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116-486: By the 6th century, such ideas had already influenced the definitive power of the monarch as the representative of God on earth and of his kingdom as an imitation of God's holy realm . The Byzantine Empire was a multi-ethnic monarchic theocracy adopting, following, and applying the Orthodox - Hellenistic political systems and philosophies . The monarch was the incarnation of the law— nomos empsychos —and his power

232-572: A Dualist faith, arose in Mesopotamia and spread both East and West, for a time contending with Christianity in the Roman Empire. Many of the new religions relied on the emergence of the parchment codex (bound book) over the papyrus volumen (scroll), the former allowing for quicker access to key materials and easier portability than the fragile scroll, thus fueling the rise of synoptic exegesis , papyrology . Notable in this regard

348-580: A 12th-century (re)foundation for this city is given in contemporary sources; Lugo id est Luceo in the Asturias , referred to by Isidore of Seville , and Ologicus (perhaps Ologitis ), founded using Basque labour in 621 by Suinthila as a fortification against the Basques, modern Olite . All of these cities were founded for military purposes and at least Reccopolis, Victoriacum, and Ologicus in celebration of victory. A possible fifth Visigothic foundation

464-488: A citadel. Former imperial capitals such as Cologne and Trier lived on in diminished form as administrative centres of the Franks . In Britain most towns and cities had been in decline, apart from a brief period of recovery during the fourth century, well before the withdrawal of Roman governors and garrisons but the process might well have stretched well into the fifth century. Historians emphasizing urban continuities with

580-554: A classical education and the election by the Senate to magistracies was no longer the path to success. Room at the top of late antique society was more bureaucratic and involved increasingly intricate channels of access to the emperor; the plain toga that had identified all members of the Republican senatorial class was replaced with the silk court vestments and jewelry associated with Byzantine imperial iconography. Also indicative of

696-661: A close aristocrat to the Basileus . The Katepanakia inside the Theme were ruled by a deputy of the Doux called a "Praktor" or "Energon", they were appointed either by the monarch or the Doux himself, with the primary task of the collection of taxes and a second role in the maintenance of basic order, administration and justice in his district. Alexios fiscal reforms allowed an institution or individual to catalog and group their land domains and, through it, their fiscal obligations, in

812-468: A defensible acropolis , or were abandoned in favour of such positions elsewhere." In the western Mediterranean, the only new cities known to be founded in Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries were the four or five Visigothic "victory cities". Reccopolis in the province of Guadalajara is one: the others were Victoriacum , founded by Leovigild , which may survive as the city of Vitoria , though

928-447: A document referred as praktikon . The new reform essentially broke from the integrity of the "chora" or village tax, as its new purpose was the collection of the various taxes regardless of whether collection was by an institution, individual or the village itself, essentially offering it to the highest bidder. Although a simplification, it was not an improvement, as it pushed a great variety of villages and towns to eventually be added to

1044-425: A great internal weakness and the cause of various coups and rebellions in which viceroys with provincial armies and, sometimes, entire themes , would often challenge imperial power with claims of their own. In this way emperors such as Nikephoros II Phokas ( r.  963–969 ) and Heraclius ( r.  610–641 ) achieved royal power for themselves. There were no codified laws on the imperial succession, and

1160-417: A greater centralization of power. The various Themes had been divided into smaller districts called "Katepanakia" which in turn were made up of the various towns and villages (chora) , the monastic estates (episkpesis) , the estates of the dynatoi (proasteion) , and the various pronoia grants. The Themes were ruled by a "Doux" , who was positioned by the emperor directly, commonly a relative of his or

1276-491: A high official would be both magistros (an "awarded" title) and logothetēs tou dromou (a "proclaimed" office). The "by award" titles for the "Bearded Ones" (non-eunuchs) were, in descending order of precedence: By descending order of precedence, the "by award" titles for the eunuchs were: Book of Offices ranks the order of command below the emperor: Byzantine administrative nature was characterized by its versatility and unfixed duties in constant role change depending on

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1392-486: A large number of honorific titles existed, which the emperor awarded to prominent subjects or to friendly foreign rulers. Over the more than a thousand years of the empire's existence, the Imperial administrative system evolved in its adoption of historic titles. At first, the various titles of the empire were the same as those of the late Roman Empire . However, by the era of Heraclius ( r.  610–641 ), many of

1508-469: A partial revival of classicism). Nearly all of these more abstracted conventions could be observed in the glittering mosaics of the era, which during this period moved from being decoration derivative from painting used on floors (and walls likely to become wet) to a major vehicle of religious art in churches. The glazed surfaces of the tesserae sparkled in the light and illuminated the basilica churches. Unlike their fresco predecessors, much more emphasis

1624-444: A rise in importance of the aristocracy, and an increased number of new families entering it. The catastrophic losses in the latter 11th century again prompted a reorganization of the imperial administrative system, at the hands of the new Komnenos dynasty : the older offices and titles fell gradually into disuse, while an array of new honorifics emerged, which signified primarily the closeness of their recipient's familial relationship to

