Part 6

If you had been a Byzantine, you would have trotted off to your classes accompanied by a pedagogue—in the old days, he was a slave—who carried your books and saw to it that you obeyed your teachers. Until you were ten, you would have studied reading, writing, and spelling. The last was very important because the way words were pronounced was always changing, although the spelling remained the same. After this you would have studied what the Byzantines called grammar. But it was not exactly like our grammar. It was more like literature. For instance, you would have had to learn Homer by heart and been able to explain everything he had written word by word. You were in trouble if you weren’t able to do this. The teacher merely nodded to the pedagogue, who always had a rod in his hand. After grammar, you would have studied rhetoric, and to pass your rhetoric courses you had to be able to discuss eloquently anything from a fable by Aesop to the pictures on the walls of the city council. Finally, and this was especially important if you were going to be a churchman or go into the government, you would have gone on to a university. That was the case only if you were a boy. Although many Byzantine women were as well educated as the men, everything they learned was in the home. None of them went to college or even to grammar school.

Besides giving us great art, keeping alive Greek culture and civilization, and seeing to it that there was at least one place in the world where everyone who wanted to be was educated, the Byzantines protected and preserved the Christian faith.

Long before the word “crusader” was ever heard, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius was fighting the Saracens in Damascus, Homs, Jerusalem, and Antioch just as the crusaders did in the days of Richard the Lion-Hearted 500 years later. Almost every Byzantine emperor who followed him did the same. Among the caliphs whom they fought, but could not defeat, was Harun al-Rashid, the hero of _The Arabian Nights_.

They did defeat many another Moslem leader, however, and so although the Arabs often advanced through the empire, they were never able to pour into the Balkans as they had poured into France and Spain.

But the Byzantines did more than just battle the enemies of Christianity, and they also did more than argue over the fine points of religion.

They tried to practice Christianity as well as preach it. They believed that _philanthropia_—from which our word “philanthropy,” or “love of mankind” is derived—was the first duty of those who were rich or had power. There were no people before the Byzantines, and only a few since, who believed so sincerely that every man was really and truly his brother’s keeper. And by being his brother’s keeper they meant taking care of him in every kind of need.

In the Byzantine Empire there were homes for travelers and pilgrims. There were homes for orphans. There were homes for the sick. There were homes for foundlings. There were old-age homes.

All of these institutions were heavily endowed when they were not actually supported by the government, and the officials in charge of them were important people. Take the orphan homes, for example. There were forty orphan homes in Constantinople alone. Each was headed by an _orphanotrope_. The Grand Orphanotrope who was over all of them, was appointed by the emperor himself. He held one of the highest offices in the empire.

Many of the Byzantine laws were Christian as well. In the old days of the ancient Roman Empire, the father was the absolute master of the family. His wife’s property, including her dowry, became his, and if he did not like her, he could divorce her with little more than a word. At least in the very early days, he had power of life and death over his slaves and almost as much over his children. If a son did not please him, he did not have to leave him a penny in his will.

But the Byzantines did not want laws like that. They wanted laws that the Saviour would approve of. In their opinion, Christ would not have approved of divorce, and so although they could not stop it altogether, they made it much more difficult to get. At one time there were only four recognized reasons for divorce. One of them was that you could get a divorce if your husband (or wife) tried to murder you!

Women were given many other rights by the Byzantines. If a child wanted to marry, he had to get his mother’s permission as well as his father’s. A woman’s property did not belong exclusively to her husband; her property and her husband’s property now belonged to both of them. If the father died, the mother could become her child’s guardian.

The child also got some new advantages. If you got a job in the old Roman days, your earnings went to your father. Under the Byzantines, you could keep them yourself.

Slaves also had to be treated with justice. Under Christianity, even the most wretched slave was a human being with a soul which he could lose or save. He was no longer cattle, and his master could not slay him at will. He could not even treat him inhumanely.

Even the laws about business were based on the idea that the good of everybody was more important than the good of any individual. In fact, the Byzantines had an almost socialistic control of everything and everybody that made money.

