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The end of the Antique World. The rise of Islam |
Gold coin of the emperor Herakleios (reigned 610-641).
In 629 the emperor Herakleios led a victorious war against the Persians but his success did not manage to give a long-term solution to the eastern frontier problem. Soon after the defeat of the Persians, a new overwhelming force rose from the East. The Arabs, with their lighting advance, deprived Byzantium of its vital south-eastern territories: Egypt, Syria and Palestine. Constantinople's territory was limited to the areas that would become in the centuries to follow the core of the Medieval Byzantine State: the Balkans and Asia Minor.
Greek language gradually became the official language of the state, replacing Latin, and although Byzantine society has never been monoglot - Armenian, Georgian, Syrian, Slavonic etc. were spoken as well - Greek dominated public and private life.
© 1998 Oxfordshire Museum Service, Setúbal Museums and the Benaki Museum
