中世纪世界生活手册（八）
灾难的时代：诺曼人、塞尔柱人和曼齐刻尔特之战（1071年）
无论军事胜利在获得的那一刻是多么的荣耀，它都很少是持久的。1071年，诺曼人实现了将拜占庭人赶出意大利南部的野心。同年，在帝国的另一端，灾难以可怕的塞尔柱土耳其人的形式袭来。塞尔柱人在与他们的死敌埃及法蒂玛王朝的战争中，暂停了进攻安纳托利亚东部和亚美尼亚。由于多年来的财政疏忽，拜占庭军队无法组建足够的防御力量，导致军区系统几乎崩溃，民间内讧，而保加利亚人又发起了试图重新获得独立的反击。拜占庭皇帝罗曼努斯四世·戴奥真尼斯（1068-71）被他的部队背叛，在安纳托利亚东部的曼齐刻尔特战役中被塞尔柱统治者阿尔普·阿尔斯兰俘虏。获释后，罗曼努斯四世发现他的敌人密谋将他的对手米海尔七世·杜卡斯（1067-78）推上王位。米海尔违背了罗曼努斯四世和阿尔普·阿尔斯兰之间的协议，在1073年帝国陷入内战的时候派兵进入安纳托利亚，从而注定了拜占庭的命运。塞尔柱人摧毁了拜占庭军队，并确保了他们对拜占庭帝国在小亚细亚的农业粮仓的控制。
However tremendous military victories might seem at the moment of their gain, they are seldom enduring. The Normans fulfilled their ambitions to oust the Byzantines from southern Italy in 1071. In the same year and at the opposite end of the empire, disaster struck in the form of the awesome Seljuk Turks. The Seljuks had paused in their wars with their archenemy the Fatimids of Egypt to attack eastern Anatolia and Armenia. The Byzantine forces were unable to muster an adequate defense because of years of financial neglect, leading to the virtual collapse of the theme system, civil infighting, and the simultaneous attack launched by the Bulgarians in an attempt to regain their independence. The Byzantine emperor Romanus IV Diogenes (r. 1068–71) was betrayed by his troops and captured by the Seljuk ruler Arp Arslan at the fateful Battle of Manzikert in eastern Anatolia. Upon his release, Romanus IV found that his enemies had conspired to place his rival Michael VII Doukas (r. 1067–78) on the throne. Michael sealed the fate of Byzantium by reneging on the agreement between Romanus IV and Arp Arslan and sending his troops into Anatolia in 1073 at a time when the empire was spiraling into civil war. The Seljuks destroyed the Byzantine army and secured their control over what had been the Byzantine Empire’s agricultural breadbasket in Asia Minor.
科穆宁中兴和十字军东征
在科穆宁家族的巧妙领导下，拜占庭帝国像凤凰涅盘一样，在军事、财政和领土上都从曼齐刻尔特战役的失败中恢复过来。第一任科穆宁王朝的统治者是伊萨克一世（1057-59年），他是“保加利亚屠夫”巴西尔二世的手下。伊萨克一世明智地决定将其精力投入到帝国的财政改革中，取消了朝臣的养老金和补助金，并侵吞了较富裕的修道院的一些资产。在阿莱克修斯一世·科穆宁（1081-1118年）的领导下，王朝重新开始了真正的发展。
Slowly but surely, like a phoenix rising from its ashes, the Byzantine Empire recovered militarily, financially, and territorially from the Manzikert debacle under the skillful leadership of the Comneni dynasty. The first Comnenos to rule was Isaac I (r. 1057–59), a protégé of Basil II “the Bulgar-slayer.” Isaac I wisely decided to devote his energy to financial reform of the empire by revoking the pensions and grants of courtiers and appropriating some of the assets of the wealthier monasteries. The dynasty began in earnest under the leadership of Alexios I (r. 1081–1118).
