In 135 CE the Emperor Hadrian declared a new city on the site of Jerusalem, called Colonia Aelia Capitolina. A new municipal plan was introduced which bore hardly any resemblance to the former city. Indeed the Roman influence is felt to this day: the main streets of the Old City still follow the Roman grid.

The Forum,established in the city center, consisted of public buildings including a temple of Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love. The Roman 10th Legion was camped in the western part of town near the Citadel. Jerusalem was no longer the country's capital nor itsÊeconomic center. Its religious status also declined: Jews were not permitted to enter, while Christianity was still a forbidden religion.

Constantine's assumption of power as sole ruler of the Roman Empire wrought a transformation in the status of Christianity. No longer was it an outlawed and persecuted faith; in fact, it would soon become the Empire's official religion. These developments had a significant impact on Jerusalem. Churches were built on sites identified as sacred to Christianity, attracting large numbers of pilgrims from all corners of the Empire.

This process shaped Jerusalem both materially and spiritually. The city grew in size and population and was the focus of specialÊattention from the authorities. Monks and clerics made Jerusalem their home; it became the main stay of Christian learning and spiritual creation.

By order of the Emperor Constantine and under the auspices of his mother, the Empress Helena the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Resurrection were built in Jerusalem. Another great church, erected on Mount Zion and known as the "Mother of Churches" - commemorated the site of the Last Supper and the "dormition" of Mary.

In the 5th century the Empress Eudocia settled in Jerusalem, she had the city's boundary extended southward and a wall built that encompassed Mount Zion and the Siloam Pool. She also built a church at the Siloam Pool and another north of the Damascus Gate, dedicated to St. Stephen.

Jerusalem's official status within the church hierarchy was also enhanced. Coinciding with the appointment of the city's bishop, Juvenal, as Patriarch, Jerusalem was made a patriarchate, joiningÊRome, Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria.

During the 6th century the Cardo (the city's main thorough fare), which begins at the Damascus Gate, was extended southward. Near its southern extremity the Emperor Justinian erected a vast church, the Nea (new church), in honor of Mary, mother of God. For contemporary Christians Jerusalem was above all else the actual site of the great events of the Scriptures, the church ofJerusalem celebrated each holiday at its historic location. The holy places became the stage on which the Biblical tales were presented as plays, with the participation of worshippers and pilgrims.

In 614 the country fell to the Persians. The conquest of Jerusalem was a bloody affair in which thousands of inhabitants were massacred. Many churches, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, were destroyed and others were damaged. The sacred cross upon which Jesus was crucified was looted.

Fifteen years later, in 620, the Emperor Heraclius restored Byzantine rule and returned the cross to its place. But within a decade, in 638, Jerusalem surrendered again, this time to the forces of a rising power on the stage of history - the Muslim Arabs.

The building of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher - known to the Byzantines as the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis) at the order of the Emperor Constantine probably took ten years (326-335). It was a complex of monumental structures, including a rotunda built over the tomb, a great basilica, and columned courtyards. According to a fourth-century Christian tradition, it was Constantine's mother Helena who found the true cross at this site.

The Byzantine Empire was the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which survived for a thousand years after the western half had crumbled into various feudal kingdoms and which finally fell to Ottoman Turkish onslaughts in 1453. The city of Byzantium grew from an ancient Greek colony founded on the European side of the Bosporus.

In AD 330 the Roman emperor Constantine I, in an attempt to strengthen the empire, renamed Byzantium as Constantinople, the 'New Rome' and capital of the eastern half of the empire. At his death in 395 Emperor Theodosius I divided the empire between his two sons, and it was never reunited. Theodosius also made Christianity the sole religion of the empire, and Constantinople assumed preeminence over other Christian centers in the East as Rome did in the West.

The fall of Rome to the Ostrogoths in 476 marked the end of the western half of the Roman Empire.

The eastern half continued as the Byzantine Empire, with Constantinople as its capital. Constantine the Great wanted this city to be built from scratch as the center of the Christian world. He and his following emperors made Constantinople into one of the most elaborate and civilized cities in the world. The wealth that was displayed was incredible. Until the Fourth Crusade, Constantinople enjoyed 874 years of growth and stability. Few cities in history have lasted as long without being overrun by an invading army.