1740-525: A shade exotic," observes H. R. Loyn , "owing their reason for being more to the military and administrative needs of Rome than to any economic virtue". The other institutional power centre, the Roman villa , did not survive in Britain either. Gildas lamented the destruction of the twenty-eight cities of Britain; though not all in his list can be identified with known Roman sites, Loyn finds no reason to doubt

1856-787: A sort of ballet", with precise ceremonies prescribed for every occasion, to show that "Imperial power could be exercised in harmony and order", and "the Empire could thus reflect the motion of the Universe as it was made by the Creator", according to the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus , who wrote a Book of Ceremonies describing in enormous detail the annual round of the Court. Special forms of dress for many classes of people on particular occasions are set down; at

1972-471: A specific situation. The vast Byzantine bureaucracy had many titles, more varied than aristocratic and military titles. In Constantinople there were normally hundreds, if not thousands, of bureaucrats at any time. Like members of the Church and the military, they wore elaborately differentiated dress , often including huge hats. These are some of the more common ones, including non-nobles who also directly served

2088-515: A vehicle for the last group of powerful pagans to resist Christianity, as in the late 4th century Symmachi–Nicomachi diptych . Extravagant hoards of silver plate are especially common from the 4th century, including the Mildenhall Treasure , Esquiline Treasure , Hoxne Hoard , and the imperial Missorium of Theodosius I . In the field of literature, late antiquity is known for the declining use of classical Greek and Latin , and

2204-527: A wholesale transformation of the political and social basis of life in and around the Roman Empire . The Roman citizen elite in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, under the pressure of taxation and the ruinous cost of presenting spectacular public entertainments in the traditional cursus honorum , had found under the Antonines that security could be obtained only by combining their established roles in

2320-582: Is Baiyara (perhaps modern Montoro ), mentioned as founded by Reccared in the 15th-century geographical account, Kitab al-Rawd al-Mitar . The arrival of a highly urbanized Islamic culture in the decade following 711 ensured the survival of cities in the Hispaniae into the Middle Ages. Beyond the Mediterranean world, the cities of Gaul withdrew within a constricted line of defense around

2436-520: Is the end of the polis model. While there was a decline of urban life in late antiquity (especially in the West) the epoch brought with it new forms of political participation in the urban spaces as well. Especially the role of crowds and masses in cities has increased, leading to new levels of tension. In the cities the strained economies of Roman over-expansion arrested growth. Almost all new public building in late antiquity came directly or indirectly from

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2552-476: Is the topic of the Fifty Bibles of Constantine . Within the recently legitimized Christian community of the 4th century, a division could be more distinctly seen between the laity and an increasingly celibate male leadership. These men presented themselves as removed from the traditional Roman motivations of public and private life marked by pride, ambition and kinship solidarity, and differing from

2668-581: The foedus with the Goths in Aquitania in 418. The general decline of population, technological knowledge and standards of living in Europe during this period became the archetypal example of societal collapse for writers from the Renaissance . As a result of this decline, and the relative scarcity of historical records from Europe in particular, the period from roughly the early fifth century until

2784-578: The Anglo-Saxon period depend largely on the post-Roman survival of Roman toponymy . Aside from a mere handful of its continuously inhabited sites, like York and London and possibly Canterbury , however, the rapidity and thoroughness with which its urban life collapsed with the dissolution of centralized bureaucracy calls into question the extent to which Roman Britain had ever become authentically urbanized: "in Roman Britain towns appeared

2900-654: The Byzantine military manuals achieving great renown and influence: the most famous of which is the Strategikon attributed to Emperor Maurice , written in the 6th century. One genre of literature among Christian writers in this period was the Hexaemeron , dedicated to the composition of commentaries, homilies, and treatises concerned with the exegesis of the Genesis creation narrative . The first example of this

3016-549: The Carolingian Renaissance (or later still) was referred to as the " Dark Ages ". This term has mostly been abandoned as a name for a historiographical epoch, being replaced by "Late Antiquity" in the periodization of the late Western Roman Empire, the early Byzantine Empire and the Early Middle Ages. The Roman Empire underwent considerable social, cultural and organizational changes starting with

3132-719: The Chaldaean oracles , some novel, such as hermeticism . Culminating in the reforms advocated by Apollonius of Tyana being adopted by Aurelian and formulated by Flavius Claudius Julianus to create an organized but short-lived pagan state religion that ensured its underground survival into the Byzantine age and beyond. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India and along the Silk Road in Central Asia , while Manichaeism ,

3248-720: The Crusader occupation it virtually vanished. A French visitor was shocked to see the Empress going to church far less well attended than the Queen of France would have been. The Imperial family largely abandoned the Great Palace for the relatively compact Palace of Blachernae . Vicar of Christ Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

3364-471: The De arithmetica , De musica , and De consolatione philosophiae of Boethius —both later key works in medieval education). The 4th and 5th centuries also saw an explosion of Christian literature , of which Greek writers such as Eusebius of Caesarea , Basil of Caesarea , Gregory of Nazianzus and John Chrysostom and Latin writers such as Ambrose of Milan , Jerome and Augustine of Hippo are only among

