Between the eighth and eleventh
centuries A.D., the Byzantine Empire staged an almost unparalleled economic and
cultural revival, a recovery that is all the more striking because it followed a
long period of severe internal decline. By the early eighth century, the empire
had lost roughly two-thirds of the territory it had possessed in the year 600,
and its remaining area was being raided by Arabs and Bulgarians, who at times
threatened to take Constantinople and extinguished the empire altogether. The
wealth of the state and its subjects was greatly diminished, and artistic end
literary production had virtually ceased. By the early eleventh century,
however, the empire had regained almost half of its lost possessions, its new
frontiers were secure, and its influence extended far beyond its borders. The
economy had recovered, the treasury was full, and art and scholarship had
advanced.
To consider the Byzantine military, cultural, and
economic advances as differentiated aspects of a single phenomenon is
reasonable. After all, these three forms of progress have gone together in a
number of states and civilizations. Rome under Augustus and fifth century Athens
provide the most obviously examples in antiquity. Moreover, an examination of
the apparent sequential connections among military, economic, and cultural forms
of programs might help explain the dynamics of historical change.
The common explanation of these apparent connections in the case of
Byzantium would run like this: when the empire had turned back enemy raids on
its own territory and had begun to raid and conquer enemy territory, Byzantine
resources naturally expanded and more money became available to patronize art
and literature. Therefore. Byzantine military achievements lad to economic
advances, which in turn led to cultural revival.
No doubt this
hypothetical pattern did apply at times during the course of recovery. Yet it is
not clear that military advances invariably came first, economic second, and
intellectual advances third. In the 860’s the Byzantine Empire began to recover
from Arab incursions so that by 872 the military, balance with the Abbasid
Caliphate had been permanently altered in the empire’s favor. The beginning of
the empire’s economic revival, however, can be placed between 810 and 830.
Finally, the Byzantine revival of learning appears to have begun even earlier. A
number of notable scholars and writers appeared by 788 and, by the last decade
of the eighth century, a cultural revival was in full bloom, a revival that
lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Thus the commonly expected
order of military revival followed by economic and then by cultural recovery was
reversed in Byzantium. In fact, the revival of Byzantine learning may itself
have influenced the subsequent economic and military
expansion. |
