Phoenix off the southern coast of Asia Minor in 655.

d. Muawija's struggle with Ali for the caliphate forced him to sign a peace treaty with Constans in 659.

2. Freed temporarily from the Arab threat, Constans was able to turn his attention to the West, and he even planned to move the capital to Syracuse in Sicily.

a. Shortly after the peace with the Arabs, Constans made a show of strength in Sklavenia, the first action against the Slavs in fifty years.

b. In 663 he arrived in Rome and then moved on to Syracuse.

c. He had many enemies, however, and he was murdered in his bath in 668.

3. In his religious policy Constans attempted compromise, but he was unwilling to tolerate any opposition.

a. His western policy required the removal of the Ekthesis of Heraclius.

b. Instead, he substituted a document, called the Typos, in 648; this simply forbade any discussion of the religious controversy.

c. Of course, this did not solve the problem and Pope Mertin condemned the Typos.

d. Constans had the pope arrested and condemned for treason.

e. Maximus the Confessor, a north African holy man, spoke out against the actions of Constans but he would not be silenced so easily; he continued to oppose the intervention of the state in doctrinal matters.

a. Beginning in 663 the Arabs invaded Asia Minor every year and ravaged it.

b. Every year, however, they had to return to Syria.

3. In 674-75 the Arabs attacked Constantinople and nearly took it

a. Greek Fire was used for the first time

b. The Arabs had finally to withdraw; this was high-water mark of Arab power against Byzantium--from this point on the Byzantines began to recover.

c. Some have seen this battle as more important than the Battle of Poitiers.

a. The appellation "Isaurian" for Leo and his dynasty (the Isaurian Dynasty) is probably a misnomer.

b. In the seventh century it had become common to move large groups of people (often minorities such as Slavs) from one area to another.

2. Leo came to the attention of Justinian II when he helped the emperor regain his throne in 705.

a. He rose to prominance in the army.

b. He became strategos of the Anatolikon theme under Anastasius III.

3. During the reign of Theodosius III, Leo allied with Ardavasdus, strategos of Armeniakon, and seized the throne in 717.

a. Leo won a victory in Asia Minor and attacked the Arabs from the rear, while Greek Fire again did its work on the Arab fleet.

b. The Arabs withdrew in August of 718 after absorbing heavy losses.

a. The Khazars, who lived north of the Black Sea, could attack the Arabs from the rear.

b. Leo demented his alliance with the Khazars by marrying his son Constantine to a Khazar princess.

4. Leo had to face several revolts, some of them led by theme commanders.

a. He responded by dividing up several of the larger themes.

b. In particular, Thracesion was separated from Anatolikon.

a. Many provincial judges did not understand the law

b. Previous compilations were written in Latin.

2. In the prologue Leo made a clear statement of his view of the position of the emperor.

3. The Ecloga introduced a new system of punishment, including judicial mutilation.

a. Leo said that this represented a "humanization" of the law.

b. In this case, philanthropia, the term translated as "humanitarianism" really means a concern for human welfare.

a. It had confined itself to symbolic representation.

b. This was probably because of the Mosaic prohibition of worshipping idols.

2. Slowly, and especially after the conversion of Constantine, religious pictures began to be accepted.

3. Ikons seem to have originated in the same tradition that encouraged the cult of the saints and the cult of relics.

a. The saints (i.e., holy men) acted as an intermediary between man and God: the saint acted as a patron.

b. The difficulty arose when a person could not be near a particularly powerful saint.

c. Things associated with the saint--e.g., relics and pictures--provided a means of access to the saint.

4. The popular veneration of ikons was supported by the ideas of Neoplatonism

a. In this philosophical system the world we see around us is an imitation, a reflection, of reality.

b. A picture of God or a saint is not the original, but it is a reflection of the original--and so just as "real" as anything else we see.

c. Thus, an ikon might have powers of its own: or, to put it another way, the representation might have some of the powers of the original.

d. Both popular religion and contemporary philosophy encouraged the veneration of ikons; people could pray or talk to an image and expect that the original would hear.

e. The veneration of ikons was presumably at first restricted to private devotion, but it soon became part of the public worship of the church.

