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Byzantine Empire

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		A 13th-Century Traveler to China Comes to Light ^Votes:0 September 21, 1997 A 13th-Century Traveler to China Comes to Light By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF On an August day in 1271, if the story is to be believed, a four-masted sailing ship sailed into the crowded harbor of Zaitun in southeast China, carrying a gray-bearded Italian Jewish trader named Jacob. An account of Jacob's voyage, placing him in China four years before Marco Polo arrived, has surfaced in Italy. It provides extraordinary images of a civilization that was the most dazzling in the world, describing everything from mass-circulation pornography to an early flamethrower. It recounts how he spent six months in Zaitun and became embroiled in Chinese political debates so fierce he had to flee for his life. Scholars say that if the manuscript is authentic, it is an immensely important find, Read More Go to Site


		BMCR 96.8.12, Shaw on Grubbs ^Votes:0 BMCR 96.8.12, Shaw on Grubbs Grubbs, Judith Evans, Law and Family in Late Antiquity: The Emperor Constantine's Marriage Legislation . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. Pp. x & 390. ISBN 0-19-814768-6. Reviewed by Brent D. Shaw, Classical Studies University of Pennsylvania 'At a time when the spiritual sanctions of marriage are challenged by a so-called modernism . . . which doubts whether there can be a science of ethics seeing that right and wrong are matters of personal taste, it is good to have set out for us in a clear sequence by a scholar ... the successive steps by which the family life at Rome was disintegrated. And with the decline and fall of the family, there came the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.' Lest the reader be misled into thinking that this little jeremiad is to be a Read More Go to Site

		Introduction: Byzantium ^Votes:0 INTRODUCTION: BYZANTIUM In the early fourth century, the emperor Constantine established a new capital for the Roman empire. This capital was situated on the site of a Greek colony called Byzantium. Thus, Constantine laid the foundations for the Byzantine -- or East Roman -- empire which, at its greatest extent in the sixth century, stretched from southern Spain in the West to the borders of Sassanian Iran in the East. This spectacularly diverse combination of ethnic groups, languages, cults, and creeds was bound together by a Greco-Roman economic, political and cultural matrix. MAP: Byzantine world Constantine's legalization of Christianity was crucial for the subsequent development of the Byzantine empire. Gradually, over the following centuries, the Christian religion became the offical Read More Go to Site

		Mango. Byzantium ^Votes:0 Cyril Mango. Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome. Scribner's, 1980. [beginning with pg. 13] CHAPTER I PEOPLES AND LANGUAGES All empires have ruled over a diversity of peoples and in this respect the Byzantine Empire was no exception. Had its constituent population been reasonably well fused, had it been united in accepting the Empire's dominant civilization, it would hardly have been necessary to devote a chapter to this topic. It so happens, however, that even before the beginning of the Byzantine period - indeed, when the grand edifice of Rome started to show its first cracks towards the end of the second century AD- the various nations under Roman sway tended to move apart and assert their individuality. The rise of the Christian religion, far from healing this rift by the introduction of Read More Go to Site

		Medieval Sourcebook: Byzantium: The Farmer's Law, 7-8th Centuries ^Votes:0 Back to Medieval Source Book \| ORB Main Page \| Links to Other Medieval Sites \| Medieval Sourcebook: The Farmer's Law, 7-8th Centuries After the attacks by Persians, Arabs and Slavs, there is some indication that the great landed estates of late antiquity gave way, in the Byzantine heartland of Anatolia, to a system of free peasant farms. These peasants paid taxes to the state and enabled a functional local army to operate throughout the empire. Although this might be overemphasized, the contrast with western Europe is outstanding. In the west the "state" as a function of society either disappeared or shrank to insignificant proportions and distinctions between public and private power were minimal. In Byzantium, by contrast, the state maintained its distinctive identity. The lives of Byzan Read More Go to Site