在军事方面，科穆宁皇帝在四次决定性的战役中战胜了他们的敌人。在拉维尼欧战役战役（1091年）中，皇帝阿莱克修斯一世敏锐地寻求库曼突厥部落的帮助，以迷惑入侵安纳托利亚的佩切内格突厥人。由于大分裂仅发生在几十年前的1054年，阿莱克修斯一世试图与罗马和解，以确保教皇对拜占庭抵抗塞尔柱突厥人的支持。1095年，皇帝在皮亚琴察会议上向教皇乌尔班二世派遣了一个使团，希望教皇以雇佣兵的形式组建远征军帮助拜占庭。会议的结果产生了第一次十字军东征（1095-99年），这导致了十字军耶路撒冷王国的建立。对拜占庭来说，更重要的是恢复了小亚细亚的许多领土，包括罗德斯岛、尼西亚、非拉铁非（Philadelphia，现称为Alaşehir）和以弗所。阿莱克修斯的功绩通过他杰出的女儿，历史学家安娜·科穆宁娜的著作为我们所知，她是《阿莱克修斯传》（Alexiad）的作者。
On the military front, the Comnenan emperors vanquished their enemies in four decisive battles. In the Battle of Levounion (1091), Emperor Alexios I astutely solicited the aid of the Cuman Turkic tribe to confound the invading Pecheneg Turks who had invaded Anatolia. As the Great Schism had occurred only a few decades earlier, in 1054, Alexios sought to make amends with Rome in order to secure papal support against the Seljuk Turks. In 1095 the emperor dispatched an embassy to Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza with the hope of obtaining military aid in the form of mercenaries. The result was the First Crusade (1095–99), which led to the establishment of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Of greater significance for Byzantium was the restoration of many territories in Asia Minor, including Rhodes, Nicaea, Philadelphia, and Ephesus. Alexios’s feats are known to us through the hand of his remarkable daughter, the historian Anna Comnena, the author of the Alexiad (History of Alexios I).
约翰二世科穆宁（John II Comnenos，1118-43年）在1122年保加利亚的韦里亚战役（Beroia）中消灭了残余的佩切内格人。战役结束后，下一场战斗是针对匈牙利王国的，该王国正试图将其领土扩展到达尔马提亚和克罗地亚，从而对拜占庭在巴尔干地区的优势地位构成明显的威胁。1167年，在曼努埃尔·科穆宁皇帝（1143-80）在位期间，拜占庭在锡尔米乌姆（塞尔维亚）战役中战胜了匈牙利人。鉴于十字军在第一次十字军东征期间经过拜占庭时造成的破坏，曼努埃尔对第二次十字军东征（1147-49）时给予他们的支持并不热心。尽管如此，双方还是达成了一项协议，拜占庭允许十字军通过，以换取对十字军国家（安提阿、耶路撒冷、的黎波里和埃德萨）建立拜占庭保护国。结果，拜占庭的影响在圣地扩大了，希腊东正教的大教堂和修道院以及宏伟的圣墓教堂（位于耶路撒冷著名的基督埋葬地）的建造和东正教礼仪的定期举行就是见证。
John II Comnenos (r. 1118–43) destroyed the remaining Pecheneg forces at the Battle of Beroia in Bulgaria in 1122. After the dispatch of the Turkic enemies, the next battle was to be fought against the Kingdom of Hungaria, which was seeking to expand its territory into Dalmatia and Croatia, thus posing a clear threat to Byzantine supremacy in the Balkans. The Byzantines prevailed over the Hungarians at the Battle of Sirmium (Serbia) in 1167 during the reign of Emperor Manuel I Comnenos (r. 1143–80). Given the destruction the crusaders wrought while passing through Byzantium on their way to the Holy Land during the First Crusade, Manuel proved less enthusiastic about lending them his support for the Second Crusade (1147–49). Nevertheless, an agreement was reached to allow them passage in exchange for the establishment of a Byzantine protectorate over the Latin Kingdom of Outremer (Antioch, Jerusalem, Tripoli, and Edessa). As a result, Byzantine influence extended in the Holy Land, as witnessed by the building of Greek Orthodox basilicas and monasteries as well as the magnificent Church of the Holy Sepulchre, located on the reputed site of Christ’s burial in Jerusalem, and the regular performance of the Orthodox liturgy.