The monetary history was probably the most important aspect of the success of the empire. Constantine the Great introduced several monetary reforms with one of them being the creation of the gold Solidus at 72 to the Roman pound. This standard lasted throughout the history with only periodic debasement in economically stressed parts of the empire or during periods of extremely weak leadership. If anything can be learned from the Eastern Roman Empire is that monetary stability and strength lead to strength within a civilization.

The eastern realm differed from the western in many respects. It was heir to the Hellenistic civilization, a blending of Greek and Middle Eastern elements dating back to the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was more commercial, more urban, and richer than the West, and its emperors, who in the Hellenistic tradition combined political and religious functions, had firmer control over all classes of society. They were also more skillful in fending off invaders, through both warfare and diplomacy. With these advantages, the Byzantine emperors, who still considered themselves Romans, long nourished the dream of subduing the barbarian kingdoms of the West and reuniting the empire.

The greatest of these emperors was Justinian I (reigned 527-565), who with his able wife Theodora prepared for the reconquest by defeating the Persians on the eastern frontier and extirpating various heresies that had alienated the Roman Catholic church. He sponsored a compilation and recodification of Roman law and built the magnificent Hagia Sophia cathedral. Justinian's reconquests of North Africa and Italy were short-lived. The later years of his reign were marred by renewed war with the Persians and incursions by Bulgar and Slavic tribes, which created severe shortages of manpower and revenue.

The weakened empire, preoccupied with internal problems, grew less and less concerned with the West. Although its rulers continued to style themselves "Roman" long after the death of Justinian, the term "Byzantine" more accurately describes the very different medieval empire.

Perhaps the most significant cultural feature of the Byzantine Empire was the type of Christianity developed there. More mystical and more liturgical than Roman Christianity, it was also less unified because of age-old ethnic hostilities in the region, the survival of various heresies among the clergy in Syria, Egypt, and other provinces, and the early use of the demotic (vernacular) languages in religious services.

This disunity partly caused the sweeping success of the Arab invasions that began after Muhammad's death in 632. Within 10 years Syria and Palestine, Egypt and North Africa were under Muslim Arab control. Religious disunity continued to weaken the empire throughout the Iconoclastic Controversy (a dispute over the use of religious images, or icons) of the 8th and early 9th centuries, which left the Eastern Orthodox church split into factions and further alienated from Rome.

A formal schism between Eastern and Western churches was mutually agreed to in 1054. By that time the Eastern Orthodox church had been revitalized by successful missions among the Russians, Bulgars, and Slavs, some of them directed by the monks Cyril and Methodius, whose invention of Slavonic alphabets (still called Cyrillic) made possible the translation of the Bible and the spread of literacy along with Christianity in Slavic lands.

Although the empire had lost much territory to the Arabs and to the independent kingdoms established in the Balkan Peninsula, its remnants were strengthened by a number of institutional reforms. A new administrative unit, the theme, was introduced along with a system of military land grants and hereditary service that ensured an adequate supply of soldiers. It also laid the foundation for the emergence of great landed families who in later centuries would wage dynastic struggles for the imperial throne.

The Byzantine economy was actually strengthened by the loss of territory, as the shrinking empire allowed greater freedom to merchants and agricultural labour. All of these developments led to a golden age marked by a literary renaissance and brief resurgence of military and naval power under the Macedonian dynasty, whose founder, a peasant adventurer named Basil, murdered his way to the throne in 867.

The Macedonian emperors supervised the Hellenization of the Code of Justinian, into which they wrote the principle of imperial absolutism tempered only by the spiritual authority of the church. They also reversed for a time the military defeats of their predecessors and reconquered large areas from the Arabs and Bulgars. No matter how centralized their administration or how absolute their power on paper, the emperors were unable to stop the feudalization of the empire and the concentration of land and wealth in a few great families.

The rivalry between rural and urban aristocracies led each faction to nominate its own imperial candidates. While they were engaged in civil disputes, new enemies, the Normans and the Seljuq Turks, increased their power around the eastern Mediterranean.

In the late 11th century, Emperor Alexius I reluctantly sought help from the outside. He appealed to Venice, to whom he gave the first of the commercial concessions that helped make it a great maritime power, and to the pope, who in turn appealed to the feudal rulers of the West, many of them, ironically, Normans. These doubtful allies rapidly turned the ensuing Crusades into a series of plundering expeditions not only against the Turks but also against the heart of the Byzantine Empire.

