But does the rain not fall equally upon all peoples, does the sun not shine for all,
and do we not all breathe the air in equal measure? Wherefore, then, are you not ashamed
to recognize but three tongues, and command the other nations and races to be blind and deaf?
These are the words that Constantine of Thessaloniki used against his Constantinopolitan
detractors to defend the use of Old Church Slavonic, the language used to prosthelytize
amongst the Slavs of Moravia. His Christianization work would signal the beginning of what is perhaps
Byzantium’s most enduring cultural and diplomatic legacy; the ‘The Byzantine Commonwealth’.
This was an extensive network of diplomatic, monastic, and cultural exchange which saw the
Eastern Roman Empire export its culture and religion across vast swathes of eastern Europe
and the Caucasus, a legacy that still exists in many countries in those regions today. Welcome
to our video on the Byzantine Commonwealth, its long life and enduring legacy to the modern age.
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The term ‘Byzantine Commonwealth’ emerged in the 20th Century, largely coined by Russian émigré
and renowned Byzantinist, Dimitri Obolensky. Obolensky considered the Commonwealth to be a
typical core-periphery system, with Constantinople as the dominant power, spreading influence to far
outlying regions. Obelensky envisioned a system in which active Byzantine diplomacy allowed for
the spread of the Empires’ cultural soft power. However, other historians, such as Christian
Raffensperger, prefer the term ‘Byzantine ideal’. In this concept, Christianized states
within Eastern Romes’ orbit imitated Byzantine notions of kingship and prestige, but were not
diplomatically bound to them. An example of this lies in Bulgarian Czars such as Simeon, who openly
aspired to be universal monarchs at the expense of Byzantium, and later, Muscovite Czars who
defied the will of Byzantium in the 14th Century. In any case, when it comes to Byzantium’s cultural
impact on other nations, most scholars focus on the states of Eastern Europe, such as Bulgaria,
Serbia, Romania, Ukraine and Russia, whose Eastern Orthodox faith is a direct result of
historical contact with Eastern Rome. However, the Byzantine Commonwealth’s reach goes beyond that,
reaching into Georgia, Orthodox Christians in Anatolia and the Caucasus, as well as Hungary,
Bohemia, Moravia and even Lithuania. Let us now explore how this commonwealth worked,
and examine the cultural and diplomatic networks that emerged from its expansion.
The beginnings of what would become the Byzantine Commonwealth emerged in the 9th Century CE.
During this period, the Empire was occupied with many northern wars. Ever since the 6th Century CE,
Slavic tribes had been descending into the southern Balkans,
pushed by nomadic incursions. These tribes had been quite troublesome for the Byzantines,
who tried to subdue them by isolating them politically and converting them to Christianity.
This had limited success, due in part to the Byzantine policy of forced expulsions to break
up Slavic tribal and kinship groups to erode political and cultural unity.
However, while some tribes in modern day Bulgaria and Serbia embraced the Roman God,
there were many relapses into paganism, which the Byzantines considered rather detestable.
In 862, major progress in Christianizing the Slavs was made when Prince Rastislav
of Moravia requested that evangelist scholars be sent to his realm to convert the people of his
kingdom. To that end, Emperor Manuel III required scholars familiar with the culture of the Slavs.
The ideal candidates were Cyril and Methodius, two brothers who were both literate and well-learned
monks, and had spent a large parts of their lives in multicultural Thessaloniki, where many Slavs
lived. Rastislav’s decision to invite Byzantine monks to his Kingdom was politically motivated,
as he sought political independence from the Franks who had assisted in his ascension to power.
Indeed, Frankish influence in Moravia was strong, and Cyril and Methodius faced struggles with rival
prosthyletizers: German monastics from nearby Bavaria, who had influence in the region and
preferred Latin liturgies. To compete with this, the two brothers worked to create the Glagolitic
alphabet, which they used to translate a large corpus of Biblical scripture into old church
Slavonic, a language much closer to the dialects spoken by the locals than the Latin used by
Frankish priests. The Glagolitic alphabet would later be adapted by the Bulgarians to create the
Cyrillic alphabet many Slavic nations use today. Infact, Bulgaria would be one of Byzantium’s
largest diplomatic victories. When Emperor Boris was trying to break out of the diplomatic
isolation born of his Kingdom’s pagan nature, both the Franks and the Byzantines swept in to compete
over who would convert the Bulgarians. Eventually, Boris went with the Eastern Romans,
and Bulgaria remained a predominantly Eastern Orthodox nation to this day. A similar pattern
can be seen in the 11th Century CE, when a Hungarian tribal leader called Gyula II,
was baptized in Constantinople. While eventually both Hungary and Czech lands became Catholic,
they still remained part of the Byzantine Commonwealth both culturally and politically
throughout the middle ages, albeit with less intensity than Serbia, Bulgaria and Russia.
