Archangel Michael and Manuel II Palaiologos. 15th century Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, Italy / Bridgeman Images / Fotodom

1. A country called Byzantium never existed

If the Byzantines of the 6th, 10th or 14th centuries had heard from us that they were Byzantines, and their country was called Byzantium, the vast majority of them would simply not understand us. And those who did understand would think that we want to flatter them by calling them residents of the capital, and even in an outdated language that is used only by scientists who try to make their speech as refined as possible. Part of the consular diptych of Justinian. Constantinople, 521 Diptychs were presented to consuls in honor of their assumption of office. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

There never was a country that its inhabitants would call Byzantium; the word "Byzantines" was never the self-name of the inhabitants of any state. The word "Byzantines" was sometimes used to refer to the inhabitants of Constantinople - after the name of the ancient city of Byzantium (Βυζάντιον), which in 330 was re-founded by Emperor Constantine under the name of Constantinople. They were called that only in texts written in a conventional literary language, stylized as ancient Greek, which no one had spoken for a long time. No one knew the other Byzantines, and these existed only in texts accessible to a narrow circle of educated elites who wrote in this archaic Greek and understood it.

The self-name of the Eastern Roman Empire, starting from the III-IV centuries (and after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453), there were several stable and understandable phrases and words: romean state, or Romans, (βασιλεία τῶν Ρωμαίων), romania (Ρωμανία), Romaida (Ρωμαΐς ).

The inhabitants themselves called themselves Romans- the Romans (Ρωμαίοι ), they were ruled by the Roman emperor - basileus(Βασιλεύς τῶν Ρωμαίων) and their capital was New Rome(Νέα Ρώμη) - this is how the city founded by Constantine was usually called.

Where did the word “Byzantium” come from and with it the idea of ​​the Byzantine Empire as a state that arose after the fall of the Roman Empire on the territory of its eastern provinces? The fact is that in the 15th century, along with statehood, the Eastern Roman Empire (this is how Byzantium is often called in modern historical writings, and this is much closer to the self-consciousness of the Byzantines themselves), in fact, lost its voice heard beyond its borders: the Eastern Roman tradition of self-description found itself isolated within the Greek-speaking lands that belonged to the Ottoman Empire; the only important thing now was that Western European scholars thought and wrote about Byzantium.

Jerome Wolf. Engraving by Dominicus Custos. 1580 Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig

In the Western European tradition, the state of Byzantium was actually created by Hieronymus Wolff, a German humanist and historian, who in 1577 published the Corpus of Byzantine History, a small anthology of works by historians of the Eastern Empire with a Latin translation. It was from the "Korpus" that the concept of "Byzantine" entered the Western European scientific circulation.

Wolf's work formed the basis of another collection of Byzantine historians, also called the "Corpus of Byzantine History", but much larger - it was published in 37 volumes with the assistance of King Louis XIV of France. Finally, the Venetian edition of the second Corpus was used by the 18th-century English historian Edward Gibbon when writing his History of the Fall and Decline of the Roman Empire - perhaps no other book had such a huge and at the same time destructive influence on the creation and popularization of the modern image of Byzantium.

The Romans, with their historical and cultural tradition, were thus deprived not only of their voice, but also of the right to self-name and self-consciousness.

2. The Byzantines didn't know they weren't Romans

Autumn. Coptic panel. 4th century Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, UK / Bridgeman Images / Fotodom

For the Byzantines, who themselves called themselves Romans, the history of the great empire never ended. The very idea would seem absurd to them. Romulus and Remus, Numa, Augustus Octavian, Constantine I, Justinian, Phocas, Michael the Great Komnenos - all of them in the same way from time immemorial stood at the head of the Roman people.

Before the fall of Constantinople (and even after it), the Byzantines considered themselves inhabitants of the Roman Empire. Social institutions, laws, statehood - all this has been preserved in Byzantium since the time of the first Roman emperors. The adoption of Christianity had almost no effect on the legal, economic and administrative structure of the Roman Empire. If the Byzantines saw the origins of the Christian Church in the Old Testament, then, like the ancient Romans, they attributed the beginning of their own political history to the Trojan Aeneas, the hero of Virgil's poem, fundamental to Roman identity.

The social order of the Roman Empire and the sense of belonging to the great Roman patria were combined in the Byzantine world with Greek scholarship and written culture: the Byzantines considered classical ancient Greek literature to be their own. For example, in the 11th century, the monk and scholar Michael Psellos seriously argues in one treatise about who writes poetry better - the Athenian tragedian Euripides or the Byzantine poet of the 7th century George Pisida, the author of a panegyric on the Avaro-Slavic siege of Constantinople in 626 and the theological poem "Shestodnev about the divine creation of the world. In this poem, later translated into Slavic, George paraphrases the ancient authors Plato, Plutarch, Ovid and Pliny the Elder.

At the same time, at the level of ideology, Byzantine culture often opposed itself to classical antiquity. Christian apologists noticed that all Greek antiquity - poetry, theater, sports, sculpture - was permeated with religious cults of pagan deities. Hellenic values ​​(material and physical beauty, the desire for pleasure, human glory and honors, military and athletic victories, eroticism, rational philosophical thinking) were condemned as unworthy of Christians. Basil the Great, in his famous talk "To Young Men on How to Use Pagan Writings," sees the main danger for Christian youth in the attractive way of life offered to the reader in Hellenic writings. He advises to select in them for oneself only stories that are morally useful. The paradox is that Basil, like many other Fathers of the Church, himself received an excellent Hellenic education and wrote his works in a classical literary style, using the techniques of ancient rhetorical art and a language that by his time had already fallen into disuse and sounded like archaic.

In practice, ideological incompatibility with Hellenism did not prevent the Byzantines from carefully treating the ancient cultural heritage. Ancient texts were not destroyed, but copied, while the scribes tried to be accurate, except that in rare cases they could throw out a too frank erotic passage. Hellenic literature continued to be the basis of the school curriculum in Byzantium. An educated person had to read and know the epos of Homer, the tragedies of Euripides, the speeches of Demos-Phen and use the Hellenic cultural code in their own writings, for example, call the Arabs Persians, and Rus' - Hyperborea. Many elements of ancient culture in Byzantium were preserved, although they changed beyond recognition and acquired new religious content: for example, rhetoric became homiletics (the science of church preaching), philosophy became theology, and the ancient love story influenced hagiographic genres.

3. Byzantium was born when Antiquity adopted Christianity

When does Byzantium begin? Probably, when the history of the Roman Empire ends - that's how we used to think. For the most part, this thought seems natural to us, due to the enormous influence of Edward Gibbon's monumental History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Written in the 18th century, this book still prompts both historians and non-specialists to look at the period from the 3rd to the 7th centuries (now increasingly called late Antiquity) as the time of the decline of the former greatness of the Roman Empire under the influence of two main factors - the invasions of the Germanic tribes and the ever-growing social role of Christianity, which became the dominant religion in the 4th century. Byzantium, existing in the mass consciousness primarily as a Christian empire, is drawn in this perspective as a natural heir to the cultural decline that occurred in late Antiquity due to mass Christianization: the focus of religious fanaticism and obscurantism, which stretched for a whole millennium of stagnation.

Amulet that protects from the evil eye. Byzantium, 5th-6th centuries

On one side, an eye is depicted, at which arrows are directed and attacked by a lion, a snake, a scorpion and a stork.

© The Walters Art Museum

Hematite amulet. Byzantine Egypt, 6th–7th centuries

The inscriptions define him as "the woman who suffered from bleeding" (Luke 8:43-48). Hematite was believed to help stop bleeding, and amulets related to women's health and the menstrual cycle were very popular from it.

Thus, if you look at history through the eyes of Gibbon, late Antiquity turns into a tragic and irreversible end of Antiquity. But was it just a time of destruction of beautiful antiquity? Historical science has been sure for more than half a century that this is not so.

Especially simplified is the idea of ​​the supposedly fatal role of Christianization in the destruction of the culture of the Roman Empire. The culture of late Antiquity in reality was hardly built on the opposition of "pagan" (Roman) and "Christian" (Byzantine). The way late antique culture was organized for its creators and users was much more complex: the very question of the conflict between the Roman and the religious would have seemed strange to Christians of that era. In the 4th century, Roman Christians could easily place images of pagan deities, made in ancient style, on household items: for example, on one casketgiven to newlyweds, naked Venus is adjacent to the pious call "Seconds and Project, live in Christ."

On the territory of the future Byzantium there was an equally problem-free fusion of pagan and Christian in artistic techniques for contemporaries: in the 6th century, images of Christ and saints were made using the technique of a traditional Egyptian funeral portrait, the most famous type of which is the so-called Fayum portrait. Fayum portrait- a kind of funeral portraits common in Hellenized Egypt in the Ι-III centuries AD. e. The image was applied with hot paints on a heated wax layer.. Christian visuality in late Antiquity did not necessarily strive to oppose itself to the pagan, Roman tradition: very often it deliberately (and perhaps, on the contrary, naturally and naturally) adhered to it. The same fusion of pagan and Christian is seen in the literature of late Antiquity. The poet Arator in the 6th century recites in the Roman cathedral a hexametric poem about the deeds of the apostles, written in the stylistic traditions of Virgil. In Christianized Egypt in the middle of the 5th century (by this time there were different forms of monasticism here for about a century and a half), the poet Nonn from the city of Panopol (modern Akmim) writes an adaptation (paraphrase) of the Gospel of John in the language of Homer, preserving not only the meter and style, but also deliberately borrowing whole verbal formulas and figurative layers from his epos Gospel of John 1:1-6 (synodal translation):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. Everything came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being that came into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God; his name is John.

Nonn from Panopol. Paraphrase of the Gospel of John, Canto 1 (translated by Yu. A. Golubets, D. A. Pospelov, A. V. Markov):
Logos, God's Child, Light born from Light,
He is inseparable from the Father on the infinite throne!
Heavenly God, Logos, you are the primordial
He shone together with the Eternal, the Creator of the world,
Oh, Ancient of the universe! All things were done through Him,
What is breathless and in the spirit! Outside the Speech, which does a lot,
Is it manifest that it abides? And in Him exists from eternity
Life, which is inherent in everything, the light of a short-lived people ...<…>
In the bee-feeding more often
The wanderer on the mountain appeared, the inhabitant of the desert slopes,
He is the herald of the cornerstone baptism, the name is
God's man, John, the leader. .

Portrait of a young girl. 2nd century©Google Cultural Institute

Funeral portrait of a man. 3rd century©Google Cultural Institute

Christ Pantocrator. Icon from the monastery of St. Catherine. Sinai, mid 6th century Wikimedia Commons

St. Peter. Icon from the monastery of St. Catherine. Sinai, 7th century© campus.belmont.edu

The dynamic changes that took place in different layers of the culture of the Roman Empire in late Antiquity are difficult to directly relate to Christianization, since the Christians of that time were themselves such hunters for classical forms both in the visual arts and in literature (as well as in many other areas of life). The future Byzantium was born in an era in which the relationship between religion, artistic language, its audience, as well as the sociology of historical shifts were complex and indirect. They carried the potential of the complexity and diversity that developed later over the centuries of Byzantine history.

4. In Byzantium they spoke one language, but wrote in another

The language picture of Byzantium is paradoxical. The empire, which not only claimed succession from the Roman Empire and inherited its institutions, but also, from the point of view of its political ideology, was the former Roman Empire, never spoke Latin. It was spoken in the western provinces and the Balkans, until the 6th century it remained the official language of jurisprudence (the last legal code in Latin was the Code of Justinian, promulgated in 529 - after it laws were already issued in Greek), it enriched Greek with many borrowings (before only in the military and administrative spheres), early Byzantine Constantinople attracted Latin grammarians with career opportunities. But still, Latin was not a real language even of early Byzantium. Let the Latin-speaking poets Corippus and Priscian live in Constantinople, we will not meet these names on the pages of the textbook of the history of Byzantine literature.

We cannot say at what exact moment the Roman emperor becomes Byzantine: the formal identity of institutions does not allow us to draw a clear boundary. In search of an answer to this question, it is necessary to turn to informal cultural differences. The Roman Empire differs from the Byzantine Empire in that the latter merged Roman institutions, Greek culture and Christianity and carried out this synthesis on the basis of the Greek language. Therefore, one of the criteria on which we could rely is the language: the Byzantine emperor, unlike his Roman counterpart, is easier to express himself in Greek than in Latin.

But what is this Greek? The alternative that bookstore shelves and philological programs offer us is misleading: we can find either ancient or modern Greek in them. No other reference point is provided. Because of this, we are forced to proceed from the fact that the Greek of Byzantium is either a distorted ancient Greek (almost the dialogues of Plato, but not quite) or Proto-Greek (almost the negotiations of Tsipras with the IMF, but not quite yet). The history of 24 centuries of continuous development of the language is straightened out and simplified: it is either the inevitable decline and degradation of the ancient Greek (this is what the Western European classical philologists thought before the establishment of Byzantine studies as an independent scientific discipline), or the inevitable germination of the modern Greek (this is how the Greek scientists thought at the time of the formation of the Greek nation in the 19th century) .

Indeed, Byzantine Greek is elusive. Its development cannot be viewed as a series of progressive, successive changes, since for every step forward in language development there was a step back. The reason for this is the attitude towards the language of the Byzantines themselves. Socially prestigious was the language norm of Homer and the classics of Attic prose. To write well meant to write history indistinguishable from Xenophon or Thucydides (the last historian who dared to introduce into his text the Old Attic elements, which seemed archaic already in the classical era, is a witness to the fall of Constantinople, Laonicus Chalkokondylus), and the epic is indistinguishable from Homer. From educated Byzantines throughout the history of the empire, it was required to literally speak one (changed) language and write another (frozen in classical immutability) language. The duality of linguistic consciousness is the most important feature of Byzantine culture.

Ostracon with a fragment of the Iliad in Coptic. Byzantine Egypt, 580–640

Ostraca - shards of clay vessels - were used to record Bible verses, legal documents, accounts, school assignments and prayers when papyrus was unavailable or too expensive.

