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Pictures of Mary

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Jesus and the saints

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images from the long lost
Empire of Byzantium.

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This is a journey of discovery

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the search for the origins
of western faith

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the tale of ancient battles
that changed the world forever.

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Born of the Bible and the
pagan Roman Empire

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Byzantium still stands at
the heart of the modern

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world... its ideas of heroes
and of villains and of government

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both good and bad and
the right of law.

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All of the cities of
Byzantium

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held holy images within them.

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Sacred pictures

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It was said that
came from heaven.

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They were carried into
battle.

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People died to save them
from destruction.

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This is their story

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This is the heart of
the ancient

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palace of the popes of Rome.

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It's centuries older
than the Vatican

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and filled with
holy wonders.

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Believers say
that Jesus Christ

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once walked
upon these steps

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that they were taken from

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Pontius Pilate's
palace in Jerusalem.

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The steps were brought to

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Rome in the first
centuries of

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Christianity and are
reverenced still by millions of

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people every year who pass
up them on their knees

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deep in penitential prayer.

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Inside the ancient
chapel at their top

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Rome's most holy picture
an image made

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so it was said
not by human hands at all.

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A portrait so powerful that
when deep in the Dark Ages

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the barbarians stood at
the gates of ancient

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Rome the awe inspiring
image crippled the

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tribes with its
paralyzing gaze and sent

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them running back
to Germany.

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The painting's entirely
encased in silver.

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The nearest you can get
to it is that little face

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on the top which is
actualla painted on linen and

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lays right on
the ancient panel.

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And that type of face a round
one with dark hair

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is probably the
nearest you can get to

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an authentic
portrait of Jesus.

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The original was said

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to have been painted
on the walls of Pontius

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Pilate's palace
by the first Christians.

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The real
painting underneath

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has been entirely washed
away a thousand years ago.

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That doesn't matter really.

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This is more than a picture.

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It is literally a
window into heaven

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a link between divinity
and the earth.

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The Romans called their
painting the Achuropeta

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an eastern word that means
a picture made in heaven.

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It was actually
made in the seventh

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century in the
Empire of Byzantium

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part of a standard
set of pictures of the

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people of the Bible.

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All those images
come from the East.

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They're our most basic
images of kings and gods

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and governments and heroes
and mothers and villains.

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All those types
we take for granted

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and their story of how
they got from the East

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to the modern West is
an astonishing tale.

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They're come from fire
It's a story of blindings

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and hatreds and
the light of faith.

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It's our story

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and it's a part of the
story of Byzantium too.

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The story starts in the
year 360 just a few years

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after the Roman Empire had
accepted Christianity

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when a pagan pilgrim came
here to the Greek

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sanctuary of Delphi to ask
the god Apollo if the

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ancient pagan images would
ever again be honored

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and worshipped in the
ancient ways.

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Deep down under Apollo's vast
temple an old lady sat

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filled with the fumes from
a volcanic crack underneath

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and drugged with cyanide.

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She babbled a reply

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and a priest took down her
words in classic verse.

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"Tell the world the
glorious temple has fallen.

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Apollo's springs are dry.

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The world no longer
has a prophet.

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Using the signs and
symbols of the ancient gods

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Apollo's priest had just
announced the ending

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of the pagan world.

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Of the pagan world

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the gods controlled
everything the

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movements of the stars
in the sky to the

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fishes in the sea.

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And their signs and
symbols were everywhere.

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They protected
crops and trees.

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They were in every stone.

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When the thunder came down
you understood it

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because it
belonged to a god

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and every god had its sign.

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It was a complete universe
and everybody felt secure in it.

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When Christianity took
over the Roman Empire

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it attacked and swept
away all these signs.

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Now these signs were as
old as man himself

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and Christianity was
pretty poorly

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supplied with alternatives.

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After all

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it was a language of
books and words.

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But unless it was to fail
it had to develop

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and develop quickly a whole new
Set of images for the world.

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The trick the genius
you might say

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wasn't just to swap this
ancient chaos with ten

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thousand pagan signs and
symbols for a single set

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of Christian images

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but to find a quick way of
spreading these Christian

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images and pictures right
through the ancient

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Mediterranean.

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Books books
were the answer.

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Books were invented
at the same time that

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Christianity started.

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Before that there were scrolls.

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Now there were pages.

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This is a copy of one of
the oldest books in the world

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from the first centuries
of Christianity.

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Look! If you flip through
it you see pictures.

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They are illustrating
the narrative.

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If that would've been
a Christian book

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it could have gone from
one end of the

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Mediterranean
to the other and

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taken a whole
set of Christian pictures

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the story from the
walls of the church.

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Well that's just a copy.

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These images
these ancient images

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are so precious that
real books of that age

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from the fifth century

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some of the oldest
pictures in the world

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that've come from books

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are now not in books
but trapped in glass.

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Look! Here is Jupiter.

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This is a pagan book
illustrating pagan poetry and

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it's a picture of Jupiter
the king of the gods

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and he's got a halo

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just like Christian saints
will have in their pictures

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And he's holding a globe

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just like Christ will
in a thousand churches.

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And he's sitting under the
arc of heaven as Christ does

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and he's king of the stars
and the moon and the sun.

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This is this is a pose which
says to you"king".

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You can't have Jesus
king of the world unless

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He looks like a king.

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That looks like a king.

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That's where they're
getting as it were

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their iconography from

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straight from
the pagan faith.

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Now look at this.

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Here another one of
these very precious

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ancient illustrations

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really the roots
of our western art.

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Think of that.

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When you
make gestures today

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when you go "Victory!"
Or "Communism!"

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"Fascism! Bang! Bang!"

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You are doing
universal gestures.

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They get emotions
in you immediately.

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This said
to the early Christians

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similar sorts of things.

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Look! Here is a Roman general
and his mistress

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and a friend having dinner.

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They're sitting
round a table

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They're got halos on.

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Everybody would know this
was an imperial table.

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There's a

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there's a way
of drawing tables

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even with a fish
on a plate in the middle.

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You'll
see that in churches.

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You'll see that same
image except

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there it
becomes the last supper.

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The first imperial
images to tell the stories

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of the Christian Bible
to symbolize its faith

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came from this city a thousand
miles to the east of Rome

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ancient Constantinople

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now Istanbul in modern Turkey.

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The emperor
Constantine the Great

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dedicated this
column when he founded

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Constantinople
in the year 330.

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From that year on the city
stood at the heart of

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Constantine's vast empire

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the first Christian state

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master of the greatest cities
the world had ever seen

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Alexandria

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Antioch

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and Rome

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and the capitol of the
brand new empire of

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Byzantium.

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From the very beginning

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Constantinople
really sizzled.

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New religion new state
new government

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everything here was
up for grabs.

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Amazingly enough

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we have a good idea of
how it felt to be alive

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inside this city and at
just this time in history.

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This is a fifteen hundred
year old press photo

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not on film though
it's on ivory.

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There's the pole for the
poor old elephant's tusk.

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The Byzantines imported
ivory from India

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and from Africa.

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This probably came from
Africa because

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it's so enormous.

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It would have come

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of course

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through Egypt up through
the empire

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to Constantinople.

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The Byzantines loved ivory.

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They thought
it had a texture

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like living skin.

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This then is the only glimpse
we have of life

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in Constantinople
in about the year 420.

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It's a procession.

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Two priests are carrying
the bones of Saint

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Stephen of
Jerusalem on a royal

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carriage into the
imperial palace of Byzantium.

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The mighty emperor

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Theodosius the Second

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is walking with
his ministers and soldiers

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right through the
center of the city.

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Theodosius' procession
would have passed up

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this very street.

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This is modern Istanbul.

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In those days

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in the fifth century

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it was
called Constantinople.

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We're walking between
the docks and the ancient

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center of this city.

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I suspect it was much
the same in those days

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but there would have been
thousands of people

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watching their emperor on
his way to the palace.

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You know these processions

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especially at that time were
a very tense affair.

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These sort of cities these
great classical cities

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were a thousand years old.

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But the Christian bishops that
ran them were starting to look

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at them with brand new eyes.

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The times really
were a changing.

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They saw the rich
on the way to church

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to tend to their souls

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kicking beggars out of
the way by the doors

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of the church

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children mutilated
by their parents

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to make them
look more pitiful.

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And they saw the
rich women walking

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they said

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with a thousand "meals"
swinging from their ears

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and they didn't
like what they saw.

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The Christian bishops
wanted a moral city

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a sexless city
a pure city

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and a more equitable city too.

