Justinian I
Justinian I, traditionally known as Justinian the Great and Saint Justinian the Great in the Eastern Orthodox Church, was the Eastern Roman emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the historical Roman Empire. Justinian's rule constitutes a distinct epoch in the history of the Later Roman empire, his reign is marked by the ambitious but only realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire"; because of his restoration activities, Justinian has sometimes been known as the "last Roman" in mid 20th century historiography. This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire, his general, swiftly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. Subsequently, Belisarius and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily and Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the Ostrogoths; the prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian peninsula, establishing the province of Spania.
These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire's annual revenue by over a million solidi. During his reign, Justinian subdued the Tzani, a people on the east coast of the Black Sea that had never been under Roman rule before, he engaged the Sasanian Empire in the east during Kavad I's reign, again during Khosrow I's. A still more resonant aspect of his legacy was the uniform rewriting of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis, still the basis of civil law in many modern states, his reign marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture, his building program yielded such masterpieces as the church of Hagia Sophia. Justinian was born in Tauresium, around 482. A native speaker of Latin, he came from a peasant family believed to have been of Illyro-Roman or Thraco-Roman origins; the cognomen Iustinianus, which he took is indicative of adoption by his uncle Justin. During his reign, he founded Justiniana Prima not far from his birthplace, which today is in South East Serbia.
His mother was the sister of Justin. Justin, in the imperial guard before he became emperor, adopted Justinian, brought him to Constantinople, ensured the boy's education; as a result, Justinian was well educated in jurisprudence and Roman history. Justinian served for some time with the Excubitors but the details of his early career are unknown. Chronicler John Malalas, who lived during the reign of Justinian, tells of his appearance that he was short, fair skinned, curly haired, round faced and handsome. Another contemporary chronicler, compares Justinian's appearance to that of tyrannical Emperor Domitian, although this is slander; when Emperor Anastasius died in 518, Justin was proclaimed the new emperor, with significant help from Justinian. During Justin's reign, Justinian was the emperor's close confidant. Justinian showed much ambition, it has been thought that he was functioning as virtual regent long before Justin made him associate emperor on 1 April 527, although there is no conclusive evidence of this.
As Justin became senile near the end of his reign, Justinian became the de facto ruler. Justinian was appointed consul in 521 and commander of the army of the east. Upon Justin's death on 1 August 527, Justinian became the sole sovereign; as a ruler, Justinian showed great energy. He was known as "the emperor" on account of his work habits, he seems to have been amiable and easy to approach. Around 525, he married Theodora, in Constantinople, she was by some twenty years his junior. In earlier times, Justinian could not have married her owing to her class, but his uncle, Emperor Justin I, had passed a law allowing intermarriage between social classes. Theodora would become influential in the politics of the Empire, emperors would follow Justinian's precedent in marrying outside the aristocratic class; the marriage caused a scandal, but Theodora would prove to be a shrewd judge of character and Justinian's greatest supporter. Other talented individuals included his legal adviser. Justinian's rule was not universally popular.
Justinian recovered. Theodora died in 548 at a young age of cancer. Justinian, who had always had a keen interest in theological matters and participated in debates on Christian doctrine, became more devoted to religion during the years of his life; when he died on 14 November 565, he left no children, though his wife Theodora had given birth to a stillborn son several years into his reign. He was succeeded by Justin II, the son of his sister Vigilantia and married to Sophia, the niece of Empress Theodora. Justinian's body was entombed in a specially built mausoleum in the Church of the
Early Middle Ages
Historians regard the Early Middle Ages or Early Medieval Period, sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages, as lasting from the 5th or 6th century to the 10th century CE. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of European history; the alternative term "Late Antiquity" emphasizes elements of continuity with the Roman Empire, while "Early Middle Ages" is used to emphasize developments characteristic of the earlier medieval period. As such the concept overlaps with Late Antiquity, following the decline of the Western Roman Empire, precedes the High Middle Ages; the period saw a continuation of trends evident since late classical antiquity, including population decline in urban centres, a decline of trade, a small rise in global warming and increased migration. In the 19th century the Early Middle Ages were labelled the "Dark Ages", a characterization based on the relative scarcity of literary and cultural output from this time. However, the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, continued to survive, though in the 7th century the Rashidun Caliphate and the Umayyad Caliphate conquered swathes of Roman territory.
