6th century in Georgia. Sarmatians - the people of the mother

Scientists have discovered in Byzantine chronicles for 536-540 AD mentions about the covering of the Sun by a “black cloud”. This “blackout,” according to the chronicler Procopius of Caesarea and other chroniclers, lasted several months. It was with this celestial phenomenon that other cataclysms of that time were associated, such as crop failures, famine, political unrest and the Justinian plague.

Death "black" and "red"

The so-called Plague of Justinian was the world's first recorded plague pandemic. It got its name because it began during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and covered almost the entire civilized world. However, individual plague epidemics broke out for centuries after that - from 541 to 750.

Researchers believe that the source of the plague appeared in Ethiopia or Egypt, from where rats and fleas infected with the infection “arrived” through trade channels along with a cargo of grain to Constantinople. From there, the epidemic spread throughout Byzantium, and then spread to neighboring countries... By the end of 654, it reached North Africa, covering all of Europe, Central and South Asia and Arabia.

In Byzantium, the pandemic reached its climax by 544. If you believe the chronicles, in Constantinople alone up to 5 thousand people died from the plague every day, and sometimes the death rate reached 10 thousand people a day... 40 percent of the city’s population was destroyed.

In the East, about 100 million people died from the plague, in Europe - about 25 million. Irish sources speak of the crom conaill ("Red Death"), which became the cause of the death of many saints and monarchs in 549-550. So, it was from it that the Welsh king Gwynedd Maelgwn and Saint Finnian of Clonard died...

If desired, a prophecy about these events can be found in the Bible. This is what the ninth chapter of the Revelation of John the Theologian says:

“She opened the pit of the deep, and smoke came out of the pit like smoke from a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened from the smoke from the pit...

So I saw in a vision horses and their riders, who had armor of fire, hyacinth and sulfur on them; The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and from their mouths came fire, smoke and brimstone... From these three plagues, from the fire, smoke and brimstone coming out of their mouths, a third of the people died..."

Volcanic Horror

What happened? Scientists believe that the cause of the solar darkening was volcanic eruptions, traces of which were found in the ice of Greenland and Antarctica.

“Each of these eruptions, which occurred in 536 and 540, must have had a profound effect on the lives of civilizations at that time, and their effect was magnified by the fact that they occurred only four years apart,” comments Kruger. We know which volcanoes were responsible, but we have several candidates in Central and North America, as well as Indonesia."

Volcanoes are believed to have released large amounts of ash into the atmosphere, causing what is known as a “volcanic winter.” Something similar, only on a local scale, happened in 1815 after the explosion of the Indonesian Mount Tambora.

Ice and sulfur

Kruger and her colleagues found confirmation of the “volcanic” hypothesis by analyzing the chronicles of the 6th century and examining samples of Greenland and Antarctic ice that formed during that era.

It turned out that these ice fragments contain sulfur and other compounds that are found in large quantities in volcanic gases and ash. Thus, scientists managed to build a climate model that allowed them to reconstruct the events of the late 530s.

It turned out that the consequences of the climate cataclysm were much more serious than expected. The combined force of the two volcanoes' eruptions was the highest in the last 1,200 years.

As a result, the average temperature on Earth dropped by two degrees Celsius for several years, but climate change affected the northern hemisphere the most. Scandinavia, the Mediterranean coast, the Middle East and North Africa were “affected”.

The events described in the chronicles and the data from excavations in northern Europe and Africa fit well into this theory. According to researchers from the Kruger group, the “apocalypse” of the sixth century was “triggered” by volcanoes. AND there are no guarantees that this will not happen again...

2. Third - sixth centuries AD

The long crisis that shook the empire in the 3rd century brought with it complete desolation in the field of fiction in Latin. It is revived only after the crisis is overcome, but the conditions for its development turn out to have already changed dramatically. The absolute monarchy, created at the end of the 3rd century, moves the center from Rome to Constantinople, Christianity soon becomes the dominant religion. In literary development, the leading role also belongs to Christian literature. "Late Empire" IV - V centuries. - the time of the birth of medieval Latin literature. Ancient literature is in the process of dying out.