3480-659: The Early Middle Ages are stressed by writers who wish to emphasize that the seeds of medieval culture were already developing in the Christianized empire, and that they continued to do so in the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire at least until the coming of Islam . Concurrently, some migrating Germanic tribes such as the Ostrogoths and Visigoths saw themselves as perpetuating

3596-536: The Gibbon view of a stale and ossified Classical culture, in favour of a vibrant time of renewals and beginnings, and whose The Making of Late Antiquity offered a new paradigm of understanding the changes in Western culture of the time in order to confront Sir Richard Southern 's The Making of the Middle Ages . The continuities between the later Roman Empire , as it was reorganized by Diocletian (r. 284–305), and

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3712-639: The Gothic War . A similar though less marked decline in urban population occurred later in Constantinople, which was gaining population until the outbreak of the Plague of Justinian in 541. In Europe there was also a general decline in urban populations. As a whole, the period of late antiquity was accompanied by an overall population decline in almost all Europe, and a reversion to more of a subsistence economy. Long-distance markets disappeared, and there

3828-575: The Mediterranean Basin depending on location. The popularisation of this periodization in English has generally been credited to historian Peter Brown , who proposed a period between 150 and 750 AD. The Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity defines it as "the period between approximately 250 and 750 AD". Precise boundaries for the period are a continuing matter of debate. In the West, its end

3944-479: The Mediterranean Basin . Two diagnostic symptoms of decline—or as many historians prefer, 'transformation'—are subdivision, particularly of expansive formal spaces in both the domus and the public basilica , and encroachment, in which artisans' shops invade the public thoroughfare, a transformation that was to result in the souk (marketplace). Burials within the urban precincts mark another stage in dissolution of traditional urbanistic discipline, overpowered by

4060-540: The Middle Ages . On the other hand, there is a more recent thesis, associated with scholars in the tradition of Peter Brown, in which Islam is seen to be a product of the late antique world, not foreign to it. This school suggests that its origin within the shared cultural horizon of the late antique world explains the character of Islam and its development. Such historians point to similarities with other late antique religions and philosophies—especially Christianity—in

4176-791: The Roman Republic was never formally abolished. Theoretically, each emperor was formally elected, by both the senate (Synkletos) and the army . In practice, however, the Senate had lost all of its former powers and was mostly reduced to a ceremonial role, filled with relatives or close aristocrats to the Emperor; while the Army practically had a monopoly regarding elections. Emperors usually managed to secure succession for their children through indirect means, such as appointing them as co-emperors, and thus introduced various dynasties . The absence of codified succession laws and procedures, as well as

4292-422: The allelengyon . Becoming one of several towns within the estates of the different institutions and individuals of the time was an unbearable phenomenon for many communes due to the various fiscal tolerances that the basileus offered the different monastic institutions and their estates, further accelerating the disappearance of the fiscal individuality of the villages and towns. The 10th and 11th centuries saw

4408-426: The fall of Constantinople ) was the joint tax liability system of the different communities inside a théma , duties which were carried out by provincial officials such as the epoptes , exisotes , and praktores of the different bureaus. A Theme was made up of several individuals and institutions, such as the various lands that the many monasteries owned (episkepsis) , the soldiers' farming lands (stratiotai),

4524-487: The middle Byzantine period , and together with the establishment of the later 7th century Umayyad Caliphate , generally marks the end of late antiquity. One of the most important transformations in late antiquity was the formation and evolution of the Abrahamic religions : Christianity , Rabbinic Judaism and, eventually, Islam . A milestone in the spread of Christianity was the conversion of Emperor Constantine

4640-413: The thematic military system whose functions had been simplified and specialized in the rapid creation of provincial armies. Influenced by Orthodox kingship and Hellenistic theocratic philosophies , power was relegated to military leaders, with the various Strategoi , Katepan , Douk, Kephalai or Exarch each acting as viceroys in their respective " thémata " or governorships, all being appointed by

4756-411: The "Good Shepherd", resembling the traditional iconography of Hermes. He was increasingly given Roman elite status, and shrouded in purple robes like the emperors with orb and scepter in hand — this new type of depiction is variously thought to be derived from either the iconography of Jupiter or of classical philosophers. As for luxury arts, manuscript illumination on vellum and parchment emerged from

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4872-464: The "Roman" tradition. While the usage "Late Antiquity" suggests that the social and cultural priorities of classical antiquity endured throughout Europe into the Middle Ages , the usage of "Early Middle Ages" or "Early Byzantine" emphasizes a break with the classical past, and the term " Migration Period " tends to de-emphasize the disruptions in the former Western Roman Empire caused by the creation of Germanic kingdoms within her borders beginning with

4988-427: The "classic" or middle period of the Byzantine state (8th-late 11th centuries), a new, court-centered system emerged. In this, dignities of a certain level were awarded with new titles derived from older, now obsolete, public offices. A senatorial class remained in place, which incorporated a large part of the upper officialdom; every official from the rank of protospatharios (literally "first sword-bearer"; originally

5104-578: The 5th century, with a few manuscripts of Roman literary classics like the Vergilius Vaticanus and the Vergilius Romanus , but increasingly Christian texts, of which Quedlinburg Itala fragment (420–430) is the oldest survivor. Carved ivory diptychs were used for secular subjects, as in the imperial and consular diptychs presented to friends, as well as religious ones, both Christian and pagan – they seem to have been especially