Many of the listed trends reversed in the period. In 800 the title of "Emperor" was revived in Western Europe with Charlemagne, whose Carolingian Empire affected European social structure and history. Europe experienced a return to systematic agriculture in the form of the feudal system, which adopted such innovations as three-field planting and the heavy plough. Barbarian migration stabilized in much of Europe, although the Viking expansion affected Northern Europe. Starting in the 2nd century, various indicators of Roman civilization began to decline, including urbanization, seaborne commerce, population. Archaeologists have identified only 40 per cent as many Mediterranean shipwrecks from the 3rd century as from the first. Estimates of the population of the Roman Empire during the period from 150 to 400 suggest a fall from 65 million to 50 million, a decline of more than 20 per cent; some scholars have connected this de-population to the Dark Ages Cold Period, when a decrease in global temperatures impaired agricultural yields.
Early in the 3rd century Germanic peoples migrated south from Scandinavia and reached the Black Sea, creating formidable confederations which opposed the local Sarmatians. In Dacia and on the steppes north of the Black Sea the Goths, a Germanic people, established at least two kingdoms: Therving and Greuthung; the arrival of the Huns in 372–375 ended the history of these kingdoms. The Huns, a confederation of central Asian tribes, founded an empire, they had mastered the difficult art of shooting composite recurve bows from horseback. The Goths sought refuge in Roman territory; however many bribed the Danube border-guards into allowing them to bring their weapons. The discipline and organization of a Roman legion made it a superb fighting unit; the Romans preferred infantry to cavalry because infantry could be trained to retain the formation in combat, while cavalry tended to scatter when faced with opposition. While a barbarian army could be raised and inspired by the promise of plunder, the legions required a central government and taxation to pay for salaries, constant training and food.
The decline in agricultural and economic activity reduced the empire's taxable income and thus its ability to maintain a professional army to defend itself from external threats. In the Gothic War, the Goths revolted and confronted the main Roman army in the Battle of Adrianople. By this time, the distinction in the Roman army between Roman regulars and barbarian auxiliaries had broken down, the Roman army comprised barbarians and soldiers recruited for a single campaign; the general decline in discipline led to the use of smaller shields and lighter weaponry. Not wanting to share the glory, Eastern Emperor Valens ordered an attack on the Therving infantry under Fritigern without waiting for Western Emperor Gratian, on the way with reinforcements. While the Romans were engaged, the Greuthung cavalry arrived. Only one-third of the Roman army managed to escape; this represented the most shattering defeat that the Romans had suffered since the Battle of Cannae, according to the Roman military writer Ammianus Marcellinus.
The core army of the Eastern Roman Empire was destroyed, Valens was killed, the Goths were freed to lay waste to the Balkans, including the armories along the Danube. As Edward Gibbon comments, "The Romans, who so coolly and so concisely mention the acts of justice which were exercised by the legions, reserve their compassion and their eloquence for their own sufferings, when the provinces were invaded and desolated by the arms of the successful Barbarians."The empire lacked the resources, the will, to reconstruct the professional mobile army destroyed at Adrianople, so it had to rely on barbarian armies to fight for it. The Eastern Roman Empire succeeded in buying off the Goths with tribute; the Western Roman Empire proved less fortunate. Stilicho, the western empire's half-Vandal military commander, stripped the Rhine frontier of troops to fend off invasions of Italy by the Visigoths in 402–03 and by other Goths in 406–07. Fleeing before the advance of the Huns, the Vandals and Alans launched an attack across the frozen Rhine near Mainz.