The old literary forms still continued to exist until the final collapse of the western part of the empire and its destruction by the “barbarians.” The conservative force that supported the old literary culture was the school, grammatical and rhetorical instruction. The school taught mastery of the old “classical” language, from which living linguistic development had already moved far away; she taught the old versification, based on the distinction between long and short syllables, which had already disappeared in the living language. The old language remains the class language of the elite, regardless of its religious affiliation; Christian prose writers [Minutius Felix (II - III centuries), Lactantius (III - IV centuries), Jerome (about 348 - 420), Augustine (354 - 430)] use the same rhetorical style as the pagans, and Christian poets retell biblical stories in the manner of Virgil or follow Horatian forms in their lyrics (a prominent poet is Prudentius, around 348 - 410).

Christian literature, which prepares further medieval development, lies outside the scope of our consideration. Here we will limit ourselves to a brief indication of several important phenomena associated with old literature.

Thus, he set himself the task of reviving Roman literature in the second half of the 4th century. a circle of aristocrats grouped around the orator Symmachus (about 350 - 410). This circle, which remains “faithful to the ancient religion, contrasts the traditions of the old Roman culture with Christianity, on the one hand, and “barbarism,” on the other. Preserving carefully verified texts of many Roman writers, creating commentaries on them, is one of the results of the activity of this mug. But the own literary work of conservative circles is characterized by ideological futility. The speeches and letters of Symmachus himself, beautifully finished stylistically, are extremely poor in content. Retellings of old authors, pretentious form and verse tricks, school pedantry and symbolic-allegorical fiction are characteristic features of this literature. A type of literary kunststück is represented by “centons” (patchwork dresses): a new work is created by combining verses taken from different places of a poet (most often Virgil).

From the poets of the 4th century. the most significant is Decimus Magnus Ausonius (about 310 - 395), teacher of grammar and rhetoric in Burdigal (modern Bordeaux) and educator of Emperor Gratian. This master of poetic play, who loved to compose “one-line” and “couple” (or “quatrain”) on the same theme, left several works of more than just formal and stylistic interest. These include Mose11a, a description of a trip along the Rhine and Moselle with various sketches of nature scenes, and “Ephemeris”, a description of a daytime pastime. Ausonius combines Roman patriotism with love for his native province, and in his numerous poems the cultural life of the top of Gallo-Roman society in the 4th century. receives a variety of reflections. The poet succeeds in depicting family feelings, friendships, and secular virtues; his interests do not penetrate deeper. Ausonius is a Christian, but his gaze is turned primarily to the past, and his works are loaded with all kinds of grammatical, mythological and historical-geographical “learning.” He knows classical poetry well and tries to directly join the poetic traditions of the 1st - 2nd centuries. n. e. (Martial, poets of the time of Hadrian).

Separation of the western part of the empire at the end of the 4th century. returned Italy to its lost political significance. Court poetry with political themes reappears, glorifying the successes of Rome in the fight against the “barbarians.” The most talented representative of this poetry on the verge of the 4th and 5th centuries. - Claudius Claudian (died 404), an Alexandrian Greek by origin, a brilliant master of verse who wrote poems in both languages. Claudian composes poems in honor of the Western Emperor Honorius and the de facto ruler of the West, Stilicho, and lashes out at the favorites of the Eastern Emperor; passionate invective against the eunuchs and intriguers of the court of Constantinople alternates with excessive praise addressed to the poet’s patrons. The unity of the Latin world in its opposition to the Greek empire found an eloquent and pathetic exponent in the person of Claudian: he glorifies the Roman past and proclaims the eternity of Rome. In his picturesque lyricism and rich use of mythological apparatus, Claudian often approaches the manner of Statius. His mythological epic “The Rape of Proserpina” is distinguished by great grace. The poem of Rutilius Namatianus, which describes in elegiac verse the author’s return from Rome to Gaul in 416, contains enthusiastic praise of Rome as the center of world dominion.

Many poems of later times have come down to us in a collection usually called the Latin Anthology. The collection was apparently compiled in Africa in the 6th century, but contains works from different times. Among them, “The All-Night Vigil of Venus” stands out for its artistic merit: the onset of spring and the feast of the birth of Venus are glorified by the author, for whom personal spring has not come. The poem is divided into unequal parts, bordered by the refrain: “Let him love tomorrow, who has never loved, and who has loved, may he love tomorrow.” Neither the author nor the time of the poem. unknown (maybe 4th century).

