Comparing Roman and Byzantine Empires

- [Instructor] We already
have several videos

talking about the Byzantine
Empire which is really just

the continuation of the
Roman Empire after its fall

and they even call
themselves the Roman Empire.

But I wanna do in this video
is a bit of a deep dive

to make sure we understand
the different elements

of continuity and change
between what we consider

the Roman Empire when it
was one unified western

and eastern Roman Empire
and then what we later call

the Byzantine Empire, so what
was the same between them

and then what changed over time?

So let's just do a review,
this is what things look like

at around the year 400.

As you can see from an
administrative point of view,

even though it was considered one empire,

it was already being governed separately,

the west being governed from Rome,

the east being governed
from Constantinople.

And most historians mark the
beginning of the Byzantine

Empire with the rule of
Constantine, who moves the capital

to Byzantium, it gets
renamed Constantinople.

But as we've talked
about in multiple videos,

in 476, you have the fall
of the western Roman Empire

and the west becomes
fragmented, a bunch of various

Germanic kingdoms, but
the eastern Roman Empire

with its capital at
Constantinople, continues.

And once again, they did not
call themselves the Byzantines,

they called themselves the Romans,

they called themselves the Roman Empire.

It was only much much
later that historians

tried to separate this
period of the Roman Empire

by calling it the Byzantine Empire.

There is a bit of a
resurgence under Justinian,

he's able to capture
significant portions of the west

including the Italian
peninsula but then over time

the Byzantine Empire contracts,
especially in the east,

it has to contend with
the spread of Islam.

As we go even further in time,
as we enter into the second

millennium, we can see
that the Muslim Turks

make further inroads into
the Byzantine Empire.

Also during the Fourth Crusades,

western crusaders sack Constantinople.

And we can go all the way to 1453

where all that was left at the
time of the Byzantine Empire

or you could say the eastern
Roman Empire is Constantinople

and in 1453, that also
gets sacked by the Ottomans

and that's the official end
of the Byzantine Empire,

the eastern Roman Empire,
which you can see continues on

for another 1000 years after the fall

of the western Roman Empire.

Now with that review out of the way,

let's think about how the Byzantine Empire

was the same and different
from the Roman Empire.

So first let's think
about the center of power.

Well the Roman Empire is
named after its seat of power

during the great majority of its history.

The seat of power of the
Roman Empire is Rome.

Near the end of the western
Roman Empire it becomes Ravenna

and of course we talk
about Constantine changing

the capital to Byzantium
which eventually became

Constantinople and
that's the official start

of at least the roots
of the Byzantine Empire

although Constantine was emperor of both.

It's fair to say that Rome
was the capital of the Roman

Empire from its early days as
a kingdom all the way until

the first several centuries
of the common era.

The roots of the Byzantine
Empire are with Constantine

changing the capital, the
seat of power of the combined

empire and moving it
from Rome to Byzantium,

which will eventually be
called Constantinople.

Now let's think about language.

So the language of the
Roman Empire is Latin.

In the early days of the Byzantine Empire,

Latin is used in conjunction with Greek

but over time, it becomes more Greek.

In fact, Heraclius in the seventh century

makes Greek the official
language of the Byzantine Empire.

Now religion, for most of Roman history,

their religion is the Roman Pantheon.

Now near the end of what
is called the Roman Empire,

when Constantine comes around
in the early fourth century,

Christianity gets
legalized and Theodosius,

who is the last emperor to
rule over both east and west,

he makes Christianity
the official religion.

Since the eastern Roman
Empire's roots, the Byzantine

empire's roots are considered
to be with Constantine.

It has a Christian
nature from the beginning

and it only becomes more and
more Christian over time.

In other videos, we will talk
about the eventual spiritual

split between east and west,
the Latin Christian church

and the Greek Christian church
and they're going to diverge

more and more as we go into the year 1054

when there is the official Great Schism.

In terms of law, the Roman
Empire has a long tradition

of law and I guess we could
just call it the Roman law.

In fact, so profound
has its influence been

on western civilization that many of our

legal terms today come from Latin.

What historians would
consider the Byzantine Empire

would continue Roman law,
much of it written in Latin.

Justinian would famously
try to reform Roman law,

make it more consistent,
make it more clear.

Justinian's code.

And you have the emperor Leo
III has the famous Ecloga

but as you have these revisions
and these reformations

of Roman law, they are more
and more written in Greek

than Latin and they do have more

and more of a Christian influence.

In terms of governance,
especially under the Roman Empire,

the notion of a province
was the main subdivision

under which the empire was governed.

Once you have Emperor
Dioclesian come onto the scene

and this is shortly before
the time of Constantine,

he reformed it and he set up
what is known as a tetrarchy

where you had these two emperors
of east and west and then

you would have essentially
their subordinate emperors

but along with that, he
redefined what a province is,

so you had smaller provinces

which then would go into
diocese, which would then go into

prefects, which would
then go into a tetrarch.

Once you have the start
of the Byzantine Empire,

they would have elements of this.

Constantine, remember Constantine
wasn't only the Byzantine,

wasn't only the emperor of the east,

he was emperor of both east and west,

but he got rid of the tetrarchy
but he kept Dioclesian's

notions of these smaller
provinces going into diocese,

going into prefects, so
you have that continuity

but then later on in
the mid seventh century,

it was turned into more
of a feudal-themed system

in the Byzantine Empire, and
once again, this was under

Heraclius who also made
Greek the official language.

And the reason why I say it's
feudal, it was comparable

to the feudal system in
western Europe at the time,

was that it provided land
grants to local rulers

in exchange for their military
service and the ability

for them to send resources
up to the emperor.

In terms of culture, you
have many of the things

that we associate with the Roman Empire,

you have chariot racing,
you have gladiator fights,

you have imperial birthdays,
you have the Olympics,

which carries over from the
Ancient Greeks that actually

lasts over 1000 years as we
go into the Roman Empire.

Some of these continue
and some of them don't.

So for example, the notion
of chariot racing does

and famously Justinian
is almost overthrown

after a rowdy chariot race,
you don't have the Olympics,

Theodosius felt that it wasn't in line

with Christian tradition,
but you did have things

like imperial celebrations,
imperial birthdays,

so the Byzantine Empire
definitely continued

some of the traditions but
also eliminated others.

So this is a just a rough overview.

I encourage you to
think about it yourself.

Are we missing any dimensions?

And what other aspects do
you think were the same

as we go from the traditional Roman Empire

into the continuation of the Roman Empire,

which historians will later
call the Byzantine Empire?