There soon followed the bands of the Alamanni. In the fit of anti-barbarian hysteria which followed, the Western Roman Emperor Honorius had Stilicho summarily beheaded. Stilicho submitted his neck, "with a firmness not unworthy of t
Gothic secular and domestic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. Originating in 12th-century France and lasting into the 16th century, Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the great cathedrals and churches of Europe, it is the architecture of many non-religious buildings, such as castles, town halls, guild halls, universities and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings. Although secular and civic architecture in general was subordinate in importance to ecclesiastical architecture, civic architecture grew in importance as the Middle Ages progressed. David Watkin, for example writes about secular Gothic architecture in present-day Belgium: "However, it is the secular architecture, the guild-halls and town halls of her prosperous commercial cities, which make Belgium unique, their splendour exceeds that of contemporary ecclesiastical foundations, while their decorative language was not without influence on churches such as Antwerp Cathedral."
At the end of the 12th century, Europe was divided into a multitude of city kingdoms. The area encompassing modern Germany, southern Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Czech Republic and much of northern Italy was nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire, but local rulers exercised considerable autonomy. France, Poland, Portugal, Castile, Navarre and Cyprus were independent kingdoms, as was the Angevin Empire, whose Plantagenet kings ruled England and large domains in what was to become modern France. Norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries, the Baltic States and Poland were influenced by trading contacts with the Hanseatic League. Angevin kings brought the Gothic tradition from France to Southern Italy, while Lusignan kings introduced French Gothic architecture to Cyprus. Throughout Europe at this time there was an associated growth in towns. Germany and the Lowlands had large flourishing towns that grew in comparative peace, in trade and competition with each other, or united for mutual weal, as in the Hanseatic League.
Civic building was of great importance to these towns as a sign of pride. England and France remained feudal and produced grand domestic architecture for their kings and bishops, rather than grand town halls for their burghers; the Catholic Church prevailed across Europe at this time, influencing not only faith but wealth and power. Bishops were appointed by the Church and ruled as virtual princes over large estates; the early Medieval periods had seen a rapid growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent and spreading their influence widely. Foremost were the Benedictines whose monastic establishments vastly outnumbered any others in England. A part of their influence was; the Cluniac and Cistercian Orders were prevalent in France, the great monastery at Cluny having established a formula for a well planned monastic site, to influence all subsequent monastic building, including domestic quarters, for many centuries. From the 10th to the 13th century, Romanesque architecture had become a pan-European style and manner of construction, affecting buildings in countries as far apart as Ireland, Croatia and Sicily.
The same wide geographic area was affected by the development of Gothic architecture, but the acceptance of the Gothic style and methods of construction differed from place to place, as did the expressions of Gothic taste. The proximity of some regions meant. On the other hand, some regions such as England and Spain produced defining characteristics seen elsewhere, except where they have been carried by itinerant craftsmen, or the transfer of bishops. Regional differences that are apparent in the Romanesque period become more apparent in the Gothic; the local availability of materials affected both style. In France, limestone was available in several grades, the fine white limestone of Caen being favoured for sculptural decoration. England had coarse limestone and red sandstone as well as dark green Purbeck marble, used for architectural features. In Northern Germany, northern Poland and the Baltic countries local building stone was unavailable but there was a strong tradition of building in brick.
The resultant style, Brick Gothic, is called "Backsteingotik" in Germany and Scandinavia and is associated with the Hanseatic League. In Italy, stone was used for fortifications; because of the extensive and varied deposits of marble, many buildings were faced in marble, or were left with undecorated façade so that this might be achieved at a date. The availability of timber influenced the style of architecture, with timber buildings prevailing in Scandinavia. Availability of timber affected methods of roof construction across Europe, it is thought that the magnificent hammer-beam roofs of England were devised as a direct response to the lack of long straight seasoned timber by the end of the Medieval period, when forests had been decimated not only for the construction of vast roofs but for ship building. Several new towns and cities were established in Europe during late Middle Ages. Beginning in the 12th century, urbanisation again started to spread across Europe, where urban development had since the fall of the Roman Empire in general been brought to a standstill or of limited scope
Basilica of Saint-Denis
The Basilica of Saint-Denis is a large medieval abbey church in the city of Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of singular importance and architecturally as its choir, completed in 1144, shows the first use of all of the elements of Gothic architecture; the site originated as a Gallo-Roman cemetery in late Roman times. The archeological remains still lie beneath the cathedral. Around 475 St. Genevieve built Saint-Denys de la Chapelle. In 636 on the orders of Dagobert I the relics of Saint Denis, a patron saint of France, were reinterred in the basilica; the relics of St-Denis, transferred to the parish church of the town in 1795, were brought back again to the abbey in 1819. The basilica became a place of pilgrimage and the burial place of the French Kings with nearly every king from the 10th to the 18th centuries being buried there, as well as many from previous centuries. "Saint-Denis" soon became the abbey church of a growing monastic complex. In the 12th century the Abbot Suger rebuilt portions of the abbey church using innovative structural and decorative features.