Every branch of Byzantine industry was organized into corporations or guilds, and these corporations had the right to fix prices and wages down to the last penny. They had the right to decide who could go into a trade or business. They had the right to decide the exact place where a shop or booth or factory could be set up; for example, no shop selling wax and candles could be less than seventy yards from another candle shop. They also had the right to decide what goods could be imported, and what kind of goods, and in what amounts, could be shipped abroad.

But even at that, the corporations did not have absolute control of everything, for over them was the _eparch_, or lord mayor, and over the _eparch_ was the emperor.

The emperor was supposed to be for all of the people and not for any group of them, and the emperor had the last word.

In spite of all they accomplished and their charitable principles and humane ideas, the Byzantines also had faults, however. There was a black side to their civilization just as there was a bright side, and some of it was very black indeed.

The Byzantines were very cruel. They were Greek, but they were also Oriental, and had in them a ferocious streak that not only was indifferent to suffering but seemed to take a fiendish pleasure in it. Most mobs are savage, but the Byzantine mob was even more savage than usual. Only the mobs of the French Revolution can compare with it.

For instance, when the Byzantines overthrew the emperor Andronicus, they were not satisfied with just tossing him from his throne. A howling crowd of men and women tore out his beard, broke his teeth, beat him, and dragged him through the streets at the tail of a mangy camel while shouting fearful curses at him. He was seventy years old, but although he begged to be put out of his misery, it was many hours before a soldier who was not one of the crowd took pity on him and killed him.

He was by no means the only emperor who died cruelly. As a matter of fact, it was a very rare thing for an emperor to die peacefully in his bed. Usurpers and would-be emperors were often treated just as savagely as Andronicus had been.

Byzantine laws could be cruel, too, although their cruelty was in the name of Christianity and mercy. The Byzantines thought it was against the teachings of Christ to condemn a man to death, and so the death penalty was rare. Instead, a criminal was mutilated; they tore out his tongue or cut off his nose or a hand. Blinding was a common punishment. The Byzantines actually thought it was merciful to blind a man instead of executing him.

The Byzantines were treacherous, and, in fact, “Byzantine treachery” became a well-known saying. Probably they were not as treacherous as their enemies said they were, and their enemies, including the crusaders, were also treacherous. But in everyday life just as when they went to war, the Byzantines were always ready to plot, trick, deceive, and lie. When they did tell the truth, it was usually because honesty happened to be the best policy, and not because they thought that honesty was the only right thing.

The emperors often gained the throne by trickery. Michael the Drunkard made Basil I his co-emperor in the kingdom because Basil had deceived him into thinking that Michael’s uncle, the _Caesar_ Bardas, was a traitor. _Caesar_ Bardas was executed. Then Basil waited until Michael was asleep, and had him murdered.

Michael’s grandfather, Michael the Stutterer, had come to the throne in the same way. As a matter of fact, he was in prison when he succeeded in outwitting a boyhood companion who was then the emperor. He actually still had chains on his wrists and ankles when he was crowned.

The Byzantines were corrupt and prospered on graft. Although most of this graft and corruption centered around the imperial court, business and the church were often corrupt. In all three of these places, you got ahead by giving—and receiving—favors.

The Byzantines were high-strung, excitable, and fiery.

The Byzantines were very fond of luxury whether in dress, food, jewelry, furniture, or even horses and chariots.

They craved entertainment. One emperor even told his signalmen not to light the beacons that carried news of an approaching enemy from hill to hill until it reached Constantinople. He was afraid it would cast gloom upon the horse races.

The Byzantines were much too fond of pleasure.

Even so, when you add the pluses and subtract the minuses for the Byzantines, it turns out that you have something pretty good, particularly for those troubled times.

Besides, not all the Byzantines were unprincipled and evil. The mob at the bottom and the courtiers and noblemen on top had glaring defects, but the middle-class Byzantines, of whom there were more than any other group, were often brave, high-spirited, and loyal; and they were always intelligent. The Byzantine father was steady and hard-working, and the mother sincerely pious and devoted to her children. Their life was sometimes hard, but it was often happy. And there always was a chance for self-respect.

LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE

Geoffrey of Villehardouin and Robert of Clari—the two writer-crusaders—were among the last people to see Constantinople in all its glory, and even they were not able to walk through streets filled with magnificence for very long.

The knights and barons of the Fourth Crusade had promised to put the young Alexius on the throne. This they did, and for good measure they put his old blinded father back on the throne beside him too. They let the rulers wear the imperial purple shoes and the glittering brocaded robes, pretending to have restored the imperial power. Alexius and his father could indeed wield the scepter and wear the crown and be absolute monarchs, provided they did everything the crusaders told them to.

In return, the young Alexius had promised to pay the crusaders 200,000 marks of silver, to lead an army to the Holy Land with them, and to maintain and equip 500 of their knights in armor for as long as he lived.

This, however, was another matter, and when the two emperors made even a half-hearted attempt to live up to their promises, the Byzantines revolted. Another Alexius—Alexius Bushy Eyebrows—was made emperor and he made it known that the Venetians and the crusaders could whistle for their money. Not a single copper coin, let alone 200,000 silver ones, would they ever get from him!

This gave the crusaders the chance they had long been waiting for and probably planning for, and they didn’t waste any time in taking it. Proclaiming Bushy Eyebrows, as they called him, a traitor and a caitiff villain, they attacked the city with ships, ladders, and men-at-arms. On April 13, 1204, after five days of desperate fighting, they burst into it. There for three days and nights, the Christian soldiers—wearing the cross upon their shoulders—burned, robbed, and murdered the Christian Byzantines.

“Even the followers of Mahound, the false prophet, were more merciful when they took Jerusalem!” cried a Byzantine.

He was right. Little like it has ever happened anywhere else, except during the invasions of Attila the Hun. Constantinople has never been the same since.

The robbery was even more wholesale than the slaying. Churches, private homes, and palaces were stripped to their bare stone walls, and then all that was not hidden by private looters was piled where it could be seen and divided.

“The booty was so great that no one could tell you of it,” said Villehardouin.

It included gold and silver; vessels and precious stones; silk and samite; robes of vair and robes of ermine; rare and irreplaceable books; icons; beautiful carved chests; and, of course, all the coinage in the treasury. In fact, everything that was not too heavy to move.

The Venetians were immediately paid the 50,000 marks reckoned to be their share. Even after that, not counting what had been stolen and hidden, there may have been 400,000 silver marks’ worth of rare prizes. To say nothing—and there was no knight who didn’t want one—of 10,000 fiery steeds!

There was no one who was too lofty or too pious to take his share of this booty. The abbots and the warrior-bishops laid their hands on every holy relic they could find. Most of these went to France, where they disappeared during the French Revolution. The doge took the four famous bronze horses of the Hippodrome, and even today the Venetians point to them on the façade of the church of Saint Mark just as proudly as if they had not helped themselves to them. There was hardly a knight who did not wear rich fur-trimmed robes. There was hardly a common foot soldier or even a jackallike camp follower who did not have a fat purse, and a heavy chain of gold to boot. The proud Byzantines returned to ruined churches and to charred and plundered houses. Fabled Byzantium had become an empty shell.

The Byzantine Empire became an empty shell too. The crusaders captured the new emperor and made him jump from the top of one of the tall marble columns. Then, after a lot of bickering, they elected one of their own number to succeed him. There was an empire, but it was now a Latin empire and no one but the crusaders recognized it. Even they did not leave it all its territory. Venice took over a third of Constantinople and most of the Byzantine islands in the Aegean and Ionian seas. Every knight or baron who wanted it was given a fief or a principality in southern Greece. Besides that, three Byzantine “governments in exile,” each claiming to be the real one, sprang into being. One was at Trebizond near the eastern end of the Black Sea. One was in Epirus, which is more or less the same as modern Albania. The third and most important was at Nicaea, which was just across the straights in Asia Minor.