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So that perhaps

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is why the emperor isn't
sitting in his carriage

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but walking in the
street and carrying

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a candle
with his courtiers.

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And the bones of
a poor man from

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Palestine riding
in the royal coach.

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The emperor's procession
was on its way to

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a grand square

261
00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:50,752
half way between the
palace and the court church

262
00:13:53,666 --> 00:13:56,066
I think our ivory
procession would have

263
00:13:56,302 --> 00:13:58,031
passed through here

264
00:13:58,270 --> 00:13:59,362
right through the heart
of the ancient city.

265
00:13:59,605 --> 00:14:01,596
Now you see that Turkish
bath over there?

266
00:14:01,841 --> 00:14:02,808
That's in about the same

267
00:14:03,042 --> 00:14:05,010
place as the
gate on our ivory.

268
00:14:05,244 --> 00:14:07,906
And see the great
high dome on the gate?

269
00:14:08,147 --> 00:14:09,341
And see that figure of Christ

270
00:14:09,582 --> 00:14:11,413
that face of
Christ on the gate?

271
00:14:11,650 --> 00:14:13,174
That was such
a famous figure!

272
00:14:13,419 --> 00:14:15,683
It was called
Christ at the Gateway

273
00:14:15,921 --> 00:14:18,355
the most famous and influential
portrait of Christ.

274
00:14:18,591 --> 00:14:19,649
It was copied
from the great

275
00:14:19,892 --> 00:14:22,520
shining ivory statue of
Zeus of the Seven Wonders.

276
00:14:22,761 --> 00:14:25,025
And that was parked in a
palace just over there.

277
00:14:25,264 --> 00:14:27,858
Now think of our
procession moving along.

278
00:14:28,100 --> 00:14:30,933
You see they're going past
this great portico.

279
00:14:31,170 --> 00:14:32,694
Three high
stories are they

280
00:14:32,938 --> 00:14:35,600
people peering out
arches looking down

281
00:14:35,841 --> 00:14:37,240
swinging their incense

282
00:14:37,476 --> 00:14:39,034
pleased to see
the saint arriving

283
00:14:39,278 --> 00:14:41,439
in the city to make the
New Jerusalem joining

284
00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:43,113
heaven to earth.

285
00:14:43,349 --> 00:14:43,781
And over there

286
00:14:44,016 --> 00:14:46,985
look! That's about
the spot where the church

287
00:14:47,219 --> 00:14:49,119
the brand new church

288
00:14:49,388 --> 00:14:51,015
of Saint Stephen
is being built.

289
00:14:51,257 --> 00:14:53,248
It's ready
to receive the relics

290
00:14:53,492 --> 00:14:55,323
but they haven't
finished the roof

291
00:14:55,561 --> 00:14:57,961
and the tilers are still
working away out there.

292
00:14:58,197 --> 00:15:00,825
But the empress is proudly
waiting by the door

293
00:15:01,066 --> 00:15:02,556
holding a cross.

294
00:15:05,838 --> 00:15:08,204
And that is
quite extraordinary.

295
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:10,635
For the first time
in the ancient world

296
00:15:10,876 --> 00:15:12,343
the center of attention
is not the emperor

297
00:15:12,578 --> 00:15:14,273
but an empress.

298
00:15:14,647 --> 00:15:16,205
She carries the
cross of victory

299
00:15:16,448 --> 00:15:20,851
she receives the holy
relics into her church.

300
00:15:21,153 --> 00:15:24,611
It's probably the virgin
empress Pulcharia.

301
00:15:25,691 --> 00:15:28,683
In that most ancient
language signs and symbols

302
00:15:28,928 --> 00:15:30,293
the little
ivory is telling

303
00:15:30,529 --> 00:15:32,759
us about an
ancient revolution

304
00:15:33,399 --> 00:15:36,197
and one that still
affects the world today.

305
00:15:49,648 --> 00:15:51,115
In the first years

306
00:15:51,483 --> 00:15:54,316
many of Christianity's
most famous pictures

307
00:15:54,553 --> 00:15:56,851
were made here
in the grounds of the great

308
00:15:57,089 --> 00:16:00,855
monastery of Saint John
Studious of Constantinople.

309
00:16:08,834 --> 00:16:11,359
These monasteries were
Pulcharia's holy battle

310
00:16:11,603 --> 00:16:14,333
grounds the places
where she conjured up

311
00:16:14,573 --> 00:16:17,041
the sacred images and
metaphors with which

312
00:16:17,276 --> 00:16:19,744
she waged her
earthly arguments.

313
00:16:32,925 --> 00:16:35,860
At the center of this
ancient image factory

314
00:16:36,095 --> 00:16:39,064
one of Constantinople's
oldest churches

315
00:16:39,865 --> 00:16:41,628
where the sacred signs and

316
00:16:41,867 --> 00:16:44,495
stories were put
to powerful use.

317
00:16:49,208 --> 00:16:50,971
Imagine that it is Easter

318
00:16:51,377 --> 00:16:54,778
April the 15th, 428

319
00:16:55,014 --> 00:16:56,811
and that this nice
new church is filled

320
00:16:57,049 --> 00:17:00,041
with all the nobles
of Constantinople

321
00:17:00,285 --> 00:17:03,777
men downstairs women upstairs
in the galleries.

322
00:17:08,460 --> 00:17:11,452
Suddenly there was
a great hush.

323
00:17:11,697 --> 00:17:14,894
The imperial guard the emperor
and all his family

324
00:17:15,134 --> 00:17:16,999
had walked into the church.

325
00:17:17,569 --> 00:17:19,332
Now in the middle
of these churches

326
00:17:19,571 --> 00:17:21,766
there's a stone pulpit.

327
00:17:22,007 --> 00:17:23,201
For more than
a century now

328
00:17:23,442 --> 00:17:25,410
preachers have
been giving fire and

329
00:17:25,644 --> 00:17:27,339
brimstone from
these pulpits

330
00:17:27,579 --> 00:17:28,671
using all the language

331
00:17:28,914 --> 00:17:30,814
all the signs and
symbols of the Christian

332
00:17:31,050 --> 00:17:32,881
faith and the
ethics of the Bible.

333
00:17:33,118 --> 00:17:35,882
They laid out
the whole structure of

334
00:17:36,121 --> 00:17:37,952
this brand
new Christian empire.

335
00:17:38,190 --> 00:17:42,786
And the emperor and his family
listened in humility.

336
00:17:49,835 --> 00:17:53,396
Right on this line here
there was an altar rail.

337
00:17:53,639 --> 00:17:55,106
It separated the main body

338
00:17:55,340 --> 00:17:58,002
of the church
from the high altar.

339
00:17:58,243 --> 00:18:00,939
Only the emperor and his priests
were allowed in here

340
00:18:01,180 --> 00:18:04,172
close to the divine
mystery of communion.

341
00:18:05,217 --> 00:18:07,242
In 428

342
00:18:07,486 --> 00:18:09,113
though things were
rather different.

343
00:18:09,354 --> 00:18:11,584
Theodosius the emperor
was usually accompanied

344
00:18:11,824 --> 00:18:14,657
to the altar by
his sister Pulcharia.

345
00:18:14,893 --> 00:18:17,657
They're ruled together
since they'd been children

346
00:18:17,896 --> 00:18:21,161
two frightened toddlers in
a palace filled with intrigues

347
00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:23,231
and plots
for the succession.

348
00:18:24,403 --> 00:18:25,768
When she was fourteen

349
00:18:26,004 --> 00:18:27,767
Pulcharia had
hit upon the answer.

350
00:18:28,006 --> 00:18:30,702
She dedicated an altar
to her own virginity

351
00:18:30,943 --> 00:18:32,968
and to the
rule of the emperor.

352
00:18:33,212 --> 00:18:35,874
From that moment on they ruled
as a strange sacred couple

353
00:18:36,115 --> 00:18:37,707
like Joseph and Mary

354
00:18:37,950 --> 00:18:39,941
and there were no
plots for the succession.

355
00:18:40,185 --> 00:18:43,552
It'd also given
Pulcharia the unique role

356
00:18:43,789 --> 00:18:45,586
within the church.

357
00:18:48,060 --> 00:18:49,891
On that particular Easter day

358
00:18:50,129 --> 00:18:51,824
though things turned
out rather differently.

359
00:18:52,064 --> 00:18:54,532
Pulcharia's way to the
altar was barred by the

360
00:18:54,766 --> 00:18:56,324
new patriarch of Constantinople

361
00:18:56,568 --> 00:18:57,557
one Nestorius.