		Medieval Sourcebook: Procopius of Caesarea: The Secret History ^Votes:0 Back to Medieval Source Book \| ORB Main Page \| Links to Other Medieval Sites \| Byzantine Studies Page Medieval Sourcebook: Procopius of Caesarea: The Secret History Procopius: Secret History , translated by Richard Atwater, (Chicago: P. Covici, 1927; New York: Covici Friede, 1927), reprinted, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1961, with indication that copyright had expired on the text of the translation. For information on the translator, see the note on Richard Atwater at the end of this file. INTRODUCTION [Paul Halsall] Procopius of Caesarea (in Palestine) [born c.490/507- died c.560s] is the most important source for information about the reign of the emperor Justinian [born 482/3, ruled. 527-565] and his wife Theodora [d. 547/8]. From 527 to 531 Procopius was a counsel the Read More Go to Site

		NEW ADVENT: Home ^Votes:0 Home Encyclopedia Summa Fathers Bible Library A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Home OUR RESOURCES Catholic Encyclopedia. More than 11,000 articles on Catholic topics. Summa Theologica. The theological masterpiece of St. Thomas Aquinas. Church Fathers. Letters, speeches and books from the earliest Christians. Holy Bible. The Douay-Rheims version, with hyperlinks to the Catholic Encyclopedia. How to Recite the Holy Rosary. Copy and distribute this sheet. Catholic Links. A growing directory of good Catholic websites. THE TOP 20 Here are the top 20 Catholic websites in the world, according to Alexa.com. This is a list of the busiest Catholic websites, which are not necessarily the best Catholic websites. This list was updated on June 22, 2007. The Holy See ACI Digital Cathol Read More Go to Site

		Roman Verona ^Votes:0 R OMAN V ERONA W e can start from Piazza Bra (from the old German word breit meaning wide): it lies to the south of the Roman city, outside its town walls, and is dominated by the Arena amphitheatre , the third largest such building built in the time of Flavius (1st Century A.D.): it is a clear sign of the importance of ancient Verona, as it could hold more than 20.000 spectators. Today, it is the Summer home of great lyric opera, applauded by thousand of people. The outer circle, of which just four arches over three storeys remain, collapsed following the earthquakes of 1117 and 1183, whereas the inside seating is the work of an admirable restoration project begun in the XV Century. T he Maffei Museum , on the opposite side of the square, in the coutyard of the PhilarmonicTheatre , houses Read More Go to Site

		The Byzantine Empire, Early Russia, and Muslim Expansion ^Votes:0 The Byzantine Empire, Early Russia, and Muslim Expansion It is important to point that when we speak of the fall of the Roman Empire we are speaking about the fall of the Western part of the empire and not the eastern part. In the east the Roman Empire for almost 1000 years protected the West from Muslim expansion and invasion. By the time the empire collapsed in 1453 its religious mission had been accomplished and its political concepts had spread among the Slavic peoples of eastern Europe and Russia. The 2 nd great civilization that will be discussed is that of the rise of Islam and the Islamic civilization was religious in its origins for it had developed from the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. The ancient Greek city of Byzantium was formally christened as "new Rome" in AD 330. New Read More Go to Site

		The Roman-Byzantine Period ^Votes:0 The Roman-Byzantine Period (135-638 CE) In 135 CE the Emperor Hadrian declared a new city on the site of Jerusalem, called Colonia Aelia Capitolina. A new municipal plan was introduced which bore hardly any resemblance to the former city. Indeed the Roman influence is felt to this day: the main streets of the Old City still follow the Roman grid. The Forum,established in the city center, consisted of public buildings including a temple of Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love. TheRoman 10th Legion was camped in the western part of town near the?Citadel. Jerusalem was no longer the country's capital nor its?economic center. Its religious status also declined: Jews were not permitted to enter, while Christianity was still a forbidden religion. Constantine's assumption of power as sole ruler Read More Go to Site

		Turkish Odyssey/Places of Interest/Marmara/Istanbul ^Votes:0 Contents of this Page History . Conquest of Constantinople Part 1 Istanbul DOWN HISTORY According to Strabo, Istanbul is thought to have been founded by the colonists from Megara led by Byzas in the 7C BC. The popular legend has it that Megarians, before coming here, went to the oracle in Delphi and asked his instruction about the place to found their settlement. The answer was "opposite the city of the blind". When they came to the peninsula of the old city, after seeing an earlier settlement in the Asian side, they concluded that these people must be blind not to see such a beautiful place here on this side. And remembering the words of the Delphic oracle, they founded their city "Byzantium" which derived from their leader's name "Byzas". Over the next thous Read More Go to Site

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