Great Christian Emperors of Byzantium. Byzantine emperors

Constantine XI Palaiologos- the last Byzantine emperor who found his death in the battle for Constantinople. After his death, he became a legendary figure in Greek folklore as an emperor who must wake up, restore the empire and deliver Constantinople from the Turks. His death ended Roman Empire, which dominated the East for 977 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Constantine was born in Constantinople. He was the eighth of ten children Manuel II Palaiologos and Elena Dragas, daughter of the Serbian magnate Konstantin Dragas. He spent most of his childhood in Constantinople under the care of his parents. Constantine, became despot of the Morea (the medieval name of the Peloponnese) in October 1443. While Mystras, a fortified city, was a center of culture and art, rivaling Constantinople.
After his accession as despot, Constantine began work to strengthen the defenses of the Morea, including reconstructing the wall across Isthmus of Corinth.
Despite foreign and domestic difficulties during his reign, which ended with the fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, modern historians usually respect the reign of Emperor Constantine.
Died in 1451 Turkish Sultan Murad. He was succeeded by his 19 year old son Mehmed II. Shortly thereafter, Mehmed II began inciting the Turkish nobility to conquer Constantinople. In 1451-52, Mehmed built Rumelihisar, a hill-fortress on the European side of the Bosporus. Then everything became clear to Konstantin, and he immediately set about organizing the defense of the city.
He managed to raise funds to build up food supplies for the upcoming siege and repair the old walls of Theodosius, but the poor state of the Byzantine economy prevented him from mustering the necessary army to defend the city from the large Ottoman horde. Desperate, Constantine XI turned to the West. He confirmed the union of the Eastern and Roman churches, which was signed at the Ferrara-Florence Cathedral.
The siege of Constantinople began in the winter of 1452. On the last day of the siege, May 29, 1453, the Byzantine emperor said: "The city has fallen, but I am still alive." Then he tore off his royal regalia so that no one could distinguish him from an ordinary soldier and led his remaining subjects to the last battle, where he was killed.
Legend has it that when the Turks entered the city, an angel of God rescued the emperor, turned him into marble and placed him in a cave near the Golden Gate, where he waits to rise up and take back his city.
Today, the emperor is considered a national hero of Greece. The legacy of Constantine Palaiologos continues to be a popular topic in Greek culture. Some Orthodox and Greek Catholics regard Constantine XI as a saint. However, he was not formally canonized by the Church, partly due to controversy surrounding his personal religious beliefs, and because death in combat is not considered martyrdom in Orthodox Church.

Kathmandu. Wonderland.

A magnificent sight opened up before Manjushri's eyes - the crystal waters played with highlights and blinded the eyes, and the surrounding shores rose like cliffs above the majestic lake. A beautiful lotus flower blooms in the center of the lake. It is translucent and ephemeral, like the waters that gave birth to it. Surprisingly bright light comes from the lotus. The powerful god Manjushri wants to touch this magical flower and with one movement of his sword cuts the bowl of the lake. The waters of the lake burst out of the stone bowl in a raging stream. And at the bottom of the lake, the Self-Arisen Stupa is born. And around it grows the city of Kathmandu. It happened 15 or 20 centuries ago, no one knows for sure. So says the ancient legend. Today Kathmandu is a tourist center. The dynasties that ruled over the centuries left their capital in the form of beautiful monuments, such as Durbar Square, Pashu Pati, Budhanat, Patan and many other interesting places. Narrow streets and incessant movement, variety of shops and national clothes of Nepalese women create an amazing flavor. And the majestic Patan Square takes you to the world of myths and ancient rituals. The Thamel area is a tourist center. Most of the hotels in Kathmandu are located here.

Public transport in Greece

Upon arrival in Greece, many Russians are faced with the problem of the correct use of public transport for their purposes. In a brief review, we will present you the urban transport of Greece, tell you about the features of its use in order to explore the sights of the country and travel inexpensively.

Greek fleet. What were the Greek ships like?

Economic crisis in Greece

As world practice shows, economic crises are an integral part of the development of the world economy, and no country can avoid them. The current state of the world economic system suggests that it is at the next stage of the crisis, which is aggravated by mutual sanctions of the EU countries and Russia, as well as local wars that threaten to develop into a global fire of war.

Vikos-Aoos National Park

The Vikos-Aoos National Park is located north of the town of Ioannina and has been a natural heritage protected area since 1973. It is part of the European network of protected areas "Natura 2000" and is famous for its lush green trees and sheer cliffs.

The greatness of the Roman Empire after the crisis of the III century was greatly shaken. Then the preconditions for the split of the empire into Western and Eastern appeared. The last emperor who headed the entire territory of the country was Flavius ​​Theodosius Augustus (379-395). He died at a respectable age of natural causes, leaving behind two heirs to the throne - the sons of Arcadius and Honorius. On the instructions of his father, the elder brother Arkady led the western part - the "first Rome", and the younger, Honorius - the eastern, "second Rome", which was later renamed the Byzantine Empire.

The process of formation of the Byzantine Empire

The official one into Western and Eastern happened in 395, unofficially - the state split long before that. While the west was dying from internecine strife, civil wars, barbarian raids on the borders, the eastern part of the country continued to develop culture and live in an authoritarian political regime, obeying its emperors of Byzantium - the basileus. Ordinary people, peasants, senators called the emperor of Byzantium "basileus", this term quickly took root and began to be constantly used in the everyday life of the people.

Christianity in the cultural development of the state and the strengthening of the power of emperors occupied by no means the last role.

After the fall of the First Rome in 476, only the eastern part of the state remained, which became the great city of Constantinople as the capital.

Duties of the Vasileus

The emperors of Byzantium were to perform the following duties:

• command an army;
• make laws;
• select and appoint personnel to public office;
• manage the administrative apparatus of the empire;
• dispense justice;
• pursue a wise and beneficial domestic and foreign policy for the state in order to maintain the status of a leader on the world stage.

Elections for the post of emperor

The process of becoming a new person to the post of basileus took place consciously with the participation of a large number of people. For elections, meetings were convened in which senators, military personnel and the people participated and voted. According to the vote count, the one with the most supporters was elected ruler.

Even a peasant had the right to run for office; this expressed the beginnings of democracy. The emperors of Byzantium, who came from peasants, also exist: Justinian, Basil I, Roman I. Justinian and Constantine are considered one of the most prominent first emperors of the Byzantine state. They were Christians, they spread their faith and used religion to impose their power, control the people, and carry out reforms in domestic and foreign policy.

Reign of Constantine I

One of the commanders-in-chief, elected to the post of emperor of Byzantium, Constantine I, thanks to wise rule, brought the state to one of the leading world positions. Constantine I ruled in the period c 306-337, at a time when the final split of the Roman Empire had not yet taken place.

Constantine is best known for establishing Christianity as the sole state religion. Also during his reign, the first Ecumenical Cathedral in the empire was built.

In honor of the believing Christian sovereign of the Byzantine Empire, the capital of the state, Constantinople, was named.

Reign of Justinian I

The great emperor of Byzantium, Justinian, ruled from 482-565. A mosaic with his image adorns the church of San Vitalle in the city of Ravenna, perpetuating the memory of the ruler.

In the surviving documents dating back to the 6th century, according to the Byzantine writer Procopius of Caesarea, who served as secretary to the great commander Belisarius, Justinian is known as a wise and generous ruler. He carried out judicial reforms for the development of the country, encouraged the spread of the Christian religion throughout the state, compiled a code of civil laws, and, in general, took good care of his people.