362
00:18:57,803 --> 00:19:01,671
He said that only men
could enter the sanctuary.

363
00:19:01,907 --> 00:19:05,308
Pulcharia was aghast
Her new role as a virgin

364
00:19:05,544 --> 00:19:07,978
had projected women
in a different way.

365
00:19:08,213 --> 00:19:09,646
She was as pure as gold

366
00:19:09,882 --> 00:19:12,442
she said. She had kept
herself as soft

367
00:19:12,684 --> 00:19:14,845
as fleece to receive
the holy spirit.

368
00:19:15,087 --> 00:19:18,853
"Have I not given birth
to God!" she cried.

369
00:19:19,458 --> 00:19:20,789
Nestorius

370
00:19:21,026 --> 00:19:22,755
though was a
man of the old school.

371
00:19:22,995 --> 00:19:25,862
He preferred to see women
as the daughters of Eve

372
00:19:26,098 --> 00:19:26,689
that unfortunate

373
00:19:26,932 --> 00:19:29,162
lady who dabbled in
snakes and sex and sin.

374
00:19:29,401 --> 00:19:31,995
"You," he
said to Pulcharia,

375
00:19:32,237 --> 00:19:34,569
"Have given birth
to Satan!"

376
00:19:34,806 --> 00:19:36,467
And there you have it really.

377
00:19:36,708 --> 00:19:39,142
The three roles of women
laid out in the early

378
00:19:39,378 --> 00:19:43,747
Christian church... sinners
virgins and mothers.

379
00:19:43,982 --> 00:19:46,382
By opening the debate
Pulcharia had not only

380
00:19:46,618 --> 00:19:48,210
advanced the role
of the Virgin Mary

381
00:19:48,453 --> 00:19:50,045
and women in Byzantium but

382
00:19:50,289 --> 00:19:54,555
defined the role of women
in Christendom forever.

383
00:19:59,765 --> 00:20:02,893
Encouraged by Pulcharia
the next full council

384
00:20:03,135 --> 00:20:06,070
of the church declared
Mary the mother of Jesus

385
00:20:06,305 --> 00:20:09,365
to be Mary the mother of God.

386
00:20:10,342 --> 00:20:12,105
It was a defining moment.

387
00:20:15,113 --> 00:20:17,809
Nestorius' challenge
to the empress Pulcharia

388
00:20:18,050 --> 00:20:21,076
was now seen as an
insult to the Virgin Mary.

389
00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:24,517
He was declared
a heretic and exiled.

390
00:20:37,269 --> 00:20:41,535
Thanks to Pulcharia the family
of the emperor of Byzantium

391
00:20:41,773 --> 00:20:44,264
had become a mirror
image of the holy family

392
00:20:44,509 --> 00:20:46,204
in the court of heaven.

393
00:20:50,716 --> 00:20:52,650
That is why these
medieval emperors offer

394
00:20:52,884 --> 00:20:55,682
their city and an
image of this church

395
00:20:55,921 --> 00:20:56,785
Saint Sofia

396
00:20:57,022 --> 00:20:58,717
Byzantium's cathedral

397
00:20:58,957 --> 00:21:01,425
for the protection
of the Virgin Mary.

398
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:04,695
Christ's mother
is their mother too.

399
00:21:07,232 --> 00:21:10,133
After Pulcharia the
emperors of Byzantium

400
00:21:10,369 --> 00:21:13,270
ruled by divine right
and by right of birth

401
00:21:13,505 --> 00:21:18,238
and all later Western
kings's imitated them.

402
00:21:20,512 --> 00:21:23,845
Pulcharia had cast that
spell of power and sanctity

403
00:21:24,082 --> 00:21:27,518
that still surrounds the
offices of government today.

404
00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:32,219
She'd also changed the
way that men saw women

405
00:21:32,457 --> 00:21:34,789
and women saw themselves.

406
00:21:42,267 --> 00:21:46,260
Once more ancient images
tell the story.

407
00:21:47,205 --> 00:21:50,265
Pagan Greeks and Romans
loved public displays

408
00:21:50,509 --> 00:21:53,034
of sexuality
inside the city.

409
00:21:53,679 --> 00:21:57,206
They seemed to hold the
force of life within them.

410
00:21:57,449 --> 00:22:00,612
They gave assurances
of immortality.

411
00:22:01,219 --> 00:22:03,915
The Christians though
that gazed upon eternity

412
00:22:04,156 --> 00:22:07,819
just as they destroyed
the pagan temples

413
00:22:08,060 --> 00:22:11,052
so they attacked the
pagan body image.

414
00:22:12,464 --> 00:22:15,160
Byzantine preachers said
that the sight of barren

415
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:16,924
nakedness threatened
anarchy within the

416
00:22:17,169 --> 00:22:19,467
family and the state.

417
00:22:20,772 --> 00:22:22,467
And it was covered up.

418
00:22:26,878 --> 00:22:31,247
Women like Pulcharia who once
had flaunted wealth and

419
00:22:31,483 --> 00:22:33,951
beauty at the public baths
now lived a regretful

420
00:22:34,186 --> 00:22:37,485
celibate, in hermit's house

421
00:22:37,723 --> 00:22:40,385
inside
their marble palaces.

422
00:22:44,730 --> 00:22:47,494
No longer was
each man an Alexander

423
00:22:47,733 --> 00:22:49,724
and every woman a Venus.

424
00:22:59,778 --> 00:23:01,143
Right through the empire

425
00:23:01,380 --> 00:23:03,041
the cities of
Byzantium were filling up

426
00:23:03,281 --> 00:23:05,146
with Christian piety.

427
00:23:05,884 --> 00:23:09,285
Yet it was still a magic
superstitious world.

428
00:23:09,821 --> 00:23:11,379
A world too

429
00:23:11,690 --> 00:23:14,215
where those who knew the
will of God held

430
00:23:14,459 --> 00:23:16,427
quite enormous power.

431
00:23:17,229 --> 00:23:19,424
Hermits like
Saint Simon of the Pillar

432
00:23:19,664 --> 00:23:21,689
who preached in Syria

433
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,230
and did not hesitate to
question the behavior

434
00:23:24,469 --> 00:23:26,403
of the emperor himself.

435
00:23:27,706 --> 00:23:30,869
Since you have become arrogant
Emperor

436
00:23:31,109 --> 00:23:33,873
and since your
heart has forgotten

437
00:23:34,112 --> 00:23:36,910
the Lord your God who gave
you the imperial crown

438
00:23:37,149 --> 00:23:38,639
and the imperial throne

439
00:23:38,884 --> 00:23:41,409
and since you have become
a friend of the feckless

440
00:23:41,653 --> 00:23:44,713
faithless Jew then know this.

441
00:23:44,956 --> 00:23:46,753
Soon you
will face divine judgment

442
00:23:46,992 --> 00:23:51,395
and then you will raise your
hands to heaven and moan!

443
00:23:54,900 --> 00:23:58,893
Impiety, then, brought
down the wrath of God.

444
00:24:00,338 --> 00:24:03,637
Piety on the other hand
brought prosperity

445
00:24:03,875 --> 00:24:06,742
good government and victory too.

446
00:24:07,045 --> 00:24:09,479
The preachers kept
their eyes on the great

447
00:24:09,714 --> 00:24:12,205
cities and on the
countryside as well.

448
00:24:12,884 --> 00:24:15,478
For the people who fed and
fueled Byzantium were

449
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:17,745
also at the
mercy of the Lord.

450
00:24:22,594 --> 00:24:24,687
Deep in Turkish Anatolia

451
00:24:25,530 --> 00:24:27,589
this little village
was once the city of

452
00:24:27,833 --> 00:24:30,165
Saint Michael of
Ten Thousand Angels

453
00:24:30,402 --> 00:24:32,927
famed
for its fine churches.

454
00:24:37,809 --> 00:24:40,710
In Byzantium's countryside
life was on a knife

455
00:24:40,946 --> 00:24:43,312
edge between
prosperity and starvation

456
00:24:43,615 --> 00:24:45,947
between flesh
and the Devil.

457
00:24:47,619 --> 00:24:49,883
Magic stones still
eased the pain of

458
00:24:50,121 --> 00:24:51,986
reaping and of childbirth.

459
00:24:55,093 --> 00:24:59,427
Magic images half cockerel half
snake all dressed in armor

460
00:24:59,664 --> 00:25:01,894
still kept the Evil
Eye at bay.

