Byzantium and Its Neighbors
Byzantium's survival depended on managing a ring of neighbors — Persians and Arabs, Bulgars and Slavs, Rus and Turks, and the Latin West — through war, diplomacy, religion, and cultural influence.
Definition
This topic concerns the diplomatic, military, religious, and cultural relations between the Byzantine Empire and the peoples and states around it, including the spread of Byzantine religion and civilization to eastern Europe.
Scope
Covers Byzantium's external relations and influence: its long contests with Sasanian Persia and the Islamic caliphates; relations with the Bulgars, Serbs, and Rus; the conversion and cultural orbit of the Slavs (the 'Byzantine commonwealth'); contacts and conflicts with the Latin West and the Crusades; and the rise of the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks.
Core questions
- How did Byzantium use diplomacy as well as war to manage its neighbors?
- How did Byzantine religion and culture spread to the Slavs and Rus?
- How did relations with the Islamic world evolve over the centuries?
- How did the Crusades and the Turks reshape Byzantium's position?
Key theories
- Byzantine Commonwealth
- Dimitri Obolensky's concept that Byzantium created a cultural and religious 'commonwealth' across eastern and southeastern Europe, binding Orthodox Slavic and other peoples to Constantinople through faith, law, art, and political ideas rather than direct rule.
History
Byzantium fought and negotiated with Sasanian Persia, then the Arab caliphates, while drawing the Bulgars, Serbs, and Rus into its religious and cultural orbit through Orthodox mission. The eleventh century brought the Seljuk Turks and a fraught alliance and rivalry with the crusading West, leading to the catastrophe of 1204 and, ultimately, Ottoman conquest in 1453.
Debates
- Coherence of the 'commonwealth'
- Scholars debate how unified and how Byzantine-centered the Orthodox 'commonwealth' really was, and how to characterize Byzantine identity and influence among its neighbors.
Key figures
- Dimitri Obolensky
- Jonathan Shepard
- Anthony Kaldellis
- Michael Angold
Related topics
Seminal works
- obolensky1971
- shepard2008
- angold1997
Frequently asked questions
- What was the 'Byzantine Commonwealth'?
- A term for the network of Orthodox Christian, especially Slavic, peoples and states that shared Byzantine religion, culture, and political ideas while remaining politically independent of Constantinople.
- How did Byzantium influence the Slavs?
- Through Orthodox missions (notably Cyril and Methodius), the Slavonic liturgy and alphabet, law, art, and political models, especially in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Kievan Rus.