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JonF311's avatar

Thanks for this!

Re: Constantine moved the imperial capital across the Aegean Sea to modern Turkey in the early 4th century

A very minor quibble: Constantinople is still on the European side of the Bosphoros. And the western capital itself was moved up to Milan or to the more easily defended Ravenna. A book I read about the decline and fall of Rome noted that in 2nd and 3rd centuries AD grand celebrations, the equivalent of a modern world's fair, were held in Rome to mark the nine hundredth and one thousandth anniversaries of the city's founding. But In the 4th century no effort was made to mark that anniversary.

Also to note: the Byzantine Empire held territory in Italy right up until the high Middle Ages. To this day there are two small pockets of Greek speakers in the far south. Byzantium meddled endlessly in the affairs of the Papacy in the first millennium, not always to good effect: all the political maneuvering debased the office. Meanwhile the imperial crowning of Charlemagne was the reaction of Pope Leo, himself either Greek or maybe Arab, to the usurpation of the throne (by the expedient of blinding her own son) of the Empress Irene.

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Mark Melias's avatar

Thanks for the review. The deep roots of the schism are fascinating.

Does the book deal at all with non-Latin, non-Greek Christian traditions? I wonder if similar cultural differences explain why Miaphysitism took off among Syriacs and Copts.

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