The World of Byzantium 3 Page Report- Enjoy!

The World of Byzantium, Compare and Contrast: Why did the East succeed while the West failed? A 3 page report, by Madison Nef

Constantine, the first Christian emperor, founded Constantinople, a second Rome,  in what is now Turkey. He lost Rome to the Ostrogoths because he focused on Constantinople more than his own city. Constantine made Constantinople the capital of the East. He set it up between two seas, so it was basically safe.

The emperor in the West, Honorious, did not take good care of his land. He lost it to barbarians. Alaric, one of the trusted people, is sent to Italy to kill. He does not, just scavenges for food. He quickly becomes an enemy. Stilicho, a successful army leader, was the hero of the Goths for helping them take over Rome. The barbarians were let into Rome as they were good for an army. The Rhine river froze, and armies were sent over to stop Alric from killing people.

Stilicho is executed by Honorious, which causes uproar with the barbarians because Honorious has executed one of their kind. They join Alaric. Attila the Hun is the leader of the barbarian group called the Huns.  They wreak havoc for Italy until the Pope ceases battle by talking to Attila. The Huns collapsed after Attila killed himself by over indulgence. His wife was blamed, but he had killed himself. That is the fall of the West Roman empire.

Attila

Attila the Hun was the mighty and ferocious leader of the Huns. He led them for 19 years, and would have led them longer had it not been for his death in early 453 A.D.. He was described:  Short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with grey; and he had a flat nose and tanned skin, showing evidence of his origin. He is described clearly like an Asian, though there is no surviving proof of what he looked like. His name in Bulgarian is translated “ universal ruler”, but this still proves nothing of his origin.

 Attila planned to attack the Visigoths by making alliances with the Emperor Valentinian III, since he had a good portrait in the west already. Valentinian’s sister, Honoria, sent Attila a letter and her engagement ring as a plea for help so she would not have to marry a Roman man she did not love. Attila, taking the message as a marriage offer, sent for her at once. He asked for half of the empire as a dowry, but Valentinian would not allow it. His mother forced him into exile rather than kill his sister.

Constantine

Constantine was the 57^th Roman emperor. He ruled 306-337 A.D.. He defeated emperors Maxentious and Licinious during civil wars in his reign. He started a ‘ New Rome ‘ named after himself, Constantinople, in 330. He is known for being the first Christian emperor, and turned from Pagan belief, though most emperors were supposed to dress the same, eat the same, look the same, and have the same beliefs. He changed the belief.

Just after Easter 337, Constantine became seriously ill. His wish before death was to be baptized in the Jordan River, and he started leaving Constantinople for hot baths in the town his mother lived in. On the way back one day, he died, leaving his wish behind.

Why The East Didn’t Fall

The Eastern empire was under the reign of Constantine. He was balancing the use of coinage, unlike the West, were gold was doing poorly. After defeating the Visigoths in 332, he reconquered Dacia, and was planning to attack Persia next. When Attila the Hun died, Constantine had a stable relationship with the remaining Huns, who would later fight in the Roman armies.

After many reigns, Justinian I came around. He survived an ample attack on his palace in which over 6% of his own men and townspeople died. He had a very wise wife named Theodora, whom people disliked. The emperor had married her for her wisdom, not for her beauty. He depended on her to help him run the kingdom.

The Persians proved to be a handful, so Justinian gave them 11000 pounds of gold in order that they would not attack. In doing this, he was able to set his attention on the West, which needed help.

Comparison of the Eastern and Western Portions of the Roman Empire

Quality	Eastern	Western
Population	Dense	Sparse
Society	Urban	Tribal
Education	Literate	Oral
Law	Written	Customary
Economy	Commercial	Agricultural
Exchange	Money	Barter
Living standard	Wealthy	Poor
Language	Koine	Mixed

As you can see from above, the West was not doing too good.  The East had riches, good citizenship, everything. The West, however, had poor money, teaching, etc.

Justinian

Justinian was the great Roman emperor. He ruled 527-565. He is known for his great ambition to reconquer the lost western half of the Byzantine empire. He married a beautiful young woman named Theodora, who was very smart and helped him run the kingdom. He almost depended on her.

 Justinian was one of the most important figures of late antiquity and the last Roman Emperor to speak Latin as a first language. Justinian was struck by the plague  in the early 540s but recovered. Theodora died in 548, perhaps of cancer, at a relatively young age; Justinian outlived her by almost twenty years. Justinian, who had always had a keen interest in theological matters and actively participated in debates on Christian doctrine, became even more devoted to religion during the later years of his life.

When he died, on the night of November 13–14 of the year 565, he left no children. He was succeeded by Justin II, who was the son of his sister Vigilantia, and married to Sophia, the niece of Empress Theodora. Justinian's body was entombed in a specially built mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostle.

All in all, the Eastern empire was better in many ways than the Western.  The West let all of the following happen:

• ·         Gold runs out, and currency becomes brass, and not precious metal anymore.
•               Barbarian army that rebels
• ·         Not good army base
• ·         No good living situations

The East did not let their money conditions get out of hand. They stuck with gold and survived. They had basically everything that the West did not.

The Fall of Rome

 Constant warfare required heavy military spending. The Roman army became over-stretched. The barbarians, who had been conquered, and other foreign mercenaries were allowed to join the Roman army. This over-used gold. The Government was constantly threatened by bankruptcy. The cost of defending the Empire, the failing economics, heavy taxation and high inflation was another reason why the Roman Empire fell. The majority of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire failed to share in the incredible prosperity of Rome.

 The flow of gold to pay for luxury goods led to a shortage of gold to put in Roman coins. Roman currency was devalued to such an extent that a system of bartering returned to one of the greatest civilizations the world had ever known. The knowledge that the Barbarians gained of Roman warfare and military tactics by serving in the Roman army were eventually turned against the Empire and led to the sack of Rome by the Visigoths led by an ex-army soldier Alaric.

Life became cheap - bloodshed led to more bloodshed and extreme cruelty. The values, the ideals, customs, traditions and institutions, of the Romans declined. Imagine if all your traditions and customs just blew up! The basic principles, standards and judgments about what was valuable or important in life also declined. The total disregard for human and animal life resulted in a lack of ethics - a perverted view of what was right and wrong, good and bad, desirable and undesirable. Any conformity to acceptable rules or standards of human behavior was being lost.

Rome had fierce foreign enemies. There were great Barbarian armies consisting of warriors such as the Visigoths, Huns and the Vandals. The final death blow to the Roman Empire was inflicted by these Barbarians. The city of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 and by the Vandals in 455 signaling the disintegration of Roman authority and the Fall of the Roman Empire.