Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire

The fall of Byzantium

Political and social conditions in the Empire

Page 10

It suffices to remember that Constantinople was subject to equal or even greater danger many times before 1453, and it was in fact captured by the Latins in 1204 and then regained by the Greeks in 1261. No one could be sure that the 14th or even the 15th century was the fatal, no matter how great the power of the Turks increased (even greater was at the time of the liberation, in 1821, when Greeks were even weaker than 1453). What more would they do if they did not follow the customs? Constantinople was not about solitary heroes; it was about a whole world, with its institutions, customs, beliefs, that had to be saved. Forgetting about that would be equal to destroy this world even before the coming of the Turks. Whether we 'like' the Byzantine ways, there is a consistency in them, according to which survival as such was not an absolute value, rather far from that.

Ceremonies was just a part of this system, which was responsible for the long life of Byzantium. We can not praise and blame at the same time this characteristic, without which the Byzantine state would not have lasted to the 15th century in the first place, and Byzantine culture would not have endured the sufferings of a four centuries long islamic occupation. To this characteristic Bury approaches when he writes (see History of the Later Roman Empire, pp. 13-14) that even the Emperor "always considered himself bound by the laws. An edict of A.D. 429 expresses the spirit of reverence for law, as something superior to the throne itself, which always animated the Roman monarchs. 'To acknowledge himself bound by the laws (alligatum legibus) is, for the sovran, an utterance befitting the majesty of a ruler. For the truth is that our authority depends on the authority of law. To submit our sovranty to the laws is verily a greater thing than Imperial power.' Deep respect for the rules of law, and their systematic observance characterised the Roman autocracy down to the fall of the Empire in the fifteenth century, and was one of the conditions of its long duration. It was never an arbitrary despotism, and the masses looked up to the Emperor as the guardian of the laws which protected against the oppression of nobles and officials."

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