abstract on the topic: "Byzantine culture" PLAN 1.
Byzantium in the history of world culture 2.
Philosophical thought of Byzantium 3.
Literature of Byzantium 4.
Byzantine Music 5.
Architecture and Fine Art of Byzantium References 1.
Byzantium in the history of world culture The Byzantine Empire arose in the IV century after the collapse of the Roman Empire in its eastern part and existed until the middle of the XV century.
Throughout its thousand year history, Byzantium has been the center of a peculiar culture that was formed under the influence of Roman, Greek and Hellenistic traditions.
It should be emphasized that the culture of Byzantium is a kind of bridge from antiquity to the Middle Ages.
At the same time, this bridge connects the cultures of the West and the East, is a manifestation of their synthesis, due to the geographical location and many national character of the Byzantine state.
The Byzantine civilization occupies an outstanding place in the history of world culture.
First, it was a logical and historical continuation of the Greco Roman antiquity.
Secondly, Byzantium represented a kind of synthesis of Western and Eastern spiritual principles throughout its existence.
Third, it had a great influence on the civilizations of Southern and Eastern Europe (Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia).
Fourth, Byzantium is a special and valuable type of culture, despite the influence it experienced from the Syrians, Arabs, Slavs, Persians, which is explained by the multinational nature of the Byzantine state.
The capital of Byzantium, Constantinople, was founded by Emperor Constantine I in 324-330 on the site of the former Megarian colony of Byzantium.
In fact, with the formation of Constantinople, Byzantium became independent in the bowels of the Roman Empire (from this time the countdown of the history of Byzantium began).
The completion of independence is considered to be 395, when, after the death of Theodosius I, the final division of the Roman Empire into the Eastern and Western Roman Empires took place.
The emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, Arcadia was proclaimed (395-408).
The Byzantines called themselves the Romans - "Romans", and their state "Romenskoy".
The ethnic composition of the Byzantine population was dominated by the Greek population.
Latin ruled as the state language of the empire in the IV VI centuries, and from the VII century until the end of the existence of Byzantium - Greek.
There are 3 main periods in the socio economic and political history of Byzantium.
The first period (IV mid VII century) is characterized by the collapse of the slave owning and the beginning of the formation of feudal relations.
The second period (the middle of the VII the beginning of the XIII century) was the intensive development of feudalism.
The third period (1204-1453) - the further strengthening of feudal fragmentation, the weakening of the central government and the constant struggle with foreign conquerors; elements of the collapse of the feudal economy appear.
In the cultural aspect, there are six periods in the history of Byzantium: - The first (IV the end of the VII century.) - the struggle of the obsolete civilization of the slave owning society, in the depths of which elements of feudalism are already emerging, with a new ideology; the Christian Church is not only struggling with ancient culture, but also seeks to provide a theological coloring to the classical heritage The second (the end of the V century - the middle of the IX century.) - cultural decline due to the reduction of handicraft production and trade, general agrarization, economic stagnation.
- The third (mid - IX - X centuries) - a new cultural upsurge in Constantinople, which spread in the tenth century to provincial cities.
- The fourth (XI XII centuries) - the highest development of Byzantine culture, due to the flourishing of Byzantine cities.
- The fifth (the end of the XII - XIII centuries) is a period of cultural decline associated with the economic and political degradation of the empire.
- The sixth (XIV the beginning of the XV century) - a new rise of Byzantine culture in the conditions of the emergence of humanitarian ideology.
The cultural influence of barbarian tribes, insignificant in comparison with Western Europe, belongs to the peculiarities of Byzantine culture.
At the same time, the Byzantine culture took a lot from the ancient heritage, according to the culture of the peoples who inhabited Byzantium, etc.
Education was upset not only on the basis of the Holy Scriptures, but also on the poems of Homer; ancient authors were read and studied.
The despotic nature of the Byzantine state led to the establishment of strict control over the ideological life, which gave rise to unrestrained praise of the emperor, who was in power at that moment.
The social and ideological life of Byzantium was also influenced by the specific features inherent in Eastern Christianity and the Byzantine Church.
From the very beginning, there were significant differences between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.
Although the second one was genetically descended from a single world church organization, each of them has developed its own special way since the first centuries of their history (in the IV - V centuries).
Nominally, the church unity was recognized by both Rome and Constantinople, but in fact, very early on, a hidden or open struggle for religious and political domination began between the papal see and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, a struggle that never faded.
If in the West there was a strictly centralized church organization and only the pope had an undoubted moral authority and a huge real power, then in the East the system of pentarchy - the simultaneous existence of five equal patriarchies prevailed in the East: in Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem.
The peculiarity of the social development of early Byzantium was no less clearly manifested in the field of legal relations.
In the Byzantine Empire, the influence of Roman legal traditions was felt to a greater extent and for a longer time in the field of both civil and criminal law than in the West.
Unlike other countries of the medieval world, Byzantium, primarily in the early period of its history, remained a state where a single codified and binding law was preserved for the entire population of the empire.