But the emperor was also a cruel enemy for people who dared to go against his will: rebels, rebels, heretics. He controlled the planting of Christianity in the lands occupied during his reign. So, with his wise policy, the Roman Empire returned the territory of Italy, North Africa, and partly to Spain. Like Constantine I, Justinian used religion to strengthen his own power. The preaching of any other religion, except Christianity, in the occupied lands was severely punished by law.

In addition, on the territory of the Roman Empire, on his initiative, it was entrusted to build churches, temples, monasteries that preached and brought Christianity to the people. The economic and political power of the state has grown significantly due to the many profitable connections and deals made by the emperor.

Byzantine emperors such as Constantine I and Justinian I proved themselves to be wise, generous rulers, who also successfully spread Christianity throughout the empire to strengthen their own power and unite the people.

At the beginning of 395, the last emperor of the united Roman Empire, Caesar Flavius ​​Theodosius Augustus, left Rome for Constantinople. “Arriving in Mediolan, he fell ill and sent for his son, Honorius, whom, when he saw, he felt better. Then he watched a horse race, but after that he became worse and, not having the strength to visit the spectacle in the evening, ordered his son to replace him and the next night he rested in the Lord, seventy years old, leaving behind two sons as kings - the eldest, Arcadius, in the East, and Honoria - in the West "- this is how the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes tells about the death of Theodosius I the Great. From now on, the Roman Empire was actually forever divided into two parts - Western and Eastern. The Western Empire, weakened and fading, lasted another eighty-one years, languishing under the blows of neighboring barbarian tribes. In 476, the barbarian Odoacer, the leader of the German mercenaries, who at the end of the 5th century constituted the main fighting force of the West, demanded from the emperor Romulus (or rather, from his father, the military leader Orestes, who actually ruled the state) a third of Italy for the settlement of his soldiers. The emperor refused to satisfy this demand; in response, the mercenaries rebelled, proclaiming Odoacer the “king” (i.e., prince) of Italy. Orestes died, and on August 23, Romulus was deposed.
Imperial power, which had long been a mere fiction in the West, did not appeal to Odoacer, and he did not accept it. The last Western Roman emperor, the teenager Romulus, died at the end of the seventies in Naples, at the former villa of Lucullus, where he was in the position of a prisoner. Odoacer sent the crown and purple mantle - signs of imperial dignity - to Constantinople to Emperor Zeno, formally submitting to him in order to avoid conflicts with the East. “Just as the Sun is one in the sky, so there must be one emperor on Earth,” was inscribed in the message to the monarch of Constantinople. Zinon had no choice but to legitimize the completed coup, and he granted Odoacer the title of patrician.
History laughed at "Rome first" - the city founded by Romulus the Great was finally crushed by barbarism during the reign of the second and last Romulus, who received the contemptuous nickname Augustulus from his contemporaries - for insignificance. "Rome II" - the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium, lasted for almost another thousand years, in many ways really taking over the baton of ancient Rome and creating at the junction of West and East its own, original statehood and culture, surprisingly combining the features of arrogant Greco-Roman rationalism and barbaric eastern despotism... So, Byzantium is the name of the state that developed on the eastern lands of the great Roman Empire in the 4th - 5th centuries. and lasted until the middle of the 15th century. You should know that the term "Byzantium" (as well as the "Eastern Roman" and "Western Roman" empires) is conditional and was introduced into use by Western historians of later times. Officially, the Roman Empire has always remained united, the citizens of Byzantium have always considered themselves the successors of the Romans, they called their country the Empire of the Romans (“Romans” in Greek), and the capital - New Rome. According to the classical definition, Byzantium is "an organic synthesis of three components - ancient-Hellenistic traditions, Roman state theory and Christianity".
The economic and cultural separation of the east of the Roman Empire from the west began in the 3rd-4th centuries. and finally ended only in the 5th century, in connection with which it is impossible to name the exact “date of birth” of Byzantium. Traditionally, its history dates back to the time of Emperor Constantine I and the foundation of the second capital of the empire on the left bank of the Bosphorus. Sometimes the “reference point” is assumed to be different, for example:
- the beginning of the separate administration of the empire under Diocletian (the end
III c.);
- the empire of the times of Constantius II and the transformation of Constantinople into a full-fledged capital (mid-4th century);
- division of the empire in 395;
- the decline and death of the Western Empire (mid-V century - 476);
- the reign of Emperor Justinian I (mid-VI century);
- the era after the wars of Heraclius I with the Persians and Arabs (mid-7th century).
In 284 AD, the throne of the Roman Empire was seized by the Illyrian Diocles, who took the throne name of Diocletian (284 - 305). He managed to curb the crisis that had tormented the vast state since the middle of the 3rd century, and in fact saved the empire from complete collapse by reforming the main spheres of the country's life.
However, Diocletian's measures did not lead to a final improvement. By the time Constantine, later nicknamed the Great, came to the throne in 306, the power of the Romans entered another period of decline. The system of the Diocletian tetrarchy (when the state was ruled by two senior emperors with the titles of Augusts and two junior ones - Caesars) did not justify itself. The rulers did not get along with each other, the huge empire once again became the scene of devastating civil wars. By the beginning of the twenties of the 4th century, Constantine managed to defeat his rivals and remain an autocratic ruler. The financial, economic and administrative measures of Constantine made it possible to stabilize the position of the state, at least until the end of the 4th century.
That Rome, the era of the dominant, was not like the Rome of the first Augusts or the great Antonines, and the change in the economic factors of ancient society played an important role in this.
By the end of the II century. AD, the victorious wars of Rome with the surrounding powers were basically over. The scale of the conquests was sharply reduced, and at the same time, the influx of slaves, which constituted the main productive force of society, began to dry up. Together with the low efficiency of slave labor, this led to the gradual involvement in the production process of an increasing number of the poorest free citizens, especially in the east of the empire, where small landownership and handicraft production were traditional. In addition, the custom of endowing slaves with property (peculia) and renting out cultivated land and objects of labor has become increasingly widespread. Gradually, the social status of such slaves began to approach the status of free peasant tenants (colons) and artisans. At the beginning of the III century. Roman society was divided into two classes - "worthy", honestiores, and "humble", humiliores. By the 4th century the first included the descendants of senators, horsemen, curials, and the second, along with the plebeians, columns, freedmen, and then increasingly slaves. Gradually, the columns and their descendants were forbidden to leave their lands (in the 5th century they were even no longer recruited into the army), in a similar way, belonging to craft colleges and city curia was recognized as hereditary.
In the ideological sphere, the main event of those years was the adoption of Christianity by the empire. On April 30, 311, August Galerius issued an edict in Nicomedia, allowing the population to profess the "errors of Christianity." Two years later, in August, Constantine I and Licinius published a similar edict in Mediolanum, and in 325 Constantine I, not yet baptized, presides over the Nicene Council of Christian Bishops. Soon, a new edict of Constantine on religious tolerance allowed the confession of “delusions of paganism”. After a brief and unsuccessful attempt by Julian II the Apostate to revive paganism, it became clear that it had exhausted itself. In 381 Christianity was proclaimed the state religion of the empire. This was the end of ancient culture.
An ever greater role in the life of the country (mainly in the west) is being played by barbarian Germans. Already from the middle of the IV century. most of the army of the West and a significant part of the East was recruited not from Roman free citizens, but from barbarian federates who were subject to the Roman authorities for the time being. In 377, an uprising broke out among the Visigothic federates of Misia. In August 378, in the battle of Adrianople, the Eastern Roman army suffered a crushing defeat from the Visigoths, Emperor Valens II died in the battle.
