Episode 2 Constantinople, Aksum and Tang China

The Middle Ages Around the World

Dr Joyce E Salisbury

Film Review

Except for Constantinople, which flourished, urban life retreated following the Germanic invasions of the western Roman empire. The population of Rome decreased from 500,000 at its height to 30,000 in 500 AD.  The emperor Justinian (527-565 AD) replaced Latin with Greek as the official language and and renounced any allegiance to the pope. He also made it illegal for his subjects to wear trousers (like the Germanic tribes). Byzantine men had to wear tunics.

Dr Salisbury spends most of this lecture outlining life in the three major cities arising from the fall of Rome: Constantinople, Chang’an (the capitol of China’s Tang empire) and Aksum (on the west African coast).

Constantinople

With its monopoly on rare purple dye (made from Murax shells), Constantinople’s luxury trade flourished, as they also learned to make silk (after two monks smuggled silk worms out of China). Other exports included olives and grapes. Owing to the rocky ground surrounding Constantinople, the Byzantine empire relied on imported grain grain from North Africa, Turkey and the upper Balkans.

Because growing food was so difficult, there was no spare labor and the Byzantine empire relied on slaves to main the wall protecting the city. After the 10th century they imported Slavs as slave from from Eastern Europe. Many were castrated to serve the emperor as eunuchs.

Chang’an

Under the Tang dynasty, the walled city of Chang’an (which opened onto the Silk Road) was 30 square miles in area and had a population of two million. Its wide streets, aligned in a grid pattern, were designed as fire breaks.

According to Salisbury, the secret of the city’s success was aquatic cultivation of rice in paddies (which spread from India in 2000BC). Not only was this crop fast growing, but it produced high yield and survived longer in storage. Paddy rice cultivation was both labor intensive, relying on engineers to build sluices and paddle pumps (to move and oxygenate the water), as well as a booming night soil trade in the city center.

Rice was mainly grown in the Yangtze River valley in south China. This would require a westward extension in the Grand Canal to transport it to the capitol.

Outside of the planting and harvest season, peasants were conscripted to build roads to Chang’an and linkups to the Silk Road. In addition, all regions were required to submit boys to be castrated to serve the emperor.

Kingdom of Aksum

Aksum was a flourishing state north of the Horn of Africa from 100-940 AD. It was a trade hub for both Mediterranean and Indian Ocean traders. It exported wheat and sorghum to the Byzantine empire and on shipped iron, copper, gold and ivory from West Africa.

By the third century AD, Aksum was minting bronze, silver and gold coins and had a high literacy rate (in Greek, Ge’ez and Arabian). Owing to a high reliance on Jewish traders, they were known for religious tolerance. In 312 AD they adopted Christianity as their official religion.

The country collapsed after Muslim traders adopted new trade routes through the Arabian peninsula.

Film can be viewed free on Kanopy with a library card.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/13172786/13172790