也许是对战胜敌人的胜利和在圣地获得的新力量感到震惊，曼努埃尔在1176年弗里吉亚（小亚细亚）的密列奥塞法隆战役中试图向帝国的大克星塞尔柱突厥人复仇。虽然拜占庭在数量上的损失没有曼齐克尔特战役那么大，但在密列奥塞法隆战役的失败在心理上的伤害也许更大。它确凿地证明了拜占庭人无法击败突厥人，并迫使拜占庭永远放弃对安纳托利亚高原的念想。
Perhaps reeling from the victories over his enemies and his newfound strength in the Holy Land, Manuel sought to take his revenge upon the Seljuk Turks, the great nemesis of the empire, at the Battle of Myrokephalon in Phrygia (Asia Minor) in 1176. Although Byzantine numeric losses were not nearly as large as at Manzikert, the defeat suffered at Myrokephalon was perhaps psychologically more damaging. It proved conclusively that the Byzantines were unable to defeat the Turks and forced Byzantium forever to renounce its claims to the Anatolian plateau.
普洛尼亚制度——拜占庭的“封建制度”
在行政方面，阿莱克修斯一世和他的孙子曼努埃尔一世通过建立土地授予的普洛尼亚制度进行了重大改革。为了减少政治反对派的可能性，他通过婚姻与贵族建立了战略联盟，并将这些家族中的许多人纳入政府和宫廷，这在科穆宁家族崛起之前曾导致了内战。普洛尼亚土地赠予加强了贵族的忠诚度，其额外的好处是将潜在的异议者从君士坦丁堡的首都赶走。阿莱克修斯和他的继任者约翰和曼努埃尔一世还重组了军队，将军区系统转变为主要由普洛尼亚制度赠款资助的科穆宁军队。科穆宁军队包含由拜占庭和外省士兵、骑兵、弓箭手和步兵组成的平衡部队，其中包括著名的斯堪的纳维亚瓦兰吉亚卫队，这支军队战略性地驻扎在拜占庭的各个省份。约翰对攻城战很重视，他每年几乎都会发起目标有限但可实现的战役，这解释了他在统治期间扩张领土所取得的成绩。曼努埃尔一世对军队中的贵族军官也采用了普洛尼亚制度。
On the administrative front, Alexios I and his grandson Manuel I made significant reforms through the institution of the pronoia system of land grants. In order to diminish the likelihood of political opposition, which had led to civil war before the rise of the Comnenias, he built strategic alliances with the nobility through marriage and incorporated many of these persons into the government and the court. The loyalty of the nobility was strengthened by the pronoia land grants, which had the added benefit of removing potential dissenters from the capital at Constantinople. Alexios and his successors John and Manuel I also restructured the army by transforming the theme system into the Comnenian army financed largely through pronoia grants. The Comnenian army was organized into balanced units of Byzantine and provincial soldiers, cavalry, archers, and infantry, with the famous Scandinavian Varangian Guard, among others, strategically stationed throughout the Byzantine provinces. The emphasis that John placed on siege warfare and the launching of annual battles with limited but realizable objectives explains the extraordinary territorial gains during his rule. Manuel I applied the pronoia system to the aristocratic officers of the army.
普洛尼亚与它的前身军区系统有些不同。首先，土地授予不是世袭的。而且，它们与欧洲传统封建制度有某些相似之处。pronoiar（土地受让人）没有对战略家进行个人忠诚的宣誓，因为皇帝仍然是土地的合法所有者。在这里，pronoiar（土地受让人）也与封建农奴不同，后者对领主的忠诚和服务的庄严承诺是其获得土地的必要前提。庄园主获得了从农业和贸易中收取税收的权利，以及从狩猎和运输中收取关税的权利。作为交换，他必须为皇帝提供军事服务，但不能强迫他的纳税人加入，而农奴有义务在战斗中协助他们的领主。
The pronoia differed somewhat from its predecessor the thema system. In the first place, the land grants were not hereditary. In this sense they shared certain parallels with Latin feudalism. The pronoiar (land grantee) did not swear an oath of personal loyalty to the strategos, since the emperor remained the legal owner of the land. Here, too the pronoiar differed from the feudal serf whose solemn pledge of loyalty and service to his lord were the necessary preconditions of his acquisition of land. The pronoiar acquired the right to collect tax revenues from agriculture and trade and to collect duties from hunting and transportation. In exchange, he owed the emperor military service but could not compel his taxpayers to join him, whereas serfs were obliged to assist their lord in battle.