The legislation of the early Byzantine period is based on the best achievements of Roman legal thought: it has already completed the development of the Roman theory of law; such concepts of jurisprudence as law, law, custom have gained a final theoretical form; the distinction between private and public law has been clarified, the norms of criminal law and procedure have been defined; the foundations for regulating international relations have been laid.
In the memory of descendants, Byzantium will remain the country where the codification of Roman law, famous to Justinian, was carried out.
The code of civil law of Justinian, which contemporaries called the "temple of legal science", consisted of a Code - the main provisions of the provisions borrowed from Roman lawyers, Institutions - a brief guide to jurisprudence and Novels - new laws issued directly in the time of Justinian.
The aristocracy in Byzantium began to form late, for many centuries Byzantium was a state of officials headed by a supreme official - the emperor.
In a certain sense, everyone there was equal before the state machine, before the bureaucratic monster.
It was not the emperor's personality that was revered, but his position.
Official power was personified by the imperial throne, which was held on a pedestal of 60 ministries.
Every official dreamed of a career for which it was necessary to please the authorities; the shortest way to this goal was the "branch" that soaked away the entire empire.
The monarchs deployed regular companies to combat red tape, for this purpose new and new instances were created for monitoring.
It was possible to solve something only through personal connections.
A bribe has become a normal form of business relations.
Officials were afraid of possible denunciations.
"If you serve the basileus," the official Kekavmen teaches, " be careful in every possible way when you talk to your comrades.
And if it is said about Vasileva, then do not answer anything at all, but disappear away.
I knew many people who were in such danger.
With all your strength, hold your tongue and obey those who are higher.
He does not reveal his secret to anyone.
Never vouch for anyone, even if it is your close friend."
There was no private ownership of land in Byzantium.
Every estate, every plot could ever be taken away.
Complaining about the authorities became a hopeless task.
No one knew which of the numerous laws were in force.
The government maintained artificially stable prices, for the sake of which the strictest control over crafts and trade was carried out.
There was an atmosphere of xenophobia in the country, that is, hatred of foreigners.
The foreigners were monitored by both representatives of the authorities and numerous volunteers from the common people.
The "damned Catholics" aroused the greatest suspicion and hatred, even more than the Muslims, they really threatened the existence of the empire, and, as we know, this threat was realized.
Ideological principles weighed on the true needs of the state and society.
2. The philosophical thought of Byzantium In the initial period of the development of Byzantine philosophy took place in conditions when the dominant strata of the Eastern Roman Empire had already adapted Christianity for their needs, creating a religious and philosophical system based on the teachings of Plato.
Part of this teaching was the doctrine of the Logos (which received religious treatment from Philo and Origen) as about the don of the hypostases of the "Trinity", as well as about Christ, who combined the divine and human nature and reconciled the earthly and heavenly.
In the Byzantine Empire, since the end of the IV century, the church literature has been fixed on official positions, and the Eastern fathers of the church Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Theodoret Kirsky and others have primed the teaching of Christianity exclusively on the basis of church canons and the authority of Holy Scripture.
The ancient tradition in this period was primarily associated with Neoplatonism.
An outstanding representative of Neoplatonism was the Pseudo Dionysius Areopaite, who made an attempt to interpret Christian dogmatics in the spirit and from the point of view of Neoplatonism (Areopagite).
The second period of Byzantine philosophy iconoclasm became a period of acute religious and philosophical struggle, when ideologists acted as icon worshippers in the political arena: John Dama skene and Theodore Studit.
This period is associated with the church reforms of the emperors from the Isaurian dynasty.
For the first time in the history of Byzantium, there was an open clash between the state and the church.
Monasteries became large landowners, their strengthening created a threat to the imperial government and the metropolitan bureaucracy.
The desire of the emperors of the Isaurian dynasty to once again raise the prestige of the central government and weaken the influence of the church hierarchs, who were out of control, was embodied in the form of an ideological struggle against the veneration of icons.
A blow to icon worship meant a break with the Orthodox Church.
The iconoclasts came out of the desire to preserve the high spirituality of Christian worship, to purify it from the foundations of the body and the remnants of Hellenic sensualism.
The ideological struggle in Byzantine society in the VIII - IX centuries mobilized all intellectual forces and influenced the public consciousness of the epoch.
Religious and philosophical disputes of the VIII IX centuries caused the need for systematization of Christian theology, which was reflected in the works of John of Damascus and later Theodore Studit.
John Dama Skene (675-753) - one of the most Byzantine theologians - in his work "The Source of Knowledge" set a difficult task: to build an integral system of Orthodox Christianity.
He tried to systematize the entire amount of knowledge of Christian theology, which he took from the Scriptures and the works of apologists and church fathers.
In the ontological aspect, the Damascene system is based on the desire to deduce everything that exists according to a single principle - God: God is the eternal unknowable of the world, the source and purpose of being.
Nature is not only the creation of God, but also the revelation of his divine wisdom.
Another ideologist of Orthodox theology, Theodore Studit (759-826), in his huge literary heritage - theological treatises, speeches, letters, instructions to monks and in religious hymns - summarized all the arguments of icon worshippers against their ideological opponents.
His works are imbued with ascetic ideology, idealization of monastic life, and frenzied polemics against iconoclasts.