461
00:25:02,801 --> 00:25:03,961
Byzantium was built on the

462
00:25:04,202 --> 00:25:06,397
memories
of this pagan past

463
00:25:06,638 --> 00:25:10,096
sometimes even
from the same old stones.

464
00:25:15,380 --> 00:25:18,144
Ancient demons
haunted the countryside

465
00:25:18,383 --> 00:25:20,647
stopped
up wells curdled milk

466
00:25:20,886 --> 00:25:23,684
and threatened
plague and madness.

467
00:25:26,625 --> 00:25:29,617
Many saints were really
doctors ministering

468
00:25:29,861 --> 00:25:32,830
to a madness
born of holy terror.

469
00:25:33,064 --> 00:25:35,464
Their prayers drove
out the ancient devils

470
00:25:35,700 --> 00:25:38,669
safeguarded
animals and crops.

471
00:25:45,377 --> 00:25:46,173
For archaeologists

472
00:25:46,411 --> 00:25:47,036
of course

473
00:25:47,279 --> 00:25:50,009
such goings on are very
hard to excavate. Yet

474
00:25:50,248 --> 00:25:52,842
sometimes there are
clues to them

475
00:25:53,752 --> 00:25:56,448
still lying on the
swelling earth.

476
00:26:04,696 --> 00:26:07,426
Have you ever wondered
what attracts archaeologists

477
00:26:07,666 --> 00:26:09,258
to one place
rather than another?

478
00:26:09,501 --> 00:26:12,368
This hill is
a wonderful example.

479
00:26:12,837 --> 00:26:14,168
Just look at its shape.

480
00:26:14,406 --> 00:26:15,964
It's a bit
strange in the landscape.

481
00:26:16,207 --> 00:26:17,970
Look at all
these white stones.

482
00:26:18,209 --> 00:26:19,836
This is building stone.

483
00:26:20,478 --> 00:26:22,105
That's interesting
you might think.

484
00:26:22,347 --> 00:26:23,678
But then I found this.

485
00:26:23,915 --> 00:26:26,748
See! It's a very
rare piece of marble

486
00:26:26,985 --> 00:26:29,647
just like the Byzantines
used to use to clad the

487
00:26:29,888 --> 00:26:30,616
walls of buildings.

488
00:26:30,855 --> 00:26:32,482
So this is
quite a rich building.

489
00:26:32,724 --> 00:26:33,554
Here's a bit of the roof.

490
00:26:33,792 --> 00:26:36,226
So we've got
the walls and the ceiling

491
00:26:36,461 --> 00:26:37,894
everything you could need.

492
00:26:38,129 --> 00:26:39,391
What the devil is it?

493
00:26:39,631 --> 00:26:42,065
Well look a bit closer and
here you can find

494
00:26:42,300 --> 00:26:44,495
something
absolutely unique.

495
00:26:44,736 --> 00:26:46,829
This field is
studded with tiny

496
00:26:47,072 --> 00:26:49,302
little bits of glass.

497
00:26:49,541 --> 00:26:51,634
These bits of
glass are very special.

498
00:26:51,876 --> 00:26:54,868
These are mosaics and they were
made from the fifth

499
00:26:55,113 --> 00:26:56,478
to the seventh
or eighth centuries.

500
00:26:56,715 --> 00:26:59,809
That makes
this field unique.

501
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:04,579
Look around and
you'll soon discover

502
00:27:04,823 --> 00:27:07,519
why such a sophisticated
city church was built

503
00:27:07,759 --> 00:27:09,954
here deep
in the countryside.

504
00:27:12,063 --> 00:27:15,089
Long before the Christians
took over its magic

505
00:27:15,333 --> 00:27:17,893
this area had been a
pagan sanctuary

506
00:27:18,136 --> 00:27:21,105
a place of sacred springs
and running waters

507
00:27:21,339 --> 00:27:22,567
a little paradise.

508
00:27:26,077 --> 00:27:26,668
Well

509
00:27:27,045 --> 00:27:30,276
this is the place that's given
this region its name...

510
00:27:30,515 --> 00:27:33,040
old Turkish "Yurmai",

511
00:27:33,284 --> 00:27:34,581
Greek "Germia",

512
00:27:34,819 --> 00:27:36,582
Roman "Thermai".

513
00:27:36,821 --> 00:27:38,379
That's
a hot spring over there.

514
00:27:38,623 --> 00:27:41,558
Once it
was a great pagan shrine.

515
00:27:41,793 --> 00:27:44,489
That Christian church then
that Christian church

516
00:27:44,729 --> 00:27:46,026
on the hill
with those mosaics

517
00:27:46,264 --> 00:27:48,391
perhaps that is
its exact descendant.

518
00:27:49,467 --> 00:27:51,128
It's a magic place.

519
00:27:51,369 --> 00:27:54,600
Once there were many places
like this in Anatolia.

520
00:27:57,942 --> 00:28:01,878
Once upon a time in the early
years of Christianity

521
00:28:02,113 --> 00:28:05,241
a pagan washer woman
called Hypatia said

522
00:28:05,483 --> 00:28:07,451
that she would become
a Christian only

523
00:28:07,686 --> 00:28:10,814
if she could see the
face of Jesus for herself.

524
00:28:12,357 --> 00:28:14,416
And straight away
the story goes

525
00:28:14,659 --> 00:28:16,456
she found a portrait
of the Lord floating

526
00:28:16,695 --> 00:28:19,892
in the waters of
the village spring.

527
00:28:21,199 --> 00:28:22,632
And she
was very frightened

528
00:28:22,867 --> 00:28:25,165
and clutched the
picture to her breast.

529
00:28:25,403 --> 00:28:28,304
And then Hypatia found
she had two pictures

530
00:28:28,540 --> 00:28:33,341
the original panel and another
imprinted on her dress.

531
00:28:34,279 --> 00:28:36,941
It was a miracle.

532
00:28:38,683 --> 00:28:40,344
Such powerful images

533
00:28:40,585 --> 00:28:44,351
fallen straight from heaven
and mysteriously duplicating

534
00:28:44,589 --> 00:28:46,921
are called achuropeta.

535
00:28:48,059 --> 00:28:51,119
Tradition has it that several
of them still survive.

536
00:28:51,362 --> 00:28:52,989
The achuropeta
in the ancient palace

537
00:28:53,231 --> 00:28:57,827
of the popes of Rome
the great shroud of Turin.

538
00:29:12,517 --> 00:29:13,950
In the sixth century

539
00:29:14,185 --> 00:29:15,675
Hypatia's panel
painting became

540
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:17,751
Byzantium's battle icon

541
00:29:17,989 --> 00:29:22,449
the picture to paralyze the
enemy with a terrifying gaze.

542
00:29:23,661 --> 00:29:26,186
With such miraculous signs
and symbols how could

543
00:29:26,431 --> 00:29:28,331
the Byzantines ever lose?

544
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:30,033
Yet lose they did.

545
00:29:30,268 --> 00:29:31,098
And with that loss

546
00:29:31,336 --> 00:29:33,327
Byzantium and
all its signs

547
00:29:33,571 --> 00:29:36,734
and symbols
were forever changed.

548
00:29:44,516 --> 00:29:46,347
These are the
ruins of a Byzantine

549
00:29:46,584 --> 00:29:49,109
border fortress
set right upon

550
00:29:49,354 --> 00:29:51,379
the edge
of the Syrian desert.

551
00:29:54,526 --> 00:29:57,359
In the seventh century
the East exploded.

552
00:29:57,595 --> 00:29:58,823
The Byzantines
moved on Persia

553
00:29:59,063 --> 00:30:02,396
and the Persian armies moved
towards Byzantium.

554
00:30:02,767 --> 00:30:04,894
Vast battles rolled back
and forth across

555
00:30:05,136 --> 00:30:08,435
these plains for a quarter
of a century and more.

556
00:30:11,876 --> 00:30:14,071
These majesterial armies
with their gold

557
00:30:14,312 --> 00:30:16,075
and silver and their
standards and their

558
00:30:16,314 --> 00:30:19,249
generals all the
panoply of ancient war

559
00:30:19,484 --> 00:30:22,009
and at the end
of it all of Persia

560
00:30:22,253 --> 00:30:25,654
was destroyed and all of
Byzantium had been sacked

561
00:30:25,890 --> 00:30:28,358
except one city
that of Constantinople.

