ABSTRACT
We saw in chapter 9 that by the end of the fourth century the Roman empire had in effect been split into two independent states (even though contemporaries did not regard this as a formal division). After a long period marked by economic and cultural decay, foreign invasions and internal strife the Roman empire of the West finally came to an end in 476 AD, when the last Western emperor was overthrown by his German mercenaries. The loss of the western provinces transferred the centre of gravity in the empire from the Latin to the Greek element and accelerated the transformation of the Roman empire of the East into the medieval Byzantine empire. Byzantium inherited from Rome a great deal of her political, social and cultural institutions; Roman law remained in force as a living system, and the concept of imperium Romanum, now in the form of imperium Christianum, furnished the basis of Byzantine political theory. Though the elements of continuity between the Byzantine world and the world of antiquity are clear and undeniable, so too are the differences. Byzantine civilisation was a new cultural synthesis based on the classical traditions of antiquity but combined with important new elements introduced by the upheavals of the later imperial era and by the rise of Christianity. Justinian, more than any other ruler, was responsible for establishing the finished forms and setting the tone of the Byzantine society. The distinctive features of the emerging Byzantine culture are clearly manifest in his political, religious and artistic programme. His legislation too, despite its classical leanings, naturally shows traces of Greek and eastern influences.