The commander Theodosius became the Augustus of the East. The title of August was granted to him by the emperor of the West, Gratian. After some time, Gratian fell under the swords of the rebellious soldiers, and Theodosius the Great, taking Gratian's young brother, Valentinian II, as co-rulers, remained in fact the autocrat. Theodosius managed to pacify the Visigoths, repel the raids of other barbarians and win heavy civil wars with the usurpers. However, after the death of Theodosius, a split occurred in the state. The point is not at all in the division of power between Arcadius and Honorius - this was customary - but in the fact that since then the West and the East, having long been aware of their economic and cultural differences, began to rapidly move away from each other. Their relations began to resemble (with the formal preservation of unity) the relations of warring states. This is how Byzantium began.
According to the will of Theodosius the Great, after 395 the most developed territories went to Byzantium: the Balkans, the possessions of Rome in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Southern Crimea, Egypt, Syria, Palestine and part of North Africa. From the beginning of the 5th century Illyricum and Dalmatia finally fell under the rule of its emperors. The empire was multi-ethnic, but the core of its population was Greek, and Greek was its main (and from the end of the 6th century also the state) language. Having defended its possessions from the invasion of the barbarians in the 5th century, Byzantium survived and existed, constantly changing, for more than a thousand years, remaining a unique phenomenon of the Eurasian civilization.
In this book, the main part of the story begins with the emperor Arcadius (the reader can learn about the emperors of the East to Arcadius and the West from Honorius to Romulus Augustulus from).
By the end of the 5th century all the lands of the Western Roman Empire became part of the barbarian kingdoms, most of which, however, recognized the nominal dominion of the emperors in Constantinople. Byzantium was able to cope with both external barbarians and those in its service. Having escaped the barbarian conquest, the East preserved itself and its culture. The decline that befell the West did not become the fate of Byzantium. Crafts and trade continued to flourish, and agriculture remained at a high level. By the middle of the VI century. Byzantium was able to make an attempt to take revenge on the barbarian world. During the reign of Emperor Justinian the Great, the Romans conquered their former possessions in Italy, Africa and partly in Spain. But heavy wars tore the strength of the empire. At the end of the century, many of these lands were again lost. In the western regions of Byzantium (in Illyricum and Thrace) Slavic tribes began to settle, in Italy - the Lombards. The economy of the country fell into decay, riots became more frequent. In 602, the usurper Fok came to power. After eight years of his reign, the empire was on the verge of collapse. The Romans were unable to retain power in the most economically valuable areas - Syria, Palestine and Egypt, which were torn away by the Persians. Heraclius (610), who overthrew the hated Phocas, managed to improve the situation, but not for long. The state, exhausted by external and internal wars, was attacked by the Arabs in the south and east, the Slavs and Avars in the west. At the cost of incredible efforts, the empire retained its independence, although its borders were greatly reduced. Thus ended the first period of the history of Byzantium - the period of formation. Her further history is a continuous chronicle of survival. An outpost of Christianity, Byzantium met all the conquerors who rushed to Europe from the east. “... If we take into account the fact that the empire lay just in the path of all popular movements and was the first to take the blows of the mighty eastern barbarians, then one will have to be surprised at how much it repelled invasions, how well it knew how to use the forces of enemies [according to the principle "divide and rule". - S. D.] and how it lasted for a whole millennium. That culture was great and it concealed a lot of power in itself, if it gave rise to such a gigantic force of resistance!” .
From the middle of the 7th century, in terms of the administrative structure, Byzantium began to depart from the principles of the Roman Diocletian system, based on the separation of military, civil and judicial power. This was connected with the beginning of the formation of the theme system. Over time, the entire territory of the empire was divided into new administrative units - themes. At the head of each theme was a strategist, who carried out civil administration and commanded the theme army. The basis of the army was the stratiote peasants, who received land from the state on the condition of military service. At the same time, the main feature of Byzantium, which always distinguished it from the countries of Christian Europe, was preserved - centralized government and strong imperial power. The question of the genesis of the thematic system is complicated, most likely, the first innovations date back to the reign of Emperor Heraclius I, and the final form took place in the middle and end of the 8th century, under the emperors of the Syrian (Isaurian) dynasty.
A certain decline in culture dates back to this time, connected, firstly, with the incessant heavy wars, and secondly, with the iconoclasm movement (see Leo III and Constantine V). However, already under the last emperors of the Amorian dynasty (820 - 867), Theophilus and Michael III, a period of general socio-economic and cultural improvement began.
Under the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty (867 - 1028), Byzantium reaches its second heyday.
From the beginning of the X century. the first signs of the disintegration of the theme system are outlined. More and more stratiots are ruined, their lands fall into the hands of large landowners - dinats. The repressive measures taken by the emperors against the dinats in the 10th - early 11th centuries did not bring the expected results. In the middle of the XI century. the empire again fell into a period of severe crisis. The state was shaken by rebellions, the throne of the empire passed from usurper to usurper, its territory was reduced. In 1071, in the battle of Manzikert (in Armenia), the Romans suffered a severe defeat from the Seljuk Turks; at the same time, the Normans captured the remains of the Italian possessions of Constantinople. Only with the coming to power of the new Komnenos dynasty (1081 - 1185) did relative stabilization come.
By the end of the twelfth century, the reform potential of the Comneni had dried up. The empire tried to hold on to the position of world power, but now - for the first time! -Western countries are beginning to clearly surpass it in terms of development. The age-old empire becomes unable to compete with Western-type feudalism. In 1204, Constantinople was taken by storm by the Catholic knights - members of the IV Crusade. However, Byzantium did not die. Having recovered from the blow, she managed to revive in the lands of Asia Minor that had survived from the Latin conquest. In 1261, Constantinople and Thrace were returned under the rule of the empire by Michael VIII Palaiologos, the founder of its last dynasty. But the history of Byzantium of the Palaiologos is the history of the agony of the country. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, weakened by civil wars, Byzantium is perishing. On May 29, 14S3, the troops of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople. Five to ten years later, the remnants of its lands were under the rule of the Ottoman Turks. Byzantium is gone.
Byzantium differed significantly from the contemporary states of Christian Western Europe. For example, the common term for the Western European Middle Ages "feudalism" can be applied to Byzantium only with great reservations, and even then - only to the later one. The similarity of the institution of vassal-feudal relations, based on the ownership of private individuals on land and dependence on the master of the peasants who cultivated it, clearly appears in the empire only from the time of the Komnenos. Romaic society of an earlier time, the heyday (VIII - X centuries), is more like, say, Ptolemaic Egypt, where the state occupied a dominant position in the economy. In this regard, Byzantium of that time was characterized by a vertical mobility of society unprecedented in the West. The “nobility” of a Roman was determined not by origin, but to a greater extent by personal qualities. Of course, there was a hereditary aristocracy, but belonging to it did not entirely determine the future career. The son of a baker could become a logothete or governor of a province, and a descendant of high dignitaries could end his days as a eunuch or a simple scribe - and this did not surprise anyone.
Starting from the Komnenos, the influence of the aristocracy is increasing, but the hierarchical structure of the countries of the West based on the estate “right of blood” did not take root in Byzantium - at least in its entirety (see, for example,).
Culturally, the empire was even more distinctive. Being a Christian country, Byzantium never forgot the ancient Hellenistic traditions. An extensive bureaucratic apparatus required a mass of literate people, which led to an unprecedented scope for secular education. In those years when the West was in ignorance, the Romans read the ancient classics of literature, argued about the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. Since 425, there was a university in Constantinople, first-class hospitals for that time worked. Architecture and mathematics, natural sciences and philosophy - all this was preserved thanks to the high level of material production, traditions and respect for learning. Merchants of the empire sailed to India and Ceylon, reached the Malay Peninsula and China. Greek doctors not only commented on Hippocrates and Galen, but also successfully introduced something new into the ancient heritage.
The church played a significant role in the culture of the empire. But unlike Catholicism, the Orthodox Church has never been militant, and the spread of Orthodoxy among the Slavs of Eastern Europe and in Russia led to the emergence of daughter cultures of these countries and the formation of special relations between states - a kind of "commonwealth" (see).