5220-578: The 8th–11th centuries, according to information provided by the Taktikon Uspensky , the Klētorologion of Philotheos (899) and the writings of Constantine Porphyrogennetos , below the imperial titles, the Byzantines distinguished two distinct categories of dignities ( ἀξίαι ): the "dignities by award" ( διὰ βραβείων ἀξίαι ), which were purely honorific court titles and were conferred by

5336-704: The Balkans and Persian destructions in Anatolia in the 620s. City life continued in Syria, Jordan and Palestine into the 8th. In the later 6th century street construction was still undertaken in Caesarea Maritima in Palestine, and Edessa was able to deflect Chosroes I with massive payments in gold in 540 and 544, before it was overrun in 609. The stylistic changes characteristic of late antique art mark

5452-532: The Byzantine navy, fulfilling a tax supporting role largely in contrast from the more active and military themas of Strategos and Katepanos focussed in Asia Minor. The duties of said governors were largely limited to the collection of the various maritime taxes of their governorships; the management of the various large urban centers such as Athens, Corinth or Thebes; and a basic level of protection for its provinces against pirates and any other parties. During

5568-526: The East were still lively stages for political participation and remained important for background for religious and political disputes. The degree and extent of discontinuity in the smaller cities of the Greek East is a moot subject among historians. The urban continuity of Constantinople is the outstanding example of the Mediterranean world; of the two great cities of lesser rank, Antioch was devastated by

5684-577: The Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanian Empire of Persia , destroying the latter. After conquering all of North Africa and Visigothic Spain , the Islamic invasion was halted by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in modern France . On the rise of Islam, two main theses prevail. On the one hand, there is the traditional view, as espoused by most historians prior to the second half of

5800-409: The Emperor. The Komnenian-led Empire, and later their Palaiologan successors, were based primarily on the landed aristocracy , keeping the governance of the state tightly controlled by a limited number of intermarrying aristocratic families; for instance in the 11th and 12th century, only 80 civil and 64 military noble families have been identified, a very small number for so large a state. Finally, in

5916-451: The Great (r. 306–337) in 312, as claimed by his Christian panegyrist Eusebius of Caesarea , although the sincerity of his conversion is debated . Constantine confirmed the legalization of the religion through the so-called Edict of Milan in 313, jointly issued with his rival in the East, Licinius (r. 308–324). By the late 4th century, Emperor Theodosius the Great had made Christianity

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6032-419: The Great monastic attitudes penetrated other areas of Christian life. Late antiquity marks the decline of Roman state religion , circumscribed in degrees by edicts likely inspired by Christian advisors such as Eusebius to 4th-century emperors, and a period of dynamic religious experimentation and spirituality with many syncretic sects, some formed centuries earlier, such as Gnosticism or Neoplatonism and

6148-595: The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem , and involved himself in questions such as the timing of Christ's resurrection and its relation to the Passover . The birth of Christian monasticism the 3rd century was a major step in the development of Christian spirituality. While it initially operated outside the episcopal authority of the Church, it would become hugely successful and by the 8th century it became one of

6264-484: The Palaiologan system as reported by pseudo-Kodinos , one can discern the accumulated nomenclature of centuries, with formerly high ranks having been devalued and others taking their place, and the old distinction between office and dignity having vanished. These were the highest titles, usually limited to members of the imperial family or to a few very select foreign rulers whose friendship the Emperor desired. In

6380-617: The Persian sack of 540, followed by the plague of Justinian (542 onwards) and completed by earthquake, while Alexandria survived its Islamic transformation, to suffer incremental decline in favour of Cairo in the medieval period. Justinian rebuilt his birthplace in Illyricum , as Justiniana Prima , more in a gesture of imperium than out of an urbanistic necessity; another "city", was reputed to have been founded, according to Procopius ' panegyric on Justinian's buildings, precisely at

6496-628: The State religion, thereby transforming the Classical Roman world, which Peter Brown characterized as "rustling with the presence of many divine spirits ." Constantine I was a key figure in many important events in Christian history , as he convened and attended the first ecumenical council of bishops at Nicaea in 325, subsidized the building of churches and sanctuaries such as the Church of

6612-564: The Strategos in his military duties. Due to the lack of action or large-scale battles in the thematas of mainland Greece , by the 12th century most of these came to be governed directly by the Megas doux , under him the Krites or Archons of the various coastal cities. The themes , now made up of several Archontates , was accommodated and repurposed solely for the income and maintenance of

6728-577: The Third Century the military, political and economic demands made by the Empire made the service in local government to be an onerous duty, often imposed as punishment. Harassed urban dwellers fled to the walled estates of the wealthy to avoid taxes, military service, famine and disease. In the Western Roman Empire especially, many cities destroyed by invasion or civil war in the 3rd century could not be rebuilt. Plague and famine hit

