The contributions of the Byzantine empire

There are a alot of contributions that the Byzantine empire brought. Although it is not as great as the great Roman empire, it prove to be a worthy successor. First contribution, Emperor Justinian determined to re-establish the roman empire in the entire Mediterranean world. Under Belisarius, Justinian's army fought hard and long battles against the Ostrogoths. 2nd contribution, Justinian's most important contribution, the codification of roman law. " The body of Civil law" or "Corpus Juris Civilis" The backbone of the law consisted of Code, the digest and the institute. 3rd was the secret invention, greek fire, w/c helped during the battle w/ the Arabs. it sets enemy ships ablaze. Byzantine culture also brought a lot of contributions like in religion, The patriarch being the highest prelate of the Eastern church. in Art and architecture, Church of Santa Sophia w/ a dome to a building of square shape and the mosaics, design of pictures produced by fitting together small pieces of small glass or stone. In commerce, Jewish Muslims and Italian merchants enjoyed domination in overseas trading.

Triumph of Christianity

Isn't it amazing how Christianity changed the whole roman empire?

As you can see, Paganism has a lot of influence in the Roman world. It has influenced most of its culture. The new religion of Christianity gained a lot of followers w/ the problems w/in the Roman Empire. Christianity became the only hope of the Roman people.

The catholic crusades

Because of the invasion of the Muslims, the christians( or catholics) were threathened. The pope called for a crusade w/c means holy war and they waged war for the recovery of the holy land. They created a fighting force to fight the Muslim Arabs or Turks. The pope himself was the one to call for the first crusade and it showed how crusades showed the importance of papal leadership. As Sir Noel had said, " the end doesn't justify the means" it means that the results or the motives of the crusades are right( to recover the Holy land) but the means are not( waging war w/ the turks). What's wrong also is they did not consult the eastern orthodox church about making a decision w/ this that's why there is a lot of divisions among the churches.