The situation changed at the end of the 12th century. Since that time, the level of the West, as mentioned above, began to surpass the Byzantine level, primarily in terms of material. And in terms of the spiritual, the alternative “civilization of Byzantium - the barbarism of the West” gradually disappeared: the “Latin” world acquired its own developed culture. In fairness, I note that this does not apply to all representatives of the Western world - the unscrupulous, rude and ignorant European knights who appeared in the East served as an illustration; that is why, contacting mainly with the crusaders, the enlightened Romans for a long time (XII - XV centuries) denied the West the right to be considered a civilized world. True, comparing “levels of development of culture” has always been a generally difficult task, and most importantly, unpromising, although people (as a rule, from the standpoint of their own ethno-, confessional-, etc.-centrism) * did, do and do not stop. Personally, I do not see a reliable and impartial criterion for the concept of "cultural level". Example: if we evaluate the quality of Byzantine coins of the 6th-8th centuries from the point of view of an artist, then there is an abyss between these works of art, merged with craftsmanship, and shapeless pieces of metal with images like “dot, dot, two hooks” - the coins of the Laskaris and Palaiologos, there is a decline. However, it is impossible to speak on this basis about the absence of artists in late Byzantium - they simply became different and created something else (suffice it to mention the frescoes of the Chora monastery). Among the Central American Indians of the XV - XVI centuries. there were no tamed horses and wheeled carts, and the sacrifice of people was practiced - but who dares to call barbaric societies that died under the fire of Cortes' arquebusiers? Now - hardly, but in the XV - XVI centuries. few disputed the right of the Spaniards to destroy the "wild" Aztecs. On the other hand, each of us has our own measure, and we are unlikely to doubt which of the ancestors is considered more cultured - a Cro-Magnon with a club or Aristotle. The main thing, perhaps, is something else - originality. And from this point of view, Byzantium never lost its culture. Neither under Justinian, nor under the Angels, nor under the Palaiologos, although these are different eras. True, if the culture of the Romans in the VI century. could follow the dusty legionaries of Belisarius, then in a thousand years this path was gone.
But even in the fifteenth century Byzantium continued to exert its spiritual influence on the world, and not only the Orthodox - the European Renaissance owes its appearance not least to the ideas that came from the Greek East. And such "non-violent" penetration is a hundred times more valuable. And who knows (it’s impossible to confirm or refute this assumption anyway), perhaps we admire the ideas of Kant or Descartes only “thanks” to the soldiers of Baldwin of Flanders and Mehmed II, for who can count the geniuses who were not born in Constantinople twice defeated, and who knows How many books perished under the indifferent boots of the paladins of Christ and Allah! Byzantine emperors
In republican Rome, "emperor" is a title given by soldiers to a general for outstanding service. The first rulers of Rome - Gaius Julius Caesar and Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian Augustus had it, but their official title was "Princeps of the Senate" - the first in the Senate (hence the name of the era of the first emperors - principate). Later, the title of emperor was given to and replaced each princeps.
The princeps was not a king. The Romans of the first centuries of our era were alien to the idea of ​​slavish obedience to the ruler (in practice, of course, it happened differently - under such rulers as Caligula, Nero or Commodus). To have a king (rex in Latin and vabileus in Greek) they considered the lot of the barbarians. Over time, the ideals of the Republic faded into oblivion. Aurelian (270 - 275) finally included the word dominus - master in his official title. The era of dominance, which replaced the principate, has come. But it was only in Byzantium that the idea of ​​imperial power acquired its most mature form. Just as God is the highest of the whole world, so the emperor heads the earthly kingdom. The power of the emperor, who stood at the top of the earthly empire, organized in the likeness of the "heavenly" hierarchy, is sacred and protected by God.
But the tsar (the title of Vasileus of the Romans was officially adopted in 629 by Heraclius I, although the people began to call their rulers that way much earlier), who did not observe the “laws of divine and human”, was considered a tyrant, and this could justify attempts to overthrow him. In moments of crisis, such changes in power became commonplace, and any citizen of the state could become an emperor (the principle of hereditary power took shape only in Byzantium in the last centuries), therefore both a worthy and unworthy person could be on the throne. On the latter occasion, Nikita Choniates, a historian who survived the defeat of his homeland by the crusaders, lamented: “There were people who yesterday or, in a word, recently gnawed acorns and also chewed Pontic pork in their mouths [dolphin meat, the food of the poor. - S. D.], and now they quite openly expressed their views and claims to royal dignity, fixing their shameless eyes on him, and used as matchmakers, or better [say] pimps, corrupt and servile to the womb of public screamers ... Oh famous Roman power, the object of envious surprise and reverent veneration of all peoples - who did not take possession of you by force? Who hasn't dishonored you brazenly? What wildly violent lovers have you not had? Whom did you not embrace, with whom did you not share a bed, to whom did you not give yourself up and whom did you not then crown, decorate with a diadem and then put on red sandals? .
Whoever occupied the throne, the etiquette of the Byzantine court knew no equal in solemnity and complexity. The residence of the emperor and his family was, as a rule, the Great Imperial Palace - a complex of buildings in the center of Constantinople. During the time of the last Komnenos, the Grand Palace fell into disrepair, and the basileus moved to Blachernae.
Any exit of the sovereign was strictly regulated by the rules. Each ceremony with the participation of the emperor was scheduled to the smallest detail. And of course, the accession to the throne of the new king was arranged with great solemnity.
The rite of proclamation itself has not remained unchanged over the centuries. In early Byzantium, the coronation was secular in nature, officially the emperor of the Romans was elected by the synod, but the army played a decisive role. The coronation ceremony was performed surrounded by selected units, the candidate for emperor was raised on a large shield and shown to the soldiers. At the same time, the neck chain of an officer-campiductor (torques) was placed on the head of the proclaimed. Shouts were heard: "So-and-so, you win (tu vincas)!" The new emperor gave the soldiers a donative - a cash gift.
From 457, the Patriarch of Constantinople began to take part in the coronation (see Leo I). Later, the participation of the church in the coronation became more active. The ceremony of raising the shield faded into the background (according to G. Ostrogorsky, it disappeared altogether from the 8th century). The ritual of the proclamation became more complicated and began to begin in the chambers of the Grand Palace. After several disguises and greetings from the courtiers and members of the synclite, the candidate entered the mitatorium, an annex to the church of St. Sophia, where he dressed in ceremonial clothes: divitisy (a kind of tunic) and tsitsaky (a type of cloak - chlamys). Then he entered the temple, went to the saline, prayed and stepped onto the pulpit. The patriarch read a prayer over a purple mantle and put it on the emperor. Then a crown was taken out of the altar, and the patriarch laid it on the head of the newly made basil. After that, the praises of the "dims" - representatives of the people - began. The emperor descended from the pulpit, returned to the mitatorium, and there accepted the worship of the members of the synclite.
Since the 12th century, the custom of raising a candidate to the shield was revived again, and chrismation was added to the rite of placing on the throne. But the meaning of the first rite has changed. The candidate was no longer raised on the shield by soldiers, but by the patriarch and the highest secular dignitaries. Then the emperor went to St. Sophia and participated in the divine service. After the prayer, the patriarch anointed the head of the basileus with myrrh in the form of a cross and proclaimed: “Holy!”; this exclamation was repeated three times by the priests and representatives of the people. Then the deacon brought in the crown, the patriarch put it on the emperor, and shouts of “Worthy!” were heard. A master with samples of marble approached the reigning emperor and offered him to choose the material for the coffin - as a reminder that the ruler of the God-protected Roman Empire was also mortal.
The proclamation of the "junior" co-emperor (bumvabileus) was arranged somewhat differently. Then the crown and mantle were laid by the senior emperor - accepting, however, them from the hands of the patriarch.
The important role of the church in the ritual of the coronation was not accidental, but was dictated by the special relationship between the secular and spiritual authorities of the Roman Empire.
