The Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine imperium considered itself the only avowedly inheritor both of the popish Empire and of the Christian religion. This fact made the Empire something someplace between an altogethery and an enemy to the West. Whether the two were cooperating or fighting, though, events in Byzantium were of great importance to Outremer (especi completelyy to Antioch) and to the Crusading movement. Constantinople was the capital and the greatest city in Christendom in terminal figures of wealth, population, and political power. The Empire it rule consisted of Asia Minor, the Balkans, and Greece. all over the 12th and 13th centuries, it lost most of its lands in all these areas, provided its fortunes waxed and waned dramatically. By 1291, however, the Empire was minify to the city of Constantinople and its hinterland, cocksure a few outposts. The Greek emperor howeverterfly regarded himself as the true inheritor of the Caesars and the true defender of the conviction against th e Muslims. The so-called Holy Roman Emperor was nothing but an upstart--at best, he might be considered the western Augustus, recalling the tetrarchy of Diocletian. Similarly, the Patriarch of Constantinople regarded himself as the true head of the Church. The Bishop of Rome (the pope) was the bishop of a great and secure city, on a par with the Patriarch of Jerusalem or Antioch or Alexandria, but definitely a step under Constantinople and in any case tainted with unorthodoxy. The Greeks themselves (I shall use the Westerners term for all those who lived within the Byzantine Empire) generally regarded the Latins with contempt: they were dirty, smelly, violent, treacherous, superstitious, magnificent warriors but untrustworthy allies. They were greedy and grasping, and were not to be certain in business matters. For their part, the Westerners had much the same opinion of the Greeks, demur they had no respect for... If you want to get a pr ofuse essay, regularise it on our website: ! OrderCustomPaper.com

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