What was it like to Grow Up Byzantine? DOCUMENTARY

As a part of our How They Did It series, this episode seeks to explore daily life in the past with a focus on what it was like to grow up Byzantine. Thus far we have several other growing up episodes from a number of civilizations:

This animated history documentary on daily life in the Byzantine Empire begins by exploring the typical homes and families one might find across both urban and rural areas. We then discuss the various life stages of birth, childhood, teenagers, and young adults. Along the way we note the differences between genders and socio-economics which would have influenced one's life journey. The city of Constantinople looms large in these discussions as a great hub of learning and the home for many in the Byzantine Empire.

Stay tuned for more How They Did It episodes on daily life in the past. Let us know what history documentaries you would like to see next!

Sources and Suggested Reading:
Brownworth, L. Lost to the West. Broadway Books, 2010.
Gregory, T.E. A History of Byzantium. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
Herrin, J. Byzantium. Princeton University Press, 2009.
Mango, C. The Oxford History of Byzantium. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Norwich, J.J. A Short History of Byzantium. Vintage, 1998.
Rosser, J. H. Historical Dictionary of Byzantium. Scarecrow Press, 2001.
Shepard, J. The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c.500-1492. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Credits:
Research = Sophia Ware
Writing = Sophia Ware
Narration = Invicta
Artwork = Beverly Johnson
Editing = Penta Limited

#History
#Byzantine
#HowTheyDidIt

[johndoe]

I really appreciate that you guys often take a more human look at history and our ancestors. It's too easy to become lost in wars and great building projects, to forget that our predecessors lived and breathed just as we do. And that many of the struggles we endure today were theirs before.

[armartin]

As a writer, your "What was it like to Grow up" series is invaluable to my fiction. Thank you very much.

[wumingshi]

Well let's be honest. They prolly didn't think their empire would ever stop existing. So maybe no wonder they didn't bother writing things down about their society to be remembered. This happens with a lot of empires.

[sarysa]

Episodes like this really helps one appreciate just how weird modern life is. In the Byzantine times, you knew where you stood, you were trained in the family profession from an early age (aka everyone was the Tiger Woods of their profession), had a hard life but a mostly predictable future. (more likely to be interrupted by war than everything)
Nowadays, a lot of us are nomads, not finding out place in the world until 20's, 30's, sometimes even 40's, but with opportunities for adventure that Byzantine commoners could only dream of.
Really puts things into perspective.

[bill]

The world that the video describes was not so different until very recently in the Greek world. To this day, many things that he described, for example, taking your name from your grandfather is still done today, and taking care of your parents is considered a great virtue. And many more that he said in the video you will find in a Greek community today. So you did not describe to me a foreign world but a very familiar and almost the same hahaha. Very good work!

[naly]

So refreshing to hear a person with American accent speaking about the Byzantine Era. Sadly, the rich Byzantine legacy tends to be overlooked in the West. Even when it comes to art museums: they carry on about Renaissance this and that, as if the Renaissance appeared out of nowhere, invented itself. They completely forget the whole movement was sparked by learned Byzantines, fleeing to Italy to escape the Turkish invasion.

[mattstakeontheancients]

As an American it’s hard to imagine living in an empire(Byzantine) and city(Constantinople) that survived that long. I mean Constantinople lasted for over 1100 years until it was conquered and name was changed.

[AbsolXGuardian]

11:51 I'm glad you acknowledged just how important skills stuff like weaving and cooking are to the functioning of a household, community, and/or society. The restriction of women to such tasks combined with the devaluing of women often means that even modern historians will focus only on the forced part and not the fact that these were important tasks that someone had to do

[Slav_Stiibun]

Charlemagne's empire would be fascinating to hear about, or growing up in the ancient Qing empire, growing up in the Mughal empire, or growing up in a samurai clan.

[Sp-zjhw]

The difference in surname ending is because the surnames were Greek. For instance we say Αλέξιος Κομνηνός(the name is very common in modern Greece) and Αννα Κομνηνή, the ending of the surname follows the gender.

[stylianos]

The urban areas didn't speak “more Latin”. Greek was spoken in large cities like Constantinople or Thessaloniki as the main language. Latin was only used in the early years of the empire by the government.

[ilias]

I don't know if the upload is a coincidence or not, but on this day Constantinople fell.
May 29th, 1453

[feildpres]

another amazing video!!!

these "growing up" videos are some of my favorite history videos on the internet. We always see what it was like to be a king, or to serve in an army, but rarely do we ever see glimpses of the daily lives of ordinary folk

[lefterismagkoutas]

Wow amazing video as a Greek I thank you for exploring such an interesting part of our history and culture!

[deirdregibbons]

Excellent work! This is a period of history that I find fascinating, and it is nice to see your coverage. Beverly's artwork is always so charming, and she did a great job here.

[RishiKumar-iens]

Thanks so much for doing this Invicta! Its really nice to hear the stories of these cultures who are too often reduced to wars, famous individuals and large-scale events. If I had to ask for the next culture to consider, I would probably ask for you to delve further into Eastern and/or Middle Eastern cultures (broad I know but pls do bear with me). I am a bit biased to anything from India but I would particularly love something from Persia or China as well. Even if you were to go into cultures within or bordering the steppes, I would love the venture nonetheless :-)

[sotiriospeithis]

I may have missed it, but seeing as the Byzantines lasted for more about 1000 years, it would be.important to state when in that time-lapse you place your study.

[dimitropolis]

In Serbia in schools, we learn so much about this empire. In great details. So this seam very poorly done. And I can only imagine how much they study about it in Greece.
Serbia was eather part of it or it's crazy neighbor, but we share same Orthodox faith, so there is also love and admiration.
Numerous princesses from Serbia married in Constantinopolis ' royal families, and their married into ours.
The last Byzantine impress was a Serb-Yelena Dejanovic h-Dragash... Aka Helena Paleologina. Wife of one and mother of two tsars.
The Church was so powerful and faith was so strong that every 3rd citizen was member of clergy.
They were deeply devoted Christians till fanatism. So, by making fun of their beliefs regarding child birth and the holly objects that they were using is very disrespectful.
The one and only God's empire.
So the life was full of joy and happiness to serve. I know that you on the west will never understand this level of God-fearing love and life, but at leasy try to.
Your animation are totally wrong. This was not north Africa, ask some Greek to help you. Or look up for some paintings from churches...

[TalonBrush]

This is an amazing overview of Byzantine life, even if it had to have been pieced together from infuriatingly sparse sources on the matter.
There was so much here to inspire my own fictional empire in a fantasy world I'm writing.
Love the art and animation, as well!

[ΘΕΟΦΑΝΩΚΟΜΝΗΝΟΣ]

To say that Latin was more widely spoken in Urban areas is largely incorrect. Not a single literary work in Latin exists from 600 to 1216 after the occupation of Constantinople by Latins, the lingua franca in both urban and rural areas was medieval Greek while scholars or senators could expect to learn more refined and educated dialects of Greek such as Attic Greek but Latin was not even close to being a living language in the empire after the 7th century.