Essays on Justinian

http://www.euratlas.com/Atlas/northern_italy/ravenna_san_vitale.html San Vitale is an Early Byzantine centrally planned, octagonal church, used initially as a martyrium for the local martyr Vitalis. It is the most elaborate interlinking of the strands of politics, church, and art in Ravenna in Italy. Ravenna was the seat of Byzantine Italy until the 8th century. The basilica of San Vitale was built as part of the Justinian project to reform the Empire. Justinian’s major aim was the restoration of the former Empire. He inaugurated new programs in the fields of administration, army, justice, and architecture. His ambition was to fill the Empire with ...

Compare And Contrast Essay

Byzantine era placed a great importance on Christianity, and it is no wonder to see a lot of artwork produced related to the life that Christ. These painting were hung within the walls of the churches, and the viewers were given the chance to connect with the ideals they revered (Byzantine, 2011). The purpose of the essay is to compare the Lamentation over the Dead Christ and the Sinai Christ. Lamentation over the Dead Christ, wall painting, St. Pantaleimon, Macedonia, 1164. When Roman Empire was moved from Rome to Constantinople in 324, the Byzantine Empire came into existence as the " ...

13th December, 2014

This book was written by Procopius, an official raconteur who belonged to the Byzantine Empire. He was a trusted member of the kings. Procopius had written this text in Greek language, but this was later translated into English by G. A. Williamson for the first time. Further, Peter Sarris translated the book for the second time. The English translation of this book was published in the year 2007 y Penguin Classics. This work of Procopius is a lengthy and elongated account of indictments against Justinian and Theodora, Justinian’s wife as well as against another couple Belisarius and Antonina. It is ...

This work briefly concerns the historical legacy of one of the most famous women in the history of the mankind – empress Theodora. In this work key traits of her co-reign with Justinian I are mentioned as well as Theodora’s contribute to Byzantine successes of that glorious time. Reign of I Justinian was one of the most successful periods of Byzantine history and this period is absolutely impossible to imagine without his wife - Empress Theodora. In spite of her base blood and dissolute past Theodora became Empress because of her beauty, intelligence and will. Unlike most ...

Ancient Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, was located on the north-west of the present Turkey. It was captured by Turks of the Ottoman Empire that transformed it into Istanbul. Modern Istanbul renowned for two beautiful mosques towered up the sea. Hagia Sophia is more ancient of them. "Hagia" means "saint" translated from Greek. It was not built as a mosque. The most beautiful church of the Byzantine Empire was built to revive the glory of Rome. Originally on the place where later built Hagia Sophia was a small temple. It burned down in 404, restored in 416 and ...

Introduction

Throughout Christian history, Christianity considered homosexuality as a sin, and its cause (as in general any reason sin) was due to damage to human nature and its propensity to sin after the Fall. This view of homosexual relationships contained in the official position of the Catholic Church, the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church, the ancient Eastern Churches and several Protestant churches (including the Church of Seventh-day Adventists, most Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal churches). Currently, a number of liberal Protestant churches do not believe monogamous same-sex relationships sinful or immoral. In some of these churches, as well as in ...

Byzantine iconoclasm has numerously impenetrable membranes of conflicting attitudes and assumptions. Iconoclasm destructs a culture’s religion icon and monuments. The protesters of iconoclasm challenge the institutions since they have errors. Different religions can carry out iconoclasm that occurs due to disputes between factions in the religion. Christians work with the motivation of the Ten Commandments that forbid the worship of idols and images provided in iconoclasm. The intense use of Christian iconography originated from the gentiles after the religion of Christianity gained legitimacy from Constantine a Roman Empire in 312 AD (Morgan 45). A strong opposition rose with the misuse of ...

Introduction

Problem Statement Life in the cities in certain periods is depicted by their arts, music, and literature. The Cities of Constantinople and Nashville are different from each other in terms of geographical location and inhabitants. Despite these differences, the two cities have things in common too. Both cities represent key events in their respective time periods; religion for Constantinople while music for Nashville. Identifying the ways by which the cities’ conditions (political, social, spiritual), as reflected in the arts, music, and literature, would enable the readers to gain a better understanding about these cities and its people. Thus, this ...

The Talmud is the sacred main book of the Orthodox Jews, which interprets the Torah writings. It was created around the fifth century of the new era. However, the Jews consider that the book initially appeared in the oral form together with the written Torah revealed to Moses. Today the Talmud is called ‘the Oral Torah’ and together with five books of Tanah comprises the ‘Written Torah’. There are two different kinds of Talmuds: Jerusalem and Babylonian. Today the latter one is considered to be more important and associated with the Talmud itself (Internet National History Sourcebook). The ...