The third period is characterized by the appearance of a number of rationalistic concepts.
In fact, Mikhail Psela (XI) declared philosophy to be a science that should investigate the nature of things, draw its own conclusions, sorting out its numerical method and the system of geometric proof from mathematics.
The last period is characterized by the reaction of the religious and mystical direction of Byzantine philosophy, rationalism.
One of the most famous mystical teachings was hesychasm (peace, silence).
3. Byzantine literature Byzantine literature had a significant impact on European literature, including the literature of the Slavs, with its monuments, mainly in the XIII century.
Byzantine writing is characterized not only by Greek manuscripts, but also by Slavic translations, which sometimes preserved works unknown in the original.
The beginning of Byzantine literature proper dates back to the VI VII centuries, when the Greek language became dominant in Byzantium.
However, the monuments of folk art of Byzantium have almost not reached us.
Among the church literature that has come down to us, the poetry of hymns stands out.
Its outstanding representatives were Roman Solokospivets (VI century), who wrote about a thousand hymns.
Byzantium inherited a lot from Hellenistic prose.
The manner of Hellenism is repeated by the erotic novels of the adventures of Heliodorus ("The Ethiopian" about Theogenes and Chariclo) - IV centuries, Achilles Tatius (about the Clitoris of the background and Leucippus) - V centuries, Chariton, Long and others.
From the prose genres to the beginning of Byzantine literature, historical stories especially developed, the authors of which reproduced the manner of Herodotus, Thucydides.
A special place in the history of Byzantine literature belongs to Mikhail Psell.
Psel is a bright, extraordinary writer and sycophant courtier, a wise philosopher, the author of many poems in honor of the vasilevstv and a supporter of enemies.
Let the numerical legacy of Psellus be his rhetorical refinement, which covers almost all genres and types of Greek rhetoric, as well as speeches and epitaphs, monodies.
Many of Psellus ' speeches reflect his connections with society.
The most striking phenomenon in his work is the "Chronograph".
It is saturated with another, artistic truth, which creates a single picture of the era - the drama of people and the drama of the empire.
For the Byzantine society, the deepening into the ancient language and culture and their idealization further aggravated the complex problem of bilingualism, which was determined by the degree of education, and eventually by social independence.
4. Byzantine music Little is known about the role of music in Byzantine secular life, several melodies and musical congratulatory exclamations - "acclamations", mandatory in the palace ceremonial, have been preserved.
In the ancient divine service, instrumental accompaniment was probably not started, and the music sounded in the form of foams
There were means of church vocal performance: the solemn reading of gospel texts, regulated by certain musical forms, the performance of psalms and hymns of a scriptural character and the so called hallelujah songs.
By the XII XIII centuries.
in Byzantium, a developed system of singing was formed, which was used in the state and cultural sphere.
Its specificity is a rather limited number of genres, the emancipation of certain names for singing, for example: "slavospivni according to the first word of the famous phrase" Salva to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit ".
The second group of chants was formed depending on the time of their performance: "morning", "vidpuskalni".
Some songs got their names according to some signs: "katavasia" - when singing, believers had to stand up.
The traditional, time honored forms of Byzantine vocal music adhered to one important principle: each warehouse of the text was answered more often by 1 sound.
This is due to the attitude that music should help the listener to better understand and feel the meaning of the text of the service.
In no case should the music dominate the text.
This system is replaced by the so called cacophonic style.
Its important feature is the dominance of music over the text.
5. Architecture and Fine Art of Byzantium Byzantine sculpture died out in the late Antique era.
The last attempts belong to the VI century.
Later, the sculpture was rebuilt under a church ban and disappeared.
The ancient cities of Ukraine and Russia became the centers of art of the Byzantine orientation: Chernihiv, Kiev, Novgorod.
Hellenistic art, which had no internal unity even in its heyday, broke up into several peculiar local art schools: Coptic (Egypt), Sasanian (Persia), Syrian, etc..
Finally, the division into the Greek East and the Latin West took place.
The art of the Greek East is called "Byzantine" in historical literature.
The highest achievement of Roman Hellenistic art is the Church of St. Sophia (532-537) - the most significant landmark of Byzantine architecture.
It was built by Anthimius of Troy and Isidore of Mint.
The "Byzantine art" begins from the VII century.
In the IV VI centuries, mosaic was very popular.
It traces the process of the decline of Roman Hellenistic Impressionism until the XII century, the monumentality is lost, the decline of color is lost.
In the XIV century, the place of mosaic technology was taken by a fresco, and then an easel icon.
In the revolutions of the second half of the XII century and in the coups of the "Latin Invasion", the so called art of the Paleologian era was born.
The artistic tradition, however, is so viable that even in the XVI XVII centuries the Italo Cretan school of painting flourished, large temple paintings were created on the periphery of the Byzantine world, an outstanding painter - Panselin was born.
In the Constantinople church of Kahrie Jami and in the Venetian Sobot of St. Mark, the painters are still trying to use mosaic technique, but all the other paintings of the late Byzantine period are frescoes.
Only in the days of European Romanticism at the beginning of the XIX century.
universal admiration for medieval art and medieval culture aroused interest in Byzantine art.
