The Seventh Century Transformation

The Seventh Century Transformation

1. Events between 608-628

   • Persian Attacks. Greek fire
     • Egypt, Syria and Palestine attacked = famine

2. Religion

   • Heraclius restored the True Cross, Christianity's most resonant relic
   • Time for religious renewal: Persecution and massacre of the jews
     • Heraclius' attempts to reunify the rival Chalcedonian and Monophysite churches when he proclaimed Monothelitism as the only form of Christianity throughout the Empire

3. Economy

   • Empire devastated, its economy in crisis owing to the destruction and political division, and its armies in need of years to recover
     • = impossible for Heraclius to resist from a new quarter, Arabia. The seriousness of these conquests cannot be overemphasised
   • The empire lost two thirds of its land and three quarters of its wealth in the 610s
     • The loss of agrarian and productive wealth of Egypt was particularly serious
   • Constantinople lost its right to free grain

4. Apocalyptic Writing

   • The atmosphere of the crisis is reflected in near every 7th century text
     • Period of apocalyptic writing common both Christian and Jewish

5. Army reform

   • Local armies = military districts - 'themes'
     • Tax therefore spent locally. Fiscal integration of the empire largely ceased except Constantinople longer-distance trade links
       • Capital continued to control tax raising and for a time, provincial administrations
         • Taxation and army pay ceased for the most part to be in money = produce became the major element of the fiscal system
           • fewer coins needed to be mined = coin finds virtually cease for this period expect Constantinople
   • Fiscal and military decentralisation

6. Society

   • Became largely militarised
     • Cities also became much weaker in this period. urban society vanished altogether in some parts of the empire
       • thus making traditional Roman politics, focused on the city, impossible
         • we know the name of hundreds of military or civil administrations for this period - archaeological sites
           • Ancestry rarely stressed in the sources
             • To survive, Byzantine society and politics folded itself around the state

7. Constantinople

   • More important than ever

8. Centralisation

   • in all other respects the Byzantine empire was more centralised
     • By 700, nearly everyone was a Greek speaker
       • No more regional divisions between Christians
         • Religious disagreements fought out above all in the capital