Non-church prose also feeds on old traditions. “Penegyrics” are compiled following the model of Pliny, biographies of emperors following the model of Suetonius. Of the late prose writers, in addition to the already mentioned Symmachus, the most interesting are Ammianus Marcellinus (about 330 - 400), the last major Roman historian, successor of Tacitus, and the philosopher Boethius, executed in 524 by Theodoric, author of the treatise “On the Consolation Delivered by Philosophy.” "

The development of narrative literature is characteristic. “The Acts of Alexander”, “Dictys”, “Daret” receive Latin adaptation, which became the source of medieval Europe’s acquaintance with these works. Another Latin adventure novel, “The History of Apollonius, King of Tire,” which developed a plot about a family scattered around the world and reuniting, also enjoyed enormous popularity in the Middle Ages. Apollonius is haunted by misfortunes. He has to escape from King Antiochus, whose incestuous relationship with his daughter he unraveled from her riddles; Apollonius's wife, the Cyrene princess, dies during a sea voyage, and the box with her body is immersed in water; a newborn daughter, left to be raised by unworthy people, is exposed to mortal danger and is considered dead, but in reality ends up in the house of a pimp. Everything ends well, of course. The kingdom of Antiochus passes after his death to Apollonius; the box with the wife’s body washed ashore, her death turned out to be imaginary, and the doctor brought her back to life; the daughter remained pure, and Apollonius, having already reached a state of complete despair, recognizes his daughter in the singer he had rudely pushed away and then finds his wife in the position of priestess Diana of Ephesus. Vice is punished and all virtuous characters are rewarded. The plot of the "History of Apollonius" served as material for the tragedy "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" attributed to Shakespeare.

The collapse of the Western Empire, barbarian conquests and the transition of ancient society to feudal society completed the process of extinction of old Roman literature. On the verge of VI - VII centuries. it is already dead, and its literary forms are only partially transformed into the genres of medieval Latin literature. But the needs of school and technology required the preservation of ancient monuments. In the monasteries, which are now becoming centers of education, work is underway to rewrite the texts of old Roman writers; The initiative of Cassiodorus (born around 480), a prominent statesman of the time of Theodoric, is especially significant in this regard. Having become commonplace in school-monastic life, especially since the Carolingians, the rewriting of Roman texts preserved them until the time when they again became powerful factors in the cultural life of Europe, until the Renaissance.

Imperial City: Constantinople in the 6th century AD

Abstract on the history of Oleg Pavlovsky, a 7th grade student at the “Vzmakh” school.

Introduction
Founding of Constantinople
Strategic importance
Defensive structures
City center
Providing daily life
Urban population
Constantinople - scientific center
Justinian and his reign
Conclusion

“We do not know whether we were in heaven or on earth:
There is no such view or such beauty on earth..."

Is this a legend, or was the delight experienced during the Orthodox service in the Church of St. really so strong? Sofia, but those who visited Constantinople managed to convey their feelings to the ruler of the ancient Russian state (Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich). And it was truly an amazing city with a long history, with architectural monuments that are striking in their beauty (many of which still adorn modern Istanbul). It was a city where world-famous architects, artists and jewelers worked. Inquisitive young men went to Constantinople to study mathematics, medicine, and Roman laws. And it all started like this...