At the time of the reign of the Emperor Justinian, the once mighty Byzantine Empire was experiencing a period of decline and weakness. It was Justinian who as Emperor worked successfully to reenergize and rebuild the empire. Justinian’s efforts and plans laid out a new version of the Empire that allowed it to continue in existence and relevance for many centuries to come. This effort required military, political, legal and social changes. This paper will look at how he accomplished this. Born in 483 AD in a town called Tauresium (in what would later be known as the Balkans) Justinian ( ...

Mesopotamia is believed to be a land that’s between two rivers. Ancient Mesopotamia was occupied by different people with different cultures, wealth, gender, and religion. This therefore, brought about conflicts and warfare because of inequality. It is a fact that ancient Mesopotamia was growing and due to trade others became wealthy while others remained poor. The laws were made by the elite who made it possible for it to benefit them. In the laws when a poor person commits the same crime as the rich person they will be given a harsher punishment compared to the rich person. The education system was ...

Facts and History

The Hagia Sophia is a structure in Istanbul, Turkey. The current rendition of the structure was built between 532 and 537 AD, although the site existed as a cathedral for some time before the current structure was erected. Historical records indicate that the structure was commissioned by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, who wanted the site to be home to an Orthodox patriarchal basilica. When the previous cathedral was destroyed by rioters, Justinian employed a physicist and a mathematician-- Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, respectively-- to design the Hagia Sophia. Initially designed as an Orthodox patriarchal basilica, the basilica was initially ...

The Pax Romana is distinguished in history as a roughly 200-year period of progress and growth separating the civil strife of the 1st century B.C. and the onset of marked decline that began with the third century A.D. Roman military power had pacified subject populations from the Euphrates River in the east to the uplands of northern Britain in the far west, while Roman law established a cohesive civilizing influence throughout the empire. The absence of strife in all parts of the empire made it possible to travel safely virtually anywhere in the known world and a highly competent and relatively benign ...

Justinian I was a Byzantine emperor between 527-565. He was focused on regaining the former Roman provinces that had been lost the barbarian invaders. In 1534, Justinian conquered the Vandals in Carthage Africa and enjoyed victory for some time over the Ostrogoths in Italy in 540. By 562, Justanian had garnered control over the entire Italy preventing the attempted invasion of Bulgars, Huns and Avars. Justinian is credited with reorganizing the imperial government and commissioning the reform and implementation of what was called the Code of Justinian. However, Justinian’s attempts to root out corruption led to a revolt in Constantinople ...

The Byzantine Empire was uniquely cosmopolitan and offered unique rights for women, especially those of the upper class. Many of the rights that women enjoyed in Byzantium were not only absent from other cultures such as the Romans, but also would not be attained again by women until much more modern times. Reading through various pieces of scholarship about women in Byzantium proves, as one scholar writes, “the story of women in Byzantium is not an uncontested one.”1 However contested, the information portrays a fascinating picture of a society that, for women, was in some ways ahead of its time. ...

The difference between Civil Law and Common Law is that Civil Law is governed by statute, and Common Law evolved over the course of millennia from judicial tradition, earlier legal codes, tribal laws and mores and written and oral traditions. Common law is derived from customs and civil law by statutes. Under Civil Law, the main source of the law is legislation and under Common Law, prior judicial decisions are the determinant. In the United Kingdom, Common Law is the general standard and predominant form of justice and court proceedings. There is a body of Civil law as well it ...

The Byzantine and Islamic Empires are closely linked together, sharing similar influences in terms of technological advancements, their political systems, and their culture.

The Byzantine and Islamic Empires

Byzantium’s capital, Constantinople, was the empire’s core. It is where the trading takes place and it played a vital role during the Golden Ages of the empire during the 9th , 10th, and 11th centuries before the capital fell from the hands of Mohammed II, the Ottoman Turkish Sultan. During its Golden Ages under the rule of Justinian, Baths, churches and water supplies were built and city planning and social services were also established. Until now, ...

The Black Death is the name used in reference to the plague which swept across much of Asia, Europe and the Middle East during the 1300s (Morillo et al, 2005, p385). In short, it was a devastating blow to mankind and the estimated number of deaths caused by the Black Death runs into the millions with educated estimates saying that it killed between 30-60% of Europe’s population alone (Alchon, 2003, p21) which meant the world’s population was reduced from around 450 million people to around 350 to 375 million. The Black Death was the second instance of plague – ...

The so called sacred architecture refers to the designing and the construction of worship places. This may include places like stupas, churches, synagogues, mosques, temples among others. It is also called religious architecture. Many cultures have different resources in sacred architecture. This is evident from their paces of their sacred places, their worship places and their places of religion. Early architectural design includes the ancient Egyptian design, the Sumerian architecture and Neolithic architecture. These saw the construction of early tombs and tomenos. Early architectural designs also include Roman architecture, Classical architecture and Ancient Greece architecture. The Byzantine ...