Byzantium:

Relic of an old era, or vanguard of the

new?
AP World History
Richard Smart
Oakland Mills High
School
Periodization
Period 2: 600CE – 1450CE

 Collapse of the major classical empires (Han China,

Gupta India, Imperial Rome).
 Islam and Dar al-Islam.
 Tang and Song China
 Genghis Khan and Mongol Expansion

 Medieval Europe
 Inca and Aztec Americas
Byzantine Politics & Territory
 Caesaropapism

 Eastern Mediterranean
– Greek culture
– Roman law
 Western Europe
– Conquest of Italy
– Church
– Crusades
 Slavic World
– Orthodox Christianity
– Cyrillic script
Byzantine Trade & Economy

 Textiles
– Silk manufacture
 Grain

 Sassanian Persia
 SilkRoad
 Indian Ocean
Byzantine Religion

 Orthodoxy v Heresy
– Council of Nicaea
– Arian heresy
 Religious art
 Iconoclasm
 Monasticism
 Schism in 1054
Byzantium – Continuity or Change?

Continuity
 Roman Law
 Classical Greek and Roman Culture

Change
 Christian state
 Territorial shrinkage
 Focus on Eastern Europe and Slavic peoples