Founding of Constantinople.
The shores of the Bosphorus Strait turned out to be an ideal place to create a settlement. Here was everything you needed for life: excellent conditions for farming and fishing, a convenient, natural harbor for trading ships. During the era of the great Greek colonization (VIII-VI centuries BC), the first settlers appeared there. However, historical tradition dates the emergence of this city to the early 60s. VII century BC. As the legend says, this city owed its name to a man named Byzant (he was a participant in the voyage for the Golden Fleece on the ship "Argo"). The city was named Byzantium. Historical sources report that Byzantium was first destroyed to the ground during the period of the Greco-Persian wars (VI-V centuries BC). Later the city became a bone of contention between Athens and Sparta. In the flesh until the beginning of the 4th century. AD Byzantium was experiencing a period of decline. As the legend says, the gods once showed the Greek settlers truly one of the most wonderful places on earth. The city built on this site, like a Phoenix from the ashes, was reborn again and again. Its new appearance to the world is associated with the name of Emperor Constantine, who was able to appreciate the exceptionally favorable location of the city and decided to move the capital of the Roman Empire here.
Tradition says that the boundaries of the future city were drawn directly on the ground with the spear of Constantine. The size of the territory of the new settlement was to be many times larger than the previous one. The opening ceremony of the new capital took place in 330, and it was built and equipped at an unprecedentedly high pace - in six years. The best craftsmen of the empire were gathered on the banks of the Bosphorus: architects, builders, sculptors, artists. The movement of the trade and craft population from other regions of the Roman Empire to the new city was strongly encouraged. Imperial dignitaries with their families and numerous people were literally forcibly relocated from Rome. In addition to the tax and other benefits that merchants, artisans and other citizens useful for future development received who decided to settle in a new place, a rule was established: everyone who built a house in the city should be given free bread, butter, and wine. Largely thanks to Due to the fact that the authorities fulfilled their obligation for several decades in a row, the population grew extremely quickly and by the end of the 4th century. reached 100 thousand people. At first the city was called "New Rome", but this name did not stick. It went down in history, immortalizing the name of its creator, Emperor Constantine the Great, and until the middle of the 15th century. was called Constantinople (Fig. 1).