In doing so, he is said to have created the first Gothic building. The basilica's 13th-century nave is the prototype for the Rayonnant Gothic style, provided an architectural model for many medieval cathedrals and abbeys of northern France, England and a great many other countries; the abbey church became a cathedral in 1966 and is the seat of the Bishop of Saint-Denis, Pascal Michel Ghislain Delannoy. Although known as the "Basilica of St Denis", the cathedral has not been granted the title of Minor Basilica by the Vatican. Saint Denis, a patron saint of France, became the first bishop of Paris, he was decapitated on the hill of Montmartre in the mid-third century with two of his followers, is said to have subsequently carried his head to the site of the current church, indicating where he wanted to be buried. A martyrium was erected on the site of his grave, which became a famous place of pilgrimage during the fifth and sixth centuries. Dagobert, the king of the Franks, refounded the church as the Abbey of Saint Denis, a Benedictine monastery.
Dagobert commissioned a new shrine to house the saint's remains, created by his chief councillor, Eligius, a goldsmith by training. An early vita of Saint Eligius describes the shrine: Above all, Eligius fabricated a mausoleum for the holy martyr Denis in the city of Paris with a wonderful marble ciborium over it marvelously decorated with gold and gems, he composed a crest and a magnificent frontal and surrounded the throne of the altar with golden axes in a circle. He placed golden apples there and jeweled, he made a roof for the throne of the altar on silver axes. He made a covering in the place before the tomb and fabricated an outside altar at the feet of the holy martyr. So much industry did he lavish there, at the king's request, poured out so much that scarcely a single ornament was left in Gaul and it is the greatest wonder of all to this day. None of this work survives; the Basilica of St Denis ranks as an architectural landmark—as the first major structure of which a substantial part was designed and built in the Gothic style.
Both stylistically and structurally, it heralded the change from Romanesque architecture to Gothic architecture. Before the term "Gothic" came into common use, it was known as the "French Style"; as it now stands, the church is a large cruciform building of "basilica" form. It has an additional aisle on the northern side formed of a row of chapels; the west front has three portals, a rose one tower, on the southern side. The eastern end, built over a crypt, is apsidal, surrounded by an ambulatory and a chevet of nine radiating chapels; the basilica retains stained glass of many periods, including exceptional modern glass, a set of twelve misericords. The basilica measures 108 meters long, its width is 39 meters. Little is known about the earliest buildings on the site; the first church mentioned in the chronicles was begun in 754 under Pepin the Short and completed under Charlemagne, present at its consecration in 775. By 832 the Abbey had been granted a remunerative whaling concession on the Cotentin Peninsula.