在1204年君士坦丁堡被洗劫一空之后，中央对普洛尼亚制度进行了基本改革。尼西亚的流亡统治者约翰三世·杜卡斯·瓦塔兹（Johan III Dukas Vatatzes）（1221-54年）开始对教会和贵族妇女采取普洛尼亚制，以进一步提升了他在民众中的支持率，以此对抗贵族们的反叛。当拜占庭在1261年从十字军手中夺回君士坦丁堡时，皇帝米海尔八世·巴列奥略戈斯采取了非常规措施，将普洛尼亚转变为世袭财产，并将其改组为军事单位，使pronoiars（土地受让人）几乎不可能拒绝服兵役。他还行使权利，没收了pronoiar（土地受让人）的税收，为政府或军事行动提供资金。通过这些改革，普洛尼亚系统开始类似于欧洲传统的封建主义。
Essential reforms were introduced to the pronoia system in the wake of the debacle of the sacking of Constantinople in 1204. The exiled ruler Johan III Dukas Vatatzes of Nicaea (r. 1221–54) began to grant pronoia to the church and noblewomen in an effort to extend his support among the populace further and to counter opposition among the nobility. When the Byzantines recaptured Constantinople from the crusaders in 1261, Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus took the extraordinary step of transforming the pronoia into hereditary holdings and reorganized them into military units, making it virtually impossible for pronoiars to refuse military service. He also exercised his right to confiscate pronoiar tax revenues to finance the government or military adventures. With these reforms the pronoiar system began to resemble Latin feudalism.
君士坦丁堡被洗劫及其后的情况
第四次十字军东征（1202-04）开始时只是一次征服埃及的军事朝圣之旅，但很快就演变成了一场涉及雄心勃勃的拜占庭王子阿莱克修斯四世-安杰洛（1203-04年）和威尼斯教主（1192-1205）之间的权力游戏。由于无力支付教区长向十字军收取的高昂费用，十字军从他的港口租用和运输船只，通过围攻威尼斯人在扎拉（克罗地亚）的基督教敌人并向君士坦丁堡进军来“支付”威尼斯人所需的报酬。向君士坦丁堡进军的表面原因是为了让阿莱克修斯王子成为皇帝，因为他曾承诺让拜占庭教会与罗马重新统一，并向教皇承诺提供大量资金资助对埃及的十字军东征。相反，十字军洗劫了这座城市，摧毁了那里的建筑物，并洗劫了竞技场，在此过程中偷走了四匹宏伟的铜马，这些铜马今天在威尼斯的圣马可广场熠熠生辉。
The Fourth Crusade (1202–04) began as a military pilgrimage to conquer Egypt but soon evolved into a power play involving the ambitious Byzantine prince Alexios IV Angelos (r. 1203–04) and the Venetian doge (1192–1205). Unable to pay the exorbitant fees that the doge had charged the crusaders to hire and launch ships from his ports, the crusaders “paid off” the Venetians by besieging the Venetians’ Christian enemies at Zara (Croatia) and marching on Constantinople. The ostensible reason for the march on Constantinople was to install Prince Alexios as emperor, since he had promised to reunite the Byzantine Church with Rome and promised the papacy large sums of money to finance the crusade against Egypt. Instead, the crusaders ransacked the city, destroyed buildings, and looted the Hippodrome, stealing in the process the four magnificent bronze horses that today grace the Plaza of San Marcos in Venice.
对君士坦丁堡的洗劫摧毁了拜占庭帝国。十字军建立了一个短暂的君士坦丁堡拉丁王国，1261年由迈克尔八世恢复了帝国对希腊地区的统治。在这个间歇期，出现了三个继承拜占庭的国家：尼西亚帝国，由巴列奥略王朝控制；特拉比松帝国，由特拉比松的亚历克塞一世（1204-22年）建立；以及伊庇鲁斯专制国，由杜卡斯家族统治，最初由米海尔·科穆宁·杜卡斯（1205-15）统治。(despotate一词来自于拜占庭的宫廷称号despotes（专制君主），意思是“领主”。) 这些权贵都为自己争取到了皇室的头衔。即使在米海尔八世重建拜占庭帝国后，伊庇鲁斯专制国仍抵制重新整合，并一直生存到14世纪中叶，当时它被并入了塞尔维亚帝国。
The sacking of Constantinople devastated the Byzantine Empire: The crusaders established a short-lived Latin Kingdom of Constantinople, which was restored to Greek rule by Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261. During this interregnum period three successor Byzantine states emerged: the empire of Nicaea, which was controlled by the Palaeologian dynasty; the empire of Trebizond, founded by the Comnenian Alexios I (r. 1204–22); and the Despotate of Epirus, ruled by the Dukas dynasty initially under Michael Comnenos Dukas (1205–15). (The term despotate is derived from the Byzantine courtly title of despotes, meaning “lord.”) Each of these potentates claimed the imperial title for himself. Even after Michael VIII reestablished the Byzantine Empire under his rule, the Despotate of Epirus resisted reintegration and survived until the mid-14th century, when it was annexed to the Serbian empire.
