Byzantine Iconoclasm

Chartes was a crusader himself. This one speech, whether or not it was an accurate recording of what Pope Urban II actually said, was one driving force behind the First Crusade. This First Crusade was, at least officially, an effort to help the Byzantine Empire to reclaim the Holy City of Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks. In addition, this speech led to other…

belief that the Roman Empire stood strong and was resurrected was a fairy tale which many chose to have faith in. This lasted a substantial amount of time following the fall of Rome. Soon enough the Eastern Roman Empire would become known as the Byzantine Empire, and…

empire that the political fighting had threatened (Kishlansky, 189). With the reestablishment of a powerful imperial system, the emperors were able to hold together the last remnants of Roman Empire together and forge it into the powerful and new Byzantine Empire. With the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the institutions, laws, and customs of the former Roman masters continued in the barbarian kingdoms that formed in the ashes of the once mighty Roman…

Alex Koinski Professor McCoy HIS 104 May 4, 2015 Imagine visiting a far, distant land where nearly everything is different from home; this is how a merchant would have felt travelling from the European West to the Chinese East and vice versa. Many merchants did not have to make such a long journey due to middlemen on the trade routes, so they would not have been exposed to such a stark change in cultures. In the 11th and 12th centuries, Europeans were not very open-minded when it came to…

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, by Eric H. Cline, deals with the sudden and unexpected collapse of various interconnected civilizations throughout the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. Some of these civilizations include Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Greece, Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt. The author, Eric H. Cline, is an archaeologist, historian, and professor at George Washington University, who also finds the Late Bronze Age to be his “favorite period in ancient history.” That being said,…

As each second passes, history is being created, no matter how big or small. History had been passed down by either oral or written text. It is what shapes and defines the humankind since the beginning of humans. Everyone has a different way to understand and record history. Historians have broken down the different ways to study history into different theories. Two of these theories are the Cyclical Theory and the Linear Theory. The Cyclical Theory believes there is no “real” progress being…

Constantinople was later became known as the Byzantine Empire. 200 years later, Justinian I became the emperor of Constantinople. He later married an exotic dancer named Theodora, who would have a big impact…

Splitting of the Roman Empire The fall of Roman empire started from about AD 190. It was attacked by tribes such as the Goths and the Vandal and Civil wars in the empire further weakened rule. Rome also experienced a succession of poor emperors who were not capable of doing their jobs. The emperor Diocletian knew that something had to be done or the empire would disintegrate. He decided to divide the Roman Empire in half creating Western Empire and Eastern Empires, each with own leader.…

The author of Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization is Lars Brownworth. He was a history and political science high school teacher at Stony Brook School in Stony Brook on Long Island, New York. He created 50 podcast about 12 Byzantine Rulers. He resigned at teaching to write this book. This was his first book he wrote. He wrote many other books after this one. He has a blog that he responds to people who have questions about history. He is married to…

Marcus Tullius Cicero was both an attorney and politician in the Roman Empire, eventually achieving such positions as a consulship and membership in the Roman Senate. During his lifetime, Cicero wrote many speeches and books, with most of them surviving antiquity. Much of his writing encompass the basics and rules of rhetoric, a type of speech. Rhetoric was and is a form of art wherein a speaker uses many different methods in order to both inform and persuade the reader or listener to his or her…