562
00:30:28,593 --> 00:30:29,252
And at the same time

563
00:30:29,494 --> 00:30:32,019
that this tremendous
battle was going on

564
00:30:32,597 --> 00:30:33,757
small tribes were

565
00:30:33,998 --> 00:30:36,466
infiltrating
up through the empire.

566
00:30:36,701 --> 00:30:38,635
One of them
brought bubonic plague.

567
00:30:38,870 --> 00:30:40,360
It was so bad in
Constantinople that

568
00:30:40,605 --> 00:30:42,971
ten thousand people
a day died from it.

569
00:30:43,208 --> 00:30:45,574
The bodies were piled
in a fortress and the

570
00:30:45,810 --> 00:30:48,870
terrible smell of death
hung over the city.

571
00:30:59,357 --> 00:31:03,691
One of these tribes from a
Byzantine trading

572
00:31:03,928 --> 00:31:06,522
city in Arabia found a great
prophet in their midst Muhammad.

573
00:31:09,567 --> 00:31:11,728
Muhammad had the ability
to turn a personal

574
00:31:11,970 --> 00:31:16,964
religious revelation into an
immediate political reality.

575
00:31:18,042 --> 00:31:19,839
Fired by his genius

576
00:31:20,078 --> 00:31:22,308
the armies of Islam swept
through the devastated

577
00:31:22,547 --> 00:31:23,946
landscapes of the East.

578
00:31:26,384 --> 00:31:27,282
In 636

579
00:31:27,518 --> 00:31:30,851
in a gigantic battle on
the Golan Heights in Syria

580
00:31:31,122 --> 00:31:33,022
the
Byzantines were crushed.

581
00:31:33,258 --> 00:31:33,883
Not long after

582
00:31:34,125 --> 00:31:36,025
the best part of
the Byzantine Empire

583
00:31:36,261 --> 00:31:40,322
that vast empire that once had
run from Spain to Syria

584
00:31:40,565 --> 00:31:43,159
was ruled by Arab Kurds.

585
00:31:45,670 --> 00:31:47,160
At the same time

586
00:31:47,405 --> 00:31:48,963
the nation
of the Slavs had broken

587
00:31:49,207 --> 00:31:50,936
through the northern
Byzantine defenses

588
00:31:51,175 --> 00:31:54,770
on the Danube and were raiding
south down into Greece and

589
00:31:55,013 --> 00:31:57,846
even threatening
Constantinople.

590
00:31:58,316 --> 00:32:01,308
Old Byzantium
was completely broken.

591
00:32:02,086 --> 00:32:05,613
An ancient way of life
was coming to an end.

592
00:32:07,525 --> 00:32:10,926
The story of the Syrian
city of Apamea could serve

593
00:32:11,162 --> 00:32:12,652
for a hundred others.

594
00:32:17,936 --> 00:32:22,373
Apamea had been a huge rich city
for a thousand years.

595
00:32:22,607 --> 00:32:24,973
In pagan times
it had a sprinkling

596
00:32:25,209 --> 00:32:27,143
of philosophers
and fine temples.

597
00:32:27,378 --> 00:32:31,212
Antony and Cleopatra came
here on their honeymoon.

598
00:32:33,518 --> 00:32:35,509
Byzantine Apamea too

599
00:32:35,753 --> 00:32:36,685
had its share of elegance

600
00:32:36,921 --> 00:32:40,413
of churches relics and
fire eating bishops.

601
00:32:42,427 --> 00:32:44,987
There'd been hundreds of
cities like Apamea

602
00:32:45,229 --> 00:32:47,561
throughout the
Empire of Byzantium.

603
00:32:48,866 --> 00:32:52,063
But now after the great wars
they all collapsed.

604
00:32:52,303 --> 00:32:55,568
It's very difficult to see
a disaster in archaeology.

605
00:32:55,807 --> 00:32:57,274
Things stop.

606
00:32:57,508 --> 00:32:59,271
All you get is ash.

607
00:32:59,510 --> 00:33:03,674
In the Byzantine Empire coinage
practically stopped being issued.

608
00:33:03,915 --> 00:33:05,746
This meant that nobody
could collect taxes

609
00:33:05,984 --> 00:33:07,246
nobody could
mend anything anymore

610
00:33:07,485 --> 00:33:09,248
there were no inscriptions.

611
00:33:09,487 --> 00:33:12,456
History
practically stopped.

612
00:33:16,527 --> 00:33:17,960
After the seventh century

613
00:33:18,196 --> 00:33:20,391
the survivors came back
into the ruins and

614
00:33:20,631 --> 00:33:22,428
started to
build little houses and

615
00:33:22,667 --> 00:33:25,602
small fortresses
amongst the great spines

616
00:33:25,837 --> 00:33:27,566
of the broken cities.

617
00:33:28,940 --> 00:33:31,204
At that point in the
world Constantinople

618
00:33:31,442 --> 00:33:34,741
was the only imperial
city left unconquered.

619
00:33:36,347 --> 00:33:39,544
You could say that
Byzantium had changed from

620
00:33:39,784 --> 00:33:43,242
an empire of cities to an
empire of fortresses.

621
00:33:50,595 --> 00:33:52,586
Much of seventh
century Constantinople

622
00:33:52,830 --> 00:33:54,457
must have looked like this.

623
00:33:55,366 --> 00:33:58,233
Old
Monunvassier in southern Greece.

624
00:34:00,204 --> 00:34:01,296
The city's walls

625
00:34:01,539 --> 00:34:05,373
protected refugees from the
lost empire soldiers craftsmen

626
00:34:05,610 --> 00:34:06,804
landowners.

627
00:34:07,245 --> 00:34:09,736
Its churches
were filled with images from

628
00:34:09,981 --> 00:34:12,472
ten thousand
distant shrines.

629
00:34:12,950 --> 00:34:14,884
Its open
squares and public

630
00:34:15,119 --> 00:34:16,484
highways were choking up

631
00:34:16,721 --> 00:34:19,053
with curving
lanes and little alleyways.

632
00:34:19,290 --> 00:34:22,259
The scale of life
had changed completely.

633
00:34:25,763 --> 00:34:28,493
People now stayed
by the family fireside

634
00:34:28,733 --> 00:34:32,066
read books
in silence by themselves

635
00:34:32,403 --> 00:34:33,802
cultivated their songs

636
00:34:34,038 --> 00:34:37,303
engaged in
clandestine love affairs.

637
00:34:40,244 --> 00:34:43,839
Even patterns of eating
and drinking changed.

638
00:34:44,082 --> 00:34:45,811
Take bread for example.

639
00:34:46,050 --> 00:34:49,508
Corn in Constantinople
largely came from Egypt.

640
00:34:49,754 --> 00:34:53,212
After the Arab invasions there
was no corn from Egypt

641
00:34:53,458 --> 00:34:54,720
no free bread handouts

642
00:34:54,959 --> 00:34:57,189
first time
in hundreds of years.

643
00:34:57,528 --> 00:34:59,359
Worse than that the wheat
that came from

644
00:34:59,597 --> 00:35:00,757
the north actually
tasted different.

645
00:35:00,998 --> 00:35:01,555
But it rose.

646
00:35:01,799 --> 00:35:03,198
It rose
like modern bread and

647
00:35:03,434 --> 00:35:06,403
that's really where the
modern loaf starts in.

648
00:35:06,637 --> 00:35:08,127
But it wasn't just
the food you eat.

649
00:35:08,372 --> 00:35:09,805
It was actually the way
you ate it.

650
00:35:10,041 --> 00:35:12,168
Ancient people had
sat on couches

651
00:35:12,410 --> 00:35:13,468
and been served by slaves.

652
00:35:13,711 --> 00:35:15,110
They didn't really
have knives and forks.

653
00:35:15,346 --> 00:35:16,540
There was
nowhere to put them.

654
00:35:16,781 --> 00:35:17,645
Now with chairs and tables

655
00:35:17,882 --> 00:35:19,782
people were sitting down
so that the

656
00:35:20,017 --> 00:35:23,145
great classical spoons
were filed down to make

657
00:35:23,387 --> 00:35:25,878
a little fork with which
you could prod the food.

658
00:35:30,061 --> 00:35:30,686
Pretty soon people would be cutting
their own food up with knives.

659
00:35:30,928 --> 00:35:34,864
Other changes too with the loss
of Syria to the Arabs practically

660
00:35:35,099 --> 00:35:36,430
all the
olive oil trade dried up.

661
00:35:36,667 --> 00:35:39,534
So you had to light your
house with candles.