© The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ostracon with a troparion to the Theotokos in Coptic. Byzantine Egypt, 580–640© The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The situation was aggravated by the fact that since the time of classical antiquity, certain dialectal features were assigned to certain genres: epic poems were written in the language of Homer, and medical treatises were compiled in the Ionian dialect in imitation of Hippocrates. We see a similar picture in Byzantium. In ancient Greek, vowels were divided into long and short, and their ordered alternation formed the basis of ancient Greek poetic meters. In the Hellenistic era, the opposition of vowels by longitude left the Greek language, but nevertheless, even a thousand years later, heroic poems and epitaphs were written as if the phonetic system had remained unchanged since the time of Homer. Differences also permeated other linguistic levels: it was necessary to build a phrase, like Homer, select words, like Homer, and decline and conjugate them in accordance with a paradigm that died out in living speech millennia ago.

However, not everyone was able to write with antique liveliness and simplicity; often, in an attempt to achieve the Attic ideal, Byzantine authors lost their sense of proportion, trying to write more correctly than their idols. Thus, we know that the dative case, which existed in Ancient Greek, has almost completely disappeared in Modern Greek. It would be logical to assume that with each century in literature it will occur less and less until it gradually disappears altogether. However, recent studies have shown that the dative case is used much more often in Byzantine high literature than in the literature of classical antiquity. But it is precisely this increase in frequency that speaks of the loosening of the norm! Obsession in using one form or another will tell about your inability to use it correctly no less than its complete absence in your speech.

At the same time, the living linguistic element took its toll. We learn about how the spoken language changed thanks to the errors of manuscript copyists, non-literary inscriptions and the so-called vernacular literature. The term “folk-speaking” is not accidental: it describes the phenomenon of interest to us much better than the more familiar “folk”, since elements of simple urban colloquial speech were often used in monuments created in the circles of the Constantinople elite. It became a real literary fashion in the 12th century, when the same authors could work in several registers, today offering the reader exquisite prose, almost indistinguishable from Attic, and tomorrow - almost rhymes.

Diglossia, or bilingualism, also gave rise to another typically Byzantine phenomenon - metaphrasing, that is, transcription, retelling in half with translation, presentation of the content of the source with new words with a decrease or increase in the stylistic register. Moreover, the shift could go both along the line of complication (pretentious syntax, refined figures of speech, ancient allusions and quotations), and along the line of language simplification. Not a single work was considered inviolable, even the language of sacred texts in Byzantium did not have the status of sacred: the Gospel could be rewritten in a different stylistic key (as, for example, the already mentioned Nonn of Panopolitan did) - and this did not bring down anathema on the head of the author. It was necessary to wait until 1901, when the translation of the Gospels into colloquial Modern Greek (in fact, the same metaphrase) brought opponents and defenders of the language renewal to the streets and led to dozens of victims. In this sense, the indignant crowds who defended the “language of the ancestors” and demanded reprisals against the translator Alexandros Pallis were much further from Byzantine culture, not only than they would like, but also than Pallis himself.

5. There were iconoclasts in Byzantium - and this is a terrible mystery

Iconoclasts John the Grammarian and Bishop Anthony of Silea. Khludov Psalter. Byzantium, circa 850 Miniature to Psalm 68, verse 2: "They gave me gall to eat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." The actions of the iconoclasts, covering the icon of Christ with lime, are compared with the crucifixion on Golgotha. The warrior on the right brings Christ a sponge with vinegar. At the foot of the mountain - John Grammatik and Bishop Anthony of Silea. rijksmuseumamsterdam.blogspot.ru

Iconoclasm is the most famous period for a wide audience and the most mysterious even for specialists in the history of Byzantium. The depth of the trace that he left in the cultural memory of Europe is evidenced by the possibility, for example, in English to use the word iconoclast (“iconoclast”) outside of the historical context, in the timeless meaning of “rebel, overthrower of foundations”.

The event line is like this. By the turn of the 7th and 8th centuries, the theory of the worship of religious images was hopelessly lagging behind practice. The Arab conquests of the middle of the 7th century led the empire to a deep cultural crisis, which, in turn, gave rise to the growth of apocalyptic sentiments, the multiplication of superstitions and a surge of disordered forms of icon veneration, sometimes indistinguishable from magical practices. According to the collections of miracles of saints, drunk wax from a melted seal with the face of St. Artemy healed a hernia, and Saints Cosmas and Damian healed the suffering woman by ordering her to drink, mixing with water, the plaster from the fresco with their image.

Such veneration of icons, which did not receive a philosophical and theological justification, caused rejection among some clerics, who saw signs of paganism in it. Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741), finding himself in a difficult political situation, used this discontent to create a new consolidating ideology. The first iconoclastic steps date back to the years 726-730, but both the theological justification of the iconoclastic dogma and full-fledged repressions against dissidents occurred during the reign of the most odious Byzantine emperor - Constantine V Copronymus (Gnoemennogo) (741-775).

Claiming for the status of the ecumenical, the iconoclastic council of 754 took the dispute to a new level: from now on, it was not about the fight against superstitions and the fulfillment of the Old Testament prohibition “Do not make an idol for yourself”, but about the hypostasis of Christ. Can He be considered pictorial if His divine nature is "indescribable"? The “Christological dilemma” was as follows: iconodules are guilty either of imprinting on icons only the flesh of Christ without His deity (Nestorianism), or of limiting the deity of Christ through the description of His depicted flesh (Monophysitism).

However, already in 787, Empress Irina held a new council in Nicaea, the participants of which formulated the dogma of icon veneration as a response to the dogma of iconoclasm, thereby offering a full-fledged theological foundation for previously unordered practices. An intellectual breakthrough was, firstly, the separation of “official” and “relative” worship: the first can only be given to God, while with the second “the honor given to the image goes back to the archetype” (the words of Basil the Great, which became real motto of iconodules). Secondly, the theory of homonymy, that is, the same name, was proposed, which removed the problem of portrait similarity between the image and the depicted: the icon of Christ was recognized as such not due to the similarity of features, but due to the spelling of the name - the act of naming.

Patriarch Nicephorus. Miniature from the Psalter of Theodore of Caesarea. 1066 British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images / Fotodom

In 815, Emperor Leo V the Armenian again turned to iconoclastic politics, hoping in this way to build a line of succession towards Constantine V, the most successful and most beloved ruler in the army in the last century. The so-called second iconoclasm accounts for both a new round of repressions and a new rise in theological thought. The iconoclastic era ends in 843, when iconoclasm is finally condemned as a heresy. But his ghost haunted the Byzantines until 1453: for centuries, participants in any church disputes, using the most sophisticated rhetoric, accused each other of covert iconoclasm, and this accusation was more serious than accusation of any other heresy.

It would seem that everything is quite simple and clear. But as soon as we try to somehow clarify this general scheme, our constructions turn out to be very unsteady.

The main difficulty is the state of the sources. The texts, thanks to which we know about the first iconoclasm, were written much later, and by iconodules. In the 40s of the 9th century, a full-fledged program was carried out to write the history of iconoclasm from icon-worshipping positions. As a result, the history of the dispute has been completely distorted: the iconoclasts' writings are available only in tendentious selections, and textual analysis shows that the iconodules' works, seemingly created to refute the teachings of Constantine V, could not have been written before the very end of the 8th century. The task of the icon-worshipping authors was to turn the history we have described inside out, to create the illusion of tradition: to show that the veneration of icons (and not spontaneous, but meaningful!) has been present in the church since apostolic times, and iconoclasm is just an innovation (the word καινοτομία - “innovation” on Greek - the most hated word for any Byzantine), and deliberately anti-Christian. Iconoclasts appeared not as fighters for the cleansing of Christianity from paganism, but as "Christian accusers" - this word began to refer specifically and exclusively to iconoclasts. The parties in the iconoclastic dispute turned out to be not Christians, who interpret the same teaching in different ways, but Christians and some external force hostile to them.

The arsenal of polemical techniques that were used in these texts to denigrate the enemy was very large. Legends were created about the hatred of iconoclasts for education, for example, about the burning of the never-existing university in Constantinople by Leo III, and participation in pagan rites and human sacrifices, hatred of the Mother of God and doubts about the divine nature of Christ were attributed to Constantine V. If such myths seem simple and were debunked long ago, others remain at the center of scientific discussions to this day. For example, it was only very recently that it was possible to establish that the cruel reprisal committed against Stefan the New, glorified as a martyr in 766, was connected not so much with his uncompromising icon-worshiping position, as life claims, but with his proximity to the conspiracy of political opponents of Constantine V. disputes about key questions: what is the role of Islamic influence in the genesis of iconoclasm? what was the true attitude of the iconoclasts towards the cult of saints and their relics?

Even the language we use to talk about iconoclasm is the language of the conquerors. The word "iconoclast" is not a self-designation, but an offensive polemical label invented and implemented by their opponents. No "iconoclast" would ever agree with such a name, simply because the Greek word εἰκών has many more meanings than the Russian "icon". This is any image, including non-material, which means that to call someone an iconoclast is to declare that he is struggling with the idea of ​​God the Son as the image of God the Father, and man as the image of God, and the events of the Old Testament as prototypes of the events of the New etc. Moreover, the iconoclasts themselves claimed that they were defending the true image of Christ - the Eucharistic gifts, while what their opponents call an image, in fact, is not such, but is just an image.

In the end, defeat their teaching, it would be called Orthodox now, and we would contemptuously call the teaching of their opponents icon-worship and talk not about the iconoclastic, but about the icon-worshipping period in Byzantium. However, if it were so, the whole subsequent history and visual aesthetics of Eastern Christianity would have been different.

6. The West never liked Byzantium

Although trade, religious and diplomatic contacts between Byzantium and the states of Western Europe continued throughout the Middle Ages, it is difficult to talk about real cooperation or mutual understanding between them. At the end of the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire broke up into barbarian states and the tradition of "Romanness" was interrupted in the West, but preserved in the East. Within a few centuries, the new Western dynasties of Germany wanted to restore the continuity of their power with the Roman Empire and for this they entered into dynastic marriages with Byzantine princesses. The court of Charlemagne competed with Byzantium - this can be seen in architecture and in art. However, the imperial claims of Charles rather increased the misunderstanding between East and West: the culture of the Carolingian Renaissance wanted to see itself as the only legitimate heir of Rome.

Crusaders attack Constantinople. Miniature from the chronicle "The Conquest of Constantinople" by Geoffroy de Villehardouin. Approximately 1330, Villardouin was one of the leaders of the campaign. Bibliothèque nationale de France

By the 10th century, the overland routes from Constantinople to northern Italy through the Balkans and along the Danube were blocked by barbarian tribes. The only way left was by sea, which reduced the possibilities of communication and made cultural exchange more difficult. The division into East and West has become a physical reality. The ideological gap between East and West, fueled throughout the Middle Ages by theological disputes, deepened during the Crusades. The organizer of the Fourth Crusade, which ended with the capture of Constantinople in 1204, Pope Innocent III openly declared the primacy of the Roman Church over all the rest, referring to the divine establishment.

As a result, it turned out that the Byzantines and the inhabitants of Europe knew little about each other, but were unfriendly towards each other. In the 14th century, the West criticized the depravity of the Byzantine clergy and attributed the success of Islam to it. For example, Dante believed that Sultan Saladin could have converted to Christianity (and even placed him in his "Divine Comedy" in limbo - a special place for virtuous non-Christians), but did not do this because of the unattractiveness of Byzantine Christianity. In Western countries, by the time of Dante, almost no one knew the Greek language. At the same time, Byzantine intellectuals learned Latin only to translate Thomas Aquinas and did not hear anything about Dante. The situation changed in the 15th century after the Turkish invasion and the fall of Constantinople, when Byzantine culture began to penetrate into Europe along with Byzantine scholars who had fled from the Turks. The Greeks brought with them many manuscripts of ancient works, and humanists were able to study Greek antiquity from the originals, and not from Roman literature and the few Latin translations known in the West.

But Renaissance scholars and intellectuals were interested in classical antiquity, not in the society that preserved it. In addition, it was mainly intellectuals who fled to the West who were negatively inclined towards the ideas of monasticism and Orthodox theology of that time and who sympathized with the Roman Church; their opponents, supporters of Gregory Palamas, on the contrary, believed that it was better to try to negotiate with the Turks than to seek help from the pope. Therefore, Byzantine civilization continued to be perceived in a negative light. If the ancient Greeks and Romans were “their own”, then the image of Byzantium was fixed in European culture as oriental and exotic, sometimes attractive, but more often hostile and alien to European ideals of reason and progress.

The age of European enlightenment completely stigmatized Byzantium. The French Enlighteners Montesquieu and Voltaire associated it with despotism, luxury, lavish ceremonies, superstition, moral decay, civilizational decline and cultural sterility. According to Voltaire, the history of Byzantium is "an unworthy collection of grandiloquent phrases and descriptions of miracles" that dishonors the human mind. Montesquieu sees the main reason for the fall of Constantinople in the pernicious and pervasive influence of religion on society and power. He speaks especially aggressively about Byzantine monasticism and clergy, about the veneration of icons, as well as about theological controversy:

The Greeks - great talkers, great debaters, sophists by nature - constantly entered into religious disputes. Since the monks enjoyed great influence in the court, which weakened as it became corrupted, it turned out that the monks and the court mutually corrupted each other and that evil infected both. As a result, all the attention of the emperors was absorbed in first calming, then inciting theological disputes, regarding which it was noticed that they became the hotter, the more insignificant was the reason that caused them.

Thus, Byzantium became part of the image of the barbaric dark East, which paradoxically also included the main enemies of the Byzantine Empire - the Muslims. In the Orientalist model, Byzantium was opposed to the liberal and rational European society built on the ideals of Ancient Greece and Rome. This model underlies, for example, the descriptions of the Byzantine court in the drama The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Gustave Flaubert:

“The king wipes fragrances from his face with his sleeve. He eats from sacred vessels, then breaks them; and mentally he counts his ships, his troops, his peoples. Now, out of a whim, he will take and burn his palace with all the guests. He thinks to restore the Tower of Babel and overthrow the Almighty from the throne. Antony reads from a distance on his forehead all his thoughts. They take possession of him, and he becomes Nebuchadnezzar."

The mythological view of Byzantium has not yet been completely overcome in historical science. Of course, there could be no question of any moral example of Byzantine history for the education of youth. School curricula were based on samples of classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, and Byzantine culture was excluded from them. In Russia, science and education followed Western patterns. In the 19th century, a dispute about the role of Byzantium in Russian history broke out between Westerners and Slavophiles. Peter Chaadaev, following the tradition of European enlightenment, bitterly complained about the Byzantine heritage of Rus':

“By the will of fateful fate, we turned for moral teaching, which was supposed to educate us, to corrupted Byzantium, to the subject of deep contempt of these peoples.”

