Three
Creating New Identities (c.750–c.900)
IN THE SECOND HALF of the eighth century the periodic outbreaks of the Plague
of Justinian that had devastated half of the globe for two centuries came to an end. In
their wake came a gradual but undeniable upswing in population, land cultivation, and
general prosperity. At Byzantium an empress took the throne, in the Islamic world
the Abbasids displaced the Umayyads, while in Francia the Carolingians deposed the
Merovingians. New institutions of war and peace, learning, and culture developed,
giving each state—Byzantium, the Islamic caliphate, Francia—its own characteristic
identity (though with some telling similarities).
Byzantium: From Turning within to Cautious Expansion
In 750 Byzantium was a state with its back to the world: its iconoclasm isolated it
from other Christians; its theme structure focused its military operations on internal
defense; and its abandonment of classical learning set it apart from its past. By 900,
all this had changed. Byzantium was iconophile (icon-loving), aggressive, and
cultured.
NEW ICONS, NEW ARMIES, NEW TERRITORIES
Within Byzantium, iconoclasm sowed dissension. In the face of persecution and
humiliation, men and women continued to venerate icons, even in the very bedrooms
of the imperial palace. The tide turned in 780 when Leo IV died and his widow,
Irene, in effect became head of the Byzantine state as regent for her son Constantine
VI. Long a secret iconophile, Irene immediately moved to replace important
iconoclast bishops. Then she called a council at Nicaea in 787, the first there since
the famous one of 325. The meeting went as planned, and the assembled bishops
condemned iconoclasm. But iconoclastic fervor still lingered, and a partial ban on
icons was put into effect between 815 and 843.
At first the end of iconoclasm displeased the old guard in the army, but soon a
new generation was in charge. Already before Irene’s rule Byzantium’s militia had
been reformed and the theme organization supplemented by an even more responsive