Strategic importance.
The main circumstance that for many centuries to come predetermined the significance of the city on the Bosphorus, regardless of who it belonged to and the center of which state it was, was its unique geographical location. However, being located at the junction of two continents, Europe and Asia, in a strategically important place (which has not lost its significance to this day), at the crossroads of world trade routes, it was equally doomed to prosperity, ruin, and even the destruction that it brought he has countless invaders. There were trade routes: land routes from Europe to Asia and sea routes from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea. The abundance of convenient sea harbors favored navigation in Byzantium. Byzantine merchants grew rich in trade with Iran, India, and China. They were also well known in Western Europe, where they brought expensive eastern goods.
Defensive structures.
Much attention was paid to the construction of defensive structures. Even under Constantine the Great, stone walls were built. After they were damaged during the earthquake, they had to be strengthened and, in addition to them, more powerful new ones had to be built. Built during the reign of Emperor Theodosius II (first half of the 5th century), they crossed the entire Bosphorus Cape and stretched for 5.5 km (Fig. 2). The Theodosian walls were built in three rows. The first row, 5 m high, was protected by a deep ditch (20 m wide and up to 10 m deep). The second row (up to 3 m wide and 10 m high) had several 15-meter defensive towers. The last row of walls (about 7 m thick) was located 25-30 meters from the second row, its towers had a height of 20 to 40 m. The design of the fortifications practically excluded the possibility of undermining them, since the base of the walls was 10-10 meters below ground level. 12 m.
The sea walls of the city had one row and were also equipped with towers. The total length of all the walls of Constantinople was 16 km.
Several gates were built within the walls, some served military purposes, and some were used during peacetime and walled up during war. Wooden bridges led across the moat to the gate, which the townspeople used in peacetime. In case of danger, they were immediately burned. The main gate of the Theodosian walls was the Golden Gate, made in the form of a triumphal arch with three spans (Fig. 3). Remains of the former walls and towers remain in several places. During the assault on Constantinople by the Ottomans, the fortress was destroyed, but subsequently the Turks rebuilt it.
City center.
The capital on the Bosphorus was in no way inferior to the city on the Tiber. During the lifetime of its founder, 30 magnificent palaces and temples, about 4 thousand houses for the Roman nobility, a circus, two theaters, more than 150 baths, about the same number of bakeries, eight aqueducts and a hippodrome were built. The latter occupied an important place in the life of the townspeople and served only for horse-drawn chariot competitions and the organization of other popular spectacles, but also as a meeting area-forum (Fig. 4, Fig. 5).
The famous hippodrome, built under Constantine the Great, was located where the Sultan Ahmed Mosque currently stands and on the adjacent territory (Fig. 6). The length of the hippodrome is 370 meters, width 118 meters. At the same time, 100 thousand people gathered could watch the spectacle. The arena was surrounded by 40 thousand rows of benches supported by arches. The passages to the tiers and galleries were decorated with statues. Even during the life of the founder, many wonderful works of art from different parts of the empire began to be brought to Constantinople.
Thus, a bronze twisted column from Delphi appeared on the hippodrome square, which once served as the foot of the famous golden tripod in the Temple of Apollo. Once upon a time, the column was presented to the temple as a gift from 31 Greek people. The Greeks thanked their gods for the fact that with their help they were able to defeat the Persian army. The eight-meter column consisted of three intertwined snake bodies. The heads of snakes at a height of 6.5 meters formed a capital. The column stands in a recess. Its base is more than 2 meters below the surface of the earth (Fig. 7).
A granite obelisk dating back to the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1525-1473 BC) was brought from Egypt. The obelisk is a porphyry monolith about 18.5 m high, placed on 4 bronze cubes, which are located at the corners of the pedestal. On each side of the pedestal there are bas-reliefs representing scenes from the life of Emperor Theodosius. The height of the column including the base is 25m. The obelisk was brought from Egypt by sea and delivered to the place where it now stands along the road laid for this occasion. With the help of specially constructed scaffolding, the obelisk was placed vertically. It took 32 days. On each face of the obelisk there are inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The magnificent column of the Roman Temple of Apollo became a pedestal
for a bronze image of Constantine. It was brought to Constantinople from Rome. The column is made up of eight drum-shaped granite blocks. The seams between them were hidden under the bronze laurel wreaths that surrounded the column. At the top there was a statue of Apollo. Emperor Constantine ordered his own image to be placed instead of the statue of God.
On the terrace, located in the middle of the hippodrome arena, there is a statue of Hercules by one of the most famous sculptors of the 4th century. BC, Lissipus. There were also four gilded bronze horses of his work.
Byzantine emperors constantly decorated their capital. The construction of the church of St. dates back to the reign of Justinian I (527-565). Sophia (Fig. 8), which, according to the emperor, was supposed to surpass the splendor of Jerusalem. The history of the creation of the temple, like every event taking place on this earth, was surrounded by numerous legends. But any fiction pales in comparison to the very real information about how much money and precious materials went into the construction of this Christian shrine. The work lasted 5 years, 11 months and 10 days and absorbed almost all state income during this time. The temple itself was made of brick, but expensive ornamental stone was used for its interior decoration (Fig. 9). The eight red porphyry columns were brought from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. From all over the empire, marble of the most exquisite colors was brought to the capital: snow-white, pink, soft green, white and red. Thanks to the art of the old masters, the walls lined with this cold stone looked as if they were covered with expensive carpets. The eyewitness accounts that have reached us allow us to conclude that the splendor of the decoration and sacred utensils used for worship was truly fabulous and amazed with the abundance of gold, ivory, rare wood, precious stones, pearls and expensive fabrics.
Byzantine architects attached great importance to the interior decoration of the temple and developed to perfection the art of mosaic inherited from the ancient world. Unlike ancient craftsmen, who used cubes carved from natural materials, the Byzantines began to use smalt-glass alloys of different colors along with them. In the manufacture of tinted glass, it was possible to achieve unusual shades; in particular, smalts with the finest gold lining created an exceptional effect.
The second achievement of Byzantine masters was the skillful use of temple lighting. Smalt cubes and pebbles of different shapes and sizes were fixed on a special base at different angles. Therefore, the rays of light that penetrated into the temple through the windows, as well as the reflections of lit candles, were reflected many times in the glass and made the colors literally shine. The images turned out to be alive, floating in space.
Golden smalt, which was used to create the background of mosaic images, created the illusion of a supernatural world,
from which figures of saints appeared before the viewer.
The main decoration of the cathedral is the dome in a shape close to a circle (diameter 32m, height 55m). It is made of brick and stone and decorated with marble sculptures and mosaics (later whitewashed). It's like he's floating in the air. The “floating” effect is created by the under-dome space (length 68 m), consisting of 40 arches with windows.
For a thousand years, the cathedral has been the largest religious building in the entire Christian world.
The Roman emperors paid no less attention to the construction of port facilities, harbors, and shipyards, since one of the main goals was to revive the business activity of the city, which dominates the straits and is located at the intersection of overland trade routes