Even in the days of pagan Rome, the emperor had the title of high priest - pontifex maximus. This tradition was also preserved in Orthodox Byzantium. Basileusses were revered as defensors or ekdiki (protectors, trustees) of the church, bore the title of afios - “saint”, could participate in the service, and, along with the clergy, had the right to enter the altar. They decided questions of faith in councils; By the will of the emperor, the patriarch of Constantinople was elected from the candidates (usually three) proposed by the bishops.
In terms of the political ideal of relations between the king of the Romans and the Orthodox Church, which was mainly formed by the middle of the 6th century. and lasted until the fall of the empire, was a symphony - "consent". The symphony was to recognize the equality and cooperation of secular and spiritual authorities. “If a bishop submits obedience to the orders of the emperor, then not as a bishop, whose power, as a bishop, would result from the imperial power, but as a subject, as a member of the state, obliged to obey the ruling power placed over him by God; likewise, when the emperor also obeys the decrees of the priests, it is not because he bears the title of a priest and his imperial power derives from their power, but because they are priests of God, ministers of the faith revealed by God, therefore - as a member of the church, seeking, like other people, their salvation in the spiritual kingdom of God. In the preface to one of his short stories, Emperor Justinian I wrote: “The Most High goodness gave mankind two greatest gifts - the priesthood and the kingdom; that [the first] takes care of pleasing God, and this [the second] - about other human subjects. Both, flowing from the same source, constitute the adornment of human life. Therefore, there is no most important concern for sovereigns, as the well-being of the priesthood, which, for its part, serves them as a prayer for them to God. When the church is well-organized on all sides, and state administration moves firmly and directs the life of peoples towards the true good through laws, then a good and beneficial union of church and state arises, which is so coveted by mankind.
Byzantium did not know such a fierce struggle for power between sovereigns and the church, which reigned in the Catholic West for almost the entire Middle Ages. However, if the emperor violated the requirements of the symphony and thereby gave "a reason to accuse himself of non-Orthodoxy, this could serve as an ideological banner for his opponents," for the kingdom and the church are in the closest union, and ... it is impossible to separate them from each other. Christians who were heretics raged against the Church and introduced corrupting dogmas alien to the apostolic and patristic teachings" (Patriarch Anthony IV, ).
The proclamation of the symphony as the official doctrine did not at all mean the indispensable implementation of this ideal in practice. There were emperors who completely subordinated the church to themselves (Justinian the Great, Basil II), and there were such patriarchs who considered themselves entitled to lead the emperors (Nicholas the Mystic, Michael Cirularius).
Over time, the splendor of the empire faded, but the authority of its church among the Orthodox remained unquestioned, and the emperors of Byzantium, albeit nominally, were considered their overlords. At the end of the XIV century. Patriarch Anthony IV wrote to the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Dmitrievich: “Although, by God’s permission, the infidels have constrained the power of the tsar and the borders of the empire, yet to this day the tsar is appointed by the church according to the same rank and with the same prayers [as before], and to this day, he will be anointed with the great world and appointed king and autocrat of all the Romans, that is, Christians. Constantinople
The capital of the empire for almost all the time of its existence, with the exception of the period from 1204 to 1261, was Constantinople - one of the largest cities of antiquity and the early Middle Ages. For the majority of Byzantines (and foreigners as well), the empire is, first of all, Constantinople, the city was its symbol, the same shrine as the imperial power or the Orthodox Church. The city has an ancient history, but under a different name - Byzantium.
In 658 BC the inhabitants of the Greek Megara, following the dictates of the Delphic oracle, founded their colony, Byzantium, on the western shore of the Bosporus. The city, built at the crossroads of trade routes from West to East, quickly became rich and gained fame and glory.
In 515 BC Persian king Darius captured Byzantium and made it his fortress. After the Battle of Plataea (September 26, 479 BC), when the Greeks defeated the Persian commander Mardonius, the Persians abandoned the city forever.
Byzantium took an active part in Greek politics. The Byzantines were allies of the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War, due to which the city was subjected to repeated sieges by the Spartans.
Existing in the neighborhood with the powerful powers of antiquity, Byzantium still managed to maintain relative autonomy, skillfully playing on the foreign policy interests of the surrounding states. When the eastern Mediterranean began to attract the attention of growing Rome, the city unconditionally took its side and supported - first the Republic, and then the Empire - in the wars with Philip V of Macedon, the Seleucids, the kings of Pergamum, Parthia and Pontus. Nominally, the city lost its freedom under Vespasian, who included Byzantium in the possessions of Rome, but even here he retained many privileges.
Under the rule of the princeps, Byzantium (the main city of the Roman province of Europe) experienced a period of prosperity. But at the end of the second century this came to an end: the support of Pescennia Niger, a candidate for the throne of the empire (the level of this support can be used to judge the welfare of the policy - he put up 500 triremes for Pescennia!), cost the city too much. Septimius Severus, who won the internecine strife, took Byzantium after a three-year siege and, taking revenge on the inhabitants, destroyed its walls. The city could not recover from such a blow, fell into decay and eked out a miserable existence for more than a hundred years. However, another civil war brought Byzantium much more than it lost in the first: Emperor Constantine, son of Constantius Chlorus, during long battles with the army of August Licinius, drew attention to the surprisingly advantageous location of Byzantium from an economic and strategic point of view and decided to build a second Rome here. - the new capital of the state.
Constantine began to realize this idea almost immediately after the victory over Licinius. Construction began in 324, and, according to legend, Constantine the Great personally drew on the ground with a spear the border of the city walls - pomeriums. On May 11, 330, Christian bishops and pagan priests consecrated New Rome. The new city, where Constantine resettled many inhabitants of other regions of the empire, quickly acquired an unprecedented splendor. Constantinople, "the city of Constantine" (the name "New Rome" was used less often), became the center of the eastern provinces. The son of Constantine I, Constantius II, ordered that the senate of these provinces be assembled here and that a second consul be elected.
During the era of the Byzantine Empire, the city was world famous. It is no coincidence that from the date of the fall of Constantinople, many historians count the end of the Middle Ages.
The city did not lose its importance under the Ottomans. Istanbol or Istanbul (from the distorted Greek "is tin bolin" - to the city, to the city) for several centuries significantly influenced the entire system of European diplomacy.
Today Istanbul is a major industrial and cultural center of Turkey.
Mistake. Theodosius I was born in 347. Augustulus - "August". "August". The estate of the "worthy" was further divided, in turn, into three classes - illustrators (they had the right to sit in the upper curia of the senate), clarissims and performances. The last fragment of the Western Empire remained part of Gaul (between the Loire and the Meuse) under the rule of the Roman governor Siagrius. In 486, Clovis, the leader of the Maritime Franks, defeated Siatria at Soissons. The governor fled to Toulouse, to the Visigoths, but they soon handed him over to Clovis. In 487 Syagrius was executed. At the beginning of the VI century. in the territory of the former Roman Britain, an uprising of the local population broke out, successfully led by a descendant of the Romans, Anastasius Aurelian. The history of his struggle and reign after many centuries was transformed into a cycle of legends about King Arthur. The attitude to this was ambiguous among the Romans themselves. “I believe,” he wrote back in the 5th century. Blue-this, - that nothing has ever done the Roman Empire such harm as that theatrical splendor surrounding the figure of the emperor, which is secretly prepared by the clergy and exposes us in a barbaric guise. According to G. Ostrogorsky. It is sometimes believed that the rite of chrismation appeared in Byzantium much earlier. When the last emperor, Constantine XII Palaiologos, was proclaimed, the last silver door of the Grand Palace was used to make the shield. And it was not for nothing that in May 1453, in response to the proposal of Sultan Mehmed II to surrender the already doomed capital, the last vasileus Konstantin Dragash replied: “The emperor is ready to live with the sultan in peace and leave him the captured cities and lands; the city will pay any tribute required by the Sultan, as far as it is in its power; only the city itself cannot be handed over by the emperor - it is better to die. Roman writers also called their capital Byzantium, Royal, simply Polis (city) and even New Jerusalem.

