Byzantine survival 550-850

The Inheritance of Rome, Chris Wickham

Maurice war leader
ended Persian frontier war, set up Khusrau II as shah
Germanic, Sclavenian raids in the Balkans
Avars are Turkic speakers, set up hegemony over Sclavenians north of the Danube
Maurice successful, but army revolts when he wants them to winter north of the Danube
General Phocas kills him, becomes emperor
first successful overthrow of an emperor in the eastern empire since 324
between 602 and 820, only 5/21 emperors died naturally
Chaotic succession
Heraclius succeeds Phocas, deals with Persians
Syria conquered in 613, Palestine in 614, Egypt in 619, 616-617 Persians reach the Bosporus
626: Avar-Sclavenian army to the west and Persian army to the east converge on Constantinople
fail to take it
628 Heraclius retakes everything
Arabs take Syria in 636, Palestine in 638, Egypt in 639-642.
Heraclius dies 641, Byzantines don't get them back

First Iconoclasm
Leo
Constantine V turns it into imperial policy, prosecutes Iconophiles
Constantine's son Leo did not live long, widow Eirene ran the show
Eirene opposes Iconoclasm
Second Nicaea invents Orthodoxy, to a large extent invents, gives structure and identity to, Iconoclasm
icons now must be venerated, per Second Nicaea
Popes have been very anti-Iconoclasm
Franks have some sympathy with it
Eirene wanted to unite Rome and Constantinople
Eirene has her son blinded and deposed
overthrown in turn by Nikephoros

Bulgars, led by khagan Krum, take over Bulgaria
kill Nikephoros in battle, first since Valens at Adrianople in 378

Second Iconoclasm
Military threats, people think that the empire was more successful under Iconoclasm, bring it back
Then things go downhill militarily again
Theodora brings back iconophilia, Orthodoxy, exhumes and destroys Constantine V's body, puts Eirene's in the imperial mausoleum