Foundation And The Transition Era,

Evagrius Scholasticus was a Byzantine historian and lawyer (scholasticus), who was bora on 535-537AD at Epiphania of Syria and died after 593/4AD. As a well-educated man, Evagrius had a high social status in Antioch. He was the private assistant of Gregory, the patriarch of Antioch and even won the honorary title of "ex-consulate". The 6-volume Ecclesiastical History is his sole work which is extant today. It contains the historical events from 428AD to 593/4AD. Despite of its title, the Ecclesiastical History actually covers many aspects of Byzantine Empire such as political, economic, military, cultural and natural issues, rather than confine itself to church affairs. Except for some weak points, however, the Ecclesiastical History is an invaluable historical source because of its abundant content and objective standpoint. Meanwhile, it is one of the most important documents for the studies of Byzantine, Church and Syria history in 5^th-6^th century.From Evagrius' Ecclesiastical History, we can see many distinctive features of Byzantine Empire during its transition period from 5^th to 6^th century. First of all, the Empire has undergone Christianization since 392 AD when the Christianity became the state religion. Besides eliminating the pagan influence with the support of state, Christian church tried to self-perfect itself by developing its theology and organization. After the two Christological Debates in 5^th century, the Christian theology was further developed with its basis on the Trinity doctrine in 4^th century, which was helpful to the spread of the faith. Meanwhile, with the gradual reinforcement of its organization, the Church also set up a hierarchical system of leadership which provided itself with better management and severer discipline. Moreover, through the worship of saints, hallows and icons, the laities could understand the fundamental doctrines of Christianity without any involvement in the ambiguous theological theories, which contribute to the popularization of Christianity and consolidated its foundation among the laities.Secondly, the centre of Byzantine Empire moved from west to east obviously in 5^th-6^th century, which was reflected in political and religious aspects in Evagrius' book. As to the former one, under the invasions of barbarians and the chaos of politics, economics and society, Western Empire came to its end. Eastern Empire, however, has consolidated its rule by virtue of its advantages in military as well as economy. After 476AD, Constantinople even became the sole centre of the empire until 1453, the fall of Byzantium. In religious aspect, the centre of Christianity also moved from Rome in the western empire to Constantinople in the eastern part. With the support of Byzantine emperors, the Patriarchal See of Constantinople has broadened its influence and got the equal position as the See of Rome at Chalcedon Council. Meanwhile, the emperors constructed many brilliant holy buildings in capital, such as Hagia Sophia. Finally, Rome was replaced by Constantinople as the religious centre of Byzantine Empire during Justinian's reign, while the Church of Rome was gradually its own master in future.Lastly, as Evagrius described, the regime of Byzantine Empire was gradually improved and shaped into an autocratic state with emperor as its supreme ruler. At that time, the imperial power was further enhanced. On one hand, the inheritance system was developed in 5^th-6^th century. Nephews, daughters, sisters and widows of emperors were entitled to succeed the imperial position, which were the beneficial supplements of Byzantine inheritance system. On the other hand, Byzantine emperors began to make use of Christianity to deify themselves. As the imperial power enhanced, a new bureaucracy system was established. Some new Byzantine official positions appeared while some conventional official positions inherited from former Roman Empire still existed with functions greatly changed. Both of the old and new official positions have contributed to the Byzantine's bureaucracy system during its early times.According to Ecclesiastical History, however, Byzantine Empire in transition period was still confronted with some difficult problems, such as religious conflicts; contradiction between church and state; national defense crisis and natural disasters, which might hinder the development of the empire.To sum up, Evagrius' Ecclesiastical History was an invaluable historical source. From it, we could summarize three features of 5^th-6^th century's Byzantine and four challenges imposed upon it. Compared with difficulties, achievements were the mainstream of that time. As the key period of transition and transformation, 5^th -6^th century has paved the way for the development of Byzantine Empire. Therefore, despite the hard times during 7^th-8^th century, Byzantine Empire has survived and gone into a new "Golden Age"at the second half of 9th century.