6844-418: The attraction of saintly shrines and relics. In Roman Britain , the typical 4th- and 5th-century layer of dark earth within cities seems to be a result of increased gardening in formerly urban spaces. The city of Rome went from a population of 800,000 in the beginning of the period to a population of 30,000 by the end of the period, the most precipitous drop coming with the breaking of the aqueducts during

6960-485: The award of a symbol of rank, and the "dignities by proclamation" ( διὰ λόγου ἀξίαι ), which were offices of the state and were conferred by imperial pronouncement. The former were further divided into three subcategories, depending on who was eligible for them: different sets of titles existed for the "Bearded Ones" ( βαρβάτοι from Latin barbati , i.e. not eunuchs), the eunuchs ( ἐκτομίαι ) and women. State officials usually combined titles from both main categories, so that

7076-450: The beauty and movement of the body, but rather, hints at the spiritual reality behind its subjects . Additionally, mirroring the rise of Christianity and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, painting and freestanding sculpture gradually fell from favor in the artistic community. Replacing them were greater interests in mosaics, architecture, and relief sculpture. As the soldier emperors such as Maximinus Thrax (r. 235–238) emerged from

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7192-479: The borders, or for the management of new successful territorial acquisitions after long-term campaigns, thereby taking key roles as protagonists of any armed offensive headed by the emperor. A Strategos , or any military governor, was assisted by several deputies, chief among them the tourmarchēs or merarchēs (to a lesser degree also referred as topotērētēs ). The main provincial governors and their deputies held equal military and administrative duties within

7308-451: The building is not architecturally a basilica. In the former Western Roman Empire almost no great buildings were constructed from the 5th century. A most outstanding example is the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna constructed c.  530 at a cost of 26,000 gold solidi or 360 Roman pounds of gold. City life in the East, though negatively affected by the plague in the 6th–7th centuries, finally collapsed due to Slavic invasions in

7424-416: The campaigns of Khosrow II and Heraclius facilitated the emergence of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula during the lifetime of Muhammad . Subsequent Muslim conquest of the Levant and Persia overthrew the Sasanian Empire and permanently wrested two thirds of the Eastern Roman Empire's territory from Roman control, forming the Rashidun Caliphate . The Byzantine Empire under the Heraclian dynasty began

7540-435: The chair in the apse reserved in secular structures for the magistrate—or the Emperor himself—as the representative here and now of Christ Pantocrator , the Ruler of All, his characteristic late antique icon . These ecclesiastical basilicas (e.g., St. John Lateran and St. Peter's in Rome) were themselves outdone by Justinian's Hagia Sophia , a staggering display of later Roman/Byzantine power and architectural taste, though

7656-445: The details below. Request from 172.68.168.132 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 945229432 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:06:21 GMT Late antiquity Late antiquity is sometimes defined as spanning from the end of classical antiquity to the local start of the Middle Ages , from around the late 3rd century up to the 7th or 8th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering

7772-519: The different episkpesis of either the adjoining monasteries or of the various well-resourced dynatoi landowners, who would become responsible for both their fiscal obligations as monastic institutions, or as individuals, and for the fiscal obligations of the various towns and villages in their domain. This trend culminated in the eventual disappearance of the fiscal individuality that each commune or town had enjoyed, something which emperors like Basil II had fought and delayed with special taxes such as

7888-400: The different communities ("Chora", "Komai"), from the different land owners estates ("proasteion"), and from monasteries (" episkepsis ") . Additionally, and more commonly, as the right hand of the emperor in the management of internal and external affairs, they had to provide an efficient management of fast and flexible provincial armies, dispatching them to appease different threats within

8004-427: The early 4th century was ended by Galerius and under Constantine the Great , Christianity was made legal in the Empire. The 4th century Christianization of the Roman Empire was extended by the conversions of Tiridates the Great of Armenia , Mirian III of Iberia , and Ezana of Axum , who later invaded and ended the Kingdom of Kush . During the late 4th century reign of Theodosius I , Nicene Christianity

8120-419: The early Byzantine Empire were usually foreigners, and they were often seen as having a low status. This changed in the 10th century, when the social status of eunuchs increased and members of the educated Byzantine upper class began to become eunuchs. However, even by the time of Anna Comnena , with the Emperor away on military campaigns for much of the time, this way of life had changed considerably, and after

8236-404: The emperor's direct handling over its domains, foreshadowing similar future administrative reforms initiated and endorsed by contemporary divine Orthodox monarchical philosophy in the Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean. Following the transformation of the Byzantine state during the 7th century due to massive territorial loss to the Muslim conquests , this early structuring came to be replaced by

8352-505: The emperor. Logothetes originally had some influence on the emperor, but the posts eventually became honorary. In the later empire the Grand Logothete was replaced by the mesazōn ("mediator"). Other administrators included: The protasekretis , logothetes , prefect, praetor, quaestor, magister , and sakellarios , among others, were members of the senate . At the peaceful height of Middle Byzantium, court life "passed in

8468-410: The emperors or imperial officials. Attempts were made to maintain what was already there. The supply of free grain and oil to 20% of the population of Rome remained intact the last decades of the 5th century. It was once thought that the elite and rich had withdrawn to the private luxuries of their numerous villas and town houses. Scholarly opinion has revised this. They monopolized the higher offices in

