Romes Three Heirs - Assignment Example

Rome’s Three Heirs The European civilization: After the decline of the Roman civilization, the new western Masters who succeeded the Romans in west Europe were the barbarian chieftains, including the Ostrogoths, the Franks and the Visigoths, who took over the western territories of the former Roman Empire. The Ostrogoths took over Italy, the Franks northern Gaul, the Borgundians Provence, the Visigoths southern Gaul and Spain, the Vandals Africa and the western Mediterranean and the Anglo-Saxons England. This civilization continued the Christian traditions of Roman culture. The barbarians were admirers of Roman culture and allowed the Roman language Latin to co-exist with the tribal languages, retaining the Roman system of Government and accommodating themselves to Roman culture. Rome was also the cultural context within Christianity was born and the invading tribes took to the new religion, especially through the influence of the Franks who helped to convert most of the barbarians to Roman Christianity. The European civilizations therefore brought about a relatively peaceful transition from Roman to Germanic rule, although there was an initial economic collapse due to the marauding barbarians. However, the final result was that the Roman language, the Catholic religion and Roman law and Government triumphed in the west European regions in the post-Roman era. The Byzantine civilization: Constantinople in the eastern part of the Roman Empire became the imperial capital of the Byzantine Empire. As opposed to the barbarians of the west, this empire was comprised of Hellenistic, Greek, Roman and Judaic elements. The origin of the empire was the rebuilding of Byzantium as Constantinople in 324, which was followed by the expansion of the empire into Asia Minor and the spread of the Islamic religion, up to 1204 when the Byzantine empire fell to the Ottoman Turks. The first phase of the Byzantine empire under emperor Justinian was the most remarkable in terms of political and cultural achievement. From a cultural perspective, Constantinople represented the crossroads of the Asian and European civilizations. From a legal perspective, Justinian ordered a collation and revision of Roman law. As a result, the law was codified to eliminate excessive legal decrees and introduce clear, enforceable laws. The corpus juris civilis or the body of civil law was produced, which contained the precepts of the law and also contained Justinian’s code of bringing subjects under the authority of a single sovereign, which latter also became the foundation of European law. The Government was centralized under the policy of “one God, one empire, one religion”, so that legal and doctrinal conformity was imposed throughout. During Justinian’s reign, the Byzantine Empire also witnessed significant development in art with the construction of churches, monasteries and palaces, of which one of the most notable is the church of Hagia Sophia. Byzantine Christianity was based upon the Eastern orthodox system, but during the later stages of the civilization, the Islamic influence became more pervasive. In the case of the European civilizations however, there was an increasing trend for the Barbarians to convert to Christianity, but unlike the Eastern Orthodox system, the western cultures were Catholic. While the Byzantine empire was characterized by imperial bureaucracy which regulated and controlled all aspects, the Western cultures were politically and culturally different and there was a greater split in powers among them. The Islamic civilization: The Islamic civilization differed from both the European and Byzantine civilizations, mainly in terms of the Islamic religion of Mohammed which they followed. While they initially recognized Persian and Greek culture into their own, they were insistent on the acceptance of minorities of majority Islamic rule and required them to refrain from trying to convert Muslims. Mecca and Medina became centers of pilgrimage and assumed more importance than Constantinople, which was the centre of the Byzantine civilizations and significantly impacted on the western civilizations. There were also several cultural differences between the Islamic civilization and the other two civilizations. Muslims were expected to abstain from pork and alcohol, to wash and pray while facing Mecca five times a day, to fast during the Ramazan month and to visit Mecca at least once in a lifetime. Islam also permitted a man to have up to four wives and to divorce her with a word. Such cultural practices were very different from the Christian and Catholic cultures of the Byzantine and Western civilizations. Another important difference between the Islamic civilization and the other two was that Islam drew no rigid distinction between the clergy and the laity. The Christian civilizations allowed clergy alone to have access to the Holy book, while in the Islamic civilization, the distinction was less sharply defined. There was a scholarly elite group existing within the Islamic civilization, known as the ulema or persons with correct knowledge and in a social sense, they could be likened to the priesthood. The ulema comprised men of great learning and piety, who had moral authority within Islamic society in relation to moral and religious matters. The Islamic civilizations also differed from the other two in that they did not accord so much importance to the Roman laws and Roman culture. While the Western civilization largely adopted Roman law and culture, the Byzantine Empire developed its own laws in the code that was formulated by Justinian, where the imperial mandate was paramount. The Islamic civilizations however relied entirely upon the Islamic law as laid out in the Koran, developed on the basis of the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. In a political sense, the Islamic kingdoms began to enjoy precedence and expand rapidly in the Mediterranean area, mostly due to the fading power of the Byzantine empire which was plagued by infighting and wars. The spread of the Islamic civilization also indirectly benefited the Western cultures, since it prevented the expansion of the Byzantine empire and its eastern orthodoxy into the western areas, so that the peoples of Western Europe were able to derive their own culture. The Byzantine empire enjoyed its greatest power during the reign of Justinian, when cultural and political development was at its height, represented in an imperial Government and an increase in construction of art and buildings like the church of Hagia Sophia. Read More