Commerce and industry Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The products of Byzantine industry, including silks, embroideries, mosaics, enamels, and metal work, were exchanged at that city for the spices, drugs, and precious stones of the East. Byzantine wares also found their way into Italy and France and, by way of the Russian rivers, reached the heart of eastern Europe. Russia, in turn, furnished Constantinople with large quantities of honey, wax, fur, wool, grain, and slaves. A traveler of the twelfth century well described the city as a metropolis "common to all the world, without distinction of country or religion." Character of art Many of the Roman emperors from Justinian onward were great builders. Byzantine architecture, seen especially in the churches, became a leading form of art. Its most striking feature is the dome, which replaces the flat, wooden roof used in the basilican churches of Italy. The exterior of a Byzantine church is plain and unimposing, but the interior is adorned on a magnificent scale. The eyes of the worshiper are dazzled by the walls faced with marble slabs of variegated colors, by the columns of polished marble, jasper, and porphyry, and by the brilliant mosaic pictures of gilded glass. The entire impression is one of richness and splendor. Byzantine artists, though mediocre painters and sculptors, excelled in all kinds of decorative work. Their carvings in wood, ivory, and metal, together with their embroideries, enamels, and miniatures, enjoyed a high reputation throughout medieval Europe. Influence of art Byzantine art, from the sixth century to the present time, has exerted a wide influence. Sicily, southern Italy, Rome, Ravenna, and Venice contain many examples of Byzantine churches. Italian painting in the Middle Ages seems to have been derived directly from the mosaic pictures of the artists of Constantinople. Russia received not only its religion but also its art from Constantinople. The great Russian churches of Moscow and Petrograd follow Byzantine models. Even the Arabs, in spite of their hostility 1 See page 284. to Christianity, borrowed Byzantine artists and profited by their services. The Mohammedan mosques of Damascus, Cairo, and Cordova, both in methods of construction and in details of ornamentation, reproduce Byzantine styles. The libraries and museums of Constantinople preserved classical learning. In the flourishing schools of that city the wisest men of the day taught philosophy, law, Literature medicine, and science to thousands of students. and learning The professors figured among the important persons of the court: official documents mention the "prince of the rhetoricians" and the "consul of the philosophers." Many of the emperors showed a taste for scholarship; one of them was said to have been so devoted to study that he almost forgot to reign. When kings in western Europe were so ignorant that they could with difficulty scrawl their names, eastern emperors wrote books and composed poetry. It is true that Byzantine scholars were erudite rather than original. Impressed by the great treasures of knowledge about them, they found it difficult to strike out into new, unbeaten paths. Most students were content to make huge collections of extracts and notes from the books which antiquity had bequeathed to them. Even this task was useful, however, for their encyclopedias preserved much information which otherwise would have been lost. During the Middle Ages the East cherished the productions of classical learning, until the time came when the West was ready to receive them and to profit by them. 119. Constantinople The heart of Byzantine civilization was Constantinople. The city lies on a peninsula between the Sea of Marmora and the spacious harbor called the Golden Horn. Position of Washed on three sides by the water and, like Constantinople Rome, enthroned upon seven hills, Constantinople occupies a site justly celebrated as the noblest in the world. It stands in Europe, looks on Asia, and commands the entrance to both the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. As a sixteenth century writer pointed out, Constantinople "is a city which Nature herself has designed to be the mistress of the world." Constantinople as a natural citadel VICINITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE The position of Constantinople made it difficult to attack but easy to defend. To surround the city an enemy would have to be strong upon both land and sea. A hostile army, advancing through Asia Minor, found its further advance arrested by the long, winding channel which the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles combine to form. A hostile fleet, coming by way of the Mediterranean or the Black Sea, faced grave difficulties in attempting to penetrate the narrow strait into which this waterway contracts at each extremity. On the landward side the line of defense was so short- about four miles in width-that it could be strongly fortified and held by a small force against large numbers. During the Middle Ages the rear of the city was protected by two huge walls, the remains of which are still visible. Constantinople, in fact, was all but impregnable. Though each new century brought a fresh horde of enemies, it resisted siege after siege and long SANCTA SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE Built by Justinian and dedicated on Christmas Day, 538 A.D. The main building is roofed over by a great central dome, 107 feet in diameter and 179 feet in height. After the Ottoman Turks turned the church into a mosque, a minaret was erected at each of the four exterior angles. The outside of Sancta Sophia is somewhat disappointing, but the interior. with its walls and columns of polished marble, granite, and porphyry, is magnificent. The mosaic figures on the walls have been covered up, but not destroyed. by the Turks. |