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Medieval Period (4th - 15th Century) : Byzantine Greece Frankokratia Byzantine Empire Fourth Crusade

The document summarizes the history of medieval Greece from the 4th to 15th century, during which Greece was part of the Byzantine Empire until the rise of Slavic invasions and later the Ottoman Empire. It describes how Greece suffered raids and devastation in the 4th-5th centuries that weakened imperial control. Byzantine authority was mainly restricted to fortified coastal cities, though prosperity continued. The Byzantine Empire re-established control over most of Greece by the 9th century and it benefited from strong economic growth in the 11th-12th centuries. However, mainland Greece was lost to invaders and the Ottomans in the 14th century, with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 marking the

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56 views2 pages

Medieval Period (4th - 15th Century) : Byzantine Greece Frankokratia Byzantine Empire Fourth Crusade

The document summarizes the history of medieval Greece from the 4th to 15th century, during which Greece was part of the Byzantine Empire until the rise of Slavic invasions and later the Ottoman Empire. It describes how Greece suffered raids and devastation in the 4th-5th centuries that weakened imperial control. Byzantine authority was mainly restricted to fortified coastal cities, though prosperity continued. The Byzantine Empire re-established control over most of Greece by the 9th century and it benefited from strong economic growth in the 11th-12th centuries. However, mainland Greece was lost to invaders and the Ottomans in the 14th century, with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 marking the

Uploaded by

Alicia Nhs
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Medieval period (4th – 15th century)

Main articles: Byzantine Greece and Frankokratia

See also: Byzantine Empire and Fourth Crusade

Dome of Hagia Sophia, Thessaloniki (8th century), one of the 15 UNESCO's Paleochristian and Byzantine
monuments of the city

The Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, originally built in the late 7th century as a Byzantine
citadel and beginning from 1309 used by the Knights Hospitaller as an administrative centre

The Roman Empire in the east, following the fall of the Empire in the west in the 5th century, is
conventionally known as the Byzantine Empire (but was simply called "Kingdom of the Romans" in
its own time) and lasted until 1453. With its capital in Constantinople, its language and culture were
Greek and its religion was predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christian.[68]
From the 4th century, the Empire's Balkan territories, including Greece, suffered from the dislocation
of barbarian invasions.[citation needed] The raids and devastation of the Goths and Huns in the 4th and 5th
centuries and the Slavic invasion of Greece in the 7th century resulted in a dramatic collapse in
imperial authority in the Greek peninsula.[69] Following the Slavic invasion, the imperial government
retained formal control of only the islands and coastal areas, particularly the densely populated
walled cities such as Athens, Corinth and Thessalonica, while some mountainous areas in the
interior held out on their own and continued to recognise imperial authority. [69] Outside of these areas,
a limited amount of Slavic settlement is generally thought to have occurred, although on a much
smaller scale than previously thought.[70][71] However, the view that Greece in late antiquity underwent
a crisis of decline, fragmentation and depopulation is now considered outdated, as Greek cities show
a high degree of institutional continuity and prosperity between the 4th and 6th centuries AD (and
possibly later as well). In the early 6th century, Greece had approximately 80 cities according to
the Synecdemus chronicle, and the period from the 4th to the 7th century AD is considered one of
high prosperity not just in Greece but in the entire Eastern Mediterranean. [72]
The Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire after the death of Basil II in 1025

Until the 8th century almost all of modern Greece was under the jurisdiction of the Holy
See of Rome according to the system of Pentarchy. Byzantine Emperor Leo III moved the border of
the Patriarchate of Constantinople westward and northward in the 8th century.[73]
The Byzantine recovery of lost provinces began toward the end of the 8th century and most of the
Greek peninsula came under imperial control again, in stages, during the 9th century. [74][75] This
process was facilitated by a large influx of Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor to the Greek peninsula,
while at the same time many Slavs were captured and re-settled in Asia Minor and the few that
remained were assimilated.[70] During the 11th and 12th centuries the return of stability resulted in the
Greek peninsula benefiting from strong economic growth – much stronger than that of the Anatolian
territories of the Empire.[74] During that time, the Greek Orthodox Church was also instrumental in the
spread of Greek ideas to the wider Orthodox world.[76][full citation needed]
Following the Fourth Crusade and the fall of Constantinople to the "Latins" in 1204, mainland Greece
was split between the Greek Despotate of Epirus (a Byzantine successor state)
and French rule[77] (known as the Frankokratia), while some islands came under Venetian rule.[78] The
re-establishment of the Byzantine imperial capital in Constantinople in 1261 was accompanied by
the empire's recovery of much of the Greek peninsula, although the Frankish Principality of
Achaea in the Peloponnese and the rival Greek Despotate of Epirus in the north both remained
important regional powers into the 14th century, while the islands remained largely under Genoese
and Venetian control.[77] During the Paleologi dynasty (1261–1453) a new era of Greek patriotism
emerged accompanied by a turning back to ancient Greece. [79][80][81]
As such prominent personalities at the time also proposed changing the imperial title to "Emperor of
the Hellenes",[79][81] and, in late fourteenth century, the emperor was frequently referred to as the
"Emperor of the Hellenes".[82] Similarly, in several international treaties of that time the Byzantine
emperor is styled as "Imperator Graecorum". [83]
In the 14th century, much of the Greek peninsula was lost by the Byzantine Empire at first to
the Serbs and then to the Ottomans.[84] By the beginning of the 15th century, the Ottoman advance
meant that Byzantine territory in Greece was limited mainly to its then-largest city, Thessaloniki, and
the Peloponnese (Despotate of the Morea).[84] After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in
1453, the Morea was one of the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the
Ottomans. However, this, too, fell to the Ottomans in 1460, completing the Ottoman conquest of
mainland Greece.[85] With the Turkish conquest, many Byzantine Greek scholars, who up until then
were largely responsible for preserving Classical Greek knowledge, fled to the West, taking with
them a large body of literature and thereby significantly contributing to the Renaissance.[86]

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