Most of what is now known about the Carolingian church at St Denis resulted from a lengthy series of excavations begun under the American art historian Sumner McKnight Crosby in 1937. The building was about 60m long, with a monumental westwork, single transepts, a crossing tower and a lengthy eastern apse over a large crypt. According to one of the Abbey's many foundation myths a leper, sleeping in the nearly completed church the night before its planned consecration, witnessed a blaze of light from which Christ, accompanied by St Denis and a host of angels, emerged to conduct the consecration ceremony himself. Before leaving, Christ healed the leper, tearing off his diseased skin to reveal a perfect complexion underneath. A misshapen patch on a marble column was said to be the leper's former skin, which stuck there when Christ discarded it. Having been consecrated by Christ, the fabric of the bui
Nave
The nave is the central part of a church, stretching from the main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type building, the strict definition of the term "nave" is restricted to the central aisle. In a broader, more colloquial sense, the nave includes all areas available for the lay worshippers, including the side-aisles and transepts. Either way, the nave is distinct from the area reserved for clergy; the nave extends from the entry—which may have a separate vestibule —to the chancel and may be flanked by lower side-aisles separated from the nave by an arcade. If the aisles are high and of a width comparable to the central nave, the structure is sometimes said to have three naves, it provides the central approach to the high altar. The term nave is from navis, the Latin word for ship, an early Christian symbol of the Church as a whole, with a possible connection to the "ship of St. Peter" or the Ark of Noah.
The term may have been suggested by the keel shape of the vaulting of a church. In many Scandinavian and Baltic countries a model ship is found hanging in the nave of a church, in some languages the same word means both'nave' and'ship', as for instance Danish skib, Swedish skepp or Spanish; the earliest churches were built when builders were familiar with the form of the Roman basilica, a public building for business transactions. It had a wide central area, with aisles separated by columns, with windows near the ceiling. Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is an early church, it was built in the 4th century on the orders of Roman emperor Constantine I, replaced in the 16th century. The nave, the main body of the building, is the section set apart for the laity, while the chancel is reserved for the clergy. In medieval churches the nave was separated from the chancel by the rood screen. Medieval naves were divided into the repetition of form giving an effect of great length. During the Renaissance, in place of dramatic effects there were more balanced proportions.
Longest nave in Denmark: Aarhus Cathedral, 93 m Longest nave in England: St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, 85 m Longest nave in Ireland: St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, 91 m, externally Longest nave in France: Bourges Cathedral, 91 m, including choir where a crossing would be if there were transepts Longest nave in Germany: Cologne cathedral, 58 m, including two bays between the towers Longest nave in Italy: St Peter's Basilica in Rome, 91 m, in four bays Longest nave in Spain: Seville, 60 m, in five bays Longest nave in the United States: Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City, United States, 70 m Highest vaulted nave: Beauvais Cathedral, France, 48 m, but only one bay of the nave was built. Highest completed nave: Rome, St. Peter's, Italy, 46 m Abbey, with architectural discussion and groundplans Cathedral architecture Cathedral diagram List of highest church naves
Christian cross variants
This is a list of Christian cross variants. The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a crucifix and the figure is referred to as the corpus; the term Greek cross designates a cross with arms of equal length, as in a plus sign, while the Latin cross designates a cross with an elongated descending arm. Numerous other variants have been developed during the medieval period. Christian crosses are used in churches, on top of church buildings, on bibles, in heraldry, in personal jewelry, on hilltops, elsewhere as an attestation or other symbol of Christianity. Crosses are a prominent feature of Christian cemeteries, either carved on gravestones or as sculpted stelae; because of this, planting small crosses is sometimes used in countries of Christian culture to mark the site of fatal accidents, or, such as the Zugspitze or Mount Royal, so as to be visible over the entire surrounding area.
Roman Catholic and Lutheran depictions of the cross are crucifixes, in order to emphasize that it is Jesus, important, rather than the cross in isolation. Large crucifixes are a prominent feature of some Lutheran churches, as illustrated in the article Rood. However, some other Protestant traditions depict the cross without the corpus, interpreting this form as an indication of belief in the resurrection rather than as representing the interval between the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Several Christian cross variants are available in computer-displayed text; the Latin cross symbol is included in the unicode character set as "271D". For others, see Religious and political symbols in Unicode. Basic early variants widespread since antiquity. Crosses in heraldry Christian symbolism Stations of the Cross Crucifixion in the arts Christ Carrying the Cross The Raising of the Cross Descent from the Cross Cultural and religious symbols in Unicode Huguenot cross
Crossbow
A crossbow is a type of elastic ranged weapon in similar principle to a bow, consisting of a bow-like assembly called a prod, mounted horizontally on a main frame called a tiller, handheld in a similar fashion to the stock of a long gun. It shoots arrow-like projectiles called quarrels; the medieval European crossbow was called by many other names including crossbow itself, most of which were derived from the word ballista, an ancient Greek torsion siege engine similar in appearance. Although having the same launch principle, crossbows differ from bows in that a bow's draw must be maintained manually by the archer pulling the bowstring with fingers and back muscles and holding that same form in order to aim, while a crossbow uses a locking mechanism to maintain the draw, limiting the shooter's exertion to only pulling the string into lock and release the shot via depressing a lever/trigger; this not only enables a crossbowman to handle stronger draw weight, but hold for longer with significant less physical strain, thus capable of better precision.