特拉比松帝国还保持着对拜占庭的自治权，这在很大程度上是因为在1258年蒙古领主旭烈兀摧毁巴格达后，它作为丝绸之路西部终点站的特权地位。从那时起，特拉比松得到了蒙古人的保护，到13世纪末，这个国家作为一个主要的贸易和艺术中心而举世闻名。通过政治阴谋、战略联姻以及与蒙古人和塞尔柱人的联盟，特拉比松甚至在1453年奥斯曼帝国征服君士坦丁堡之后仍设法生存下来，尽管其最后一位皇帝大卫一世最终在1461年屈服于奥斯曼人的优势海军力量和凝聚力。
The Empire of Trebizond also maintained its autonomy from Byzantium, in large measure because of its privileged position as the western terminus of the Silk Road after the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongol lord Hulaghu Khan in 1258. From then on Trebizond enjoyed the protection of the Mongols, and by the end of the 13th century the state acquired international fame as a leading center of trade and the arts. Through political intrigue, strategic marriages, and other alliances with the Mongols and the Seljuks, Trebizond managed to survive even beyond the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, although its last emperor, David I, would finally succumb to the superior naval power and cohesion of the Ottomans in 1461.
拜占庭帝国的崩溃
学者们倾向于就奥斯曼帝国征服君士坦丁堡的原因进行辩论，其方式与罗马灭亡的原因大致相同。可以举出许多原因，但主要原因一定是没有意识到11世纪突厥人在安纳托利亚的大规模定居所带来的危险，这一过程与七个世纪前西罗马帝国的“野蛮人”入侵有明显的相似之处。在科穆宁王朝建立之前的内战期间，突厥部落成功地建立了对小亚细亚一半以上的拜占庭领土的实际控制。尽管许多科穆宁王朝的皇帝，特别是阿莱克修斯一世和约翰二世，对突厥部落发动了成功的战役，但他们从未对其取得过彻底胜利，更不用说成功地驱逐他们了。曼努埃尔一世在圣地与十字军的阴谋诡计转移了小亚细亚的宝贵注意力和资源，使突厥人在那里进一步巩固势力。1204年君士坦丁堡被洗劫一空，随之而来的是拜占庭敌对国家的建立，这种内讧使其无法建立从突厥部落手中夺回安纳托利亚所需的持续和统一的阵线。
Scholars tend to debate the reasons for the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in much the same way as those for the fall of Rome. Many reasons could be cited, but the primary causes must be the failure to perceive the dangers posed by the massive settlement of Turkic peoples in Anatolia in the 11th century, a process that finds obvious analogies with the “barbarian” invasions of the Western Roman Empire seven centuries earlier. During the period of civil war that immediately preceded the founding of the Comneni dynasty, Turkic tribes had managed to establish de facto control over more than half of the Byzantine territories in Asia Minor. Although many of the Comnenian emperors, especially Alexios I and John II, waged successful campaigns against the Turkish tribes, they never obtained a definitive victory over them, let alone managed to expel them. Manuel I’s machinations with the crusaders in the Holy Land diverted valuable attention and resources from Asia Minor, allowing the Turks further to entrench themselves there. The sacking of Constantinople in 1204 and the resultant establishment of rival Byzantine states perpetuated the civil infighting that made it impossible to create the sustained and united front needed to retake Anatolia from the Turkic tribes.