Byzantine ideologist Konstantin Leontiev Konstantin Leontiev(1831-1891) - diplomat, writer, philosopher. In 1875, his work “Byzantism and Slavism” was published, in which he argued that “Byzantism” is a civilization or culture, the “general idea” of which is composed of several components: autocracy, Christianity (different from Western, “from heresies and splits”), disappointment in everything earthly, the absence of an “extremely exaggerated concept of the earthly human personality”, rejection of the hope for the general welfare of peoples, the totality of some aesthetic ideas, and so on. Since all-Slavism is not a civilization or culture at all, and European civilization is coming to an end, Russia - having inherited almost everything from Byzantium - needs Byzantism to flourish. pointed to the stereotypical idea of ​​Byzantium, which has developed due to schooling and the lack of independence of Russian science:

"Byzantium seems to be something dry, boring, priestly, and not only boring, but even something pitiful and vile."

7. In 1453, Constantinople fell - but Byzantium did not die

Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror. Miniature from the collection of Topkapı Palace. Istanbul, late 15th century Wikimedia Commons

In 1935, the book of the Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga "Byzantium after Byzantium" was published - and its title was established as a designation of the life of Byzantine culture after the fall of the empire in 1453. Byzantine life and institutions did not disappear overnight. They were preserved thanks to Byzantine emigrants who fled to Western Europe, in Constantinople itself, even under the rule of the Turks, as well as in the countries of the "Byzantine commonwealth", as the British historian Dmitry Obolensky called Eastern European medieval cultures that were directly influenced by Byzantium - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia. The participants in this supranational unity preserved the heritage of Byzantium in religion, the norms of Roman law, the standards of literature and art.

In the last hundred years of the existence of the empire, two factors - the cultural revival of the Palaiologos and the Palamite disputes - contributed, on the one hand, to the renewal of ties between the Orthodox peoples and Byzantium, and on the other hand, to a new surge in the spread of Byzantine culture, primarily through liturgical texts and monastic literature. In the 14th century, Byzantine ideas, texts, and even their authors entered the Slavic world through the city of Tarnovo, the capital of the Bulgarian Empire; in particular, the number of Byzantine works available in Rus' doubled thanks to Bulgarian translations.

In addition, the Ottoman Empire officially recognized the Patriarch of Constantinople: as the head of the Orthodox millet (or community), he continued to manage the church, in whose jurisdiction both Rus' and the Orthodox Balkan peoples remained. Finally, the rulers of the Danubian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, even after becoming subjects of the Sultan, retained Christian statehood and considered themselves the cultural and political heirs of the Byzantine Empire. They continued the traditions of the ceremonial of the royal court, Greek education and theology, and supported the Greek elite of Constantinople, the Phanariots. Phanariots- literally "inhabitants of Phanar", a quarter of Constantinople, in which the residence of the Greek patriarch was located. The Greek elite of the Ottoman Empire were called Phanariotes because they lived predominantly in this quarter..

Greek uprising of 1821. Illustration from A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times by John Henry Wright. 1905 The Internet Archive

Iorga believes that Byzantium died after Byzantium during the unsuccessful uprising against the Turks in 1821, which was organized by Phanariot Alexander Ypsilanti. On one side of the banner of Ypsilanti there was the inscription “Conquer this” and the image of Emperor Constantine the Great, whose name is associated with the beginning of Byzantine history, and on the other, a phoenix reborn from the flame, a symbol of the revival of the Byzantine Empire. The uprising was crushed, the Patriarch of Constantinople was executed, and the ideology of the Byzantine Empire then dissolved into Greek nationalism.

Probably, there is no other more long-suffering country in the world than Byzantium. Its dizzying rise and such a rapid fall still cause controversy and discussion both in historical circles and among those who are far from history. The bitter fate of the once strongest state of the early Middle Ages does not leave indifferent either writers or filmmakers - books, films, series, one way or another connected with this state, are constantly being published. But the question is - are they all true? And how to distinguish truth from fiction? After all, so many centuries have passed, many documents of colossal historical value have been lost during wars, seizures, fires, or simply by order of a new ruler. But we will still try to reveal some details of the development of Byzantium in order to understand how such a strong state could meet such a miserable and inglorious end?

History of creation

The Byzantine Empire, often referred to as the Eastern or simply Byzantium, existed from 330 to 1453. With its capital at Constantinople, founded by Constantine I (r. 306-337 AD), the empire changed in size over the centuries, at one time or another, with territories located in Italy, the Balkans, the Levant, the Lesser Asia and North Africa. The Byzantines developed their own political systems, religious practices, art and architecture.

The beginning of the history of Byzantium is 330 AD. At this time, the legendary Roman Empire was going through hard times - the rulers were constantly changing, money was flowing from the treasury like sand through fingers, once conquered territories easily won their right to freedom. The capital of the empire, Rome, is becoming an unsafe place to live. In 324, Flavius ​​Valerius Aurelius Constantine became emperor, who went down in history only under his last name - Constantine the Great. Having defeated all other rivals, he reigns in the Roman Empire, but decides on an unprecedented step - the transfer of the capital.

In those days, it was quite calm in the provinces - all the thick of events took place in Rome. The choice of Constantine fell on the banks of the Bosporus, where in the same year the construction of a new city began, which would be given the name Byzantium. After 6 years, Constantine - the first Roman emperor who gave Christianity to the ancient world - announces that from now on the new city is the capital of the empire. Initially, the emperor adhered to the old rules and named the capital New Rome. However, the name did not stick. Since in its place there was once also a city called Byzantium, they left it. Then the locals began to informally use another, but more popular name - Constantinople, the city of Constantine.

Constantinople

The new capital had an excellent natural harbor at the entrance to the Golden Horn and, owning the border between Europe and Asia, could control the passage of ships through the Bosphorus from the Aegean to the Black Sea, linking profitable trade between West and East. It should be noted that the new state actively used this advantage. And, oddly enough, the city was well fortified. A great chain stretched across the entrance to the Golden Horn, and the construction of the massive walls by Emperor Theodosius (between 410 and 413) meant that the city was able to withstand attacks from both sea and land. Over the centuries, as more impressive buildings were added, the cosmopolitan city became one of the finest of any era, and by far the richest, most lavish, and most important Christian city in the world. In general, Byzantium occupied vast territories on the world map - the countries of the Balkan Peninsula, the Aegean and Black Sea coasts of Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania - all of them were once part of Byzantium.

Another, important detail should be noted - Christianity became the official religion in the new city. That is, those who were mercilessly persecuted and brutally executed in the Roman Empire found shelter and peace in a new country. Unfortunately, Emperor Constantine did not see the flowering of his offspring - he died in 337. The new rulers paid more and more attention to the new city on the outskirts of the empire. In 379, Theodosius gained control of the eastern provinces. First as a co-ruler, and in 394 he began to rule independently. It is he who is considered the last Roman emperor, which is generally true - in 395, when he died, the Roman Empire split into two parts - Western and Eastern. That is, Byzantium received the official status of the capital of the new empire, which also became known as Byzantium. Starting from this year, a new country is being counted on the map of the ancient world and the emerging Middle Ages.

Rulers of Byzantium

The Byzantine emperor also received a new title - he was no longer called Caesar in the Roman manner. The Basileusses ruled in the Eastern Empire (from the Greek Βασιλιας - king). They lived in the magnificent Grand Palace of Constantinople and ruled Byzantium with an iron fist, like absolute monarchs. The Church received great power in the state. In those days, military talents meant a lot, and citizens expected their rulers to skillfully fight and protect their native walls from the enemy. Therefore, the army in Byzantium was one of the most powerful and strong. The generals, if desired, could easily overthrow the emperor if they saw that he was not able to protect the city and the borders of the empire.

However, in ordinary life, the emperor was the commander-in-chief of the army, the head of the Church and the government, he controlled the public finances and appointed or dismissed ministers at will; few rulers before or since have ever wielded such power. The image of the emperor appeared on Byzantine coins, which also depicted the chosen successor, often the eldest son, but not always, as there were no clearly established rules of succession. Very often (if not to say - always) the heirs were called the names of their ancestors, so Constantine, Justinian, Theodosius were born in the imperial family from generation to generation. The name Konstantin was the most beloved.

The heyday of the empire began with the reign of Justinian - from 527 to 565. it is he who will slowly begin to modify the empire - Hellenistic culture will prevail in Byzantium, instead of Latin, Greek will be recognized as the official language. Justinian would also adopt the legendary Roman law in Constantinople - many European states would borrow it in later years. It was during his reign that the construction of the symbol of Constantinople - the Hagia Sophia (on the site of the former burnt temple) will begin.

Byzantine culture

It is impossible not to mention the culture of this state when talking about Byzantium. It influenced many subsequent countries of both the West and the East.

The culture of Byzantium is inextricably linked with religion - beautiful icons and mosaics depicting the emperor and his family became the main decoration of the temples. Subsequently, some were canonized as saints, and already former rulers became icons to be worshiped.

It is impossible not to note the appearance of the Glagolitic alphabet - the Slavic alphabet by the works of the brothers - the Byzantines Cyril and Methodius. Byzantine science was inextricably linked with antiquity. Many works of writers of that time were based on the works of ancient Greek scientists and philosophers. Medicine achieved particular success, and so much so that even Arab healers used Byzantine works in their works.

The architecture was distinguished by its special style. As already mentioned, the symbol of Constantinople and all of Byzantium was Hagia Sophia. The temple was so beautiful and majestic that many ambassadors, coming to the city, could not restrain their delight.

Looking ahead, we note that after the fall of the city, Sultan Mehmed II was so fascinated by the cathedral that from now on he ordered mosques to be built throughout the empire exactly on the model of Hagia Sophia.

Campaigns to Byzantium

Unfortunately, such a rich and advantageously located state could not but arouse unhealthy interest. Byzantium has been repeatedly attacked by other states over the centuries of its existence. Starting from the 11th century, the Byzantines constantly repulsed the raids of the Bulgarians and Arabs. At first, things went well. The Bulgarian Tsar Samuil was so shocked to see that he had suffered a stroke and died. And the thing was - during a successful attack, the Byzantines captured almost 14 thousand Bulgarian soldiers. Vasilevs Vasily II ordered to blind everyone and leave one eye for every hundredth soldier. Byzantium showed all the neighbors that you should not joke with her. For the time being.

1204 was the first news of the end of the empire - the crusaders attacked the city and completely plundered it. The creation of the Latin Empire was announced, all the lands were divided among the barons who participated in the campaign. However, here the Byzantines were lucky - after 57 years, Michael Palaiologos expelled all the crusaders from Byzantium and revived the Eastern Empire. He also created a new dynasty of Palaiologos. But, unfortunately, it was not possible to achieve the former heyday of the empire - the emperors fell under the influence of Genoa and Venice, constantly robbed the treasury and carried out every decree from Italy. Byzantium was weakening.

Gradually, territories separated from the empire and became free states. By the middle of the 15th century, only a memory remained of the former flower of the Bosphorus. It was easy prey. This is what the Sultan of the young Ottoman Empire Mehmed II took advantage of. In 1453 he easily invaded Constantinople and conquered it. The city resisted, but not for long and not strongly. Before this sultan, the Rumeli (Rumelihisar) fortress was built on the Bosphorus, which blocked all communications between the city and the Black Sea. The possibility of helping Byzantium from other states was also cut off. Several attacks were repulsed, the last - on the night of May 28-29 - was unsuccessful. The last emperor of Byzantium died in battle. The army was exhausted. The Turks were no longer held back. Mehmed entered the city on horseback and ordered the beautiful Hagia Sophia to be converted into a mosque. The history of Byzantium ended with the fall of its capital, Constantinople. Pearls of the Bosphorus.

Byzantium, the Byzantine Empire - the name of this illustrious state is traditionally associated with Greek culture, although it arose as the eastern part of the Roman Empire and initially its official language was Latin, and the ethnic composition was more than diverse - Greeks, Italians, Copts, Syrians, Persians, Jews, Armenians, Asia Minor peoples. All of them called their state Roman, that is, Roman, and themselves - Romans, Romans.

Although Emperor Constantine the Great is considered the founder of Byzantium., this state began to take shape 60 years after his death. Emperor Constantine, who stopped the persecution of Christians, laid the foundation of the Christian empire, and the period of its formation lasted for almost two centuries.

It was Constantine who transferred the capital of the empire from Rome to the ancient city of Byzantium, after which many centuries later the empire became known as the Byzantine. Actually, for more than a thousand years of its existence, it was called the Eastern Roman Empire, and in the 15th century, historians renamed it the Byzantine Empire to distinguish it from the first Roman Empire, which ceased to exist in 480. So the name "Byzantium" arose and firmly entrenched, as a term denoting the great Christian state that existed from 395 to 1453.

Byzantium had a huge fundamental influence on the formation of European culture for the enlightenment of the Slavic peoples. It is impossible to forget that the Orthodox traditions as we know them now, with the beauty of divine services, the magnificence of temples, the harmony of chants, are all a gift from Byzantium. But Byzantine culture is not limited by religious worldview, although it is all saturated with the Christian spirit. One of its striking features was the refraction of the entire wealth of knowledge accumulated by mankind in ancient times through the prism of Christianity.

In addition to the Theological School in Constantinople, there were two Universities and a Law School. Prominent philosophers, writers, scientists, doctors, astronomers, geographers came out of the walls of these educational institutions. Significant discoveries and inventions of the Byzantines in various applied fields. For example, Leo the Philosopher created an optical telegraph, with which it was possible to exchange information and warn of dangers.

From Byzantium came the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles brothers Cyril and Methodius, thanks to whose educational activities the Slavic peoples acquired their own alphabet and script, received translations of the Holy Scriptures and liturgical books into their native language. That is, all Slavic, including Russian, culture, with its world-famous literature and art, has Byzantine roots.

Attempts to solve domestic problems through the adoption of new laws and legal norms developed Byzantine jurisprudence, which was based on Roman law. It is this the code of laws is still the main one in most European states.