Crossbows played a significant role in the warfare of East Asia and Medieval Europe. The earliest crossbows in the world were invented in ancient China and caused a major shift in the role of projectile weaponry; the traditional bow and arrow had long been a specialized weapon that required considerable training, physical strength and expertise to operate with any degree of practical efficiency. In many cultures, archers were considered a separate and superior warrior caste, despite being drawn from the common class, as their archery skill-set was trained and strengthened from birth and was impossible to reproduce outside a pre-established cultural tradition, which many nations lacked. In contrast, the crossbow was the first ranged weapon to be simple and physically undemanding enough to be operated by large numbers of untrained conscript soldiers, thus enabling any nation to field a potent force of crossbowmen with little expense beyond the cost of the weapons themselves. In modern times, like bows, have been supplanted by the more powerful and accurate firearms in most weapon roles, but are still used for competitive shooting sports and scenarios when shooting with relative silence is important.
A crossbowman or crossbow-maker is sometimes called an arbalest. Arrow and quarrel are all suitable terms for crossbow projectiles; the lath called the prod, is the bow of the crossbow. According to W. F. Peterson, the prod came into usage in the 19th century as a result of mistranslating rodd in a 16th century list of crossbow effects; the stock is the wooden body on which the bow is mounted, although the medieval tiller is used. The lock refers to the release mechanism, including the string, trigger lever, housing. A crossbow is a bow mounted on an elongated frame with a built-in mechanism that holds the drawn bow string, as well as a trigger mechanism that allows the string to be released; the Chinese trigger mechanism was a vertical lever composed of four bronze pieces secured together by two bronze rods. The nu is so called, its stock is like the arm of a man, therefore. That which hooks the bowstring is called ya, for indeed it is like teeth; the part round about the teeth is called the'outer wall'.
Within there is the ` hanging knife' so called. The whole assembly is called ji; the earliest European designs featured a transverse slot in the top surface of the frame, down into which the string was placed. To shoot this design, a vertical rod is thrust up through a hole in the bottom of the notch, forcing the string out; this rod is attached perpendicular to a rear-facing lever called a tickler. A design implemented a rolling cylindrical pawl called a nut to retain the string; this nut has a perpendicular centre slot for the bolt, an intersecting axial slot for the string, along with a lower face or slot against which the internal trigger sits. They also have some form of strengthening internal sear or trigger face of metal; these roller nuts were either free-floating in their close-fitting hole across the stock, tied in with a binding of sinew or other strong cording. Removable or integral plates of wood, ivory, or metal on the sides of the stock kept the nut in place laterally. Nuts were made of bone, or metal.
Bows could be kept taut and ready to shoot for some time with little physical straining, allowing crossbowmen to aim better without fatiguing. Chinese crossbow bows were made of composite material from the start. European crossbows from the 10th to 12th centuries used wood for the bow called the prod or lath, which tended to be ash or yew. Composite bows started appearing in Europe during the 13th century and could be made from layers of different material wood and sinew glued together and bound with animal tendon; these composite bows made of several layers are much stronger and more efficient in releasing energy than simple wooden bows. As steel became more available in Europe around the 14th century, steel prods came into use. Traditionally, the prod was lashed to the stock with rope, whipcord, or other strong cording; this cording is called the bridle. The Chinese used winches for large mounted crossbows. Winches may have been used for hand held crossbows during the
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