The Byzantine Empire Essay

“The period of really intense political and cultural activity in the Byzantine Empire began after coup de’etat of 856.” The Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty reached “military power and political authority, and also the revival and flowering of Byzantine culture in all its aspects from philosophy to painting.” The Byzantine Empire really had political and cultural progress and expansion during this period. They were so superior to “its western and eastern foes” because “Western Europe staggered under the blows dealt by the Saracens, Vikings, and Magyars, and the Arabs lost the momentum that had carried them forward for two centuries.” Therefore, they managed to spread their culture, and “enjoyed the relative calm, wealth, and
Meantime, “the consolidations of the Bulgarian realm and the emergence of new centers of political life in Serbia and Croatia caused the Slav communities to gravitate towards one or the other of these emerging nations.” According to Obolensky, “as the latter acquired more developed institutions and a more distinctive group consciousness, their leaders began to reach out for the fruits of Byzantine civilizations” as a result of the Byzantine Empire social expansion. “This movement of the Balkan Slavs into empire’s political and cultural orbit gathered momentum in the relatively peaceful conditions of the second half of the ninth century.” Overall, wars and being under Macedonian Dynasty caused the Byzantine Empire’s cultural expansion, and the states interacted with the Byzantine Empire acquired and accepted the movement of this cultural expansion, and this period began more peaceful and productive for the Byzantine Empire and the related