Glenn Shillington Visher, Human Values from the Greeks to Modern Times,Nova Publishers, 1997,ISBN 1560724560,p.61-63
The Byzantine Empire in the East
In the East, Justinian 1(483-565), Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (527- 565), made peace with the Goths, and assumed control over much of northern Italy (Ravenna), and defeated the Vandals in Italy and recaptured much of North Africa. His interests were more military than theological, and the Chalcedon!Monophysite controversy was not settled. He was nominally a supporter of the Chalcedonic theology, but his influential wife, Theodora, supported the Monophysites.
The principal architect of the theological destruction of Monotheletism in the East was due to Maximus the Confessor (c.580-662). He saw that the Monophysite doctrine implied a pessimistic estimate of human nature. The theological separation of the Eastern and Western Church was nearly complete.
The Eastern world, however, had to come to terms with the Islamic expansion, which saw the fall of Jerusalem in 637, Antioch in 638, Alexandria in 641; and subsequently, the Western world, by Islamic conquests of North Africa in 707, and Spain by 711.
The governmental and military successes of Justinian laid the foundation for the Byzantine Empire that lasted for nearly a millennia. They defeated, or made an accommodation with the “barbarian” hordes; the Vandals, Slays, Magyars, the Vikings, and maintained their Empire against Persian and Islamic expansion. They built a highly successful trading society, expanded the influence of the Eastern Church into the Balkans and to Russia, and preserved the sophisticated Greek culture.
Their success lay in their culture, which was based upon preserving and encouraging education for all its citizens, including women, recognizing the contribution of women, supporting a broadly based mercantile society, and allowing the peasantry to own and firm their private lands. Agriculture supported large population centres, not only in Constantinople, but also Thessalonica in Greece, Venice on the Adriatic Sea, end Trebizond on the Northern coast of the Black Sea.
The Eastern Church preserved the liberal Christian traditions of Anus and Pelagius. John of Damascus (679-749). was a very influential Theologian, who wrote extensively in support of the Chalcedonic Theology, and free will. He was opposed to the Monophysltian/Monothelite Theology of predestination and the belief that humankind was born in sin, and could only be saved by faith in a merciful God (Chadwick, 1967, p.211). The strength of the Byzantine Empire was based upon the development of a society which respected and utilized the shill- ties of all of its citizens.
Religion was important in Byzantine life, but it did not include secular concerns Byzantine culture supported the classics, new forms of an, including architecture and elaborate Icons and paintings. and the society revered their ancient Greek heritage. Byzantine schools taught Homer, and students studied and commented on Plato and Aristotle. and studied histories written by Herodotus (484-425 B.C.E.) and Thucydides (471-399 BCE.). Education was not only for the aristocrats. It extended to women and the peasantry, who were able to discuss Plato, Pythagoras, and the Humanistic classics. Women held positions in government, practiced medicine, following the scientific Insights of Galen, and contributed to all aspects of Byzantine society (Lemer, et al, 1988).
The bulk of the classical Greek literature that we have today survives only because it was preserved and copied by Byzantine scribes. Beginning in the eleventh century, Byzantine monks, educators, and scribes commenced the translation and the transfer of this heritage to educational centres in Italy (Padua and Bologna). England (Lincoln and Oxford), Paris. and Spain (Toledo and Cordova).
The Byzantine Empire was based upon trade utilizing Greek seamanship and shipbuilding technologies. Wealth was generated by the manufacture of silk, production of goods and services, and trade throughout the Mediterranean. The governmental structure was bureaucratic, but its laws, coinage, and commerce provided the needs and security required for its citizenry.
It wasn’t until the Seljuk Turks in 1071, at the battle of Manzikert in Asia Minor, which annihilated a Byzantine army, that they lost most of their eastern provinces. The reduction of their agricultural land-base led to the expansion of large estates owned by wealthy aristocrats and monasteries, and reduced the peasants to impoverished tenant farmers. Continuing struggles with the Turks, for the next one hundred and fifty years, destroyed much of their high culture, and led to more autocratic Emperors, and a less humanistic church.
With a reduced population, loss of trade due to the rise of Islamic societies across the Mediterranean, and the expansion of Norman Influence into the Mediterranean, it became impossible to hold the empire together. Venice and Genoa became trading competitors. It did not have the men and resources even to defend Constantinople, which was sacked by the brutish Normans in 1204 during one of their Crusades. What little was left, was an Empire in name only, and Constantinople finally fell to the equally brutish Ottoman Turks in 1453. Greek “humanism” had been preserved, and transmitted to the West, but it had to overcome centuries of repression.