Having enriched the whole world with its cultural heritage, reaching unprecedented prosperity, Byzantium fell, disappearing as a state, but remaining in history as a unique and unforgettable civilization.

Golden Age of Byzantium

The formation of the Eastern Roman Empire began in the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great, who suffered capital to the small city of Byzantium calling it the "New Rome". The common people called the city Constantinople, but officially it did not bear this name.

Emperor Constantine, tired of the constant dynastic wars for the throne that were fought in Rome, decided to make the capital subject only to him. He chose Byzantium, standing at the crossroads of important trade routes from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, which, like any port city, was rich, developed and independent. Constantine the Great declared Christianity one of the permitted state religions, thus inscribed himself in history as a Christian emperor. But it is interesting that during his lifetime, in fact, he was not a Christian. Emperor Constantine, canonized by the Church as a saint, was baptized only on his deathbed shortly before his death.

After the death of Constantine the Great, in 337, for two hundred years the young state was torn apart by wars, unrest, heresies and splits. A strong hand was needed to restore order and strengthen Byzantium. Such a strong ruler turned out to be justinianI, who ascended the throne in 527, but for a whole decade before that, he, in fact, stood in power, being a key figure under his uncle Emperor Justin.

After a series of victorious wars, Emperor Justinian almost doubled the country, he spread the Christian faith, skillfully conducted foreign and domestic policy, taking measures to combat the economic crisis that arose as a result of total corruption.

The Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea testifies that Justinian "taking power over the state, shaken and brought to shameful weakness, increased its size and brought it to a brilliant state." It is noteworthy that wife of Emperor Justinian Theodore, which historians call "the most remarkable woman of the Byzantine era", was his faithful friend, assistant and adviser, often took on difficult state affairs.

Theodora came from the family of a poor circus keeper and in her youth, distinguished by her bright beauty, was a courtesan. Repenting of her sinful life, she experienced a spiritual rebirth and began to lead a strict ascetic life. It was then that the young Justinian met Theodora and, having fallen in love, entered into marriage with her. This happy union had a great impact on the Byzantine Empire, starting its golden age.

Under Justinian and Theodore, Byzantium became the center of culture, "the palladium of sciences and arts." The imperial couple build monasteries and temples, including Constantinople Cathedral of Hagia Sophia of the Wisdom of God.

Hagia Sophia is still one of the most majestic works of architecture on earth. Its size is astounding: 77 meters long and almost 72 meters wide, the height of the temple is just under 56 meters, and the diameter of the dome is about 33 meters. There are forty windows under the dome around the entire circumference, penetrating through which sunlight separates the dome, as it were, and it seems that it is standing in the sun's rays. In this regard, there was a belief that the dome of Hagia Sophia on golden chains descends from the sky.

Even converted into a mosque, the Hagia Sophia impresses with its grandiose power and beauty. " Here everything is brought into such wonderful harmony, solemn, simple, magnificent", - wrote the Russian artist Mikhail Nesterov, who visited Constantinople, or as it was called in Russia - Tsargrad - in 1893.

The construction of such a building, not to mention the interior decoration, which was used in the design of marble, ivory, gold and precious stones, had a very high cost. All the income of the Byzantine Empire for five years of construction did not cover the cost of Hagia Sophia.

At the same time, the role of the Church as such was considered by Justinian more as a tool for strengthening the empire, he interfered in church affairs, appointed and dismissed bishops. Thus, the role of the Church was reduced to serving state interests, she was losing her spiritual authority among the people, which instead of strengthening led to the weakening of the state.

On the one hand, holiness flourished in Byzantium. It is enough to name the three saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, as well as Gregory of Nicomedia, Mark of Ephesus, John the Faster, Philaret the Merciful from the host of famous and not so famous saints of Byzantium, who shone at the dawn of the Byzantine Empire, to assert - the spiritual life of Byzantium did not fade away and gave birth to holiness. But holiness, as in all times, was also an exceptional phenomenon in the Byzantine Empire.

Poverty, spiritual and cultural squalor of the majority of the population, drowning in gross depravity and vulgarity, spending time in idleness - in taverns and circuses, excessive wealth of those in power, drowning in luxury and in the same debauchery, all this resembled rude paganism. At the same time, both of them called themselves Christians, went to church and theologised. As the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov said, Byzantium had more theologians than Christians". Duplicity, lies and sacrilege, of course, could not lead to anything good. Byzantium was to be comprehended by God's punishment.

Falls and ups

The successors of Emperor Justinian I, who died in 565, had to lead constant wars in the West and East to keep the borders of the Byzantine Empire. Germans, Persians, Slavs, Arabs - this is a far from complete list of those who encroached on Byzantine lands.

By the end of the 7th century, Byzantium occupied about a third of its lands compared to the empire of Justinian. Nevertheless, Constantinople was not surrendered, the people during the trials became more united and ethnically defined. Now the majority of the population of the Byzantine Empire were Greeks, the Greek language became the state language. Law continued to develop, sciences and arts continued to flourish.

Leo the Isaurian, founder of the Isaurian dynasty, who ruled under the name of Leo III, made the state rich and powerful. However, under him, the heresy of iconoclasm arose and developed supported by the Emperor himself. Many saints who sacrificially protected the holy icons shone in Byzantium at this time. The famous hymnographer, philosopher and theologian John of Damascus was punished by cutting off his hand for protecting icons. But the Mother of God herself appeared to him and returned the severed brush. Thus, in the Orthodox tradition, the icon of the Mother of God Three-Handed appeared, on which the hand returned to John of Damascus is also depicted.

Icon veneration was briefly restored at the end of the 8th century under Irene, the first female empress. But subsequently, the persecution of the holy icons began again, continuing until 843, when the dogma of icon veneration was finally approved under Empress Theodora. Empress Theodora, whose relics now rest on the Greek island of Kerkyra (Corfu), was the wife of the iconoclast emperor Theophilos, but she herself secretly honored the holy icons. Having taken the throne after the death of her husband, she patronized the convening of the VII Ecumenical Council, which restored the veneration of icons. For the first time under Theodore, in the church of Sophia in Constantinople, on the first Sunday of Great Lent, rite of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, which is now celebrated annually in all Orthodox Churches.

At the beginning of the 9th century, with continued iconoclasm, crushing wars began again - with the Arabs and Bulgarians, who deprived the empire of many lands and almost conquered Constantinople. But then the trouble was over, the Byzantines defended their capital.

In 867 came to power in Byzantium the Macedonian dynasty, under which the Golden Age of the empire lasted for more than a century and a half. Emperors Basil I, Roman, Nicephorus Foka, John Tzimisces, Basil II returned the lost lands and expanded the borders of the empire to the Tigris and Euphrates.

It was during the reign of the Macedonians that the ambassadors of Prince Vladimir came to Constantinople, about which the Tale of Bygone Years tells as follows: “We came to the Greek land, and brought us to where they serve their God, and did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth: for there is no such sight and beauty on earth, and we don’t know how to tell about it - we only know that God is there with people, and their service is better than in all other countries. The boyars said to Vladimir the prince: “If the Greek law was bad, then your grandmother Olga would not have accepted it, but she was the wisest of all people.” And Vladimir asked: “Where shall we be baptized?” They said: "Where you like it." Thus began the history of a new powerful Christian state - Russia, which would later be called the successor of Byzantium or the Third Rome.

In 1019 the Byzantine emperor BasilII conquered Bulgaria. At the same time, he strengthened the economy and gave a new impetus to the development of science and culture. During his reign, the Byzantine Empire flourished. It is known that Vasily, who received the nickname Bulgar Slayer for victories over the Bulgarians, led an ascetic life. He was not married, history has not preserved information about any of his love affairs. He left no offspring, and after his death, a fierce struggle for the throne began.. The rulers, who replaced each other one after another, could not adequately manage the vast empire, feudal fragmentation began, the central power was rapidly weakening.

In 1057, having overthrown the Macedonian dynasty, Isaac Komnenos ascended the throne, but he did not last long at the head of state. The rulers continued to replace one another, not neglecting meanness, betrayal, and murder. Anarchy increased, the state weakened.

The Byzantine Empire was in critical condition when in 1081, Alexei Komnenos came to power. The young military leader seized Constantinople and the imperial throne by force. He successfully led foreign and domestic policy. He appointed either relatives or friends to all key government posts. Thus, power became more centralized, which contributed to the strengthening of the empire.

The reign of the Komnenos dynasty, which historians have called the Komnenos Renaissance, aimed to capture Rome and overthrow the Western Empire, the existence of which hurt the pride of the Byzantine emperors. Under the son of Alexis Komnenos John and, especially, under the grandson Manuel Constantinople became the center of European politics with which all other states were forced to reckon.

But after the death of Manuel, it turned out that, apart from hatred for Byzantium, none of the neighbors, who were ready to attack her at any moment, had any feelings. A deep internal crisis, caused by the great poverty of the population, social injustice, the policy of infringing on one's own people to please foreign merchants, broke out into an uprising and massacre.

Less than a year after the death of Manuel Komnenos, an uprising broke out in the capital, flooding the city with blood. Bulgaria seceded from Byzantium in 1087, and Serbia in 1090. The empire was weakened like never before, and In 1204, the Crusaders captured Constantinople., the city was plundered, many monuments of Byzantine culture perished forever. Only a few areas remained under the control of the Byzantines - Nicaea, Trebizond and Epirus. In all other territories, Catholicism was rudely planted and Greek culture was exterminated.

Emperor of Nicaea Michael Palaiologos having entered into several political friendly alliances, managed to gather forces and recapture Constantinople. On August 15, 1261, on the feast of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos, he solemnly entered the capital and announced the revival of the Byzantine Empire. Two decades of Michael's reign became years of relative prosperity for the state, and historians call this emperor himself the last significant ruler of Byzantium.

The foreign political situation remained turbulent, and in the face of constant danger it was necessary to strengthen the empire from the inside, but the era of the reign of the Palaiologos dynasty, on the contrary, was replete with unrest, internal conflicts and uprisings.

Decline and fall of the empire

The constant struggle for the throne, and most importantly, the spiritual crisis of a society that called itself Christian and led a life far from Christian ideals, finally weakened the Byzantine Empire.

The Ottoman Muslims conquered Bursa, Nicaea, Nicomedia in just twelve years and reached the Bosphorus. The fall of Gallipoli under the onslaught of the Ottomans in 1354 marked the beginning of their conquests throughout Europe.

The Byzantine emperors had to seek support in Rome, their currying favor with the West reached the point that they rejected Orthodoxy by signing a union with the Catholics which not only did not serve the good of the state, but only weakened it, both spiritually and morally. The majority of the population did not accept Catholicism, and the internal crisis reached its limit.

Over the next hundred years, the Ottomans took possession of almost the entire territory of the empire, and Byzantium was now a tiny province on the outskirts of Europe.

In 1453, on April 5, the Turks approached Constantinople and began to besiege it, and already on May 30, Sultan Mehmed II victoriously entered the city. So the existence of the first Christian, once powerful, Byzantine Empire ended.

It's amazing that not only rise, but fall great Byzantium, once again proving that the earth and everything on it will burn(2 Epistle of the Apostle Peter, 3, 10), continues to teach humanity a lot. An attempt to build a society on a sinful earth" unity in freedom under the law of Love”, as the Russian philosopher Alexei Khomyakov said, still remains one of the noblest undertakings that inspired many great people - politicians, philosophers, poets, writers, artists. Can this ideal be realized in a fallen world? Most likely no. But he continues to live in the minds lofty idea as the pinnacle of the spiritual aspirations of humanity.

Byzantium (Byzantine Empire) - a medieval state from the name of the city of Byzantium, on the site of which the emperor of the Roman Empire Constantine I the Great (306–337) founded Constantinople and in 330 moved the capital here from Rome (see Ancient Rome). In 395 the empire was divided into Western and Eastern; in 476 the Western Empire fell; East survived. Byzantium was its continuation. The subjects themselves called her Romania (Roman power), and themselves - Romans (Romans), regardless of their ethnic origin.

Byzantine Empire in the VI-XI centuries.

Byzantium existed until the middle of the 15th century; until the 2nd half of the 12th century. it was a powerful, richest state that played a huge role in the political life of Europe and the countries of the Middle East. Byzantium achieved its most significant foreign policy successes at the end of the 10th century. - the beginning of the 11th century; she temporarily conquered the western Roman lands, then stopped the offensive of the Arabs, conquered Bulgaria in the Balkans, subjugated the Serbs and Croats and became in essence a Greek-Slavic state for almost two centuries. Its emperors tried to act as the supreme overlords of the entire Christian world. Ambassadors from all over the world came to Constantinople. The sovereigns of many countries of Europe and Asia dreamed of kinship with the emperor of Byzantium. Visited Constantinople around the middle of the 10th century. and Russian princess Olga. Her reception in the palace was described by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus himself. He was the first to call Rus' "Rosia" and spoke about the path "from the Varangians to the Greeks."

Even more significant was the influence of the peculiar and vibrant culture of Byzantium. Until the end of the 12th century. it remained the most cultured country in Europe. Kievan Rus and Byzantium supported from the 9th century. regular trade, political and cultural ties. Invented around 860 by Byzantine cultural figures - the "Thessalonica brothers" Constantine (in monasticism Cyril) and Methodius, Slavic writing in the 2nd half of the 10th century. - early 11th c. penetrated into Rus' mainly through Bulgaria and quickly became widespread here (see Writing). From Byzantium in 988, Rus' also adopted Christianity (see Religion). Simultaneously with the baptism, Prince Vladimir of Kiev married the emperor's sister (granddaughter of Constantine VI) Anna. In the next two centuries, dynastic marriages between the ruling houses of Byzantium and Rus' were concluded many times. Gradually in the 9th-11th centuries. on the basis of an ideological (then primarily religious) community, an extensive cultural zone (“the world of orthodoxy” - Orthodoxy) developed, the center of which was Byzantium and in which the achievements of Byzantine civilization were actively perceived, developed and processed. The Orthodox zone (it was opposed by the Catholic one) included, in addition to Rus', Georgia, Bulgaria and most of Serbia.

