Byzantine Empire Culture Analysis

After Basil II died, “it was followed by a period of decline during which in its foreign policy Byzantium lived on the prestige won in the previous age and at home gave free play to all the forces making for disintegration.” According to Ostrogorsky, the “breathing space was not spent in conservation and consolidation,” but it was a nice break time, although the empire had some “heroic achievements” and had a peace time. According to Ostrogorsky, “the ineffective successors of Basil II were not capable of carrying on the struggle against the feudal magnets.” “The economic and social structure of the Empire underwent a radical change.” “The landed aristocracy had won the game and the only question which remained was which particular section
According to Kazhdan and Epstein, “the crystallization of the nuclear family that had taken place by the ninth century drastically changed the social role of women.” That means women began to be more active in governing issues in the Empire. “The empresses Eirene and Theodora” began to influence on governing the states. “The traditional family structure seems to have modified in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries,” although family was very important for the Empire. The change in nuclear family in the Byzantine Empire may have affected on the Empire’s decline, too, because “reflecting this loosing of traditional internal family structures was the again-increased prominence of women.” This kind of issues on traditional family may have made imperial women think and act selfishly, such as Eirene and Theodora. “A comparison of late-eleventh-and twelfth-century aristocratic ladies with their predecessors manifests the trend in Comnenian society, for example empress Zoe was historically a significant one.” “With the shift in the structure of society toward the extended family, lineage became increasingly important in determining an individual’s status and power, and the use of patronymics was an external sign of this new concern.” So, those kinds of changes and disintegrations negatively influenced on the Empire, blocked its progress because individuals began to think of their benefits, and also a concept of nepotism emerged just after the 11th century in the Empire because of the extended family situation. Nepotism is an unfair concept, so this may negatively have influenced on the Empire, too. Overall, Kazhdan and Epstein investigated the issues in the Byzantine