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The starts off with an introductory lesson on the Byzantine Empire as a continuation of the Roman Empire but in the East. A wonderful PowerPoint and guided notes (along with flipped classroom video or Google Slides) introduces students to Constantinople and its rise to power in the world after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Most history books will tell you that the Roman Empire fell in the fifth century CE, but this would’ve come as a surprise to the millions who lived in the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages. This Medieval Roman Empire, today called the Byzantine Empire, began when Constantine, the first Christian emperor, moved Rome's capital. Leonora Neville details the rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire.
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The Eastern Roman Empire became known as the Byzantine Empire. It was its most powerful in the A. D. 500s. The empire stretched east to Arabia, south to Egypt, and west to Italy. Constantinople was the capital of the empire. The location of the city gave it special advantages.
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- Overview
- From Rome to Byzantium
- The early Byzantine state
- A changing empire
Read about the continuities and changes between the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire and complete guided practice.
The fall of the Roman Empire was a pivotal moment in world history. But we sometimes forget that part of the Roman Empire continued on. Even though the Western Roman Empire, which was centered around Rome, collapsed, the Eastern Roman Empire survived as the Byzantine Empire.
The Byzantine Empire lasted for a millennium after the fall of the Roman Empire, ending with the Ottoman conquests in 1453. While the Roman Empire's capital was Rome (for most of its history), the Byzantine Empire’s capital city was Constantinople, which was previously called Byzantium, and today is Istanbul. The capital was well-positioned near active trade routes connecting east and west. Constantinople was named after Emperor Constantine I, the first Byzantine emperor.
In this article, we're going to look at some of the continuities between the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. We'll also examine some of the changes that occurred, transforming the Eastern Roman Empire into the Byzantine Empire.
The Roman Empire in the east transformed into the Byzantine Empire over time, so it's pretty hard to neatly separate the histories of the two empires, but most scholars agree that Emperor Constantine's reign was the start of the Byzantine Empire.
Constantine—who ruled from 324 CE to 337 CE—made some significant changes to the Roman Empire. Two of these changes were the new capital at Byzantium and the new Christian character of the empire (Constantine legalized Christianity and eventually converted himself). These changes eventually created a distinct culture which would characterize the Byzantine Empire after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476.
Even so, people living under the Byzantine Empire continued to see themselves as Romans and continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire; the terms Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire were created much later.
Once the Western Roman Empire fell to Germanic conquerors in 476 CE, the Eastern Empire continued on as what historians would later refer to as the Byzantine Empire.
The first truly strong Byzantine Emperor was Justinian—who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 527 CE to 565 CE. He was able to reclaim much of the Western Empire during his reign.
Emperor Justinian also built upon Roman ideas when he put forth a unified Roman legal code. Prior to his reign, Roman laws had differed from region to region and many contradicted one another.
It was during Justinian’s reign that many of the most notable buildings and works of art in the Byzantine Empire were completed. In Constantinople, the Hagia Sophia was constructed under Justinian’s orders. At the time, it was the largest church in the world. Justinian also contributed to Constantinople’s growth by creating trade routes linking the capital to major cities to the east and west.
Stop and consider: What were some of the ways the Byzantine Empire changed during Justinian's reign?
Choose all answers that apply:
Even after Justinian’s efforts to reunify the Byzantine Empire, reconquer territory, and institute reforms, the stability of the Byzantine Empire was at risk. Attacks from neighboring groups—including the Persians, Slavs, Arabs, and Turkic steppe people—weakened the integrity of the empire. The empire also lacked revenues and struggled to keep up with mounting military expenses.
Emperor Heraclius’—who ruled from 610 CE to 641 CE—responded to these threats with a new set of reforms. He restructured the military, paying for it by clamping down on corruption and increasing taxes. He also started putting less gold in coins so he could mint more of them, enabling him to pay more soldiers.
Despite these reforms, wars with the Arabs and the Slavs significantly damaged the Byzantine Empire and reduced its territory drastically. Though the government organization had stayed very much the same since the time of the Romans, the Byzantine Empire began to transform in more drastic ways in the aftermath of these devastating wars.
How did it change? Let's read this passage written by Byzantine scholar Robert Browning:
Since the days of Diocletian and Constantine, at the turn of the third and fourth centuries, rigid separation of civil and military authority had been the rule. Civilian governors of provinces had no authority over troops stationed in their area. Army commanders had none over the civilian population. [...] It was a system designed to keep generals from dabbling in politics and staging military coups, and it worked. But it was cumbersome, it depended on the cooperation of the governing bodies of cities, which had to undertake much of the execution of government policy, and it made coordination of military and civil policy slow and difficult. Now that no region of the empire was safe from attack, something different was needed. [...] Territories still under Byzantine control were formed into military districts under the command of a strategos (army leader), who was responsible for all aspects of government, civil and military. [...] These new military districts were called themes, a word whose primary connotation is that of a division of troops.
Stop and consider: According to Robert Browning, how did the government administration change?
The Byzantine Empire by Elsa Marston Day 1 (40 minutes) A Rift in the Fabric Today’s Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches Social Studies Standards Covered: 7.1, 7.1.2, 7.1.3, 68CST1, 68CST3, 68HI1, 68HI3, 68HI4, 68HI5, 68HI6, 68REPOV2, 68REPOV4 Vocabulary: Byzantine, rift, Latin, theological Lesson Tasks A Rift in the Fabric
This time-saving Byzantine Empire and Early Russia Bundle includes over 20 great resources plus lesson plans for each day of the unit!Each of the following resources is included: Byzantine Emperor Justinian Campaign Poster ProjectByzantine Empire & Constantinople Flipped Classroom PowerPointJustinian's Code Primary Source AnalysisConstantinople and the Hagia Sophia Visual AnalysisEmpress ...
The Art of the Byzantine Empire. For Teachers 8th. Eighth graders describe, analyze, and evaluate the history of the Byzantine Empire and Russia from about 300 to 1000 A.D. They emphasis the preservation of Greek and Roman traditions. Students analyze the Byzantine art and architecture.
