Justinian was perhaps the most well-known to have ruled in the East. He was certainly an absolute monarch, as was provided for in the new governmental setup that succeeded the Roman Empire. The emperor of what later came to be called the Byzantine civilization had a Senate to report to but not abide by; the members of that Senate were generally career military officers (in contrast to the Roman Senate, whose members were generally members of the aristocracy). He (or sometimes she, for some women did rule the Byzantine Empire for a time) was the head of the army and the head of the church as well. In addition, the emperor directed the imperial finances.

Despite all of those trappings of power, the emperor was still dependent on other people to help run the government, command the troops, and otherwise oversee the functioning of society. It was up to the emperor to appoint the army commanders and government ministers, of course, so the head of state enjoyed certain privileges in regard to what some people were willing to pay in order to secure a governmental position.

Justinian's reconquest of much of the former Western Roman Empire marked the height of Byzantine geographical boundaries. As the years went by, Justinian's successors lost more and more of that hard-rewon territory, to various enemies. The emperor Heraclius had a brief moment of triumph, defeating the perpetual enemy the Sassanid Empire at Nineveh in 627. The long struggle between those two powers left them both weaker than they would have liked, and a large Muslim army routed the Byzantine force at the Battle of Yarmouk in 636. The victory was one of many enjoyed by the Muslim cavalry commander Khalid ibn al Walid.

It was also during the reign of Heraclius that the Byzantine Empire struggled through one of several significant disagreements among its religious leaders. Christianity at this time was not one faith practiced by all believers. Rather, several doctrines competed for influence among the religious elites. This was not a new occurrence: Constantine had called the Council of Nicaea in 325 in order to set the direction for the newly legalized Christian religion to follow. The head of the Christian Church within the Empire was the Patriarch, or the bishop of Constantinople; reporting to him were local bishops. Heraclius proposed a compromise doctrine that satisfied few. In the 8th Century grew the popularity of an iconoclast movement. People who followed this doctrine believed that depictions of religious figures should be destroyed, not venerated. The Byzantine emperor Leo III in 726 issued an edict to that effect, targeting a depiction of Jesus over the Chalke Gates. Four years later, Leo made iconoclasm state policy. Subsequent emperors continued this policy until 787, when the empress Irene called the Second Council of Nicaea, which decreed that did not have to be destroyed, as long as they themselves were not worshiped. Stopping a brief reprisal of iconoclasm was another empress, Theodora, in 843. This time, the decision stuck; many historians refer to this as the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

Christianity was the official religion of the Empire, as designated by Theodosius I in 395, but it was not the only religion practiced by people who lived within the boundaries of the Empire. Just as Rome had been before, the Byzantine Empire was a melting pot of various peoples, all of whom were free to practice their religion, so long as it did not interfere with the affairs of state or call for the removal of that state.

Next page > The End of an Era > Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5