8584-425: The end of classical Roman art and the beginnings of medieval art . As a complicated period bridging between Roman art and later medieval styles (such as that of the Byzantines ), the late antique period saw a transition from the classical idealized realism tradition largely influenced by ancient Greek art to the more iconic, stylized art of the Middle Ages. Unlike classical art, late antique art does not emphasize

8700-503: The essential truth of his statement. Classical antiquity can generally be defined as an age of cities; the Greek polis and Roman municipium were locally organised, self-governing bodies of citizens governed by written constitutions. When Rome came to dominate the known world, local initiative and control were gradually subsumed by the ever-growing Imperial bureaucracy; by the Crisis of

8816-469: The estates (proasteion) of the land owners ( dynatoi ) and the peasants (geōrgikē) , with most of a village or town (chora or komai) being made up of the later. These were the main source of a constant and rapid revenue that ultimately derived from the earlier Hellenistic fiscal and administrative principle of "epibole". Epibole had served as an accessible tool for the Hellenistic kingdoms for

8932-408: The expense of amphitheaters, temples, libraries, porticoes, gymnasia, concert and lecture halls, theaters and other amenities of public life. In any case, as Christianity took over, many of these buildings which were associated with pagan cults were neglected in favor of building churches and donating to the poor. The Christian basilica was copied from the civic structure with variations. The bishop took

9048-436: The face of state supreme ownership. Beneath the emperor, a multitude of officials and court functionaries—all directly chosen by the emperor or by one of his representatives—operated the empire's administrative bureaucracy. State officials acted not as magistrates or elected public legates , but as representatives, deputies, and viceroys of the monarch in his different domains throughout the empire. In addition to those officials,

9164-495: The fortified heights of Acrocorinth are typical of Byzantine urban sites in Greece. In Italy, populations that had clustered within reach of Roman roads began to withdraw from them, as potential avenues of intrusion, and to rebuild in typically constricted fashion round an isolated fortified promontory, or rocca ; Cameron notes similar movement of populations in the Balkans, 'where inhabited centres contracted and regrouped around

9280-541: The foundations of the subsequent culture of Europe . In the 6th century, Roman imperial rule continued in the East, and the Byzantine-Sasanian wars continued. The campaigns of Justinian the Great led to the fall of the Ostrogothic and Vandal Kingdoms, and their reincorporation into the Empire, when the city of Rome and much of Italy and North Africa returned to imperial control. Though most of Italy

9396-514: The head of the Emperor's bodyguards) was considered a member of it. During this period, many families remained important for several centuries, and several Emperors rose from the aristocracy. Two groups can be distinguished: a metropolitan civil nobility and a provincial military one, the latter remaining regionally based and having large land-holdings, but apparently no military forces of their own, in contrast to contemporary Western Europe . The backbone of Byzantine administration and economy (until

9512-436: The imperial administration, but they were removed from military command by the late 3rd century. Their focus turned to preserving their vast wealth rather than fighting for it. The basilica , which had functioned as a law court or for imperial reception of foreign dignitaries, became the primary public building in the 4th century. Due to the stress on civic finances, cities spent money on walls, maintaining baths and markets at

9628-492: The key Christian practices. Monasticism was not the only new Christian movement to appear in late antiquity, although it had perhaps the greatest influence and it achieved unprecedented geographical spread. It influenced many aspects of Christian religious life and led to a proliferation of various ascetic or semi-ascetic practices. Holy Fools and Stylites counted among the more extreme forms but through such personalities like John Chrysostom , Jerome , Augustine or Gregory

9744-712: The late 4th century onwards, culminating first in the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 and subsequent Sack of Rome by the Vandals in 455, part of the eventual collapse of the Empire in the West itself by 476. The Western Empire was replaced by the so-called barbarian kingdoms , with the Arian Christian Ostrogothic Kingdom ruling Rome from Ravenna . The resultant cultural fusion of Greco-Roman , Germanic, and Christian traditions formed

9860-574: The late antique world at large. Further indication that Arabia (and thus the environment in which Islam first developed) was a part of the late antique world is found in the close economic and military relations between Arabia, the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanian Empire. In recent years, the period of late antiquity has become a major focus in the fields of Quranic studies and Islamic origins. The late antique period also saw

9976-443: The local town with new ones as servants and representatives of a distant emperor and his traveling court. After Constantine centralized the government in his new capital of Constantinople (dedicated in 330), the late antique upper classes were divided among those who had access to the far-away centralized administration (in concert with the great landowners ), and those who did not; although they were well-born and thoroughly educated,

10092-470: The main sub-division inside a thema, a tourma . These deputies, or any deputy or representative of the Strategos, or of any other military governor, were generally called Ek prosopou , second to them the Krites or Praitor were responsible for the judicial matters inside a Theme. Although the range of tasks of the Krites or Praitor were neither fixed nor dogmatic, as they are shown assisting in various military campaigns or, on occasions, replacing

10208-442: The married pagan leadership. Unlike later strictures on priestly celibacy , celibacy in late antique Christianity sometimes took the form of abstinence from sexual relations after marriage, and it came to be the expected norm for urban clergy . Celibate and detached, the upper clergy became an elite equal in prestige to urban notables, the potentes or dynatoi . Islam appeared in the 7th century, spurring Arab armies to invade