Sending monks or scholars to foreign lands was a staple Byzantine diplomacy, and in doing so,
Byzantine ideas of divinely ordained power and hierarchy were exported to neighbouring nations.
Byzantine cosmology often linked Neoplatonism with Orthodox Christianity, resulting in the
Byzantines being depicted as God’s chosen people, akin to the Israelites of the Bible.
Byzantine scholars, particularly monastics such as Dionysius the Areopagite or John of Damascus,
often legitimised Byzantine cultural supremacy using theology. The Empire as a mirror of
Paradise is a common Byzantine literary theme, and this is also reflected in Byzantine art.
Due to itinerant Roman monks, this philosophy soon spread to outlying lands, and allowed various
Eastern European kings to unify their kingdoms. For example, Bulgaria in the early Middle Ages,
faced strife due to a dualist religious movement known as Bogomilism. This was a Christian heresy
which saw the material world as sinful and regarded church authorities with contempt.
The Bulgarian Empire thus promoted the theological supremacy of their leaders
to suppress the movement, a doctrine learned from Eastern Roman religious philosophy.
As the Eastern Romans pushed religious ambassadors into foreign lands, so too did foreigners flow
into Constantinople. The wealth of the Byzantine Empire was something that drew many of the Pagan
Slavic, Vlach, or Kartvelian peoples to the city of Constantinople. We have already discussed the
appeal of Christianity to the medieval state of Kyivan Rus in one of our previous episodes,
whose Norse leaders saw it as the great city of Miklagard. Across medieval Eurasia,
pagan peoples were not viewed favourably by many, so conversion to either Christianity or Islam
allowed for better access to major silk road trade hubs, which were dominated by Islamic
and Christian powers like the Caliphate and, of course, Eastern Rome. Byzantium, being at the
nexus of Silk Road trade, made Christianization extremely tempting for many pagan peoples.
The prestige of Constantinople as a top travel destination
amplified Byzantium’s diplomatic power. When foreign dignitaries visited Constantinople,
they were often treated with majestic receptions in places such as Hagia Sophia.
This served to make foreign rulers want to emulate and be connected to a large and illustrious empire
such as Byzantium, a partnership which came with many benefits for the rulers and their subjects,
benefits like the aforementioned deployment of monks and scholars like Cyril and Methodius
for local rulers to utilise, which provided the ability to build state and ecclesiastical
apparatuses to unify their states. Marriage alliances were also common. Princesses like
Simonida and Helena Palaiologina, which married into Serbian and Muscovite royal families,
or Anna Porphyrogennita, who married into the Kyivan Rus’s princely house,
played important roles as both diplomats and as cultural ambassadors.
While not all of the members of the Byzantine Commonwealth were Orthodox, religion was one of
the defining features of Byzantine influenced nations. Many of the kingdoms that received
Eastern Rome, such as the Rus, Serbia and Bulgaria, were linked via Byzantine Christianity.
This gave rise to the belief among Byzantine elites that their domain was not linked to the
lands controlled by the Emperor of Constantinople, but stretched to wherever Orthodox Christians
lived. However, despite this pan-religious camaraderie, discrimination still existed, with
Slavic peoples often considered to be barbaric in language, compared to the sophistication of Greek.
Byzantine statecraft often served as one of the models of the ascendant empires.
This usually meant the legal and cultural unification of the state,
under Orthodox-inspired emulation of Byzantium. For example, one of Bulgaria’s most powerful
monarchs, Simeon the Great ushered a major era of cultural flourishing in the Bulgarian Empire.
In fact, Simeon’s reign is testament to the fact that Byzantium was not the unquestioned
leader in the Commonwealth. Simeon engaged in diplomatic and trade wars with Byzantium,
and gained land from both Byzantium, Hungary and Serbia. Simeon was very successful in his
military campaigns, breaking off Prince Tomislav of Croatia’s links with Constantinople via treaty.
Simeon also promoted Slavonic literature, particularly via the Ohrid and Preslav
Literary Schools. It was in these schools that the Cyrillic alphabet was formalised,
replacing the Glagolitic script previously used by the Slavs. As a result of all this,
Bulgaria became one of the bulwarks of Slavonic literature throughout the Slavic-speaking world.
Another intriguing part of the Byzantine Commonwealth is the legal influence
Eastern Rome had on its cultural satellites. The Byzantines, long considered to be major legalists
since the time of Justinian, were useful as models of building unifying legal codes.