662
00:35:39,770 --> 00:35:41,465
They were quite expensive.

663
00:35:42,173 --> 00:35:43,470
Not so many fry ups either.

664
00:35:43,708 --> 00:35:45,869
There were more boiled
foods now from the north.

665
00:35:46,110 --> 00:35:50,240
Northern foods called more
for beef than pork.

666
00:35:50,481 --> 00:35:54,042
The Northerners too brought
different clothes with them.

667
00:35:54,285 --> 00:35:55,252
Byzantium was cold.

668
00:35:55,486 --> 00:35:57,613
People took up wearing
trousers for the first time.

669
00:35:57,855 --> 00:35:59,220
And those
tough guys from the North

670
00:35:59,457 --> 00:36:00,685
with their
long hair began to be

671
00:36:00,925 --> 00:36:01,914
copied by the Byzantines.

672
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:04,720
If you want to look cool
and groovy and wild

673
00:36:04,962 --> 00:36:06,122
you look like a Northerner.

674
00:36:06,364 --> 00:36:09,856
The old classical
world was disappearing.

675
00:36:12,069 --> 00:36:14,435
Behind
the high stone walls

676
00:36:14,672 --> 00:36:18,301
there was uncertainty
and stress and fear.

677
00:36:18,843 --> 00:36:20,504
And in the age old way

678
00:36:20,745 --> 00:36:22,474
Byzantium expressed this change

679
00:36:22,713 --> 00:36:25,944
of mood with the signs and
symbols of its faith.

680
00:36:30,788 --> 00:36:33,222
This is a very good
example of what I mean.

681
00:36:33,457 --> 00:36:38,156
In its day this coin was
absolutely unique.

682
00:36:38,396 --> 00:36:40,762
Instead of having a
picture of the emperor

683
00:36:40,998 --> 00:36:42,761
on the
front it had a picture

684
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,025
of the Christ that was
over the palace gate.

685
00:36:45,269 --> 00:36:45,826
It's extraordinary.

686
00:36:46,070 --> 00:36:47,264
Nobody
knows why it was done.

687
00:36:47,505 --> 00:36:48,733
One sure thing it did.

688
00:36:48,973 --> 00:36:51,168
It cut the Arabs
off from using it because

689
00:36:51,409 --> 00:36:53,434
they didn't agree
with religious portraits.

690
00:36:53,678 --> 00:36:56,078
So the Byzantine
exchequer was sort of

691
00:36:56,314 --> 00:36:58,578
shut off
from them from this moment

692
00:36:58,816 --> 00:37:00,443
because the coins had a
picture of Christ on them.

693
00:37:00,685 --> 00:37:01,777
There's
another side to this too.

694
00:37:02,019 --> 00:37:03,509
There were lots of
Byzantines at the same time

695
00:37:03,754 --> 00:37:06,985
who didn't
like pictures of Christ.

696
00:37:07,225 --> 00:37:08,317
There was
a debate broke out

697
00:37:08,559 --> 00:37:10,493
inside Byzantium whether
it was a good idea

698
00:37:10,728 --> 00:37:12,992
or not a good idea
to have images.

699
00:37:13,231 --> 00:37:14,323
It was a debate that
went on with blindings

700
00:37:14,565 --> 00:37:16,465
burnings
maimings

701
00:37:16,701 --> 00:37:18,896
and ferocity
for over a hundred years

702
00:37:19,136 --> 00:37:22,071
and it changed
Byzantium forever.

703
00:37:28,846 --> 00:37:32,942
By the eighth century after the
invasion of Byzantium

704
00:37:33,184 --> 00:37:35,084
Constantinople
the ancient capitol

705
00:37:35,319 --> 00:37:37,480
stood at the center
of a gathering storm.

706
00:37:37,722 --> 00:37:41,123
The storm
called iconoclasm

707
00:37:41,359 --> 00:37:43,452
which
means quite literally

708
00:37:43,694 --> 00:37:46,219
the destruction
of the images.

709
00:37:50,868 --> 00:37:52,460
In the year 730

710
00:37:52,703 --> 00:37:55,263
there was a whole lot of
agitated people milling

711
00:37:55,506 --> 00:37:56,871
around in this square.

712
00:37:57,108 --> 00:37:59,633
They'd come here
because they heard

713
00:37:59,877 --> 00:38:01,845
that the emperor wanted to
take down the great picture

714
00:38:02,079 --> 00:38:05,014
of Christ that hung
above the palace gateway.

715
00:38:06,083 --> 00:38:06,845
They loved the picture.

716
00:38:07,084 --> 00:38:08,051
They didn't want it taken down.

717
00:38:08,286 --> 00:38:10,049
It healed the sick.

718
00:38:10,288 --> 00:38:13,382
Now this painting stood
under the great high

719
00:38:13,624 --> 00:38:15,717
arches of the palace gates
somewhere over there.

720
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:18,622
And a soldier put
up a ladder to go and

721
00:38:18,863 --> 00:38:20,524
get the painting
and somebody rushed out

722
00:38:20,765 --> 00:38:22,494
of the crowd and
pushed the ladder down

723
00:38:22,733 --> 00:38:23,597
and killed the soldier.

724
00:38:23,834 --> 00:38:26,268
But the other soldiers
took the painting down

725
00:38:26,504 --> 00:38:29,166
and arrested the person
who had killed their friend

726
00:38:29,407 --> 00:38:31,136
and they had her executed.

727
00:38:31,375 --> 00:38:33,605
And Saint Theodosia
the virgin martyr

728
00:38:33,844 --> 00:38:36,312
became the first
victim of iconoclasm.

729
00:38:36,547 --> 00:38:38,538
Iconoclasm

730
00:38:38,783 --> 00:38:40,375
the cataclysm
of the paintings.

731
00:38:40,618 --> 00:38:42,552
This movement that
started in the palace of

732
00:38:42,787 --> 00:38:46,655
Byzantium to
destroy all holy images.

733
00:38:46,891 --> 00:38:48,449
Thirty
years after they took

734
00:38:48,693 --> 00:38:49,785
the picture
down from the palace

735
00:38:50,027 --> 00:38:50,686
the iconoclasts

736
00:38:50,928 --> 00:38:53,396
that is the people who
were destroying the images

737
00:38:53,631 --> 00:38:56,031
went through
the great church itself.

738
00:38:56,267 --> 00:38:57,393
The patriarch was murdered.

739
00:38:57,635 --> 00:38:59,762
All the
images were taken down.

740
00:38:59,937 --> 00:39:01,871
And though the angels
came down from heaven

741
00:39:02,106 --> 00:39:04,870
so it was said and beat
the impious emperors

742
00:39:05,109 --> 00:39:07,634
the iconoclasm continued.

743
00:39:14,919 --> 00:39:17,183
Glass mosaics
were pounded into dust.

744
00:39:17,421 --> 00:39:19,548
Books were ripped apart

745
00:39:19,790 --> 00:39:21,553
wooden panel paintings
chopped into pieces

746
00:39:21,792 --> 00:39:24,989
and the blood of the holy
images so it was said

747
00:39:25,229 --> 00:39:27,424
soaked the clothing of
the iconoclasts.

748
00:39:27,665 --> 00:39:30,395
It wasn't
only little things either.

749
00:39:30,634 --> 00:39:31,965
The monuments of
this city were

750
00:39:32,203 --> 00:39:33,067
actually covered in images

751
00:39:33,304 --> 00:39:33,895
This for example

752
00:39:34,138 --> 00:39:37,130
was part of a great
milestone that stood

753
00:39:37,375 --> 00:39:38,433
at the center of the city.

754
00:39:38,676 --> 00:39:40,667
The emperor decreed
that the sacred image

755
00:39:40,911 --> 00:39:42,242
of the Virgin
that it contained

756
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:44,072
should be scraped away

757
00:39:44,315 --> 00:39:46,146
and a picture of
his favorite charioteer

758
00:39:46,384 --> 00:39:48,079
put up in its place.

759
00:39:48,319 --> 00:39:50,412
What
on earth was going on?

760
00:39:54,892 --> 00:39:59,795
Once more
signs and symbols tell the story.

761
00:40:01,232 --> 00:40:03,291
About the year 750

762
00:40:03,534 --> 00:40:07,129
that same emperor
who so hated holy images

763
00:40:07,371 --> 00:40:09,737
restored
this fine old church

764
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:12,770
Saint
Irene's in Constantinople.

765
00:40:15,112 --> 00:40:18,240
The plain cross was
the measure of the man.