S. B. Dashkov. Emperors of Byzantium.

Justinian I the Great (lat. Flavius ​​Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus) ruled Byzantium from 527 to 565. Under Justinian the Great, the territory of Byzantium almost doubled. Historians believe that Justinian was one of the greatest monarchs of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Justinian was born around 483. in a peasant family of a provincial village in a mountainous Macedonia, near Skupi . For a long time, the opinion prevailed that he was of Slavic origin and originally wore the name of the council, this legend was very common among the Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula.

Justinian was distinguished by strict Orthodoxy , was a reformer and military strategist who made the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. Coming from the dark mass of the provincial peasantry, Justinian was able to firmly and firmly master two grandiose ideas: the Roman idea of ​​world monarchy and the Christian idea of ​​the kingdom of God. Combining both ideas and putting them into action with the help of power in a secular state that has accepted these two ideas as political doctrine of the Byzantine Empire.

Under Emperor Justinian, the Byzantine Empire reached its peak, after a long period of decline, the monarch tried to restore the empire and return it to its former greatness. It is believed that Justinian fell under the influence of the strong character of his wife Theodora, whom he solemnly crowned in 527.

Historians believe that the main goal of Justinian's foreign policy was the revival of the Roman Empire within its former borders, the empire was to turn into a single Christian state. As a result, all the wars conducted by the emperor were aimed at expanding their territories, especially to the west, on the territory of the fallen Western Roman Empire.

The main commander of Justinian, who dreamed of the revival of the Roman Empire, was Belisarius, became a general at the age of 30.

In 533 Justinian sent Belisarius' army into North Africa for conquering the kingdom of the Vandals. The war with the Vandals was successful for Byzantium, and already in 534 the commander of Justinian won a decisive victory. As in the African campaign, the commander Belisarius kept many mercenaries in the Byzantine army - wild barbarians.

Even sworn enemies could help the Byzantine Empire - it was enough to pay them. So, Huns made up a large part of the army Belisarius , which on 500 ships set off from Constantinople to North Africa.Hun cavalry , who served as mercenaries in the Byzantine army of Belisarius, played a decisive role in the war against Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. During the general battle, the opponents fled from the wild horde of the Huns and hid in the Numidian desert. Then the commander Belisarius occupied Carthage.

After the annexation of North Africa in Byzantine Constantinople, they turned their eyes to Italy, on whose territory there existed kingdom of the Ostrogoths. Emperor Justinian the Great decided to declare war Germanic kingdoms , who waged constant wars among themselves and were weakened on the eve of the invasion of the Byzantine army.

The war with the Ostrogoths was successful, and The king of the Ostrogoths had to turn to Persia for help. Justinian secured himself in the East from a blow from the rear by making peace with Persia and launched a campaign to invade Western Europe.

First thing commander Belisarius occupied Sicily, where he met little resistance. The Italian cities also surrendered one by one until the Byzantines approached Naples.

Belisarius (505-565), Byzantine general under Justinian I, 540 (1830). Belasarius refusing the crown of their kingdom in Italy offered to him by the Goths in 540. Belisarius was a brilliant general who defeated a range of enemies of the Byzantine Empire, virtually doubling its territory in the process. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

After the fall of Naples, Pope Silverius invited Belisarius to enter the holy city. The Goths left Rome , and soon Belisarius occupied Rome, the capital of the empire. The Byzantine commander Belisarius, however, understood that the enemy was only gathering strength, so he immediately began to strengthen the walls of Rome. Followed then The siege of Rome by the Goths lasted one year and nine days (537-538). The Byzantine army, defending Rome, not only withstood the attacks of the Goths, but also continued its offensive deep into the Apennine Peninsula.

Belisarius' victories allowed the Byzantine Empire to establish control over the northeastern part of Italy. Already after the death of Belisarius was created exarchate (province) with Ravenna as its capital . Although Rome was later lost to Byzantium, as Rome actually fell under the control of the pope, Byzantium retained possessions in Italy until the middle of the 8th century.

Under Justinian, the territory of the Byzantine Empire reached its largest size during the entire existence of the empire. Justinian managed to almost completely restore the former borders of the Roman Empire.

The Byzantine emperor Justinian captured all of Italy and almost the entire coast of North Africa, and the southeastern part of Spain. Thus, the territory of Byzantium doubles, but does not reach the former borders of the Roman Empire.

Already in 540 New Persian the Sassanid kingdom terminated the peace treaty with Byzantium and actively prepared for war. Justinian was in a difficult position, because Byzantium could not withstand the war on two fronts.

Domestic policy of Justinian the Great

In addition to an active foreign policy, Justinian also pursued a prudent domestic policy. Under him, the Roman system of government was abolished, which was replaced by a new one - the Byzantine one. Justinian was actively engaged in strengthening the state apparatus, and also tried to improve taxation . Under the emperor were connected civil and military positions attempts have been made reduce corruption by raising the salaries of officials.

The people of Justinian were nicknamed the "sleepless emperor", as he worked day and night to reform the state.

Historians believe that Justinian's military successes were his main merit, but domestic politics, especially in the second half of his reign, devastated the state treasury.

Emperor Justinian the Great left behind a famous architectural monument that still exists today - Saint Sophie Cathedral . This building is considered a symbol of the "golden age" in the Byzantine Empire. This cathedral is the second largest Christian church in the world and second only to St. Paul's Cathedral in the Vatican . With the construction of the Hagia Sophia, Emperor Justinian won the favor of the Pope and the entire Christian world.