10324-429: The militarized state of the Empire, led to numerous coups and revolts, leading to several disastrous results, such as the 1071 defeat at Manzikert . Applying Orthodox-Hellenistic political schemes, the monarch's household was the sacred kingdom Oikonomia , and he was its Christ-loving owner and manager Oikonomos , which meant that no individual or institution through the history of the empire truly owned any land in

10440-403: The monarch's paroikoi (subjects). He was the sole administrator and lawgiver of the holy Basileia and Oikoumene (commonwealth), with sole power over the state, the land, and his subjects, which he had achieved through God's appointment of him as king. This opened a new stage of reverence in which Hellenistic and Eastern court ceremonies such as proskynesis highlighted the divinity of

10556-409: The most renowned representatives. On the other hand, authors such as Ammianus Marcellinus (4th century) and Procopius of Caesarea (6th century) were able to keep the tradition of classical Hellenistic historiography alive in the Byzantine empire. Due to several factors of the era, among them the political instability and the constant military threats, treatises on war became a popular genre with

10672-404: The name-day dinner for the Emperor or Empress various groups of high officials performed ceremonial "dances", one group wearing "a blue and white garment, with short sleeves, and gold bands, and rings on their ankles. In their hands they hold what are called phengia ". The second group do just the same, but wearing "a garment of green and red, split, with gold bands". These colours were the marks of

10788-449: The new style, shows the contrast especially clearly. In nearly all artistic media, simpler shapes were adopted and once natural designs were abstracted. Additionally hierarchy of scale overtook the preeminence of perspective and other classical models for representing spatial organization. From c.  300 Early Christian art began to create new public forms, which now included sculpture , previously distrusted by Christians as it

10904-648: The old chariot-racing factions, the four now merged to just the Blues and the Greens, and incorporated into the official hierarchy. As in the Versailles of Louis XIV , elaborate dress and court ritual probably were at least partly an attempt to smother and distract from political tensions. Eunuchs also participated in court life, typically serving as attendants to noble women or assisting the emperor when he took part in religious ceremonies or removed his crown. Eunuchs in

11020-505: The prominent role and manifestations of piety in Islam, in Islamic asceticism and the role of "holy persons", in the pattern of universalist, homogeneous monotheism tied to worldly and military power, in early Islamic engagement with Greek schools of thought, in the apocalypticism of Islamic theology and in the way the Quran seems to react to contemporary religious and cultural issues shared by

11136-738: The provinces in the 3rd century, they brought with them their own regional influences and artistic tastes. For example, artists jettisoned the classical portrayal of the human body for one that was more rigid and frontal. This is markedly evident in the combined porphyry Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs in Venice . With these stubby figures clutching each other and their swords, all individualism , naturalism , Roman verism , and Greek idealism diminish. The Arch of Constantine in Rome, which re-used earlier classicising reliefs together with ones in

11252-539: The reforms of Alexios I , the system underwent various changes in which, due to the desperate state of the empire and the urgent need for income to finance its military campaigns and strengthen its borders, several simplifications and concessions were made. The theme system established under the Komnenoi would remain the administrative basis of the Byzantine state until its final fall in 1453 , differing in few key aspects from its administrative predecessors; it highlighted

11368-651: The reign of Diocletian , who began the custom of splitting the Empire into Eastern and Western portions ruled by multiple emperors simultaneously . The Sasanian Empire supplanted the Parthian Empire and began a new phase of the Roman–Persian Wars, the Roman–Sasanian Wars . The divisions between the Greek East and Latin West became more pronounced. The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in

11484-491: The rise of literary cultures in Syriac , Armenian , Georgian , Ethiopic , Arabic , and Coptic . It also marks a shift in literary style, with a preference for encyclopedic works in a dense and allusive style, consisting of summaries of earlier works (anthologies, epitomes) often dressed up in elaborate allegorical garb (e.g., De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae [The Marriage of Mercury and Philology] of Martianus Capella and

11600-513: The ruler and became standardized and very often mandatory. In practice, imperial power was exercised as administration—simplified and centralized through viceroys such as the Exarchos , Douk , Katepánō , Kephalai and the Strategoi who enjoyed the same omnipotence and the emperor's God given divinity in their respective governorships . Such concentrations of power proved to be both

11716-426: The simple income and rapid collection of taxes by deputies towards various rural communities in the war-time Hellenistic period , after having been adopted and adapted from the late Roman and early Byzantine province of Egypt , which had kept its own former fixed fiscal system, proving this measure to be an indirect consequence of the multiple wars and invasions that Byzantium had to deal throughout its history. After

11832-418: The sovereign directly. These governors, being the direct representatives of the monarch himself all through the provinces, enjoyed an omnipotence of their own, accompanied by the divine attributes for being deputies of the emperor himself in their respective districts. Their primary tasks were jointly working with the various provincial subordinates of the capital bureaus for the effective collection of taxes from