Ensuring daily life.
The Byzantine rulers took care of the construction of water pipelines and drinking water storage facilities, which were so necessary for the huge city. Under the emperors Valens and Justinian, several underground reservoirs and aqueducts were built. In order for water to flow into them, lakes were specially created in the mountains. The two-tiered arched water supply system of Valens towered above the houses and streets and stretched from one end of the city to the other. During the reign of Justinian, an aqueduct was built, through which water was delivered from the Kidaris River to the city. Underground reservoirs, so-called cisterns, were also built. Built under Emperor Justinian, the Basilica Cistern was an engineering structure with architectural merits. The vaulted ceiling was supported by 336 columns 15.5 m high. The tops of the columns were decorated with capitals, which gave the structure the appearance of a palace hall.
Urban population.
Speaking about the city, one cannot help but recall those people who lived in Constantinople (in the 6th century AD).
Georgians, Alans, and Vikings came to serve in Constantinople, and communication with Western Europeans took place everywhere. All the inhabitants of Constantinople spoke, sang, told fortunes, danced, cooked and dressed in their own way. Despite their cultural arrogance, the Greeks believed that the mixing of different bloods was beneficial for the human race. Even the main character of the Byzantine epic, the hero Digenis Akritus, was half Arab. In Constantinople, Greek and foreign monasteries coexisted peacefully: Georgian, Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, Romanian, Italian. In one life there is such a parable: once in a Greek church, Georgians sang in their native language, and the priest drove them away; The Mother of God appeared to him in a dream and said that all languages ​​were equally dear to her.
Constantinople is a scientific center.
In 425, a Christian higher school (Auditorium) was created in Constantinople, sometimes called the Constantinople School in literature.
university, and in the 6th century another school under the Patriarch of Constantinople. In the hands of the church, all sciences turned into branches of theology. Along with philosophy, this was most clearly manifested in the field of natural sciences. In the middle of the 6th century, the monk Cosmas Indicopleus (Indicopleustos, i.e., a sailor to India) wrote “Christian Topography.” Considering the Ptolimian system incorrect and contrary to the Bible, Cosmas represents the shape of the earth as a flat quadrangle, surrounded by an ocean and covered with a vault of heaven on which “paradise” is located. This work was widespread in the Middle Ages not only in Byzantium, but also in the West, as well as in Ancient Rus', and hampered the progress of science. In Byzantium, alchemy dominated with its mystical commentaries on ancient manuscripts, with the search for the “philosopher’s stone”, with the help of which it was possible to turn metals into gold, cure diseases, and restore youth. True, along with this, the chemical craft received some development, especially the production of paints for dyeing fabrics and for painting, as well as the production of ceramic products, mosaics (Fig. 11), and enamels. Among physicians, only Alexander of Trallsky tried to defend the achievements of ancient science. His most important work was the therapy of internal diseases. His works have been translated into Latin, Syriac, Arabic and Hebrew. In the 6th century, the famous mathematicians and builders of the St. Sophia Cathedral were Isidore, Meletsky and Anfimius of Tralles (author of the essay “On Amazing Mechanisms”, which explains the optical properties of burning mirrors).
The deep crisis of the culture of the slave-owning society, the acute class struggle reflected in the works of historians of the 6th century Peter Patricius, Agathius of Myrinea, Menander Protictor, Procopius of Caesarea - a representative of opposition groups of the nobility, who left a number of works important for characterizing the internal and external situation under Justinian.
Justinian and his reign.
The empire expanded its borders during the reign of Justinian (Fig. 12). Smart, energetic, well-educated, Justinian skillfully selected and directed his assistants. On the one hand, he was approachable and courteous, on the other hand, he was a merciless and insidious tyrant. Justinian's main rule was: “one state, one law, one religion” (Fig. 13). The emperor, wanting to enlist the support of the church, granted it lands and valuable gifts, built many temples and monasteries, and unprecedented persecution of pagans began. To introduce uniform laws for the entire empire, the emperor created a commission of outstanding jurists. In a short time, she collected and published the laws of the Roman emperors (the Code of Justinian). It was studied by lawyers in the Middle Ages and modern times. In 532, during the aggravation of the class struggle, Justinian suppressed the uprising of the urban masses "Nika" (translation: "Conquer"). Government troops treacherously surrounded the rebels in the circus, where a terrible massacre was then carried out during
which killed about 35 thousand people.
Throughout his reign, Justinian waged bloody and extremely unsuccessful wars for Byzantium.