One of the factors holding back the social and state development of Byzantium was the continuous wars that it waged throughout its existence. In Europe, she held back the onslaught of the Bulgarians and nomadic tribes - the Pechenegs, the Uzes, the Polovtsians; waged wars with the Serbs, Hungarians, Normans (in 1071 they deprived the empire of its last possessions in Italy), and finally, with the crusaders. In the East, Byzantium served for centuries as a barrier (like Kievan Rus) for Asian peoples: Arabs, Seljuk Turks, and from the 13th century. - and the Ottoman Turks.

There are several periods in the history of Byzantium. Time from the 4th c. until the middle of the 7th c. - this is the era of the collapse of the slave system, the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. Slavery has outlived itself, the ancient policy (city) - the stronghold of the old system - was wrecked. The crisis was experienced by the economy, the state system, and ideology. Waves of "barbarian" invasions hit the empire. Relying on the huge bureaucratic apparatus of power inherited from the Roman Empire, the state recruited part of the peasants into the army, forced others to perform official duties (to carry goods, build fortresses), imposed heavy taxes on the population, attached it to the land. Justinian I (527–565) attempted to restore the Roman Empire to its former borders. His commanders Belisarius and Narses temporarily conquered North Africa from the Vandals, Italy from the Ostrogoths, and part of Southeastern Spain from the Visigoths. The grandiose wars of Justinian were vividly described by one of the greatest contemporary historians - Procopius of Caesarea. But the rise was short. By the middle of the 7th c. the territory of Byzantium was reduced by almost three times: possessions in Spain, more than half of the lands in Italy, most of the Balkan Peninsula, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were lost.

The culture of Byzantium in this era was distinguished by its bright originality. Although Latin was almost until the middle of the 7th century. official language, there was also literature in Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian. Christianity, which became the state religion in the 4th century, had a huge impact on the development of culture. The church controlled all genres of literature and the arts. Libraries and theaters were destroyed or destroyed, schools where "pagan" (ancient) sciences were taught were closed. But Byzantium needed educated people, the preservation of elements of secular scholarship and natural science knowledge, as well as applied arts, the skill of painters and architects. A significant fund of ancient heritage in Byzantine culture is one of its characteristic features. The Christian Church could not exist without a competent clergy. It turned out to be powerless in the face of criticism from pagans, heretics, adherents of Zoroastrianism and Islam, without relying on ancient philosophy and dialectics. On the foundation of ancient science and art, multicolored mosaics of the 5th-6th centuries, enduring in their artistic value, arose, among which the mosaics of churches in Ravenna stand out especially (for example, with the image of the emperor in the church of San Vitale). The Code of Civil Law of Justinian was drawn up, which later formed the basis of bourgeois law, since it was based on the principle of private property (see Roman law). An outstanding work of Byzantine architecture was the magnificent church of St. Sophia, built in Constantinople in 532-537. Anthimius of Thrall and Isidore of Miletus. This miracle of building technology is a kind of symbol of the political and ideological unity of the empire.

In the 1st third of the 7th c. Byzantium was in a state of severe crisis. Huge areas of previously cultivated lands were desolate and depopulated, many cities lay in ruins, the treasury was empty. The entire north of the Balkans was occupied by the Slavs, some of them penetrated far to the south. The state saw a way out of this situation in the revival of small free peasant landownership. Strengthening its power over the peasants, it made them its main support: the treasury was made up of taxes from them, an army was created from those obliged to serve in the militia. It helped to strengthen power in the provinces and return the lost lands in the 7th-10th centuries. a new administrative structure, the so-called thematic system: the governor of the province (themes) - the strategist received from the emperor all the fullness of military and civil power. The first themes arose in areas close to the capital, each new theme served as the basis for the creation of the next, neighboring one. The barbarians who settled in it also became subjects of the empire: as taxpayers and warriors, they were used to revive it.

With the loss of lands in the east and west, the majority of its population were Greeks, the emperor began to be called in Greek - "basileus".

In the 8th–10th centuries Byzantium became a feudal monarchy. A strong central government held back the development of feudal relations. Some of the peasants retained their freedom, remaining taxpayers to the treasury. The vassal system in Byzantium did not take shape (see Feudalism). Most of the feudal lords lived in large cities. The power of the basileus was especially strengthened in the era of iconoclasm (726-843): under the flag of the fight against superstition and idolatry (veneration of icons, relics), the emperors subjugated the clergy, who argued with them in the struggle for power, and supported separatist tendencies in the provinces, confiscated the wealth of the church and monasteries . From now on, the choice of the patriarch, and often the bishops, began to depend on the will of the emperor, as well as the welfare of the church. Having solved these problems, the government restored icon veneration in 843.

In the 9th-10th centuries. the state completely subjugated not only the village, but also the city. The gold Byzantine coin - nomisma acquired the role of an international currency. Constantinople became again a "workshop of splendor" that amazed foreigners; as a "golden bridge", he brought into a knot the trade routes from Asia and Europe. Merchants of the entire civilized world and all "barbarian" countries aspired here. But the artisans and merchants of the major centers of Byzantium were subject to strict control and regulation by the state, paid high taxes and duties, and could not participate in political life. From the end of the 11th century their products could no longer withstand the competition of Italian goods. Uprisings of townspeople in the 11th-12th centuries. brutally repressed. Cities, including the capital, fell into decay. Their markets were dominated by foreigners who bought wholesale products from large feudal lords, churches, and monasteries.

The development of state power in Byzantium in the 8th–11th centuries. - this is the path of gradual revival in a new guise of a centralized bureaucratic apparatus. Numerous departments, courts, and overt and secret police operated a huge machine of power, designed to control all spheres of life of citizens, to ensure their payment of taxes, the fulfillment of duties, and unquestioning obedience. In the center of it stood the emperor - the supreme judge, legislator, military leader, who distributed titles, awards and positions. His every step was decorated with solemn ceremonies, especially the receptions of ambassadors. He presided over the council of the highest nobility (synclite). But his power was not legally hereditary. There was a bloody struggle for the throne, sometimes the synclite decided the matter. Intervened in the fate of the throne and the patriarch, and the palace guards, and all-powerful temporary workers, and the capital's plebs. In the 11th century two main groups of nobility competed - the civil bureaucracy (it stood for centralization and increased tax oppression) and the military (it sought greater independence and expansion of estates at the expense of free taxpayers). The Vasileusses of the Macedonian dynasty (867–1056), founded by Basil I (867–886), under whom Byzantium reached the pinnacle of power, represented the civil nobility. The rebellious commanders-usurpers waged a continuous struggle with her and in 1081 managed to put their protege Alexei I Comnenus (1081-1118), the founder of a new dynasty (1081-1185), on the throne. But the Comneni achieved temporary successes, they only delayed the fall of the empire. In the provinces, the rich magnates refused to consolidate the central government; Bulgarians and Serbs in Europe, Armenians in Asia did not recognize the power of the Basils. Byzantium, which was in crisis, fell in 1204, during the invasion of the Crusaders during the 4th Crusade (see Crusades).

In the cultural life of Byzantium in the 7th-12th centuries. changed three stages. Until the 2nd third of the 9th c. its culture is marked by decadence. Elementary literacy became a rarity, secular sciences were almost expelled (except for those related to military affairs; for example, in the 7th century "Greek fire" was invented, a liquid combustible mixture that brought victories to the imperial fleet more than once). Literature was dominated by the genre of biographies of saints - primitive narratives that praised patience and implanted faith in miracles. Byzantine painting of this period is poorly known - icons and frescoes perished during the era of iconoclasm.

The period from the middle of the 9th c. and almost to the end of the 11th century. called by the name of the ruling dynasty, the time of the "Macedonian revival" of culture. Back in the 8th c. it became predominantly Greek-speaking. The "Renaissance" was peculiar: it was based on official, strictly systematized theology. The metropolitan school acted as a legislator both in the sphere of ideas and in the forms of their embodiment. The canon, model, stencil, fidelity to tradition, the unchanging norm triumphed in everything. All types of fine arts were permeated with spiritualism, the idea of ​​humility and the triumph of the spirit over the body. Painting (icon painting, frescoes) was regulated by obligatory plots, images, the arrangement of figures, a certain combination of colors and chiaroscuro. These were not images of real people with their individual traits, but symbols of moral ideals, faces as carriers of certain virtues. But even in such conditions, artists created genuine masterpieces. An example of this is the beautiful miniatures of the Psalter of the early 10th century. (stored in Paris). Byzantine icons, frescoes, book miniatures occupy a place of honor in the world of fine arts (see Art).

Philosophy, aesthetics, and literature are marked by conservatism, a penchant for compilation, and a fear of novelty. The culture of this period is distinguished by external pomposity, adherence to strict rituals, splendor (during worship, palace receptions, organizing holidays and sports, triumphs in honor of military victories), as well as a sense of superiority over the culture of the peoples of the rest of the world.

However, this time was also marked by a struggle of ideas, and by democratic and rationalist tendencies. Major advances have been made in the natural sciences. He was famous for his scholarship in the first half of the 9th century. Lev Mathematician. The ancient heritage was actively comprehended. He was often approached by Patriarch Photius (mid-ninth century), who cared about the quality of teaching at the higher Mangavra school in Constantinople, where the Slavic enlighteners Cyril and Methodius were then studying. They relied on ancient knowledge when creating encyclopedias on medicine, agricultural technology, military affairs, and diplomacy. In the 11th century the teaching of jurisprudence and philosophy was restored. The number of schools that taught literacy and numeracy increased (see Education). Passion for antiquity led to the emergence of rationalistic attempts to justify the superiority of reason over faith. In the "low" literary genres, calls for sympathy for the poor and humiliated became more frequent. The heroic epic (the poem "Digenis Akrit") is permeated with the idea of ​​patriotism, consciousness of human dignity, independence. Instead of brief world chronicles, there are extensive historical descriptions of the recent past and events contemporary to the author, where the basileus' devastating criticism often sounded. Such, for example, is the highly artistic Chronography by Michael Psellos (2nd half of the 11th century).

In painting, the number of subjects increased sharply, technique became more complicated, attention to the individuality of images increased, although the canon did not disappear. In architecture, the basilica was replaced by a cross-domed church with rich decoration. The pinnacle of the historiographical genre was the “History” by Nicetas Choniates, an extensive historical narrative, brought to 1206 (including a story about the tragedy of the empire in 1204), full of sharp moral assessments and attempts to clarify the cause-and-effect relationships between events.

On the ruins of Byzantium in 1204, the Latin Empire arose, consisting of several states of Western knights bound by vassal ties. At the same time, three state associations of the local population were formed - the Kingdom of Epirus, the Empire of Trebizond and the Nicaean Empire, hostile to the Latins (as the Byzantines called all Catholics whose church language was Latin) and to each other. In the long-term struggle for the “Byzantine inheritance”, the Nicaean Empire gradually won. In 1261, she expelled the Latins from Constantinople, but the restored Byzantium did not regain its former greatness. Not all lands were returned, and the development of feudalism led to the 14th century. to feudal disunity. In Constantinople and other large cities, Italian merchants were in charge, having received unheard-of benefits from the emperors. Civil wars were added to the wars with Bulgaria and Serbia. In 1342–1349 the democratic elements of the cities (primarily Thessalonica) revolted against the big feudal lords, but were defeated.

The development of Byzantine culture in 1204–1261 lost unity: it proceeded within the framework of the three states mentioned above and in the Latin principalities, reflecting both Byzantine traditions and the characteristics of these new political entities. Since 1261, the culture of late Byzantium has been characterized as a "Paleologian revival". This was a new bright flowering of Byzantine culture, marked, however, by especially sharp contradictions. Literature was still dominated by works on church topics - lamentations, panegyrics, lives, theological treatises, etc. However, secular motifs are beginning to sound more and more insistently. The poetic genre developed, novels in verse on ancient subjects appeared. Works were created in which there were disputes about the meaning of ancient philosophy and rhetoric. Folk motifs, in particular folk songs, began to be used more boldly. The fables ridiculed the vices of the social system. Literature in the vernacular arose. 15th century humanist philosopher Georgy Gemist Plifon exposed the self-interest of the feudal lords, proposed to liquidate private property, to replace obsolete Christianity with a new religious system. In painting, bright colors, dynamic postures, individuality of portrait and psychological characteristics prevailed. Many original monuments of religious and secular (palace) architecture were created.

Starting from 1352, the Ottoman Turks, having captured almost all the possessions of Byzantium in Asia Minor, began to conquer its lands in the Balkans. Attempts to bring the Slavic countries in the Balkans to the union failed. The West, however, promised Byzantium help only on the condition that the church of the empire be subordinated to the papacy. The Ferraro-Florentine union of 1439 was rejected by the people, who protested violently, hating the Latins for their dominance in the economy of the cities, for the robberies and oppression of the crusaders. At the beginning of April 1453, almost alone in the struggle, Constantinople was surrounded by a huge Turkish army and on May 29 was taken by storm. The last emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died in arms on the walls of Constantinople. The city was sacked; it then became Istanbul - the capital of the Ottoman Empire. In 1460, the Turks conquered the Byzantine Morea in the Peloponnese, and in 1461 Trebizond, the last fragment of the former empire. The fall of Byzantium, which had existed for a thousand years, was an event of world-historical significance. It resonated with keen sympathy in Rus', in Ukraine, among the peoples of the Caucasus and the Balkan Peninsula, who by 1453 had already experienced the severity of the Ottoman yoke.

Byzantium perished, but its bright, multifaceted culture left a deep mark on the history of world civilization. The traditions of Byzantine culture were carefully preserved and developed in the Russian state, which was on the rise and soon after the fall of Constantinople, at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, turned into a powerful centralized state. Her sovereign Ivan III (1462–1505), under whom the unification of Russian lands was completed, was married to Sophia (Zoya) Paleolog, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor.

Much of this tone was set by the eighteenth-century English historian Edward Gibbon, who devoted at least three-quarters of his six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to what we would unhesitatingly call the Byzantine period.. And although this view has not been the mainstream for a long time, we still have to start talking about Byzantium as if not from the beginning, but from the middle. After all, Byzantium has neither a year of foundation, nor a founding father, like Rome with Romulus and Remus. Byzantium imperceptibly sprouted from within Ancient Rome, but never broke away from it. After all, the Byzantines themselves did not think of themselves as something separate: they did not know the words “Byzantium” and “Byzantine Empire” and called themselves either “Romans” (that is, “Romans” in Greek), appropriating the history of Ancient Rome, or “ by the race of Christians”, appropriating the entire history of the Christian religion.