拜占庭灭亡的另一个原因可能是军事结构中军区系统的消亡，这在罗马军队后期的侵蚀中也能找到相似之处。与科穆宁时代的军队相比，军区系统有几个重要的优势。前者在数量上占优势，部队长期驻扎在各省，与规模较小且较为集中的科穆宁军队形成鲜明对比。军区系统也更经济，可以方便快捷地动员更多的战斗人员参加战争。事实证明，科穆宁的普洛尼亚制度在招募士兵时要昂贵得多，而且不那么可靠。1204年的失败和随后的帝国分裂耗尽了国库，使拜占庭处于经济崩溃的边缘。在这种情况下，皇帝无法维持一支庞大的常备军，不得不像古典罗马人那样，依靠廉价但不可靠的雇佣兵。最终，内部体制的弱点和间歇性的内战与奥斯曼帝国对拜占庭的征服一样，甚至比军队的责任更大。
A further cause of the fall of Byzantium may be found in the demise of the theme system of military organization, which also finds its parallels in the erosion of the Roman army in the late period. The theme system had several important advantages over the Comnenian army: The former was by far numerically superior, with troops permanently stationed throughout the provinces, in contrast to the smaller and more concentrated Comnenian forces. The theme system was also more economical and allowed larger numbers of fighting men to be mobilized for war easily and quickly. The Comnenian pronoia system proved far more expensive and less reliable at the hour of recruiting soldiers. The debacle of 1204 and the ensuing division of the empire drained the coffers and placed Byzantium at the brink of economic ruin. Under such circumstances, the emperor was unable to maintain a large standing army and was obliged, as was his classical Roman counterpart, to rely upon cheaper but unreliable mercenaries. In the end internal institutional weakness and intermittent civil wars were as much to blame as, if not more than, the army for the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium.
虽然拜占庭帝国落入奥斯曼帝国之手，并被伊斯兰化，但东正教拜占庭的遗产将在希腊和东欧的领土上继续存在，包括俄罗斯、格鲁吉亚、亚美尼亚、保加利亚、马其顿、塞尔维亚、罗马尼亚和乌克兰，这些国家在拜占庭传教士的努力下拥抱基督教。奥斯曼帝国的穆斯林保持了伊斯兰教对宗教少数群体的宽容传统，这使得希腊宗主国和东正教得以生存。尽管看起来很讽刺，但即使是奥斯曼帝国的统治者也自诩为东罗马帝国的继承人。
Although the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans and would become Islamicized, the legacy of Orthodox Christian Byzantium would survive in Greece and in the territories of eastern Europe that include Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, and the Ukraine, which embraced Christianity thanks to the efforts of Byzantine missionaries. The Ottoman Muslims maintained the Islamic dhimmi tradition of tolerance of religious minorities, which allowed the Greek patriarchate and Orthodox Christianity to survive. As ironic as it may seem, even the Ottoman rulers were self-styled heirs of the Eastern Roman Empire.
拜占庭帝国的关键人物
狄奥多拉皇后（约500-548；527-548年）
狄奥多拉是一位杰出的女性，她从一个低贱的妓女成长为查士丁尼皇帝的妻子，她影响了查士丁尼法典中许多“新律”（Novellae）的编写。其中一些法律赋予妇女前所未有的权利。她是一个深信不疑的基督一性论信徒，她软化了皇帝对基督一性论的政策，有时甚至直接干涉支持东正教尼卡尼-卡尔西顿派的基督教。在她的影响下，查士丁尼在死前不久接受了一性论。
A remarkable woman who rose from being a lowly prostitute to become the wife of Emperor Justinian, Theodora influenced the writing of many of the “Novelties” (Novellae) in the Justinian Code. Some of these laws granted women unprecedented rights. A convinced Monophysite, she softened and sometimes directly undermined the emperor’s policies against Monophysites in pro of Orthodox Nicaene-Chalcedonian Christianity. Under her influence, Justinian would embrace Monophysitism shortly before his death.
查士丁尼一世
他是拜占庭历史上最重要的皇帝之一，他是第一个将整个罗马法体系化为统一法典的人，即Corpus juris civilis（民法体系），这影响了教会教规法，后来也促使罗马法在中世纪西方的复兴。他发动了哥特战争（535-552），收复了西班牙、北非和意大利的大部分地区，并在那里建立了拉文纳总督区。
One of the most important emperors in all of Byzantine history, he was the first to systematize the entire corpus of Roman law into a uniform code, the Corpus juris civilis (Body of civil law), which influenced ecclesiastical canon law and later prompted the revival of Roman law in the medieval West as well. He launched the Gothic Wars (535–552), which led to Byzantium’s recovery of much of Spain, North Africa, and Italy, where he established the Exarchate of Ravenna.
