ABSTRACT
Byzantium played an important role in the history of Ruthenia. At first, the lands of the Eastern Roman State were a lusty target for looting expeditions. But trade also flourished there. In time, the ruling Ruthenian princes intermarried with the Byzantine dynasts. It was directly from Constantinople that the Ruthenian rulers adopted Orthodox Christianity. Until roughly the thirteenth century, the Intermarium was divided into the pagan north and the Orthodox Christian south. The lack of unity and the failure to understand nomadic military tactics translated into a fearsome calamity: the Mongol invasion and the khans' domination of the Ruthenian lands. The Mongols dealt with the haplessly disunited Ruthenian princes usually one by one in a series of gory battles in 1223 and 1238–1242. The resistance was uneven: eastern Ruthenian areas submitted practically without a fight. The resisting areas shook off the Mongol domination within 150 years mostly as a result of the Lithuanian offensive in the fourteenth century.