11948-492: The spot where the general Belisarius touched shore in North Africa: the miraculous spring that gushed forth to give them water and the rural population that straightway abandoned their ploughshares for civilised life within the new walls, lend a certain taste of unreality to the project. In mainland Greece, the inhabitants of Sparta , Argos and Corinth abandoned their cities for fortified sites in nearby high places;

12064-489: The times is the fact that the imperial cabinet of advisors came to be known as the consistorium , or those who would stand in courtly attendance upon their seated emperor, as distinct from the informal set of friends and advisors surrounding the Augustus . The later Roman Empire was in a sense a network of cities. Archaeology now supplements literary sources to document the transformation followed by collapse of cities in

12180-574: The titles had become obsolete. By the time of Alexios I ( r.  1082–1118 ), many of the positions were either new or drastically changed. However, from that time on, they remained essentially the same until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. In the early Byzantine period (4th to late 6th century), the administrative structure of the empire was a conglomeration of the late Roman Empire's diocese system , set up by Diocletian and Constantine , and of Justinian's innovations; in

12296-517: The twentieth century (and after) and by Muslim scholars. This view, the so-called "out of Arabia"-thesis, holds that Islam as a phenomenon was a new, alien element in the late antique world. Related to this is the Pirenne Thesis , according to which the Arab invasions marked—through conquest and the disruption of Mediterranean trade routes—the cataclysmic end of late antiquity and the beginning of

12412-476: The urban class in greater proportion, and thus the people who knew how to keep civic services running. Perhaps the greatest blow came in the wake of the extreme weather events of 535–536 and subsequent Plague of Justinian , when the remaining trade networks ensured the Plague spread to the remaining commercial cities. The impact of this outbreak of plague has recently been disputed. The end of classical antiquity

12528-508: The world and the triumph of Sasanian architecture . The middle of the 6th century was characterized by extreme climate events ( the volcanic winter of 535–536 and the Late Antique Little Ice Age ) and a disastrous pandemic (the Plague of Justinian in 541). The effects of these events in the social and political life are still under discussion. In the 7th century the disastrous Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 and

12644-564: The years 535 and 536 Justinian's administrative reforms were formalized. This eliminated the administrative diocese system hierarchy established in previous centuries and with it the strict military and civic divisions within the empire, replacing it with various provincial circumscriptions directly governed by deputies of the emperor, variously called Stratalates , Strategoi and Harmost . These deputies held extraordinary military and administrative powers accompanied by prestigious new titleholders in an attempt to lessen corruption and simplify

12760-607: Was proclaimed the state church of the Roman Empire . The city of Constantinople became the permanent imperial residence in the East by the 5th century and superseded Rome as the largest city in the Late Roman Empire and the Mediterranean Basin . The longest Roman aqueduct system, the 250 km (160 mi)-long Aqueduct of Valens was constructed to supply it with water, and the tallest Roman triumphal columns were erected there. Migrations of Germanic , Hunnic , and Slavic tribes disrupted Roman rule from

12876-553: Was a reversion to a greater degree of local production and consumption, rather than webs of commerce and specialized production. Concurrently, the continuity of the Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople meant that the turning-point for the Greek East came later, in the 7th century, as the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire centered around the Balkans , North Africa ( Egypt and Carthage ), and Asia Minor . The cities in

12992-523: Was earlier, with the start of the Early Middle Ages typically placed in the 6th century, or even earlier on the edges of the Western Roman Empire . The term Spätantike , literally "late antiquity", has been used by German-speaking historians since its popularization by Alois Riegl in the early 20th century. It was given currency in English partly by the writings of Peter Brown , whose survey The World of Late Antiquity (1971) revised

13108-455: Was immeasurable and divine in origin insofar as he channeled God's divine grace, maintaining what is good. He was the ultimate benefactor, caretaker, and saviour of the people: Evergétis , Philanthrōpía , and Sōtēr , anointed with all power, upholding the divine laws since he ought to emulate Christ first ( christomimetes ) in all of his divine, pious, loving orthodox attributes to all by being his earthly presence. The people in turn were

13224-567: Was placed on demonstrating a symbolic fact rather than on rendering a realistic scene. As time progressed during the late antique period, art become more concerned with biblical themes and influenced by interactions of Christianity with the Roman state. Within this Christian subcategory of Roman art, dramatic changes were also taking place in the Depiction of Jesus . Jesus Christ had been more commonly depicted as an itinerant philosopher, teacher or as

13340-571: Was so important in pagan worship. Sarcophagi carved in relief had already become highly elaborate, and Christian versions adopted new styles, showing a series of different tightly packed scenes rather than one overall image (usually derived from Greek history painting ) as was the norm. Soon the scenes were split into two registers, as in the Dogmatic Sarcophagus or the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (the last of these exemplifying

13456-802: Was soon part of the Kingdom of the Lombards , the Roman Exarchate of Ravenna endured, ensuring the so-called Byzantine Papacy . Justinian constructed the Hagia Sophia , a great example of Byzantine architecture , and the first outbreak of the centuries-long first plague pandemic took place. At Ctesiphon , the Sasanians completed the Taq Kasra , the colossal iwan of which is the largest single-span vault of unreinforced brickwork in

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