In 802, what gift did Charlemagne receive from the Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid?
an elephant named Abu al-Abbas
Byzantium's major advantage was its
strategic position on the Bosporus
What is NOT true of Constantinople?
It was built in an attempt to revitalize the impoverished eastern half of the Roman empire
The most important political feature of the Byzantine state was
its tightly centralized rule under a powerful emperor
The mixture of secular and religious authority that marked Constantine's reign as well as that of the Byzantine emperors is known as
caesaropapism
Historians use the term caesaropapism to refer to
the system in which the emperor has a mixture of political and religious authority
The wife of Justinian, who proved to be an invaluable adviser, was
Theodora
Theodora's career before marrying Justinian was as a
striptease artist
Hagia Sophia was
the magnificent church at Constantinople
Justinian's most important and long-lasting political achievement was
his codification of Roman law
Justinian's issuance of the Corpus iuris civilis
won recognition as the definitive codification of Roman law.
Constantinople withstood sieges in 674-678 and 717-718 by
Muslim forces
One of the causes of Byzantine resurgence was the political innovation wherein a general was given military and civil control over an imperial province, or
theme
After the collapse of western Roman authority,
Germanic tribes established regional kingdoms
Roman imperial power ended in 476 C.E. with the invasion of
the Germanic general Odovacer
Which Germanic tribe played the most important role in establishing the foundations of European development?
Franks
Charlemagne maintained diplomatic relations with
Harun al-Rashid and the Abbasid empire
Even though Charlemagne spent much of his time traveling around his empire, he did establish a capital at
Aachen
What is true about Charlemagne?
He was mistrustful of intellectual pursuits
Charlemagne made use of the missi dominici, or
envoys of the lord ruler
The main goal of the missi dominici was to
bring the counts under tighter control
When presented with the imperial crown, Charlemagne
hesitated to call himself emperor out of respect for the Byzantine emperors
On Christmas Day 800, Charlemagne received the imperial crown from
Pope Leo III
A direct challenge to the Byzantine emperor arose in the year 800 when the pope gave an imperial crown to the Frankish king,
Charlemagne
After the death of Louis the Pious, the Carolingian empire
was split into three parts by his sons
Constantinople was raided at least three times in the ninth and tenth centuries by the
Vikings
The theme system
made land available to the peasants in return for military service
The bezant
was the Byzantine gold coin that became the standard currency in the Mediterranean basin
One of the biggest reasons for increased agricultural production in Europe was the
introduction of a heavier plow
Historians once used the term feudalism to refer to
the political and social order of medieval Europe
In medieval society, political power was vested in
local authorities
The most important relationship in feudalism was between
lord and retainer
By the year 1000, the population of the two provinces of Christendom rose to about
thirty-six million
Who provided the Roman church with a sense of direction by reasserting papal primacy?
Gregory I
Emperor Leo III inaugurated the divisive ecclesiastical policy of
iconoclasm
St. Basil of Caesarea
played a key role in the rise of monasticism
The Benedictine Rule was spread to women living in convents by
St. Scholastica
In 1054 the pope in Rome and the patriarch in Constantinople
mutually excommunicated each other
Saints Methodius and Cyril
devised the Cyrillic alphabet
What city, influenced heavily by Constantinople, was most important in the early rise of Russia?
Kiev
The rise of Orthodox Christianity in Russia was helped by the conversion in 989 of
Prince Vladimir
True/False Historians refer to the era from about 500 to 1500 CE as the medieval period of European history�the "middle ages.
True
True/False Justinian was the Byzantine emperor who attempted to reconstruct Rome's greatness
True
True/False Corpus iuris civilis was the definitive codification of Roman law
True
True/False Charlemagne permanently reestablished imperial rule in the Frankish realm during his reign from 768 to 814
False
True/False The term "Vikings" originally referred to a group that raided the British Isles from their home in Vik in southern Norway
True
True/False Medieval western Europe was a society where cities thrived and trade linked all of the regions
False
True/False By the time the Roman empire collapsed, Christianity was the principal source of religious, moral, and cultural authority throughout the Mediterranean basin
True
True/False Basil II began iconoclasm
False
True/False St. Basil of Caesarea played an important role in the rise of monasticism
True
True/False St. Cyril helped to create a written Slavic alphabet
False
True/False Prince Vladimir helped convert Russia to Orthodox Christianity
True