During the reign of Justinian, the world's first plague pandemic broke out, which swept the entire Byzantine Empire. The largest number of victims was recorded in the capital of the empire, Constantinople, where 40% of the total population died. According to historians, the total number of victims of the plague reached about 30 million people, and possibly more.

Achievements of the Byzantine Empire under Justinian

The greatest achievement of Justinian the Great is considered to be an active foreign policy, which doubled the territory of Byzantium, almost regaining all the lost lands after the fall of Rome in 476.

As a result of numerous wars, the treasury of the state was depleted, and this led to popular riots and uprisings. However, the rebellion prompted Justinian to issue new laws for the citizens of the entire empire. The emperor abolished Roman law, repealed obsolete Roman laws and introduced new laws. The collection of these laws is called "Code of Civil Law".

The reign of Justinian the Great was indeed called the "golden age", he himself said: “Never before the time of our reign did God grant such victories to the Romans ... Thank heaven, inhabitants of the whole world: in your days a great deed has been accomplished, which God recognized as unworthy of the entire ancient world” Commemorations of the greatness of Christianity were built Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

A huge breakthrough has occurred in military affairs. Justinian managed to create the largest professional mercenary army of that period. The Byzantine army led by Belisarius brought many victories to the Byzantine emperor and expanded the boundaries of the Byzantine Empire. However, the maintenance of a huge mercenary army and endless warriors depleted the state treasury of the Byzantine Empire.

The first half of the reign of Emperor Justinian is called the "golden age of Byzantium", while the second only caused discontent on the part of the people. The outskirts of the empire covered uprisings of the Moors and Goths. BUT in 548 during the second Italian campaign, Justinian the Great could no longer respond to requests from Belisarius to send money for the army and to pay the mercenaries.

The last time the commander Belisarius led the troops in 559, when the Kotrigur tribe invaded Thrace. The commander won the battle and could have completely destroyed the attackers, but Justinian at the last moment decided to pay off his restless neighbors. However, the most surprising thing was that the creator of the Byzantine victory was not even invited to the festive celebrations. After this episode, the commander Belisarius finally fell into disfavor and ceased to play a prominent role at court.

In 562, several noble inhabitants of Constantinople accused the famous commander Belisarius of preparing a conspiracy against the emperor Justinian. For several months Belisarius was deprived of his property and position. Soon Justinian became convinced of the innocence of the accused and made peace with him. Belisarius died in peace and solitude in 565 AD In the same year, Emperor Justinian the Great expired.

The last conflict between the emperor and the commander served as a source of legends about the poor, weak and blind commander Belisarius, begging for alms at the walls of the temple. This - fallen into disfavor - depicts him in his famous painting by the French artist Jacques Louis David.

A world state created by the will of an autocratic sovereign - such was the dream that Emperor Justinian cherished from the very beginning of his reign. By force of arms, he returned the lost old Roman territories, then he gave them a general civil law that ensures the well-being of the inhabitants, and finally - he affirmed a single Christian faith, called to unite all peoples in the worship of the one true Christian God. These are the three unshakable foundations on which Justinian built the power of his empire. Justinian the Great believed that “there is nothing higher and holier than imperial majesty”; “the creators of law themselves said that the will of the monarch has the force of law«; « he alone is capable of spending days and nights in labor and wakefulness, in order to think about the welfare of the people«.

Justinian the Great argued that the grace of the emperor's power, as "God's anointed", standing above the state and above the church, was received by him directly from God. The emperor is "equal to the apostles" (Greek ίσαπόστολος), God helps him to defeat his enemies, to issue just laws. Justinian's wars took on the character of crusades - wherever the Byzantine emperor will be master, the Orthodox faith will shine. His piety turned into religious intolerance and was embodied in cruel persecution for deviating from the faith he recognized. Every legislative act Justinian puts under the auspices of the Holy Trinity.

In the early morning of May 29, 1453, after a four-hour battle, the Ottoman Janissaries managed to break into the besieged Constantinople. The inhabitants of the Byzantine capital saw the red Ottoman standard on the city walls and heard the triumphant cry: "The city is taken!" , which lasted 53 days, ended with the victory of Turkish weapons.

For more than seven weeks, the defenders of the city resisted the Ottoman army, which was many times superior both in numbers and in technical equipment. Constantinople managed to withstand the heaviest shelling in the history of the Middle Ages: more than five thousand shots from cannons, repulsed three full-scale assaults, and destroyed the tunnels and siege towers of Turkish engineers. But on the last day of Byzantium, fate favored the Ottomans. When the commander of the Italian detachment, Giustiniani Longo, was wounded and went to his ship to receive medical attention, his Genoese soldiers fled, sowing confusion and confusion in the ranks of the defenders at the decisive moment of the assault.

The Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, who personally led the defense of the city, tried to prevent panic, but it turned out to be beyond his power. The demoralized defenders fled, dying under the sabers of the Janissaries, in the hope of reaching the safe harbor of the Golden Horn, where the Italian ships were moored. The emperor, together with his closest associates - the last representatives of the Byzantine aristocracy, preferred death to a shameful flight and died defending his capital.

There is no reliable evidence of Constantine's death. Everyone who was next to the emperor shared his fate. “The Emperor of Constantinople was killed. Some say that they cut off his head, others that he died, pressed against the gate, ”- these words of the Florentine Giacomo Tetaldi summarize everything that is known about the last minutes of the life of Constantine Palaiologos. More detailed accounts of this event, although emotional, are of little credibility.

According to the Byzantine historian Laonikos Chalkokondil, the emperor addressed his relative Kantakuzen and his closest associates with the words: “Let's come out, men, against these barbarians,” and rushed into the thick of the battle, “Kantakuzin, a brave man, died; Emperor Constantine himself was driven back ... he received a wound in the shoulder, and then was killed.

Another chronicler Doukas reported the following about Constantine's death: “The king, in despair, standing and holding a sword and shield in his hands, said the following word worthy of sorrow:“ Is there any Christian to take off my head? For he was completely deserted by all. Then one of the Turks, giving him a blow in the face, wounded him; but he also gave the Turk a retaliatory blow; another of the Turks, who was behind the king, dealt him a mortal blow, and he fell to the ground.. (1)

Siege of Constantinople. Panorama 1453. Istanbul.

Cardinal Isidore, who managed to escape from Constantinople to Crete, claimed that the severed head of the emperor was presented as a gift to Sultan Mehmed and that it was carried before the troops as a trophy when they returned to Andrianopolis. Later this story was overgrown with additional apocryphal details. It was alleged that the emperor threw away his regalia and fought like an ordinary soldier so as not to be recognized, that later his body was identified by boots with double-headed eagles, that his head, by order of the Sultan, was hoisted on a column near Hagia Sophia, and then, stuffed with straw, sent to courts of the rulers of the Muslim world. Although evidence of this kind is plentiful, it is now difficult for us to determine where the real facts are here, and where the fantasies of medieval chroniclers and travelers are. Among the urban legends of Ottoman Istanbul are stories about the supposed graves of Constantine. They appear more than a hundred years later, after the fall of Constantinople, and are absolutely fantastic...

The Greek historian Alexander Paspatis, after analyzing the evidence of the death of the last basileus of the Romans, came to the conclusion that the body of the emperor was never found and that the story of his beheading was invented by Isidore. According to Paspatis, Constantine was probably buried in a common grave along with other defenders of the city (2)

It is not surprising that immediately after the tragic events of May 29, 1453, rumors appeared that the last emperor was alive and would return to save his subjects. At the end of the mournful lament "The Fall of the City", composed by Emmaniul Georgiles in the same year, the author refers to Constantine Palaiologos: "Tell me where to find you? Are you alive or dead by your sword? The conquering Sultan Mehmed searched among the severed heads and dead bodies, but did not find you ... Some say that you hid under the right hand of the Almighty God. How I wish you were alive and not dead!