766
00:40:18,482 --> 00:40:21,610
The pious emperor
Constantine the Fifth

767
00:40:21,852 --> 00:40:24,047
a single minded soldier.

768
00:40:25,322 --> 00:40:28,189
Like other emperors
and generals at the time

769
00:40:28,426 --> 00:40:31,293
Constantine the
Fifth believed that sacred

770
00:40:31,529 --> 00:40:34,828
pictures were evil
in the sight of God.

771
00:40:35,499 --> 00:40:37,967
The church
contains no other images.

772
00:40:40,037 --> 00:40:43,700
We move in a dangerous
and mysterious age.

773
00:40:49,380 --> 00:40:51,211
Part of the dark
mystery of iconoclasm was

774
00:40:51,449 --> 00:40:55,408
actually solved a few
years ago in the Vatican

775
00:40:55,653 --> 00:40:58,622
library by the
study of this old book.

776
00:40:58,856 --> 00:41:00,050
Now
this book

777
00:41:00,291 --> 00:41:02,623
well it was clearly more
than a thousand years old.

778
00:41:02,860 --> 00:41:06,193
But the text in it was twice as
old as that and more

779
00:41:06,430 --> 00:41:09,831
This is called
Ptolemy's Handy Tables

780
00:41:10,067 --> 00:41:12,627
and it was written
in ancient Alexandrian Egypt.

781
00:41:12,870 --> 00:41:15,361
And it describes all the
passages of the stars

782
00:41:15,606 --> 00:41:17,164
and the sun and the
moon through the sky.

783
00:41:17,408 --> 00:41:19,399
What was so
remarkable about this copy of

784
00:41:19,643 --> 00:41:22,373
it was not
simply its beauty

785
00:41:22,613 --> 00:41:23,944
but also the fact that it

786
00:41:24,181 --> 00:41:25,671
had been
written at the height

787
00:41:25,916 --> 00:41:27,975
of iconoclasm right
at that burning beginning

788
00:41:28,219 --> 00:41:29,880
when every
image in the churches

789
00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:31,678
were being destroyed.

790
00:41:31,922 --> 00:41:34,482
Now the key of this book
and the central

791
00:41:34,725 --> 00:41:38,456
image of it is this beautiful
plate in the front

792
00:41:38,696 --> 00:41:41,256
And it shows you... it's
a sort of a diagram

793
00:41:41,499 --> 00:41:43,694
from the most ancient
world of astrology.

794
00:41:43,934 --> 00:41:46,129
There's the zodiac
signs around the edge.

795
00:41:46,370 --> 00:41:49,237
All those wonderful
old signs all added

796
00:41:49,473 --> 00:41:51,532
together to
make a sort of cosmos.

797
00:41:51,775 --> 00:41:55,108
And in the middle
this iconoclast artist

798
00:41:55,346 --> 00:41:58,440
has actually painted Apollo
the sun god.

799
00:41:58,716 --> 00:41:59,910
This is the
ancient Greek world.

800
00:42:00,150 --> 00:42:01,344
It revolves
around the sun.

801
00:42:01,585 --> 00:42:04,076
And there's Apollo in
his chariot sailing

802
00:42:04,321 --> 00:42:05,447
through the sky.

803
00:42:05,689 --> 00:42:06,849
Isn't that extraordinary?

804
00:42:07,091 --> 00:42:10,322
These pious emperors who
think so deeply and so

805
00:42:10,561 --> 00:42:12,290
hard about Christianity
put Apollo in his

806
00:42:15,733 --> 00:42:16,392
chariot at the
center of the universe.

807
00:42:16,634 --> 00:42:17,862
Why do you
think they've done that?

808
00:42:18,102 --> 00:42:18,898
The truth is
of course

809
00:42:19,136 --> 00:42:21,434
this man is interested
in these old pagan values.

810
00:42:21,672 --> 00:42:23,663
He's thinking of luck.

811
00:42:23,908 --> 00:42:24,840
Charioteers

812
00:42:25,075 --> 00:42:27,305
his favorite charioteers
ran races and won

813
00:42:27,545 --> 00:42:29,775
them in the
center of Constantinople.

814
00:42:30,014 --> 00:42:30,946
The charioteers brought

815
00:42:31,181 --> 00:42:32,546
luck and victory to his city

816
00:42:32,783 --> 00:42:34,546
And that's what
these iconoclasts wanted.

817
00:42:34,785 --> 00:42:36,116
They wanted a
pure Christianity.

818
00:42:36,353 --> 00:42:40,915
But they wanted that most
ancient virtue luck.

819
00:42:49,266 --> 00:42:51,564
In the great spasm of
iconoclasm that passed

820
00:42:51,802 --> 00:42:54,362
through Byzantium
in the seven hundreds

821
00:42:54,605 --> 00:42:56,698
the monasteries and
nunneries along this lonely

822
00:42:56,941 --> 00:43:00,172
coastline to the south of
Constantinople sheltered

823
00:43:00,411 --> 00:43:04,370
both artists
and the holy images.

824
00:43:12,690 --> 00:43:13,816
The battle for the icons

825
00:43:14,058 --> 00:43:15,753
ebbed and
flowed throughout

826
00:43:15,993 --> 00:43:18,359
Byzantium
like a summer storm.

827
00:43:18,596 --> 00:43:19,426
But you know

828
00:43:19,663 --> 00:43:22,757
those pictures never
really left the people.

829
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:24,024
They were too much beloved

830
00:43:24,268 --> 00:43:26,065
The monks
really fought for them.

831
00:43:26,303 --> 00:43:27,964
The monks of
the great imperial

832
00:43:28,205 --> 00:43:29,194
monasteries
of Constantinople

833
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:31,465
the monks that lived
here in this idyllic

834
00:43:31,709 --> 00:43:33,108
land along
the coast of Marmara

835
00:43:33,344 --> 00:43:35,972
they died
for those pictures.

836
00:43:36,213 --> 00:43:38,477
There were icons too even
in the royal palace.

837
00:43:38,716 --> 00:43:40,308
The ordinary
people liked them.

838
00:43:40,551 --> 00:43:42,519
The people in the
royal family liked them.

839
00:43:42,753 --> 00:43:45,722
Constantine the Fifth's
own son was married

840
00:43:45,956 --> 00:43:47,014
to a girl from Athens

841
00:43:47,257 --> 00:43:47,689
who's Irene

842
00:43:47,925 --> 00:43:50,052
who kept
icons in the palace.

843
00:43:50,294 --> 00:43:51,625
Now Irene was an
interesting lady.

844
00:43:51,862 --> 00:43:54,422
She wanted the icons back.

845
00:43:54,832 --> 00:43:57,357
And when her
son finally became

846
00:43:57,601 --> 00:43:58,363
emperor in his own right

847
00:43:58,602 --> 00:44:00,593
she took him back to the
room where he's been born

848
00:44:00,838 --> 00:44:02,829
a room
with shining porphyry

849
00:44:03,073 --> 00:44:04,005
and had him blinded

850
00:44:04,241 --> 00:44:06,732
and restored the pictures.

851
00:44:06,977 --> 00:44:08,001
That terrible
story of Irene

852
00:44:08,245 --> 00:44:09,542
wasn't
the end of the iconoclasm.

853
00:44:09,780 --> 00:44:11,475
Fifty years later

854
00:44:11,715 --> 00:44:15,708
they were still torturing
people who liked pictures

855
00:44:15,953 --> 00:44:18,285
A painter called
Lazarus had his hands

856
00:44:18,522 --> 00:44:20,251
forced down
on sheets of red hot iron

857
00:44:20,491 --> 00:44:21,788
to stop him painting.

858
00:44:22,026 --> 00:44:22,492
And still

859
00:44:22,726 --> 00:44:25,217
he got a paint
brush in his crippled hand

860
00:44:25,462 --> 00:44:27,692
and painted a new
image of the Helke Christ

861
00:44:27,931 --> 00:44:29,762
on the gate of the imperial palace.

862
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:31,968
And that as the people
of the city knew

863
00:44:32,202 --> 00:44:34,363
was the restoration
of the pictures.

864
00:44:43,914 --> 00:44:45,848
In the year 867

865
00:44:46,083 --> 00:44:47,914
on the
twenty-ninth of March

866
00:44:48,152 --> 00:44:49,278
the patriarch
of Constantinople

867
00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:54,048
one Foteus dedicated
the first pictorial

868
00:44:54,291 --> 00:44:57,488
mosaic in the
church of Saint Sofia

869
00:45:06,470 --> 00:45:07,835
Beside it

870
00:45:08,072 --> 00:45:10,768
in mosaic was a single sentence.

