Alexandria: The
Byzantine Period It is with the ascension of the
Roman emperor Constantine that
a new era began for Alexandria, as well as for the Empire
as a whole. By defeating his co-ruler Licinius (Rome had
begun the practice of having two rulers, one for the
eastern half of the Empire, and one for the western
half), Constantine became sole emperor. He created an
eastern capital for the Empire in the city of Byzantium,
which he renamed Constantinople (this would not be the
last name change the city would go through, after the
sack by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 it would be called
Istanbul). His new capital, in which he spent much of his
remaining life until his death in AD 337, was small but
growing, but it was a far cry from the mighty city it
would become under the Byzantines. Constantine imported
Greek and Roman statuary to decorate the city, ordered
the construction of buildings in the traditional Roman
style, and had half the grain shipments from Alexandria
shipped to Constantinople. Yet what Constantine is most
noted for today was his policy towards the various
religions in the Empire. He supported both the Roman
religion as well as Christianity. Clerics of both faiths
were exempted from taxation and having to serve on city
councils (a move which prompted a great number of
ordinations), the same financial help which had been
given to the building of Roman temples was now shared
with the Christians, and Constantine himself was
responsible for the construction of the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. Constantine also gave land
and money to build a great church in Rome, which would
later grow into the headquarters of the Christian
religion: the Vatican.
With so much emphasis on Constantinople, and the fact
that much of the Egyptian grain production was being
shipped there, Alexandria began to slip from its position
at the center of the Mediterranean world. Meanwhile the
old Roman Empire crumbled under barbarian invasions and
internal conflict, and the Byzantine Empire rose in its
place. The center of the world moved to Constantinople,
which under the Byzantines became a center for art,
science, and religious and secular learning. Alexandria
continued to influence the world, only more subtly now.
In 529 the emperor Justinian
closed the Academy of Athens, forbidding the teaching of
what he called "pagan philosophy", yet
Alexandria's schools remained open, teaching
Atristotelian and Platonic philosophy well into the
eighth century.
Alexandria also received
another moment of glory during the Byzantine Era, as the
Byzantines became rather infatuated with classical Greek
culture that had been largely lost under the Romans, but
well-preserved by the learned of Alexandria. Royal
patronage of the arts and sciences had long disappeared,
yet the poets, teachers, and scholars went on for their
art's sake, supporting themselves through pedagogy and
commissioned writing. But this was not to last. In the
early seventh century the most successful Persian attack
on the Byzantine Empire took both Jerusalem and
Alexandria. The emperor Heraclius managed to beat back
the Persians to the point of collapse but a new onslaught
began, this time from the south. After battling the
Persians, the Byzantine rulers had little hope of
defeating the forces that came sweeping north from the
deserts of Arabia. The final defeat of the Byzantine
armies in 636 left Palestine and Syria open to conquest
by the Arabs, and they spread like wildfire over northern
Africa, eventually bringing Alexandria under their
control in 642.
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