希拉克略皇帝
在波斯萨珊王朝日益严重的威胁下希拉克略重组了拜占庭军队，建立了一个由军事和准封建战略家管理的土地庄园制度（thema，军区制）。新制度使拜占庭军队成为整个基督教世界中最强大的军队，并使希拉克略能够收复被波斯人夺去的小亚细亚领土。希拉克略是伊斯兰教兴起时期的皇帝，他对犹太人的迫害将直接影响到埃及、叙利亚和巴勒斯坦对阿拉伯人的损失。他在雅尔穆克战役（636年）中击败了穆斯林，使拜占庭帝国免于毁灭。
In the wake of increasing threats by the Persian Sassanids, Heraclius restructured the Byzantine army by founding the institution of the thema system of landed estates under the governorship of a military and quasi-feudal strategos. The new system made the Byzantine army the most powerful in all of Christendom and enabled Heraclius to recover Asia Minor territories lost to the Persians. Emperor at the rise of Islam, in his persecution of the Jews he would directly influence the loss of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to the Arabs. His defeat of the Muslims at the Battle of Yarmuk (636) saved the Byzantine Empire from certain destruction.
大马士革的圣约翰
作为一名叙利亚修士和富有魅力的传教士，约翰在730年爆发的圣像破坏者之争中崭露头角，并将他的余生和许多著作都献给了对圣像的热情辩护，认为它对基督教教义和基督徒的救赎至关重要。他还担任了大马士革倭马亚统治者的首席顾问，这个职位是从他父亲那里继承的。然而，他还写了《论异端》，这是最早的神学论文之一，对伊斯兰教进行论战。
A Syrian monk and charismatic preacher, John rose to prominence during the Iconoclast Controversy that erupted in 730 and devoted the rest of his life and many of his writings to the ardent defense of icons as essential to Christian doctrine and Christian salvation. He also served as chief councillor to the Umayyad rulers at Damascus, a post inherited from his father. Yet he also wrote Concerning Heresy, one of the first theological treatises polemicizing against Islam.
伊苏里亚的利奥三世
在717年伊斯兰教对君士坦丁堡的围攻中，他成功地保卫了帝国，但由于煽动了破坏圣像的争论（730-787，814-842），宣布崇拜圣像为非法，从而在帝国内部以及拜占庭和罗马之间引发了宗教和政治分裂。利奥被一种坚定的信仰所驱使——帝国对教会元老的至高无上的要求，这种政治立场受到了罗马教皇的挑战，在东正教和天主教之间的最终大分裂（1054年）中起了决定性作用。
He successfully defended the empire during the Islamic siege of Constantinople in 717 but would precipitate a religious and political schism within the empire and between Byzantium and Rome by instigating the Iconoclast Controversy (730–787, 814–842), which outlawed the worship of icons. Leo was driven by a firm belief in caesaropapism—the claim of imperial supremacy over the church patriarch, and this political stance, challenged by the Roman pope, would be decisive in the final Great Schism (1054) between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.
安娜·科穆宁娜
她是拜占庭公主和学者，是科穆宁王朝创始人阿莱克修斯一世·科穆宁（1081-1118年）的女儿。阿莱克修斯在对塞尔柱人的战争中请求罗马的帮助，引发了第一次十字军东征。作为第一位女历史学家，她在《阿莱克修斯传》中详细介绍了父亲的生活和统治，这是第一次十字军东征最重要的历史记录之一。
A Byzantine princess and scholar, she was the daughter of Alexios I Comnenos (r. 1081–1118), founder of the Comneni dynasty. Alexios’s request for help from Rome in his war against the Seljuks sparked the First Crusade. Famed as the first woman historian, she detailed the life and reign of her father in her Alexiad, one of the most important historical chronicles of the First Crusade.
《Handbook To Life in The Medieval World》（2008）
By Madeleine Pelner Cosman and Linda Gale Jones
未完待续！