The Fourth Crusade resulted in the fall of Constantinople to Venetians and crusaders in 1204 and the establishment of a line of Latin emperors. The empire was recaptured by Byzantine exiles in 1261, but under the final Palaeologus dynasty it was little more than a large city-state besieged from all sides.

In the 14th century the Ottoman Turks replaced the Seljuqs as the major enemy in the east. Almost the entire Balkan Peninsula fell to them, but their siege of Constantinople, begun in 1395, was prolonged by the city's near-impregnable strategic position and by Turkish factionalism. It ended in 1453, when the last emperor, also named Constantine, died fighting on the walls and the Turks took the city.

The final stronghold of Greek power, Trapezus (modern Trabzon, Turkey), fell to the Turks in 1461.

Byzantine art is generally taken to include the arts of the Byzantine Empire from the foundation of the new capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul) in AD 330 in ancient BYZANTIUM to the capture of the city by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The territory of the Byzantine Empire originally encompassed the entire eastern half of the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea but shrank to little more than Greece, part of southern Italy, the southern Balkans, and Anatolia after the Islamic invasions of the 7th century. In the period after the 12th century, the empire comprised little more than Constantinople and a few other outposts. The influence of Byzantine art, however, extended far beyond these borders, because arts derived from Byzantium continued to be practiced in parts of Greece, the Balkans, and Russia into the 18th century and, in some isolated monasteries, to the present day.

Moreover, it was during the 12th century that the influence of Byzantium on western European art, already an important factor in the preceding period, reached its zenith and played a truly generative role in the development within ROMANESQUE ART of a greater naturalism in style and humanism in content. Byzantine art could play this role because, throughout its long history, it maintained a connection with the artistic heritage of Greek and Roman art and architecture; it preserved and transmitted much of this heritage to the West until Western artists were able to approach antiquity directly.

Early Byzantine art must be considered in relation to the Early Christian condemnation of pagan idolatry and the consequent reluctance to depict sacred Christian figures and stories. Although many notable exceptions exist, figural scenes were usually avoided and were presented in an allusive symbolic mode or were embedded in complex programs that made the veneration of single images nearly impossible.

The magnificent mosaic program (546-48) of San Vitale in Ravenna focuses on the ritual of making offerings to Christ. He is depicted in the apse mosaic, receiving a model of the church from Bishop Ecclesius and bestowing a martyr's crown on its patron, Saint Vitalis. The same theme of offering is picked up both in Old Testament scenes of the offerings of Abel, Abraham, and Melchizedek and the famous twin panels of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora.

After about 550, such restraint weakened, and in 7th-century church decorations, such as those of the churches of Saint Demetrius at Salonika and Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome, small isolated panels depicting single figures begin to appear at or near eye level. The style of these works continues the tendency evident in the Theodora panel of San Vitale toward large-eyed, elongated figures arranged in formal hieratic frontal poses, almost compelling veneration. More important, these images are similar in style and subject matter to ICONS, whose great importance in Byzantine art dates from this period. Both panels and icons similarly invite overt veneration of the holy figures portrayed in this manner.

In the next century the fear of idolatry that haunted the Byzantines broke out in ICONOCLASM (726-843), the imperially sponsored wholesale destruction or obliteration of all art that depicted sacred figures, and the violent persecution of its opponents. Subsequently, religious art was limited mainly to images of the cross and of symbolic birds and plants, as in the 8th-century mosaics of Hagia Eiene (Church of the Holy Peace) in Constantinople. Secular art, however, seems, to have continued throughout the period and served as the foundation for the revival of Christian figural art in the succeeding period.

Toward the end of the 9th century, Byzantine religious art entered its "second Golden Age," often called the Macedonian Renaissance for the ruling dynasty. The term may be too strong, but it does correctly indicate the extent to which the art of the period, in both subject matter and style, often draws directly and deliberately on the Hellenistic and Roman classical heritage. Monumental art again exhibited relatively naturalistic and strongly modeled three-dimensional figures, often characterized by a restrained dignity and noble grandeur, as in the mosaic of the Virgin and Child (867) still in place in the apse of Hagia Sophia.

Within the newly developed and standardized Byzantine Greek-cross church, such figures were organized into consistent programs best preserved today in the churches of Hosios Lukas in central Greece (c.1000) and Daphninear Athens (c.1100).