So for fifty-seven years, there was not one Byzantine Empire, but four of them, plus half a dozen other small states that all squabbled with each other. Then, in 1261, Michael Paleologus, a great-grandson of one of the old emperors recaptured Constantinople and put on the imperial crown.

But although there was only one Byzantine Empire again, it was little more than a shadow. Nor could any of the nine Byzantine emperors who followed Michael restore the old-time glory. The crusaders had done too good a job. Constantinople was now too poor and shabby. Its trade was gone. Its famous bazaars were filthy, and their booths were empty of wares. Most of the population had moved away. Even the emperors themselves lived hand to mouth. Although they tried to keep up the ancient ceremony, they couldn’t do it. At the wedding of a daughter of one of the emperors, the guests had to eat off earthenware plates.

Besides that, and probably because of it, anarchy reigned during the 200 years that the empire somehow lingered drearily on. Mercenary bands moved about the countryside robbing and stealing, instead of fighting for the emperor. They even moved on Constantinople when they weren’t paid, or thought they were not paid enough.

The Byzantines also had to fight off outside enemies. The Bulgarians renewed their old-time warfare and nibbled away at the shrinking empire. A great Serbian king proclaimed himself Roman emperor as well as Serbian monarch. He almost succeeded. The Byzantines had to fight the Genoese, and sometimes the Venetians, and even the Frank barons, descendants of the crusaders.

Finally the Ottoman Turks appeared upon the scene, and that was the last blow. These wonderful fighters conquered all of Anatolia and then step by step they worked their way into Europe. It was not long before the Byzantine Empire was only Constantinople itself with a few square miles of the surrounding countryside. The Byzantines soon couldn’t even raise an army without Turkish permission, and usually that permission wasn’t granted.

In 1453, which is one of the famous dates in history, even that much freedom seemed too much to the Turks, and their young ambitious sultan, Mohammed II, decided to take the city. Slowly and carefully he laid plans to do so.

First he built one tower here and another there, ringing the city and cutting off escape from it. Then he brought up a mighty navy of 493 ships, and a great army of 200,000 men. It was the first army in history to be equipped with siege guns, and one of these was so big it took 100 oxen to drag it. Mohammed, too, was so determined to take Constantinople that when his ships could not break through the iron chain the Byzantines had laid across the Golden Horn, he had a whole fleet of them dragged overland, with the crew still sitting at the oars—and all this in a single night.

What could the Byzantines do against all this power? They had only 8,000 soldiers, and many of these were monks and untrained citizens. To be sure, they were led by two heroes, one an Italian mercenary, the other the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI. Both of them heroically lost their lives in the battle to defend Constantinople.

But heroism was not enough, and the city’s walls, mighty as they were, could be smashed by cannon balls. After a month of siege the howling Janizaries entered it. Once again, Constantinople was sacked and looted, and although the Turks were not nearly so ruthless as the crusaders had been, this time it did not rise again.

The empire did not rise again either. On May 29, 1453, Constantinople, which had once been Byzantium, became Istanbul. It has been Istanbul ever Since.

On that day, the Byzantine Empire ended too.

For more than a thousand years, it had carried the torch of Western civilization, a torch that had been given to it by the Greeks and Romans. Now, new nations took up the burden. Spain, France, and England had become united and powerful. Italy was filled with all the wonderful art and thought and writing and wealth that came with the Italian Renaissance. Germany was stirring with new ideas. Even in distant Poland, Copernicus would soon be looking through his telescope and teaching us that the sun did not revolve around the earth, but rather that the planets revolve around the sun. In only forty years Columbus would discover America.

So their job became our job, and it still is. They were not perfect, but let us hope that we do it as well as they did. Let us hope that our civilization lasts as long.

CHRONOLOGICAL CHART

OF

THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE

AND

WORLD EVENTS

CHRONOLOGICAL CHART OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE AND WORLD EVENTS