Mehmed II enters the gates of Constantinople. Fausto Zonaro.

Such sentiments were strengthened by ancient prophecies like the "Revelation of Methodius of Patara" or "Visions of the Prophet Daniel." The first of them tells how the Muslims will take over “Romania, Cilicia and Syria, Africa and Sicily, Cappadocia and Isauria, as well as those living near Rome, and the islands, showing off like suitors, and blasphemously say: Christians will not get rid of our hand.”

But at the very last moment, when it seems that the Christian world will perish under the blows of Islam, a certain Roman (i.e. Byzantine) king, whom everyone considered dead, will rise from his sleep and lead the armies of Christians:

“Then the king of Hellenic, that is, Roman, will suddenly rise up against them with great fury. He will wake up like a man who has risen from sleep... People thought about him that he was dead and good for nothing. Then he will come to them (the Ishmaelites) ... from Byzantium in the land of Asia, in the area called Gefira, and beat them. And, turning around, the king will gather people from different tribes and inflict great wounds on Ishmael in the lands of Meander. And again he will start a fight with them in Hartokeran and crush them there; and he will give them four other battles, devastating and destroying them ... Then he will rise up and drive them (Ishmaelites) out of their dwellings, and he will lift up his sword, and he will devastate Ephriv, their fatherland, and take captive their wives and children ... The earth will be pacified, devastated by them, and each one will return to his own land, to the heritage of his fathers: to Armenia, Cilicia, Isauria, Africa, Hellas and Sicily.

After 1453, this prophecy was applied to Constantine Palaiologos. It was said that at the last moment, when the Janissaries were preparing to kill him, the Angel of the Lord kidnapped the king, turned him into a marble statue and hid him in an underground cave under the Golden Gate. The marble emperor sleeps in anticipation of the day and hour when the angel will call him. The Turks, the legend continues, know about this, but they can't find the cave. Therefore, she walled up the Golden Gate, since it is through them that the sleeping emperor must enter the city. The day will come when God will send an angel to the earth, he will revive Constantine and return to him the sword with which he fought on the day of the fall of Byzantium, he will enter the city and will drive the Turks to the Apple tree. Another legend claims that the emperor sleeps in an underground crypt under the Hagia Sophia.

Constantine Palaiologos - sleeping emperor, from the book of prophecies by Stephanius Leucadius, Athens, 1838.

Thus, Greek legends introduce the last emperor of Byzantium into the number of sacred figures of world history - "sleeping kings", including King Arthur, Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa.

According to Julius Evola, various legends about a king who fell into a dream or a lethargic state are special cases. “of the general myth about the invisible universal emperor and ruler, as well as about his manifestations. This theme arises from the most remote antiquity, and it is closely connected with the doctrine of "cyclic manifestations", avatars, that is, with the manifestation at certain moments and in various forms of a single Principle, which in the intermediate periods remains in a latent, unmanifested state. Thus, this ruler has all the hallmarks of the embodiment of the Principle itself; the legend, through various images, necessarily emphasizes that he “does not die”, that he only retires to an inaccessible place, from where he will one day appear again; that he is “sleeping” and must wake up sooner or later. Thus, the super-historical element is superimposed on the historical element, turning the personality of the real ruler, the king, into a symbol. Sometimes the name of such a person is preserved, but already means something transcendent in relation to herself.

The Cretan icon painter George Klontsas depicted these expectations around 1590 in a series of seventeen miniatures. On them the emperor sleeps, guarded by angels, then enters Constantinople and is crowned in Hagia Sophia. The following miniatures depict his six victories over the Turks, a prayer in Cappadocia Caesarea, a trip to the Holy Land, a triumphant return to Constantinople. In the last miniature, he gives his soul and royal regalia to God on Golgotha. According to Methodius of Patara, this must happen before the arrival of the Antichrist into the world:

“When the son of perdition appears, the king of Rome will ascend Golgotha, where the tree of the Cross stands, in the place where our Lord Jesus Christ was nailed and suffered the desired death for us. And the king will take off his crown of Rome and lay it on the Cross, and stretch out his hands to heaven, and hand over his kingdom to God and the Father. And the Cross will ascend to heaven along with the royal crown.(Revelation of Methodius of Patara).

Here we see clear parallels with the story of Sir Galahad and the ascension of the Holy Grail:

And with that he knelt before the throne and began to pray. And suddenly his soul flew away to Jesus Christ, and a great host of angels lifted it up to heaven right in front of his two comrades. And the two knights also saw how a hand was stretched out from heaven, but they did not see the body, and that hand reached the sacred vessel and lifted it and the spear too and carried it to heaven. Since then, there has not been a person on earth who could say that he saw the Holy Grail.(Thomas Mallory. Death of Arthur).

Despite the martyrdom, the Orthodox Church never recognized Constantine Palaiologos as a Saint. From the Orthodox point of view, he was a Uniate heretic, and some contemporaries even denied him the right to be called emperor: due to the fact that the inhabitants of Constantinople did not recognize the Uniate clergy, the official coronation of Constantine in Hagia Sophia never happened.

Although there was no church glorification of the last Byzantine emperor, many Orthodox, especially Russians and Greeks, considered and still consider him a Saint. In the Belozersky Saints (1621), under May 30, there is an entry: “On the same day, the faithful Tsar Constantine suffered from the impious Tsar of Tur, who reign for yourself.” In the Russian calendar of saints of the 18th century from the Filimonov library, under May 29, the memory of "Konstantin - the king who suffered from the Turks". (4)

Constantine Palaiologos receives a martyr's crown. Icon of Photius Kontoglu.

In the icon painted by Photius Kontoglu (1895-1965), one of the most famous Greek Orthodox icon painters of the 20th century, Constantine receives a martyr's crown from an angel. In his hands is a scroll with the words: “I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7). On another icon by the same author, two female figures, personifying the Church and Greece, leaned over the body of the emperor.

Lamentations for Constantine Palaiologos. Photius Kontoglu.

One can have different attitudes towards the issue of recognition or non-recognition of Constantine Palaiologos as a Saint. But one cannot but agree with the words of the English historian Stephen Runciman that for all Eastern Christians it has become a symbol of fidelity to one's duty and that for centuries they “they always felt inspiration and a surge of courage when they talked about the last Christian emperor, abandoned by his Western allies, who stood firmly in the breach of the wall, holding back the onslaught of the infidels until they overcame him in their numbers, and he did not fall - along with the empire that became his shroud."

© Andrey Vasiliev, Chairman of the "Society of St. Theodore Gavras"
©

(1) Michael Duka. Byzantine history // Byzantine time. - 1953. - No. 7. - P.338-410.
(2) Donald M. Nichols. The Immortal Emperor. Cambridge University Press, 1992. - pp. 93-94.
(3) Istrin V. M. The Revelation of Methodius of Patara and the Apocryphal Visions of Daniel in Byzantine and Slavic Russian Literature. M., 1897. Texts. pp. 5-50 (according to the Vatican manuscript of the 18th century). Translation Derevensky B. G.
(4) Sergius, Complete Menology of the East, 1876, vol. 2, p. 141 - reference to Philim. sn. May 30, #54, and p. 142 - Beloz. 516., 1621, - under May 30