At Daphni, the Pantocrator - Christ as Lord of the Universe--appears at the summit of the central dome, and the Virgin is represented in the apse above the altar as the instrument of Christ's incarnation. Below her the church on earth is represented by the saints, and around the upper parts of the vaults were arranged major scenes from the life of Christ. These scenes, which closely correspond to the major feast days of the Byzantine religious calendar, are often called a feast cycle and act as reminders of events in the life of Christ that are also reflected in the daily liturgy.

During the 11th and 12th centuries the mosaic system was carried by Byzantine mosaicists to Russia (Hagia Sophia at Kiev, 1043-46) and in Italy to Venice (Saint Mark's, after 1063) and to Norman Sicily. (Palatine Chapel, Palermo, 1140s; Monreale Cathedral, 1180s). At the same time, Byzantine art began to develop a much stronger humanistic approach, now with a greater concern for naturalism and for conveying a strongly emotional quality. In icons such as Our Lady of Vladimir (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), produced in Constantinople about 1130, the Virgin no longer displays her divine child to the people but interacts with it in more human terms, as the child turns toward her and clings to her neck. The use of FRESCOES in churches spread throughout the Balkans; clearly derivative of lost works in Byzantium itself, they show an extreme emotional intensity.

After the capture and sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the development of Byzantine art was severely disrupted, but not altogether ended. However, the period following the reestablishment of the empire (1261) in Constantinople under the Palaeologan dynasty saw a brilliant revival of intellectual life. Its greatest artistic monument is the splendid mosaic and fresco program of the small church of SAINT SAVIOR IN THE CHORA (Kariye Djami) in Constantinople, dating from the first decade of the 14th century, which combines a refined decorative quality with a delicate emotional sensibility, as in the striking Anastasis fresco in the pareccleseion, depicting Christ descending into Hell. Both the decorative and emotional qualities characterize the last phase of Byzantine painting. They occur, for example, in the frescoes of the churches of Mistra, the mountainside capital of the despotate of Morea in southern Greece. These frescoes date from the decades around the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 and mark the end of Byzantine art as such.

Thereafter, Christian art languished in the former Byzantine lands, which were all subject to Turkish rule; only in the young Russian state, where the Orthodox church remained dominant, did the artistic tradition inspired by Byzantium continue to develop.

In Byzantium the applied arts of manuscript illumination, IVORY CARVING, METALWORK, ENAMELWORK, and textile manufacture held an importance and achieved a magnificence seldom matched in other cultures. They were produced largely for the imperial court, for the altars of churches, or as diplomatic presents for export, such as Saint Stephen's Crown of Hungary. Such objects were avidly sought by Western medieval rulers and churchmen. They frequently served as models for works later produced locally and survive in large numbers in the major European and American collections. From the 6th to the 12th century, Byzantium held a monopoly on the production of silk textiles, which were treasured in the West.

For the development of Byzantine art the inherently conservative medium of ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS had a particular importance in preserving ancient traditions. Only a handful of the magnificent books produced in the pre-Iconoclastic period survive, of which the Rossano Gospels (Archiepiscopal Museum, Rossano, Italy), and the famous Vienna Genesis manuscript (Nationalbibliothek) are the outstanding examples; both contain many separate miniatures painted on purple parchment and may be dated to the 6th or 7th century.

Secular books were also profusely illustrated, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan preserving a text of Homer's Iliad (c.500) and the Vienna Nationalbibliothek a pharmaceutical manual, De materia medica (512), by the Greek physician Dioscorides. A strongly classical element is particularly characteristic of illustrated manuscripts, perhaps reaching its high point during the Macedonian Renaissance of the 10th century. In the famous Paris Psalter (c.950; Bibliotheque Nationale) a portrait of David composing the Psalms is placed in a rich pastoral landscape closely paralleling the Hellenistic-Roman art of Pompeii.

Classical subjects and a classicizing style may also be found in a certain type of secular ivories produced during the 10th century, such as the Veroli Casket (Victoria and Albert Museum, London), with its scenes taken from classical literature (Euripides) and mythology. Ivories were more commonly intended to serve as book covers or altar objects. Christian subjects were presented in a sober version of the classicizing idiom, with hieratically arranged rows of holy figures, as in the beautiful 10th-century Harbaville triptych (Louvre, Paris). This noble classicizing style is even more characteristic of Byzantine enamel work executed in CLOISONNE, in which the glowing gemlike colored enamels enclosed in burnished gold heighten the splendor. Examples of such works, among the most prized possessions of the courts and treasuries of Europe, include the jeweled Pala d'Oro altarpiece (mostly 12th century) in SAINT MARK'S BASILICA in Venice, and the reliquary at Limburgan der Lahn (964-65), decorated inside and out with enamel figures.