We do not recognize Byzantium in early Byzantine history with its praetors, prefects, patricians and provinces, but this recognition will become more and more as emperors acquire beards, consuls turn into hypats, and senators into synclitics.

background

The birth of Byzantium will not be clear without a return to the events of the 3rd century, when the most severe economic and political crisis broke out in the Roman Empire, which actually led to the collapse of the state. In 284, Diocletian came to power (like almost all emperors of the 3rd century, he was just a Roman officer of humble origin - his father was a slave) and took measures to decentralize power. First, in 286, he divided the empire into two parts, entrusting the administration of the West to his friend Maximian Herculius, while keeping the East for himself. Then, in 293, wanting to increase the stability of the system of government and ensure the turnover of power, he introduced a system of tetrarchy - a four-part government, which was carried out by two senior Augustus emperors and two junior Caesar emperors. Each part of the empire had an August and a Caesar (each of which had its own geographical area of ​​​​responsibility - for example, the August of the West controlled Italy and Spain, and the Caesar of the West controlled Gaul and Britain). After 20 years, the Augusts were to transfer power to the Caesars, so that they would become Augusts and elect new Caesars. However, this system proved unviable, and after the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian in 305, the empire again plunged into an era of civil wars.

Birth of Byzantium

1. 312 - Battle of the Mulvian Bridge

After the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, the supreme power passed to the former Caesars - Galerius and Constantius Chlorus, they became Augusts, but neither the son of Constantius Constantine (later Emperor Constantine I the Great, considered the first emperor of Byzantium), nor Maximian's son Maxentius. Nevertheless, both of them did not leave imperial ambitions and from 306 to 312 alternately entered into a tactical alliance in order to jointly oppose other contenders for power (for example, Flavius ​​Severus, appointed Caesar after the abdication of Diocletian), then, on the contrary, entered the struggle. The final victory of Constantine over Maxentius in the battle on the Milvian bridge across the Tiber River (now within the boundaries of Rome) meant the unification of the western part of the Roman Empire under the rule of Constantine. Twelve years later, in 324, as a result of another war (now with Licinius - Augustus and the ruler of the East of the empire, who was appointed by Galerius), Constantine united East and West.

The miniature in the center depicts the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. From the homily of Gregory the Theologian. 879-882 ​​years

MS grec 510 /

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge in the Byzantine mind was associated with the idea of ​​the birth of the Christian empire. This was facilitated, firstly, by the legend of the miraculous sign of the Cross, which Constantine saw in the sky before the battle - Eusebius of Caesarea tells about this (albeit in completely different ways). Eusebius of Caesarea(c. 260-340) - Greek historian, author of the first church history. and Lactants lactation(c. 250---325) - Latin writer, apologist for Christianity, author of the essay "On the Death of the Persecutors", dedicated to the events of the era of Diocletian., and secondly, the fact that two edicts were issued at about the same time Edict- normative act, decree. about religious freedom, legalized Christianity and equalized all religions in rights. And although the publication of edicts on religious freedom was not directly related to the fight against Maxentius (the first one was published in April 311 by Emperor Galerius, and the second - already in February 313 in Milan by Constantine together with Licinius), the legend reflects the internal connection of seemingly independent political steps of Constantine, who was the first to feel that state centralization is impossible without the consolidation of society, primarily in the sphere of worship.

However, under Constantine Christianity was only one of the candidates for the role of a consolidating religion. The emperor himself was for a long time an adherent of the cult of the Invincible Sun, and the time of his Christian baptism is still the subject of scientific disputes.

2. 325 - I Ecumenical Council

In 325 Constantine summoned representatives of the local churches to the city of Nicaea. Nicaea- now the city of Iznik in Northwestern Turkey. to resolve a dispute between Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and Arius, a presbyter of one of the Alexandrian churches, about whether Jesus Christ was created by God Opponents of the Arians briefly summarized their teaching thus: "There was [such a time] when [Christ] did not exist.". This meeting was the first Ecumenical Council - a meeting of representatives of all local churches, with the right to formulate doctrine, which will then be recognized by all local churches. It is impossible to say exactly how many bishops participated in the council, since its acts have not been preserved. Tradition calls the number 318. Be that as it may, it is possible to speak about the “ecumenical” nature of the cathedral only with reservations, since in total at that time there were more than 1,500 episcopal sees.. The First Ecumenical Council is a key stage in the institutionalization of Christianity as an imperial religion: its meetings were held not in the temple, but in the imperial palace, the cathedral was opened by Constantine I himself, and the closing was combined with grandiose celebrations on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his reign.

First Council of Nicaea. Fresco from the monastery of Stavropoleos. Bucharest, 18th century

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Councils I of Nicaea and the Councils of Constantinople that followed it (meeting in 381) condemned the Arian doctrine about the created nature of Christ and the inequality of the hypostases in the Trinity, and the Apollinarian one, about the incomplete perception of human nature by Christ, and formulated the Nicene-Tsargrad Creed, which recognized Jesus Christ not created, but born (but at the same time eternal), but all three hypostases - possessing one nature. The creed was recognized as true, not subject to further doubt and discussion The words of the Nicene-Tsargrad Creed about Christ, which caused the most fierce disputes, in the Slavonic translation sound like this: Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, Whom all was.”.

Never before has any direction of thought in Christianity been condemned by the fullness of the universal church and imperial power, and no theological school has been recognized as heresy. The era of the Ecumenical Councils that has begun is the era of the struggle between orthodoxy and heresy, which are in constant self- and mutual determination. At the same time, the same doctrine could alternately be recognized as heresy, then right faith - depending on the political situation (this was the case in the 5th century), however, the very idea of ​​​​the possibility and necessity of protecting orthodoxy and condemning heresy with the help of the state was questioned in Byzantium has never been set.

3. 330 - transfer of the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople

Although Rome always remained the cultural center of the empire, the Tetrarchs chose cities on the periphery as their capitals, from which it was more convenient for them to repel external attacks: Nicomedia Nicomedia- now Izmit (Türkiye)., Sirmius Sirmius- now Sremska Mitrovica (Serbia)., Milan and Trier. During the reign of the West, Constantine I transferred his residence to Milan, then to Sirmium, then to Thessalonica. His rival Licinius also changed the capital, but in 324, when a war broke out between him and Constantine, the ancient city of Byzantium on the banks of the Bosphorus, known from Herodotus, became his stronghold in Europe.

Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror and the Serpent Column. Miniature of Naqqash Osman from the manuscript "Khyuner-name" by Seyid Lokman. 1584-1588 years

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During the siege of Byzantium, and then in preparation for the decisive battle of Chrysopolis on the Asian coast of the strait, Constantine assessed the position of Byzantium and, having defeated Licinius, immediately began a program to renew the city, personally participating in the marking of the city walls. The city gradually took over the functions of the capital: a senate was established in it and many Roman senatorial families were forcibly transported closer to the senate. It was in Constantinople that during his lifetime Constantine ordered to rebuild a tomb for himself. Various curiosities of the ancient world were brought to the city, for example, the bronze Serpentine Column, created in the 5th century BC in honor of the victory over the Persians at Plataea Battle of Plataea(479 BC) — one of the most important battles of the Greco-Persian wars, as a result of which the land forces of the Achaemenid Empire were finally defeated..

The chronicler of the 6th century, John Malala, tells that on May 11, 330, Emperor Constantine appeared at the solemn ceremony of consecrating the city in a diadem - a symbol of the power of the eastern despots, which his Roman predecessors avoided in every possible way. The shift in the political vector was symbolically embodied in the spatial movement of the center of the empire from west to east, which, in turn, had a decisive influence on the formation of Byzantine culture: the transfer of the capital to territories that had been speaking Greek for a thousand years determined its Greek-speaking character, and Constantinople itself turned out to be in the center of the mental map of the Byzantine and identified with the entire empire.

4. 395 - division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western

Despite the fact that in 324 Constantine, having defeated Licinius, formally united the East and West of the empire, ties between its parts remained weak, and cultural differences grew. No more than ten bishops arrived at the First Ecumenical Council from the western provinces (out of about 300 participants); most of the arrivals were not able to understand Constantine's welcome speech, which he delivered in Latin, and it had to be translated into Greek.

Half silicone. Flavius ​​Odoacer on the obverse of a coin from Ravenna. 477 year Odoacer is depicted without the imperial diadem - with an uncovered head, a shock of hair and a mustache. Such an image is uncharacteristic for emperors and is considered "barbaric".

The Trustees of the British Museum

The final division occurred in 395, when Emperor Theodosius I the Great, who for several months before his death became the sole ruler of East and West, divided the state between his sons Arcadius (East) and Honorius (West). However, formally the West still remained connected with the East, and at the very decline of the Western Roman Empire, in the late 460s, the Byzantine emperor Leo I, at the request of the Senate of Rome, made a last unsuccessful attempt to elevate his protege to the western throne. In 476, the German barbarian mercenary Odoacer deposed the last emperor of the Roman Empire, Romulus Augustulus, and sent the imperial insignia (symbols of power) to Constantinople. Thus, from the point of view of the legitimacy of power, parts of the empire were again united: the emperor Zeno, who ruled at that time in Constantinople, de jure became the sole head of the entire empire, and Odoacer, who received the title of patrician, ruled Italy only as his representative. However, in reality, this was no longer reflected in the real political map of the Mediterranean.

5. 451 - Chalcedon Cathedral

IV Ecumenical (Chalcedon) Council, convened for the final approval of the doctrine of the incarnation of Christ in a single hypostasis and two natures and the complete condemnation of Monophysitism Monophysitism(from the Greek μόνος - the only one and φύσις - nature) - the doctrine that Christ did not have a perfect human nature, since his divine nature, during the incarnation, replaced it or merged with it. The opponents of the Monophysites were called dyophysites (from the Greek δύο - two)., led to a deep schism that has not been overcome by the Christian church to this day. The central government continued to flirt with the Monophysites under the usurper Basiliscus in 475-476, and in the first half of the 6th century, under the emperors Anastasius I and Justinian I. Emperor Zeno in 482 tried to reconcile the supporters and opponents of the Council of Chalcedon, without going into dogmatic issues . His conciliatory message, called the Enoticon, ensured peace in the East, but led to a 35-year split with Rome.

The main support of the Monophysites were the eastern provinces - Egypt, Armenia and Syria. Religious uprisings regularly broke out in these regions and an independent Monophysite hierarchy and its own church institutions parallel to the Chalcedonian (that is, recognizing the teachings of the Council of Chalcedon) were formed, which gradually developed into independent, non-Chalcedonian churches that still exist today - Syro-Jacobite, Armenian and Coptic. The problem finally lost its relevance for Constantinople only in the 7th century, when, as a result of the Arab conquests, the Monophysite provinces were torn away from the empire.

Rise of early Byzantium

6. 537 - completion of the construction of the church of Hagia Sophia under Justinian

Justinian I. Fragment of the church mosaic
San Vitale in Ravenna. 6th century

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Under Justinian I (527-565), the Byzantine Empire reached its peak. The Code of Civil Law summarized the centuries-old development of Roman law. As a result of military campaigns in the West, it was possible to expand the borders of the empire, including the entire Mediterranean - North Africa, Italy, part of Spain, Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily. Sometimes people talk about the "Justinian Reconquista". Rome became part of the empire again. Justinian launched extensive construction throughout the empire, and in 537 the construction of a new Hagia Sophia in Constantinople was completed. According to legend, the plan of the temple was suggested personally to the emperor by an angel in a vision. Never again in Byzantium was a building of such magnitude built: a grandiose temple, in the Byzantine ceremonial called the "Great Church", became the center of power of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The era of Justinian at the same time and finally breaks with the pagan past (in 529 the Academy of Athens was closed Athens Academy - philosophical school in Athens, founded by Plato in the 380s BC. e.) and establishes a line of succession with antiquity. Medieval culture opposes itself to early Christian culture, appropriating the achievements of antiquity at all levels - from literature to architecture, but at the same time discarding their religious (pagan) dimension.

Coming from the bottom, seeking to change the way of life of the empire, Justinian met with rejection from the old aristocracy. It is this attitude, and not the personal hatred of the historian for the emperor, that is reflected in the vicious pamphlet on Justinian and his wife Theodora.

7. 626 - Avaro-Slavic siege of Constantinople

The reign of Heraclius (610-641), glorified in court panegyric literature as the new Hercules, accounted for the last foreign policy successes of early Byzantium. In 626, Heraclius and Patriarch Sergius, who was directly defending the city, managed to repel the Avar-Slavic siege of Constantinople (the words that open the akathist to the Mother of God tell precisely about this victory In the Slavic translation, they sound like this: “To the chosen Voivode, victorious, as if having got rid of the evil ones, we will thankfully describe Thy servants, Mother of God, but as if having an invincible power, free us from all troubles, let us call Ty: rejoice, Bride of the Bride.”), and at the turn of the 20-30s of the 7th century during the Persian campaign against the power of the Sassanids Sasanian Empire- a Persian state centered on the territory of present-day Iraq and Iran, which existed in the years 224-651. the provinces in the East lost a few years earlier were recaptured: Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Palestine. The Holy Cross stolen by the Persians was solemnly returned to Jerusalem in 630, on which the Savior died. During the solemn procession, Heraclius personally brought the Cross into the city and laid it in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Under Heraclius, the last rise before the cultural break of the Dark Ages is experienced by the scientific and philosophical Neoplatonic tradition, coming directly from antiquity: a representative of the last surviving ancient school in Alexandria, Stephen of Alexandria, comes to Constantinople at the imperial invitation to teach.

Plate from a cross with images of a cherub (left) and the Byzantine emperor Heraclius with the Shahinshah of the Sassanids Khosrow II. Valley of the Meuse, 1160-70s

Wikimedia Commons

All these successes were brought to naught by the Arab invasion, which wiped out the Sassanids from the face of the earth in a few decades and forever wrested the eastern provinces from Byzantium. Legends tell how the prophet Muhammad offered Heraclius to convert to Islam, but in the cultural memory of the Muslim peoples, Heraclius remained precisely a fighter against the emerging Islam, and not with the Persians. These wars (generally unsuccessful for Byzantium) are described in the 18th-century epic poem The Book of Heraclius, the oldest written monument in Swahili.

