BYZANTINE EMPIRE 



1032 



BYZANTIUM 



finally settled against the Iconoclasts. One of 

 the outstanding figures during these years was 

 the Empress Irene (reigned 797-802), who had 

 formed the ambitious plan of uniting the 

 Eastern and Western empires by marrying 

 Charlemagne. The Bulgarians were very 

 troublesome during the reign of Leo V (813- 

 820), And in the succeeding reign the Saracens 

 gained a firm foothold in Crete and Sicily. 

 See SARACENS. 



The Macedonian dynasty (867-1057) estab- 

 lished a rule that was on the whole wise and 

 beneficial. The Empire made some distinct 

 gains, as in the reduction of the Bulgarian 

 kingdom to the rank of a province in 1018. 

 But the Seljuk Turks were constantly threat- 

 ening, and under the weak emperors who fol- 

 lowed the Macedonian line they possessed 

 themselves of nearly all of Asia Minor. 



The steady advance of the Mohammedan 

 power alarmed all Christian Europe, and dur- 

 ing the reign of Alexius Comnenus (1081- 

 1118) began the wonderful movement known 

 as the Crusades (see CRUSADES). As the hosts 

 marched toward Asia Minor by way of Con- 

 stantinople, the movement necessarily had an 

 important influence on the fortunes of the 

 Byzantine Empire. Alexius wanted help against 

 the Turks, but the vast numbers that re- 

 sponded alarmed him; their depredations 

 within his territory led to serious conflicts, 

 and finally, under later emperors, to open 

 hostility. In 1204 Constantinople was taken 

 by the Crusaders, who established the Latin 

 Empire (1204-1261), with Count Baldwin of 

 Flanders as first emperor. This Latin Empire 

 was never strong, and in 1261 the ruler of 

 Nicaea, Michael Palaeologus, took Constanti- 

 nople and reestablished the Greek Empire. 

 His dynasty lasted until the downfall of the 

 Empire in 1453. 



The Turks were steadily pressing closer and 

 closer, but by this time it was the Ottoman 

 Turks, who had overthrown the Seljuks. Prov- 

 ince after province fell into their hands, and 

 by the beginning of the fifteenth century the 

 emperors were practically vassals of the sul- 

 tan. In 1453 the Turks, with an army of 400,- 

 000 men under' Mohammed II, captured Con- 

 stantinople, and the Byzantine Empire was at 

 an end. They yet held the city at the begin- 

 ning of the War of the Nations in 1914. 



By 1453 the western countries of Europe had 

 developed to a point where they could not 

 easily be overthrown by the Mohammedan 

 conquerors of Constantinople; but had the 

 Byzantine Empire not stood through so many 

 centuries at the gateway of Europe fighting 

 back the barbarous hordes, all Europe might 

 have been swept over. Without it, too, all 

 that was best in the world's past would have 

 been lost, and all that is best in modern civ- 

 ilization retarded for hundreds of years. This 

 is the true significance of the Byzantine 

 Empire. 



Byzantine Art . The great Byzantine Empire 

 did not only guard the art and learning of the 

 Greeks and transmit them to Western Europe 

 when its scholars were scattered after the con- 

 quest; it developed an art of its own. This 

 dated from the time of Constantine (A. D. 330), 

 and was to a certain extent an endeavor to 

 give expression to the new elements which 

 Christianity had brought into the life of men. 

 From the first the tendency was toward an 

 almost Oriental splendor rather than toward 

 the beautiful simplicity of the Greeks. Rich- 

 ness of material, brilliance of color and deco- 

 rative effect were the prime aims of the artist. 

 After the Renaissance the Venetian school of 

 painters borrowed many of their principles 

 from Byzantine art, and the result was an 

 unsurpassed richness of color. 



In sculpture the aim was the same toward 

 ornamentation, extravagant costumes, elabora- 

 tion of details rather than the true proportion 

 of parts and the dignity and correctness of 

 outline for which the Greeks had striven. The 

 naked figure or simple draping were no longer 

 seen, models were not employed, and the fig- 

 ures made little pretense at being true to 

 nature. Despite this artificiality, however, 

 many of the works of the best period, from 

 the sixth to the eleventh century, possessed 

 a considerable beauty and dignity. 



One of the favorite branches of art was 

 mosaic work, and in this the artists succeeded 

 in obtaining a characteristically brilliant effect 

 with costly stones. O.B. 



BYZANTIUM, bezan'sheum, the original 

 name of the city of Constantinople (which 

 see). It was changed to Constantinople in A.D. 

 330 by Constantine the Great, who made it the 

 capital of his empire. 