Conclusion.
Byzantium has not existed for a long time. Today, not everyone can immediately answer where this state was located or who lived in it. True, they often talk about “Byzantine” pomp and ceremony, about “Byzantine” intrigues, sycophancy and bureaucracy. All this happened in Byzantium, but there was much more. Traces of Byzantine influence are still preserved over a vast area - from Veliky Novgorod to Ethiopia, from the Caspian Sea to Gibraltar. Now, on the territory that once belonged to Byzantium, there are 26 states.
This ancient civilization played a special role in the history of our culture. Byzantium introduced Rus' to many objects that our ancestors did not know about before, and new words appeared in the Russian language (from the cultural sphere this is, for example, the alphabet, paper, literacy, notebook, from cooking - Easter cake, pancakes, sugar, vinegar. And also names of plants: cucumber, beet, cherry; names of animals - buffalo, cat, mackerel.). The main areas where the influence of Byzantium on Rus' was comprehensive are rightfully considered to be the state and the Church. Tsar and tyrant, crown and hard labor, Bible and Gospel, patriarch and monastery, icon and scepter - all these words were borrowed from the Byzantines. But, perhaps, no less important was the communication between the two peoples at the everyday level (hence the bathhouse, lime, rope, fireplace, ship, bed, doll, tub, oil, plinth, chamber, bench, brake lift, lantern, crystal and much more .). When talking about Constantinople, you inevitably run the risk of being caught repeating commonplaces or being overly enthusiastic. And yet, it is impossible not to mention that this is the only city in the world located in two parts of the world at once - in Europe and in Asia. This is a city that four times in its two-thousand-year history was the capital of empires: Roman, Byzantine, Latin Crusader pseudo-empire and Ottoman. This is a city that changed its name many times: Byzantium, New Rome, Constantinople (or Constantinople in Russian chronicles) and, finally, Istanbul. This is a city that has always been reborn renewed, unlike any other and always beautiful.
In this essay, I wanted to tell you everything about this amazing country, European and at the same time Asian, victorious and yet not warlike, cynical and at the same time extremely simple-minded. An empire that lasted an incredibly long time: 1123 years and 18 days.
I hope that for you, as for me, Constantinople has opened up in a new way and struck me with its unusualness and attractiveness.

The 6th century actually began in 502, when Vakhtang Gorgasal died in Ujarma. This event ended Georgian antiquity and began the sad early Middle Ages. Little is known to us about this era. The state has almost disappeared, only individuals remain. The era of dependency and occupation began, which lasted for about 400 years. The era began with such an unusual event as the Dvina Church Cathedral, the essence of which has been debated for fifteen hundred years.

Conversion to Monophysitism

During the period of the conditional reign of King Farsman VI (542-557), a group of monks arrived in Georgia from Antioch, who went down in history under the name of the Assyrian fathers. They are sometimes called the "Syrian Fathers". These were John (Known as John of Zedazeno) and his disciples. They settled on Zedazeni Mountain and founded the Zedazeni Monastery there. John of Zedazeno was buried in the same monastery and the Church of John the Baptist was later erected over his grave. His disciple Shio (-559) founded the Shio-Mgvima monastery west of Mtskheta. The first church of the monastery was erected after his death, in 560 - 580.

Another disciple, David, first lived in Tbilisi on Mount Mtatsminda, where the Pantheon is now located. Then he went to Gareji and founded the famous David-Gareji Monastery there.

The disciple Jesse came to Tsilkani (in the Mukhrani Valley), founded the Tsilkani Church there and was ordained bishop. So Tsilkani became one of the centers of Christianity in the region.

Anthony of Martkop went to the eastern part of the country, settled there in the mountains and later founded the Martkop Monastery, where he is now buried.

This all actually happened under Iranian occupation, against the backdrop of constant conflicts with the Zoroastrians. For example, Abo, the founder of the Nekresi monastery, was eventually taken to Mtskheta and executed there. His body was taken to Samtavisi, and then reburied in the city of Mtskheta, in the Samtavro Cathedral.