Dark Ages and iconoclasm

8. 642 Arab conquest of Egypt

The first wave of Arab conquests in the Byzantine lands lasted eight years - from 634 to 642. As a result, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt were torn away from Byzantium. Having lost the most ancient Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, the Byzantine Church, in fact, lost its universal character and became equal to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which within the empire had no church institutions equal to it in status.

In addition, having lost the fertile territories that provided it with grain, the empire plunged into a deep internal crisis. In the middle of the 7th century, there was a reduction in monetary circulation and the decline of cities (both in Asia Minor and in the Balkans, which were no longer threatened by the Arabs, but by the Slavs) - they turned into either villages or medieval fortresses. Constantinople remained the only major urban center, but the atmosphere in the city changed and the ancient monuments brought there back in the 4th century began to inspire irrational fears in the townspeople.

Fragment of a papyrus letter in the Coptic language of the monks Victor and Psan. Thebes, Byzantine Egypt, circa 580-640 Translation of a fragment of a letter into English at the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Constantinople also lost access to papyrus, which was produced exclusively in Egypt, which led to an increase in the cost of books and, as a result, a decline in education. Many literary genres disappeared, the previously flourishing genre of history gave way to prophecy - having lost their cultural connection with the past, the Byzantines lost interest in their history and lived with a constant feeling of the end of the world. The Arab conquests, which caused this breakdown in the worldview, were not reflected in the literature of their time, their events are brought to us by the monuments of later eras, and the new historical consciousness reflects only an atmosphere of horror, and not facts. The cultural decline lasted for more than a hundred years, the first signs of a revival occur at the very end of the 8th century.

9. 726/730 year According to 9th-century icon-worshipping historians, Leo III issued an edict of iconoclasm in 726. But modern scientists doubt the reliability of this information: most likely, in 726, talks about the possibility of iconoclastic measures began in Byzantine society, the first real steps date back to 730.- start of iconoclastic controversy

Saint Mokios of Amphipolis and the angel killing the iconoclasts. Miniature from the Psalter of Theodore of Caesarea. 1066

The British Library Board, Add MS 19352, f.94r

One of the manifestations of the cultural decline of the second half of the 7th century is the rapid growth of disordered practices of icon veneration (the most zealous ones scraped and ate plaster from the icons of saints). This caused rejection among some of the clergy, who saw in this a threat of a return to paganism. Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741) used this discontent to create a new consolidating ideology, taking the first iconoclastic steps in 726/730. But the most fierce disputes about icons fell on the reign of Constantine V Copronymus (741-775). He carried out the necessary military and administrative reforms, significantly strengthening the role of the professional imperial guard (tagm), and successfully contained the Bulgarian threat on the borders of the empire. The authority of both Constantine and Leo, who repelled the Arabs from the walls of Constantinople in 717-718, was very high, therefore, when in 815, after the teaching of iconodules was approved at the VII Ecumenical Council (787), a new round of war with the Bulgarians provoked a new political crisis, the imperial power returned to the iconoclastic policy.

The controversy over icons gave rise to two powerful strands of theological thought. Although the teachings of the iconoclasts are much less well known than those of their opponents, indirect evidence suggests that the thought of the iconoclasts of Emperor Constantine Copronymus and the Patriarch of Constantinople John the Grammarian (837-843) was no less deeply rooted in the Greek philosophical tradition than the thought of the iconoclast theologian John Damaskin and the head of the anti-iconoclastic monastic opposition Theodore the Studite. In parallel, the dispute developed in the ecclesiastical and political plane, the boundaries of the power of the emperor, patriarch, monasticism and episcopate were redefined.

10. 843 - The triumph of Orthodoxy

In 843, under Empress Theodora and Patriarch Methodius, the dogma of icon veneration was finally approved. It became possible thanks to mutual concessions, for example, the posthumous forgiveness of the iconoclast emperor Theophilus, whose widow was Theodora. The feast "Triumph of Orthodoxy", arranged by Theodora on this occasion, ended the era of the Ecumenical Councils and marked a new stage in the life of the Byzantine state and church. In the Orthodox tradition, he still manages to this day, and anathemas against iconoclasts, named by name, sound every year on the first Sunday of Great Lent. Since then, iconoclasm, which became the last heresy condemned by the entirety of the church, began to be mythologized in the historical memory of Byzantium.

Empress Theodora's daughters learn to read icons from their grandmother Feoktista. Miniature from the Madrid Codex "Chronicle" of John Skylitzes. XII-XIII centuries

Wikimedia Commons

Back in 787, at the VII Ecumenical Council, the theory of the image was approved, according to which, in the words of Basil the Great, “the honor given to the image goes back to the prototype,” which means that worship of the icon is not an idol service. Now this theory has become the official teaching of the church - the creation and worship of sacred images from now on was not only allowed, but made a duty for a Christian. From that time on, an avalanche-like growth of artistic production began, the habitual appearance of an Eastern Christian church with iconic decoration took shape, the use of icons was integrated into liturgical practice and changed the course of worship.

In addition, the iconoclastic dispute stimulated the reading, copying and study of sources to which the opposing sides turned in search of arguments. Overcoming the cultural crisis is largely due to philological work in the preparation of church councils. And the invention of the minuscule Minuscule- writing in lowercase letters, which radically simplified and cheapened the production of books., perhaps, was due to the needs of the icon-worshipping opposition that existed under the conditions of “samizdat”: icon-worshippers had to quickly copy texts and did not have the means to create expensive uncial Uncial, or majuscule,- writing in capital letters. manuscripts.

Macedonian era

11. 863 - the beginning of the Photian schism

Dogmatic and liturgical differences gradually grew between the Roman and Eastern churches (primarily with regard to the Latin addition to the text of the Creed of the words about the procession of the Holy Spirit not only from the Father, but “and from the Son”, the so-called Filioque filioque- literally "and from the Son" (lat.).). The Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Pope fought for spheres of influence (primarily in Bulgaria, southern Italy and Sicily). The proclamation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West in 800 dealt a severe blow to the political ideology of Byzantium: the Byzantine emperor found a rival in the person of the Carolingians.

The miraculous salvation of Constantinople by Photius with the help of the robe of the Mother of God. Fresco from the Dormition Knyaginin Monastery. Vladimir, 1648

Wikimedia Commons

Two opposing parties within the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the so-called Ignatians (supporters of Patriarch Ignatius, who was deposed in 858) and the Photians (supporters of Photius who was erected - not without scandal - instead of him), sought support in Rome. Pope Nicholas used this situation to assert the authority of the papal throne and expand his spheres of influence. In 863, he withdrew the signatures of his envoys who approved the erection of Photius, but Emperor Michael III considered that this was not enough to remove the patriarch, and in 867 Photius anathematized Pope Nicholas. In 869-870, a new council in Constantinople (to this day recognized by Catholics as the VIII Ecumenical) deposed Photius and restored Ignatius. However, after the death of Ignatius, Photius returned to the patriarchal throne for another nine years (877-886).

Formal reconciliation followed in 879-880, but the anti-Latin line laid down by Photius in the District Epistle to the episcopal thrones of the East formed the basis of a centuries-old polemical tradition, the echoes of which were heard during the rupture between the churches in, and during the discussion of the possibility of a church union in XIII and fifteenth centuries.

12. 895 - the creation of the oldest known codex of Plato

Manuscript page E. D. Clarke 39 with the writings of Plato. 895 The rewriting of the tetralogy was commissioned by Aretha of Caesarea for 21 gold coins. It is assumed that the scholia (marginal comments) were left by Aretha himself.

At the end of the 9th century, there is a new discovery of the ancient heritage in Byzantine culture. A circle developed around Patriarch Photius, which included his disciples: Emperor Leo VI the Wise, Bishop Aref of Caesarea and other philosophers and scientists. They copied, studied and commented on the works of ancient Greek authors. The oldest and most authoritative list of Plato's writings (it is kept under the code E. D. Clarke 39 in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University) was created at this time by order of Arefa.

Among the texts that interested the scholars of the era, especially high-ranking church hierarchs, there were also pagan works. Aretha ordered copies of the works of Aristotle, Aelius Aristides, Euclid, Homer, Lucian and Marcus Aurelius, and Patriarch Photius included in his Myriobiblion "Myriobiblion"(literally "Ten thousand books") - a review of the books read by Photius, which, however, in reality were not 10 thousand, but only 279. annotations to Hellenistic novels, evaluating not their seemingly anti-Christian content, but the style and manner of writing, and at the same time creating a new terminological apparatus of literary criticism, different from that used by ancient grammarians. Leo VI himself created not only solemn speeches on church holidays, which he personally delivered (often improvising) after services, but also wrote Anacreontic poetry in the ancient Greek manner. And the nickname Wise is associated with the collection of poetic prophecies attributed to him about the fall and reconquest of Constantinople, which were remembered back in the 17th century in Rus', when the Greeks tried to persuade Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to campaign against the Ottoman Empire.

The era of Photius and Leo VI the Wise opens the period of the Macedonian Renaissance (named after the ruling dynasty) in Byzantium, which is also known as the era of encyclopedism or the first Byzantine humanism.

13. 952 - completion of work on the treatise "On the management of the empire"

Christ blesses Emperor Constantine VII. Carved panel. 945

Wikimedia Commons

Under the patronage of Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-959), a large-scale project was implemented to codify the knowledge of the Byzantines in all areas of human life. The measure of Constantine's direct participation cannot always be determined with accuracy, however, the personal interest and literary ambitions of the emperor, who knew from childhood that he was not destined to rule, and was forced to share the throne with a co-ruler for most of his life, are beyond doubt. By order of Constantine, the official history of the 9th century was written (the so-called Successor of Theophanes), information was collected about the peoples and lands adjacent to Byzantium (“On the management of the empire”), on the geography and history of the regions of the empire (“On the themes Fema- Byzantine military-administrative district.”), about agriculture (“Geoponics”), about the organization of military campaigns and embassies, and about court ceremonial (“On the ceremonies of the Byzantine court”). At the same time, church life was regulated: the Synaxarion and the Typicon of the Great Church were created, which determined the annual order of commemoration of the saints and the holding of church services, and a few decades later (about 980), Simeon Metaphrastus began a large-scale project to unify hagiographic literature. Around the same time, a comprehensive encyclopedic dictionary of the Court was compiled, including about 30 thousand entries. But the largest encyclopedia of Constantine is an anthology of information from ancient and early Byzantine authors about all spheres of life, conventionally called "Excerpts" It is known that this encyclopedia included 53 sections. Only the section “On Embassies” has reached its full extent, and partially – “On Virtues and Vices”, “On Conspiracies against Emperors”, and “On Opinions”. Among the missing chapters: “On the peoples”, “On the succession of emperors”, “On who invented what”, “On Caesars”, “On exploits”, “On settlements”, “On hunting”, “On messages”, “ On speeches, On marriages, On victory, On defeat, On strategies, On morals, On miracles, On battles, On inscriptions, On public administration, “On Church Affairs”, “On Expression”, “On the Coronation of Emperors”, “On the Death (Deposition) of Emperors”, “On Fines”, “On Holidays”, “On Predictions”, “On Ranks”, “On the Cause of Wars ”, “On sieges”, “On fortresses”..

The nickname Porphyrogenitus was given to the children of reigning emperors, who were born in the Crimson Chamber of the Grand Palace in Constantinople. Constantine VII, son of Leo VI the Wise from his fourth marriage, was indeed born in this chamber, but formally was illegitimate. Apparently, the nickname was to emphasize his rights to the throne. His father made him his co-ruler, and after his death, the young Constantine ruled for six years under the tutelage of regents. In 919, under the pretext of protecting Constantine from the rebels, the military leader Roman I Lekapenus usurped power, he intermarried with the Macedonian dynasty, marrying his daughter to Constantine, and then was crowned co-ruler. By the time the independent reign began, Constantine had been formally considered emperor for more than 30 years, and he himself was almost 40.

14. 1018 - the conquest of the Bulgarian kingdom

Angels lay the imperial crown on Vasily II. Miniature from Basil's Psalter, Marchian Library. 11th century

Ms. gr. 17 / Biblioteca Marciana

The reign of Basil II the Bulgar Slayers (976-1025) is the time of an unprecedented expansion of the church and political influence of Byzantium on neighboring countries: the so-called second (final) baptism of Russia takes place (the first, according to legend, took place in the 860s - when the princes Askold and Dir they allegedly were baptized with the boyars in Kiev, where Patriarch Photius sent a bishop specially for this); in 1018, the conquest of the Bulgarian kingdom leads to the liquidation of the autonomous Bulgarian Patriarchate, which had existed for almost 100 years, and the establishment of the semi-independent Archdiocese of Ohrid in its place; as a result of Armenian campaigns, Byzantine possessions in the East were expanding.

In domestic politics, Basil was forced to take tough measures to limit the influence of large landowning clans, who actually formed their own armies in the 970-980s during the civil wars that challenged Basil's power. He tried by harsh measures to stop the enrichment of large landowners (the so-called dinats Dinat ( from the Greek δυνατός) - strong, powerful.), in some cases even resorting to direct land confiscation. But this brought only a temporary effect, centralization in the administrative and military spheres neutralized powerful rivals, but in the long run made the empire vulnerable to new threats - the Normans, Seljuks and Pechenegs. The Macedonian dynasty, which ruled for more than a century and a half, formally ended only in 1056, but in reality, already in the 1020s and 30s, people from bureaucratic families and influential clans gained real power.

The descendants awarded Vasily with the nickname Bulgar Slayer for cruelty in the wars with the Bulgarians. For example, after winning the decisive battle near Mount Belasitsa in 1014, he ordered 14,000 captives to be blinded at once. When exactly this nickname originated is not known. It is certain that this happened before the end of the 12th century, when, according to the 13th century historian George Acropolitan, the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan (1197-1207) began to ravage the Byzantine cities in the Balkans, proudly calling himself a Romeo fighter and thereby opposing himself to Basil.

