Dedicated as the Christian capital of the Roman Empire in 330 by Constantine I, Byzantium (the city itself then was re-named Constantinople) remained important in the trade with the East nearly down to its conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. At its height under Emperor Justinian in the sixth century, Byzantium controlled much of the Mediterranean world.

War on the Empire's eastern frontiers against Sassanian Persia occupied much of Justinian's attention. One consequence of this hostility was the inability of Byzantium to guarantee its supply of silk, despite efforts to circumvent the Sassanians by opening routes through the Black Sea and the Caucasus. A breakthrough occurred, though, when in 553 or 554 the Byzantines acquired the secret of silk manufacture. Here is how Justinian's contemporary, the historian Procopius, relates the story:

About the same time there came from India certain monks; and when they had satisfied Justinian Augustus that the Romans no longer should buy silk from the Persians, they promised the emperor in an interview that they would provide the materials for making silk so that never should the Romans seek business of this kind from their enemy the Persians, or from any other people whatsoever. They said that they were formerly in Serinda, which they call the region frequented by the people of the Indies, and there they learned perfectly the art of making silk. Moreover, to the emperor who plied them with many questions as to whether he might have the secret, the monks replied that certain worms were manufacturers of silk, nature itself forcing them to keep always at work; the worms could certainly not be brought here alive, but they could be grown easily and without difficulty; the eggs of single hatchings are innumerable; as soon as they are laid men cover them with dung and keep them warm for as long as it is necessary so that they produce insects. When they had announced these tidings, led on by liberal promises of the emperor to prove the fact, they returned to India. When they had brought the eggs to Byzantium, the method having been learned, as I have said, they changed them by metamorphosis into worms that feed on the leaves of mulberry. Thus began the art of making silk from that time on in the Roman Empire.

Silk manufacture and dyeing would become important imperial monopolies. The fabric was significant in the formal ceremonies and symbolism of the Byzantine court, and, given the high quality of the Byzantine product, its controlled sale to merchants from the West ensured a steady flow of revenue for the Imperial treasury.

The Empire's eastern territories, which had extended to the Caucasus and Mesopotamia and included Palestine and Egypt would be lost over the centuries to the Persians, Arabs and Turks. However, the strategically located capital Constantinople controlled one of the major trade arteries connecting East and West, the Bosphorus Strait. Even from the thirteenth century on, when there was little left of Byzantium but the city itself, it was a wealthy emporium.

In the empire's later centuries, the Greeks lost control of their trade, which was taken over by the Venetians, Genoese and other Italian city states. In 1204 the Venetians diverted the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople and sacked the city. Contemporary chroniclers were astounded at its riches. In 1261, with the support of the Venetians' rivals, the Genoese, and the Khan of the Golden Horde, the Byzantine Greeks recovered their capital. This was the year after Marco Polo's father and uncle had set out from the city to trade in Asia. Two generations later, in the 1330s, the Florentine commercial agent Pegolotti would still describe the city as the western terminus of the Silk Road.

At the meeting place between East and West, Byzantium was also the location of significant artistic exchange. Sassanian motifs entered the arts of the Byzantine court; Byzantine architects and mosaicists had an impact on the development of early Islamic art. The Byzantine cultural world extended far to the west--among its notable monuments are the Church of San Marco in Venice and the palace and churches of the Norman kings of Sicily. Byzantine Christianity served as the source for the development of Christian culture in Russia and in the Caucasus. Syria became the base for Christian missionary work that succeeded in building a strong Christian community in Iran. The Nestorians, deemed heretics by the mother church in Constantinople, would eventually establish bishoprics all the way across Asia in cities such as Samarkand, Kashgar, and Chang'an--the capital of Tang China. Nestorians enjoyed particular favor under the Mongols and were used by the Khans for diplomatic missions to the West.

--Daniel C. Waugh

Bibliography:

George Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State, Joan Hussey, tr. (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers Univ. Pr., 1957).

Procopius, excerpt from the History of the Gothic Wars, in the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.

Robert Sabatino Lopez, "Silk Industry in the Byzantine Empire," Speculum, XX/1 (1945): 1-42.

Ian Gillman and Hans-Joachim Klimkeit, Christians in Asia before 1500 (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Pr., 1999).