The Byzantine Empire

Lesson 33

The Byzantine Empire

Part 1

Diocletian took the throne as emperor in 284 A.D. He passed many new laws to try to fix the economy of the Roman Empire. .

He tried to restore the status of the emperor by naming himself a son of the chief Roman god. He even divided the empire into eastern and western halves to make it easier to govern.

• Many of these changes were continued by Constantine. He became emperor of both halves of the empire in 324 A.D.

• Constantine is considered to be the first Roman emperor to officially support Christianity.

On the way to the Battle of Milvian Bridge (10 miles from Rome), Constantine is said to have seen a sign with the Greek letters XP (the first two letters of Christ) intertwined with it and an inscription in the sky which read “By this sign you shall conquer.”

Constantine made his men put the symbol on their shields before going into battle. He came out victorious over his rival Maxentius, who was competing with him for the western half of the Roman empire.

Government sanctioned persecution of Christians was officially ended with the “Edict of Milan” in 313 A.D. Constantine, the Western tetrarch, and Licinius, the Eastern tetrarch, issued the edict.

• Constantine then met with Licinius (emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire) to issue the Edict of Milan.

• The Edict did the following:1. legalized Christianity;2. Returned Church property that

had been confiscated;3. and established Sunday as a day

of worship.

• Constantine credited his victory to the Christian’s God. He ordered the end to any religious persecution within his realm of power.

In 325 A.D., Constantine also ordered the First Council of Nicaea. This council was summoned to settle the issue of whether Jesus and God were one in the same.

There were two opposing views. One group, led by a man named Arius, held the view point of Arianism, (a religious movement, not the same as Aryanism). They believed that Jesus was not God, but that he was a creation of God.

• The other group held the viewpoint of Trinitarianism, which believed that Jesus was both the son and the incarnation of God, and that God also existed as Spirit.

• The council decided in favor of the Trinitarians viewpoint.

They stated that any other viewpoint was a heresy, particularly those of the Arians. Heresies are false teachings that were contrary to those of the Church’s.

• In A.D. 330, the emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire to the east.

• He was worried about the growing power of German tribes.

He thought that he could better meet that threat in the east. The site of the new capitol was the old port city of Byzantium. Constantine had the city rebuilt and then renamed it Constantinople. Constantinople became the center of the empire. Power moved eastward.

Constantine made the correct move. The western half of the Roman Empire was overrun by German tribes. It did not exist after 476 C.E.

In the final days of year 476 CE, the German general Odovacar (or Odoacer) deposed the "last Roman Emperor," a boy ironically named Romulus Augustulus.