871
00:45:12,176 --> 00:45:14,508
"These images that
the heretics cast down

872
00:45:14,745 --> 00:45:17,908
are being set up again
by pious emperors

873
00:45:20,684 --> 00:45:25,053
The iconoclasts had lost
the century old debate.

874
00:45:28,325 --> 00:45:29,587
Even in her image

875
00:45:29,827 --> 00:45:34,264
Foteus tells us the Virgin
graces and delights

876
00:45:34,498 --> 00:45:37,558
she strengthens
and she comforts us

877
00:45:39,803 --> 00:45:43,364
Once again the holy
pictures filled Byzantium

878
00:45:43,607 --> 00:45:45,939
with their
unearthly presence.

879
00:45:50,047 --> 00:45:51,446
In Saint Sofia

880
00:45:51,682 --> 00:45:54,014
images of Christ were
placed up in the dome

881
00:45:54,251 --> 00:45:57,550
and here above the
church's central door

882
00:45:57,788 --> 00:46:00,279
where only
the emperor could enter.

883
00:46:02,359 --> 00:46:04,350
Not the
favorite Western image

884
00:46:04,595 --> 00:46:08,964
the mortal Christ impaled
in time upon a cross

885
00:46:09,566 --> 00:46:11,295
but the old familiar figure

886
00:46:11,535 --> 00:46:13,230
from the palace gate

887
00:46:13,470 --> 00:46:15,768
Christ of all
time and of all places

888
00:46:16,006 --> 00:46:19,635
Christ lord of the cosmos.

889
00:46:23,647 --> 00:46:27,014
Before this ancient image
penitent emperors now

890
00:46:27,251 --> 00:46:29,719
prostrate themselves in awe.

891
00:46:47,771 --> 00:46:48,999
Not long ago

892
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:51,400
there was a better
ending to this story.

893
00:46:51,642 --> 00:46:54,042
Here in ancient
walled city of Nicaea

894
00:46:54,278 --> 00:46:56,178
close to Constantinople.

895
00:46:56,413 --> 00:46:59,177
In the first
years of Byzantium

896
00:46:59,449 --> 00:47:02,543
Christian creed had been
written in this pretty

897
00:47:02,786 --> 00:47:04,219
little city
and approved here too

898
00:47:04,454 --> 00:47:06,479
by the first
council of the church.

899
00:47:08,659 --> 00:47:10,320
Over the
following centuries

900
00:47:10,561 --> 00:47:13,325
Nicaea had filled
with little churches.

901
00:47:15,599 --> 00:47:18,500
One of them a miniature
Saint Sofia

902
00:47:18,735 --> 00:47:21,033
decorated with
mosaics that celebrated

903
00:47:21,271 --> 00:47:25,230
the return of icons
after the iconoclasm.

904
00:47:26,109 --> 00:47:27,269
Now though

905
00:47:27,511 --> 00:47:29,274
you can only see
the glittering scenes in

906
00:47:29,513 --> 00:47:34,883
old photographs... the
triumphant angels

907
00:47:35,118 --> 00:47:37,313
the exquisite Madonna drawn over

908
00:47:37,554 --> 00:47:41,285
the shadow of the
iconoclasts' plain cross.

909
00:47:44,328 --> 00:47:46,626
All of this was
blown away in the Greek

910
00:47:46,864 --> 00:47:49,890
and Turkish wars of 1922.

911
00:47:50,267 --> 00:47:52,895
And each side
still blames the other.

912
00:47:54,938 --> 00:47:59,966
How is it that
people can show such tremendous

913
00:48:00,210 --> 00:48:04,510
ferocity
to such quiet beauty

914
00:48:05,115 --> 00:48:07,606
to such passive images?

915
00:48:07,851 --> 00:48:10,445
Well I think
it depends upon the way

916
00:48:10,687 --> 00:48:13,417
you look at pictures.

917
00:48:14,157 --> 00:48:16,648
You see that Virgin who stood

918
00:48:16,894 --> 00:48:18,657
here in
the nave of this church

919
00:48:18,896 --> 00:48:20,830
like the
one in Saint Sofia

920
00:48:21,064 --> 00:48:23,157
wasn't like
a Western picture.

921
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:25,391
It wasn't
just a picture of a woman

922
00:48:25,636 --> 00:48:27,160
in a blue
dress sitting on the chair

923
00:48:27,404 --> 00:48:28,837
with a sacred baby.

924
00:48:29,172 --> 00:48:31,697
It wasn't like
a record of an event.

925
00:48:32,542 --> 00:48:34,407
These pictures
were actually intended to

926
00:48:34,645 --> 00:48:37,614
actually take part of the
identity of the Virgin

927
00:48:37,848 --> 00:48:41,045
part of the eternal cosmic
identity of the Virgin

928
00:48:41,285 --> 00:48:42,775
something was there
at the beginning of

929
00:48:43,020 --> 00:48:44,180
time and there
at the end of time.

930
00:48:44,421 --> 00:48:46,480
And you had
it in your church.

931
00:48:46,757 --> 00:48:48,622
As every little icon
every little picture

932
00:48:48,859 --> 00:48:51,293
throughout the empire
refracted these bits of

933
00:48:51,528 --> 00:48:53,496
holiness
throughout the empire.

934
00:48:53,730 --> 00:48:55,891
The emperors
didn't want that.

935
00:48:56,133 --> 00:48:58,693
They wanted to gather
all that dispersed holiness

936
00:48:58,936 --> 00:49:01,234
around their
own person in the city

937
00:49:01,471 --> 00:49:03,735
along with the sacred relics
inside their palace.

938
00:49:03,974 --> 00:49:05,373
Just as they
collected the taxes

939
00:49:05,609 --> 00:49:08,635
so they wanted that
power to themselves.

940
00:49:09,546 --> 00:49:12,447
The Byzantines
came from one of the most

941
00:49:12,683 --> 00:49:14,116
ancient cultures
of the Middle East.

942
00:49:14,351 --> 00:49:17,286
The people
wanted their images.

943
00:49:17,521 --> 00:49:20,718
So the
triumph of the pictures

944
00:49:20,958 --> 00:49:22,391
you might say
is really a compromise.

945
00:49:22,626 --> 00:49:24,287
The emperor
gets his sacredness

946
00:49:24,528 --> 00:49:28,123
his divine power and
his taxes in Byzantium.

947
00:49:28,632 --> 00:49:30,896
And the people
get their pictures.

948
00:49:31,969 --> 00:49:35,496
The compromise is the
most indelible aspect

949
00:49:35,739 --> 00:49:37,570
of the Byzantine identity.

950
00:49:45,115 --> 00:49:47,310
This is a picture of
a procession carrying

951
00:49:47,551 --> 00:49:50,884
an icon and it was made
six centuries ago

952
00:49:51,121 --> 00:49:53,385
in the last
years of Byzantium.

953
00:49:57,494 --> 00:49:59,860
It gives a precious
glimpse of Constantinople's

954
00:50:00,097 --> 00:50:03,123
most famous image of the
Virgin Mary painted

955
00:50:03,367 --> 00:50:08,395
it was believed from the
life by Saint Luke himself

956
00:50:12,576 --> 00:50:16,672
Underneath the sum of those who
centuries before had fought

957
00:50:16,913 --> 00:50:19,973
iconoclasm and found
their way to paradise.

958
00:50:22,886 --> 00:50:25,878
Saint Theodosia
the virgin martyr

959
00:50:26,123 --> 00:50:29,422
the abbots of the
monasteries the artists...

960
00:50:29,659 --> 00:50:32,287
they hold the pictures
that they died for.

961
00:50:34,798 --> 00:50:37,289
Pictures painted with such
passion and precision

962
00:50:37,534 --> 00:50:42,335
such blazing
color such quiet power.

963
00:50:48,945 --> 00:50:52,506
They say that on the
last night of Byzantium

964
00:50:53,050 --> 00:50:54,483
on the
evening of Monday the

965
00:50:54,718 --> 00:50:58,210
twenty-eighth
of May in 1453

966
00:50:58,455 --> 00:51:01,185
just hours before
Constantinople fell to

967
00:51:01,425 --> 00:51:04,121
armies of the
Turks that the Virgin

968
00:51:04,361 --> 00:51:07,728
came down into her city
for the last time and took

969
00:51:07,964 --> 00:51:11,593
her picture back to heaven