In fact, Cyril and Methodius were some of the first writers of the Slavic Civil Code, a legal
text harmonising the laws of Moravia. Other figures such as Sava the Illuminator of Serbia,
merged local Serbian law and Byzantine law, forging a new legal code known as
Zakonopravilo. There is also the factor of monasteries and mystics, which often united
the disparate parts of the Commonwealth via cultural and theological production.
A major centre of this was Mount Athos in modern day Greece. Originally a monastic centre, the Holy
Mountain began to welcome many monastic complexes from throughout the Commonwealth, as well as
Catholics. Throughout the late Middle Ages, these centres produced monks who went on to found
monasteries throughout the region. Graham Speake has termed this ‘The Athonite Commonwealth’.
Figures such as John the Iberian and Efthymios the Athonite, who hailed from Georgia,
founded monasteries in the mountain and produced voluminous translations and scholarly texts.
Through this, a common spiritual and philosophical network emerged, allowing for cultural bonds
between the peoples of the Commonwealth. Sava the Illuminator, one of the most influential figures
in early Serbian history, is also said to have come to the Holy Mountain many times to study and
live an ascetic life. Upon his return to Serbia, he founded many bishoprics and monasteries
precisely with the goal of Christianizing the whole of the country. His organisational and
literary work was prolific and produced many great parts of Serbian classical literature. For this
reason, after his death, Sava was made a Saint and his cultural legacy lasts in Serbia to this day.
Beyond Athos, Other monasteries throughout the commonwealth often provided places for translation
of Greek texts, such as the monasteries in Kyiv. Another interesting consequence of the Byzantine
Commonwealth is the adaptation of art and saintly cults in eastern Europe. Byzantine art schools
spread through the monasteries to the entire region, as did the cults of particularly popular
saints. For example, military saints such as George, Demetrios and Theodore were often highly
regarded in Byzantium. Especially after Byzantine wars with the Islamic Caliphates. Their cults seem
to have spread to the Rus, a state founded by warlike vikings, in a very organic fashion. In
the Rus, these Saints were seen and depicted as primarily warriors. This means that they appealed
to the Rus princes specifically for their military prowess, not necessarily their religious fervour.
The Catholic world was not passive to this Byzantine diplomatic and cultural network.
We have already discussed the presence of Bavarian ecclesiastes in the Czech lands.
Slowly and over time, the presence and reorganisation of the church structure
shifted the power towards the Archbishop of Mainz, tilting towards Catholicism later on.
In the north, Catholicism spread through Poland, while various chivalric orders spread Catholicism
amongst the pagan population in the Baltics. In the Crusades, various Catholic movements occurred
throughout the Balkans, even in Byzantium itself after the Palaiologian Restoration. These changes
often had geopolitical reasons, such as the Treaty of Florence or the Treaty of Nymphaion.
Tensions then rose between Moscow and Constantinople for this very reason,
causing rifts by the 15th Century. Diplomacy was also used by the Pope in Bulgaria and Armenia.
The Pope utilised the animosity between Byzantium and Armenian Cilicia
and provided the Armenian kings with titles. This was the beginning of the connections between Rome
and Armenia that would give birth to Armenian Catholicism. In Bulgaria, the Pope gave the
Czars legitimacy via the donation of banners and re-sacralization of the Bulgarian kingship.
Many churches and peoples often would choose one side or another for their own protection
or for political ends. Some communities such as the Maronites in modern-day Lebanon
accepted the primacy of the Pope. This is actually a prelude to the appearance of many
Eastern Catholic Churches in the 15th-16th Century, which would be first used to bring
Catholicism via Orthodox rites, and then be persecuted by Orthodox empires. However,
the synodic system of Orthodox Christianity often allowed for empires to stay Orthodox and clash or
change geopolitical camps, such as Byzantium’s turn to the West during the Ottoman incursions.
The attempts of Byzantium to restore Communion with Rome produced many fractures with the other
major centre of the Orthodox world, Muscovite Russia. The continuous wars in the Balkans and the
eventual Ottoman conquest produced many fractures with the other Balkan Orthodox countries.
In addition, the autonomy of each state meant that each took their geopolitical and cultural
interests first. When Constantinople fell in 1453, the Commonwealth as a concept can be said to have
ended, with other Balkan Orthodox countries being conquered by the Ottomans a few years later.
However, the Rum Millet of the Ottoman Empire, and the appeals of the Russians Czars as protectors
of Orthodoxy in the Early Modern Period, can be seen as descendants of the bonds of the Byzantine
Commonwealth. The ecclesiastical, artistic links of Eastern Europe are still evident
in Churches throughout the region. Each member of the Commonwealth acted as its own agent both
during and after the Commonwealth’s end. But the cultural developments and connections that were
ushered by these networks, regardless of whether a country stayed with Constantinople or Rome,
have built lasting links that survive to this day. More videos on Byzantine history are on the way,
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