Byzantine Empire Dbq

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As time went on the Eastern Roman Empire evolved, becoming its own state rather than remaining as half of a larger entity. The Byzantine state began to take shape long before the division of the East and the West; the action of relocating the capital to Constantinople demonstrates that the seeds of Byzantium were already taking root. After the two halves of the Roman Empire separated, the Byzantine state further defined itself. As the West was broken into barbarian ruled states, Byzantium was able to solidify its identity as “Roman.” While the threat of outside forces helped to create a new idea of foreign relations that affected all aspects of the government. Finally, by combining their classical heritage with Christianity, the Byzantine state …show more content…
Of course, one of these internal forces was religion. Since the period of Constantine, Christianity played a vital role in shaping the Byzantine Empire. Doctrinal debates were quite common in the East, which helped to mold not only the state religion but the role of the emperor. These debates allowed emperors the opportunity to expand their duties into religious matters by calling church councils or making laws that would punish the practice of certain sects. For instance, Justinian greatly increased the penalties for heretics by stripping them of many civil rights and banning them from high ranking positions in the government (Jones, 286). These theological debates may have been about Christianity, but that does not mean they were not influence by other aspects of Byzantine culture. As states above, one important aspect of this culture was the belief that Byzantium was a continuation of the Roman Empire. Manifesting itself as strong ties with the classical past, this belief allowed for the continued existence of classical learning (Brown, 121). Due to this reason, Christianity was then able to fuse with the practices of the pagan past, creating a uniquely Byzantine element to their religion. Johnson lists the empire’s written language, its style of education, its law, and even the art of philosophy as the inheritance of the classical past completely divorcing these practices from Christianity (Johnson, 1151), however, it is clear that these aspects of classical culture influenced the new state religion. For example, the theological debates common in Late Antiquity demonstrate a connection to classical philosophy. Just as ancient philosophers tried to comprehend and find order in their world, the theologians of Byzantium attempted to understand and define many aspects of their religion. Even when these men, such as Gregory Palamas, found fault with philosophical traditions of the ancient world
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