Crisis of the 11th century

15. 1071 - Battle of Manzikert

Battle of Manzikert. Miniature from the book "On the misfortunes of famous people" Boccaccio. 15th century

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The political crisis that began after the death of Basil II continued in the middle of the 11th century: clans continued to compete, dynasties constantly replaced each other - from 1028 to 1081, 11 emperors changed on the Byzantine throne, there was no such frequency even at the turn of the 7th-8th centuries . From the outside, Pechenegs and Seljuk Turks pressed on Byzantium The power of the Seljuk Turks in just a few decades in the 11th century conquered the territories of modern Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan and became the main threat to Byzantium in the East.- the latter, having won the battle of Manzikert in 1071 Manzikert- now the small town of Malazgirt on the easternmost tip of Turkey near Lake Van., deprived the empire of most of its territories in Asia Minor. No less painful for Byzantium was the full-scale rupture of church relations with Rome in 1054, later called the Great Schism. Schism(from the Greek σχίζμα) - gap., because of which Byzantium finally lost ecclesiastical influence in Italy. However, contemporaries almost did not notice this event and did not attach due importance to it.

However, it was precisely this era of political instability, the fragility of social boundaries and, as a result, high social mobility that gave rise to the figure of Michael Psellos, unique even for Byzantium, an erudite and official who took an active part in the enthronement of emperors (his central work, Chronography, is very autobiographical) , thought about the most complex theological and philosophical issues, studied the pagan Chaldean oracles, created works in all conceivable genres - from literary criticism to hagiography. The situation of intellectual freedom gave impetus to a new typical Byzantine version of Neoplatonism: in the title of "hypata of philosophers" Ipat philosophers- in fact, the main philosopher of the empire, the head of the philosophical school in Constantinople. Psellus was replaced by John Italus, who studied not only Plato and Aristotle, but also such philosophers as Ammonius, Philopon, Porphyry and Proclus and, at least according to his opponents, taught about the transmigration of souls and the immortality of ideas.

Komnenoska revival

16. 1081 - coming to power of Alexei I Komnenos

Christ blesses Emperor Alexei I Komnenos. Miniature from "Dogmatic Panoply" by Euthymius Zigaben. 12th century

In 1081, as a result of a compromise with the Duk, Melissene and Palaiologoi clans, the Komnenos family came to power. It gradually monopolized all state power and, thanks to complex dynastic marriages, absorbed former rivals. Beginning with Alexios I Comnenus (1081-1118), the aristocratization of Byzantine society took place, social mobility was reduced, intellectual freedoms were curtailed, and imperial power actively intervened in the spiritual sphere. The beginning of this process is marked by the church-state condemnation of John Ital for "Palatonic ideas" and paganism in 1082. Then follows the condemnation of Leo of Chalcedon, who opposed the confiscation of church property to cover military needs (at that time Byzantium was at war with the Sicilian Normans and Pechenegs) and almost accused Alexei of iconoclasm. Massacres against the Bogomils take place Bogomilstvo- a doctrine that arose in the Balkans in the 10th century, in many respects ascending to the religion of the Manichaeans. According to the Bogomils, the physical world was created by Satan cast down from heaven. The human body was also his creation, but the soul is still the gift of the good God. The Bogomils did not recognize the institution of the church and often opposed the secular authorities, raising numerous uprisings., one of them, Basil, was even burned at the stake - a unique phenomenon for Byzantine practice. In 1117, the commentator of Aristotle, Eustratius of Nicaea, appears before the court on charges of heresy.

Meanwhile, contemporaries and immediate descendants remembered Alexei I rather as a ruler who was successful in his foreign policy: he managed to conclude an alliance with the crusaders and inflict a sensitive blow on the Seljuks in Asia Minor.

In the satire "Timarion" the narration is conducted on behalf of the hero who made a journey to the afterlife. In his story, he also mentions John Itala, who wanted to take part in the conversation of ancient Greek philosophers, but was rejected by them: “I also witnessed how Pythagoras sharply pushed away John Itala, who wanted to join this community of sages. “Scum,” he said, “having put on a Galilean robe, which they call divine holy robes, in other words, having been baptized, you seek to communicate with us, whose life was given to science and knowledge? Either throw off this vulgar dress, or leave our brotherhood right now! ”” (translated by S. V. Polyakova, N. V. Felenkovskaya).

17. 1143 - coming to power of Manuel I Comnenus

The trends that emerged under Alexei I were developed under Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1180). He sought to establish personal control over the church life of the empire, sought to unify theological thought, and he himself took part in church disputes. One of the questions in which Manuel wanted to have his say was the following: what hypostases of the Trinity accept the sacrifice during the Eucharist - only God the Father or both the Son and the Holy Spirit? If the second answer is correct (and this is exactly what was decided at the council of 1156-1157), then the same Son will be both the one who is sacrificed and the one who receives it.

Manuel's foreign policy was marked by failures in the East (the most terrible was the defeat of the Byzantines at Myriokefal in 1176 at the hands of the Seljuks) and attempts at diplomatic rapprochement with the West. Manuel saw the ultimate goal of Western policy as unification with Rome based on the recognition of the supreme authority of a single Roman emperor, which Manuel himself was to become, and the unification of churches that were officially divided in. However, this project was not implemented.

In the era of Manuel, literary creativity becomes a profession, literary circles arise with their own artistic fashion, elements of the folk language penetrate into court aristocratic literature (they can be found in the works of the poet Theodore Prodrom or the chronicler Constantine Manasseh), the genre of the Byzantine love story is born, the arsenal of expressive means and the measure of the author's self-reflection is growing.

Sunset of Byzantium

18. 1204 - the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the crusaders

During the reign of Andronicus I Komnenos (1183-1185) there was a political crisis: he pursued a populist policy (reduced taxes, severed relations with the West and severely cracked down on corrupt officials), which restored a significant part of the elite against him and aggravated the foreign policy position of the empire.

Crusaders attack Constantinople. Miniature from the chronicle of the Conquest of Constantinople by Geoffroy de Villehardouin. Approximately 1330, Villardouin was one of the leaders of the campaign.

Bibliothèque nationale de France

An attempt to establish a new dynasty of Angels did not bear fruit, the society was deconsolidated. To this were added failures on the periphery of the empire: an uprising rose in Bulgaria; the crusaders captured Cyprus; Sicilian Normans ravaged Thessalonica. The struggle between pretenders to the throne within the family of Angels gave the European countries a formal reason to intervene. On April 12, 1204, members of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople. We read the most vivid artistic description of these events in the "History" by Nikita Choniates and the postmodern novel "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco, who sometimes literally copies the pages of Choniates.

On the ruins of the former empire, several states arose under Venetian rule, only to a small extent inheriting Byzantine state institutions. The Latin empire, centered in Constantinople, was rather a feudal formation of the Western European type, the same character was with the duchies and kingdoms that arose in Thessalonica, Athens and the Peloponnese.

Andronicus was one of the most eccentric rulers of the empire. Nikita Choniates says that he ordered to create in one of the churches of the capital his portrait in the guise of a poor farmer in high boots and with a scythe in his hand. There were also legends about the bestial cruelty of Andronicus. He arranged public burnings of his opponents at the hippodrome, during which the executioners pushed the victim into the fire with sharp peaks, and who dared to condemn his cruelty, the reader of Hagia Sophia George Disipat threatened to roast on a spit and send to his wife instead of food.

19. 1261 - the reconquest of Constantinople

The loss of Constantinople led to the emergence of three Greek states that equally claimed to be the full heirs of Byzantium: the Nicaean Empire in northwestern Asia Minor under the rule of the Laskar dynasty; The Empire of Trebizond in the northeastern part of the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor, where the descendants of the Komnenos settled - the Great Komnenos, who took the title of "emperors of the Romans", and the Kingdom of Epirus in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula with the dynasty of Angels. The revival of the Byzantine Empire in 1261 took place on the basis of the Nicaean Empire, which pushed aside competitors and skillfully used the help of the German emperor and the Genoese in the fight against the Venetians. As a result, the Latin emperor and patriarch fled, and Michael VIII Palaiologos occupied Constantinople, was re-crowned and proclaimed "the new Constantine."

In his policy, the founder of the new dynasty tried to reach a compromise with the Western powers, and in 1274 he even agreed to a church union with Rome, which set the Greek episcopate and the Constantinopolitan elite against him.

Despite the fact that the empire was formally revived, its culture lost its former “constantinopolecentricity”: the Palaiologians were forced to put up with the presence of the Venetians in the Balkans and the significant autonomy of Trebizond, whose rulers formally renounced the title of “Roman emperors”, but in reality did not leave imperial ambitions.

A vivid example of the imperial ambitions of Trebizond is the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia of the Wisdom of God, built there in the middle of the 13th century and still making a strong impression today. This temple simultaneously contrasted Trebizond with Constantinople with its Hagia Sophia, and at the symbolic level turned Trebizond into a new Constantinople.

20. 1351 - approval of the teachings of Gregory Palamas

Saint Gregory Palamas. Icon of the master of Northern Greece. Early 15th century

The second quarter of the 14th century saw the beginning of the Palamite controversy. St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1357) was an original thinker who developed the controversial doctrine of the difference in God between the divine essence (with which a person can neither unite nor know it) and the uncreated divine energies (with which connection is possible) and defended the possibility contemplation through the "intelligent feeling" of the Divine light, revealed, according to the Gospels, to the apostles during the transfiguration of Christ For example, in the Gospel of Matthew, this light is described as follows: “After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John, his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain alone, and was transformed before them: and His face shone like the sun, and his clothes They became as white as the light” (Matt. 17:1-2)..

In the 40s and 50s of the XIV century, the theological dispute was closely intertwined with political confrontation: Palamas, his supporters (Patriarchs Kallistos I and Philotheus Kokkinos, Emperor John VI Kantakuzen) and opponents (later converted to Catholicism, the philosopher Barlaam of Calabria and his followers Gregory Akindin, Patriarch John IV Kalek, philosopher and writer Nicephorus Gregory) alternately won tactical victories, then suffered defeat.

The Council of 1351, which approved the victory of Palamas, nevertheless did not put an end to the dispute, the echoes of which were heard in the 15th century, but forever closed the way for the anti-Palamites to the highest church and state power. Some researchers following Igor Medvedev I. P. Medvedev. Byzantine humanism of the XIV-XV centuries. SPb., 1997. they see in the thought of the anti-Palamites, especially Nikifor Grigora, tendencies close to the ideas of the Italian humanists. Humanistic ideas were even more fully reflected in the work of the Neoplatonist and ideologist of the pagan renewal of Byzantium, Georgy Gemist Plifon, whose works were destroyed by the official church.

Even in serious scholarly literature one can sometimes see that the words "(anti)palamites" and "(anti)hesychasts" are used interchangeably. This is not entirely true. Hesychasm (from the Greek ἡσυχία [hesychia] - silence) as a hermit prayer practice, which makes it possible to directly experience communication with God, was substantiated in the works of theologians of earlier eras, for example, Simeon the New Theologian in the X-XI centuries.

21. 1439 - Ferrara-Florence Union

Union of Florence by Pope Eugene IV. 1439 Compiled in two languages ​​- Latin and Greek.

British Library Board/Bridgeman Images/Fotodom

By the beginning of the 15th century, it became clear that the Ottoman military threat called into question the very existence of the empire. Byzantine diplomacy actively sought support in the West, negotiations were underway on the unification of churches in exchange for military assistance from Rome. In the 1430s, a fundamental decision on unification was made, but the venue of the cathedral (on Byzantine or Italian territory) and its status (whether it would be designated as “unifying” in advance) became the subject of bargaining. In the end, the meetings took place in Italy - first in Ferrara, then in Florence and in Rome. In June 1439, the Ferrara-Florence Union was signed. This meant that formally the Byzantine Church recognized the correctness of the Catholics on all controversial issues, including the issue. But the union did not find support from the Byzantine episcopate (Bishop Mark Eugenicus became the head of its opponents), which led to the coexistence in Constantinople of two parallel hierarchies - Uniate and Orthodox. 14 years later, immediately after the fall of Constantinople, the Ottomans decided to rely on the anti-Uniates and installed a follower of Mark Eugenicus, Gennady Scholarius, as patriarch, but formally the union was abolished only in 1484.

If in the history of the church the union remained only a short-lived failed experiment, then its trace in the history of culture is much more significant. Figures like Bessarion of Nicaea, a disciple of the neo-pagan Plethon, a Uniate metropolitan, and then a cardinal and titular Latin patriarch of Constantinople, played a key role in the transmission of Byzantine (and ancient) culture to the West. Vissarion, whose epitaph contains the words: “Through your labors, Greece moved to Rome,” translated Greek classical authors into Latin, patronized Greek emigrant intellectuals, and donated his library to Venice, which included more than 700 manuscripts (at that time the most extensive private library in Europe), which became the basis of the Library of St. Mark.

The Ottoman state (named after the first ruler Osman I) arose in 1299 on the ruins of the Seljuk Sultanate in Anatolia and during the 14th century increased its expansion in Asia Minor and the Balkans. A brief respite for Byzantium was given by the confrontation between the Ottomans and the troops of Tamerlane at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, but with the coming to power of Mehmed I in 1413, the Ottomans again began to threaten Constantinople.

22. 1453 - the fall of the Byzantine Empire

Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror. Painting by Gentile Bellini. 1480

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The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, made unsuccessful attempts to repel the Ottoman threat. By the early 1450s, Byzantium retained only a small region in the vicinity of Constantinople (Trapezund was actually independent from Constantinople), and the Ottomans controlled both most of Anatolia and the Balkans (Thessalonica fell in 1430, Peloponnese was devastated in 1446). In search of allies, the emperor turned to Venice, Aragon, Dubrovnik, Hungary, the Genoese, the Pope, but real help (and very limited) was offered only by the Venetians and Rome. In the spring of 1453, the battle for the city began, on May 29 Constantinople fell, and Constantine XI died in battle. About his death, the circumstances of which are not known to scientists, many incredible stories were composed; in Greek folk culture for many centuries there was a legend that the last Byzantine king was turned into marble by an angel and now rests in a secret cave at the Golden Gate, but is about to wake up and drive out the Ottomans.

Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror did not break the line of succession with Byzantium, but inherited the title of Roman Emperor, supported the Greek Church, and stimulated the development of Greek culture. The time of his reign is marked by projects that at first glance seem fantastic. The Greek-Italian Catholic humanist George of Trebizond wrote about building a world empire led by Mehmed, in which Islam and Christianity would unite into one religion. And the historian Mikhail Kritovul created a story in praise of Mehmed - a typical Byzantine panegyric with all the obligatory rhetoric, but in honor of the Muslim ruler, who, nevertheless, was not called the sultan, but in the Byzantine manner - the basil.