Although many local variants existed in different regions of the empire during most of the 4th and 5th centuries, Byzantine religious architecture used the two basic structures developed in EARLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE--longitudinal-plan BASILICAS, which served as meeting places for the eucharistic service, and centralized-plan buildings, which served as BAPTISTERIES and as martyria (memorials over tombs of martyrs).

Above is the interior of Sant Apollinare in Ravena, built by Justinian in commemoration of Ravenna's first bishop, Saint Apollinaris

Basilicas continued in use into the 6th century; splendidly preserved examples, with magnificent MOSAICS in the APSE above the ALTAR, may be seen at Sant'Apollinare in Classe (549), near RAVENNA in northern Italy and at Saint Catherine's monastery at Mount Sinai (c.560). At this time, however, during the reign of Emperor JUSTINIAN I the Great (527-65), centralized plans began to be used for congregational churches as well as for martyrs' shrines, probably because of the growing importance of the cult of relics. Important examples of such centralized churches are Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople (527-36) and the stylistically related octagonal church of SAN VITALE in Ravenna (532-47).

By far the most significant building is the great church of HAGIA SOPHIA (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (532-37), which retained a longitudinal axis but was dominated by its enormous central dome. Seventh-century Syriac texts suggest that this design was meant to show the church as an image of the world with the dome of heaven suspended above, from which the Holy Spirit descended during the liturgical ceremony.

The precise features of Hagia Sophia's complex design were not repeated in later buildings; from this time, however, most Byzantine churches were centrally planned structures organized around a large dome; they retained the cosmic symbolism and demonstrated with increasing clarity the close dependence of the design and decoration of the church on the liturgy performed in it.

Few major architectural projects were undertaken during the three troubled centuries following the death of Justinian in 565. During the late 9th- and 10-century revival, however, the classic Byzantine church, generally small in scale but richly decorated with mosaics, was developed. The typical church comprised a high central dome with four vaults arranged about it to form an equal-armed cross known as the cross-in-square or the Greek-cross church. This period also saw the increasing emphasis on the practice of closing off the chancel from the rest of the church with an ICONOSTASIS, a screen hung with icons and with a large central door. This arrangement was intimately bound up with the Byzantine liturgy; the architectural setting intensified the mystery of the Mass, most of which was performed in secret behind closed doors but included splendid processions that were symbolic manifestations of the divinity. The classic Middle Byzantine Greek cross church continued to be built without fundamental change down to the modern period, became the standard for the Slavic churches of Russia and the Balkans.

The essential articles of Byzantine dress are simple and easy to construct. The primary article of dress was called a tunica. The tunica served as the basic undergarment of both men and women, or the only garment for the working class and poor. The main over-garment worn both by men and women is called the dalmatica. This garment began a t-tunic, but became more tailored in eighth century. The essential line of a dalmatica is triangular, with narrowing sleeves or flaring sleeves.

Another over-garment for women only is the stola. The stola is unchanged from Roman times. Prior to seventh century the stola was the only over-garment for women. In seventh and eight centuries the stola developed bell-shaped sleeves and became undistinguishable from the dalmatica. Outer wear consisted of three different style cloaks, the paludamentum in semi-circle or trapazoid shapes and the paenula, a full circle cloak.Ê

The Byzantines were very fond of vibrant, bright colors, reserving royal purple for the emperor and empress. Their dress is richly ornamented with embroidery and trim. The highest classes ornamented with jewels, particularly pearls. Fabrics consisted of linen for tunicas and some dalmaticas, stolas,and cloaks; Silk for richer tunicas, dalmaticas, stolas and cloaks. Dalmaticas and cloaks were of wool as well. Egyptian cotton was found in tunicas, though very rarely.

Very little is known of Byzantine footwear, no examples have survived, and images show little.Ê Royal footwear does show jewels and embroidery. Accessories to wealthier Byzantine dress include: Sudarium, an elaborate embroidered handkerchief; contabulatim, a long embroidered cloth, sometimes fan-folded and wound around the body; pallium, a very rich, hem length, jeweled court tabard, worn by men; and the superhumeral, an elaborate embroidered and sometime jeweled collar. When extensions wear added to the superhumeral, it became a pallium.