Byzantine culture would develop from the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. How would it develop differently? What influenced its separation? Identify distinct social, religious, political, and economic characteristics such as language, architecture, liter
adad36In the early Roman Empire the east and west empire were as one but when the empire split the gap between the two halves of the empire began to widen.
The west was failing to evolve clinging onto the old ways of the empire while the east began to take on the ways and innovations of the cultures it ruled. One of the major innovations was the incorporation of the flourishing of Christianity. Bringing the people together under that one religion, under a single cannon of doctrine, helped solidify the standing of the eastern empire. The counsel of Nicea which codified doctrine for the church standardized what was to be taught and drew the people in rather than letting them keep their varied and often opposing theologies.
Further innovations from the Middle East and western Asia lead to changes in thought and engineering resulting in works like the Hagia Sophia with its domes and windows supported on the advanced geometric shape that went beyond the basic arch. The concept of containing rather than destroying your enemies also played a large role in the survival of the Eastern Empire well after Rome fell. The idea that past enemies could be future allies worked well for them until the final fall of the empire to the rising tide of Islam.