Thaddeus of Stefantsminda built a temple in Urbnisi. Other disciples (Joseph of Alaverdi, Pir of Bret, Stefan of Hirsov, Isidore of Samtavnel, Mikael of Ulumbalel and Zenon of Ikaltoi) founded monasteries in other places in Georgia. This is how the Georgian monastic movement began.

These were probably echoes of the heyday of the monastic movement in Byzantium under Justinian.

Liquidation of the Georgian kingdom

In the 570s, several small wars took place, as a result of which the Persians left Western Georgia. In 575, the Byzantines invaded Svaneti and captured the local pro-Iranian prince. In 582, Shah Hormizd IV made a campaign to Egrisi and Svaneti.

Border of Byzantium and Iran according to the Ctesiphon world. Tbilisi is not designated - it is near Mtskheta on Iranian territory. Judging by this map, Mtskheta belonged to the Avan Catholicosate.

Scientists have discovered references to the covering of the Sun by a “black cloud” in Byzantine chronicles from 536-540 AD. This “blackout,” according to the chronicler Procopius of Caesarea and other chroniclers, lasted several months. It was with this celestial phenomenon that other cataclysms of that time were associated, such as crop failures, famine, political unrest and the Justinian plague.

Death "black" and "red"

The so-called Plague of Justinian was the world's first recorded plague pandemic. It got its name because it began during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and covered almost the entire civilized world. However, individual plague epidemics broke out for centuries after that - from 541 to 750.

Researchers believe that the source of the plague appeared in Ethiopia or Egypt, from where rats and fleas infected with the infection “arrived” through trade channels along with a cargo of grain to Constantinople. From there, the epidemic spread throughout Byzantium, and then spread to neighboring countries... By the end of 654, it reached North Africa, covering all of Europe, Central and South Asia and Arabia.

In Byzantium, the pandemic reached its climax by 544. If you believe the chronicles, in Constantinople alone up to 5 thousand people died from the plague every day, and sometimes the death rate reached 10 thousand people a day... 40 percent of the city’s population was destroyed.

In the East, about 100 million people died from the plague, in Europe - about 25 million. Irish sources speak of the crom conaill ("Red Death"), which became the cause of the death of many saints and monarchs in 549-550. So, it was from it that the Welsh king Gwynedd Maelgwn and Saint Finnian of Clonard died...

If desired, a prophecy about these events can be found in the Bible. This is what the ninth chapter of the Revelation of John the Theologian says:

“She opened the pit of the deep, and smoke came out of the pit like smoke from a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened from the smoke from the pit...

So I saw in a vision horses and their riders, who had armor of fire, hyacinth and sulfur on them; The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and from their mouths came fire, smoke and brimstone... From these three plagues, from the fire, smoke and brimstone coming out of their mouths, a third of the people died..."

Volcanic Horror

What happened? Scientists believe that the cause of the solar darkening was volcanic eruptions, traces of which were found in the ice of Greenland and Antarctica.

“Each of these eruptions, which occurred in 536 and 540, must have had a profound effect on the lives of civilizations at that time, and their effect was magnified by the fact that they occurred only four years apart,” comments Kruger. We know which volcanoes were responsible, but we have several candidates in Central and North America, as well as Indonesia."

Volcanoes are believed to have released large amounts of ash into the atmosphere, causing what is known as a “volcanic winter.” Something similar, only on a local scale, happened in 1815 after the explosion of the Indonesian Mount Tambora.

Ice and sulfur

Kruger and her colleagues found confirmation of the “volcanic” hypothesis by analyzing the chronicles of the 6th century and examining samples of Greenland and Antarctic ice that formed during that era.

It turned out that these ice fragments contain sulfur and other compounds that are found in large quantities in volcanic gases and ash. Thus, scientists managed to build a climate model that allowed them to reconstruct the events of the late 530s.

It turned out that the consequences of the climate cataclysm were much more serious than expected. The combined force of the two volcanoes' eruptions was the highest in the last 1,200 years.

As a result, the average temperature on Earth dropped by two degrees Celsius for several years, but climate change affected the northern hemisphere the most. Scandinavia, the Mediterranean coast, the Middle East and North Africa were “affected”.

The events described in the chronicles and the data from excavations in northern Europe and Africa fit well into this theory. According to researchers from the Kruger group, the “apocalypse” of the sixth century was “triggered” by volcanoes. And there are no guarantees that this will not happen again...