5. In style, ikons were developments from "oriental" art.

a. A figure in an ikon is normally represented frontally, and there is little concern for realism.

b. The eyes are huge and staring and there is little or no background detail; the individual is pictured to facilitate communication.

c. These conventions most resembled the artistic traditions of Syria and Egypt (especially the so-called Fayum portraits).

d. Ikons might be in any medium, but most were in encaustic technique, painted on wooden panels.

6. In the course of the sixth and seventh centuries the veneration of ikons became particularly widespread.

a. Justinian II was the first emperor to place the figure of Christ prominently on his coins.

b. The Quinisext Council (or Council in Trullo, 691-92) condemned the symbolic representation of Christ and required that he be represented pictorially.

c. The growth of the cult of ikons had always had opponents, but this opposition had until this time always been mute.

a. In that year he began to "speak against the ikons" and ultimately ordered that the great ikon of Christ be removed from the Chalke Gate of the palace.

b. This aroused considerable opposition, both in Constantinople and throughout the West.

3. In 730 Leo summoned a meeting of the silention and declared the veneration of ikons to be illegal and he ordered their confiscation.

a. The patriarch Germanos refused to accept this and he was deposed.

b. The iconoclasm of Leo III led to a new schism between Constantinople and the papacy.

c. There was a revolt in the theme of Hellas.

4. The primary historiographical question involves the "origins" of iconoclasm and the reasons for Leo's policy.

a. Was iconoclasm really a result of Jewish and/or Arab influence?

b. Was it caused by movements within Christianity itself?

c. Was Leo planning to mount a campaign against the monks, who were the strongest supporters of ikons?

d. Was Leo trying to "purge" Christianity of superstition and pagan tendencies?

e. Was Leo trying to supplant Christ as the real ruler of the empire?

a. The Arabs were weakened by their own political problems which led to the collapse of the Umyyad dynasty and its replacement by the Abbasid dynasty in 750.

b. The capital was moved from Damascus (in Syria) to Baghdad (in Iraq) and the Abbasids were generally less concerned with their western frontier than had the Umayyads.

2. Just as the Arab threat began to abate, there was new danger from Bulgaria.

a. The Bulgars were a Turkic people who conquered the local Slavs and settled on the empire's northern border in the 7th century.

b. Constantine pursued an aggressive policy against the Bulgars and he dealt them a crushing blow at the Battle of Anchialos in 763.

3. At the same time, Constantine V almost completely ignored the situation in the West and this led to a considerable change in Italy.

a. Since 726 the papacy had disagreed with Byzantine policy on iconoclasm and it now saw little difference between the schismatic Greeks and the heretical Germans.

b. Previously the papacy had looked to the Byzantine emperor as a military protector, but iconoclasm and the disinterest of the Isaurian emperors led to the collapse of this bond.

c. In 751 Revenna fell to the Lombards and the Exarchate of Ravenna ceased to exist.

d. Pope Stephen II sought another military protector and found one in the person of the Frankish ruler Pepin.

4. Constantine V was the most ferocious of the iconoclasm emperors.

a. He apparently believed strongly in iconoclasm doctrine and he composed theological tracts himself.

b. Iconoclast theology developed considerably and Christological arguments came to play a dominant role in the controversy.

c. The Council of Nicaea in 754 proclaimed iconoclast theology as orthodox, despite the opposition of such figures as the former patriarch Germanos, John of Damascus, and Stephen of Mt. Auxentius.

d. Constantine instituted a persecution of iconophiles and he struck especially at the monasteries, which were the centers of ikon veneration.

e. In his own zeal, Constantine went beyond the teachings of the Council of Hiera and condemned the cult of the saints.

f. In Byzantine historiographic tradition Constantine is known as Copronymous.

a. The council condemned the teachings of the council of 754, but allowed those implicated in iconoclasm to be reinstated.

b. The "monastic party" (not really a party, but individuals who took a rigorist stand) opposed this leniency and the seeds were sown for future disagreement within orthodoxy.