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Between the eighth and eleventh centuries A.D., the Byzantine Empire staged an almost unparalleled economic and cultural revival, a recovery that is all the more striking because it followed a long period of severe internal decline. By the early eighth century, the empire had lost roughly two-thirds of the territory it had possessed in the year 600, and its remaining area was being raided by Arabs and Bulgarians, who at times threatened to take Constantinople and extinguish the empire altogether. The wealth of the state and its subjects was greatly diminished, and artistic and literary production had virtually ceased. By the early eleventh century, however, the empire had regained almost half of its lost possessions, its new frontiers were secure, and its influence extended far beyond its borders. The economy had recovered, the treasury was full, and art and scho- larship had advanced.To consider the Byzantine military, cultural, and economic advances as differentiated aspects of a single phenomenon is reasonable. After all, these three formsof progress have gone together in a number of states andcivilizations. Rome under Augustus and fifth-centuryAthens provide the most obvious examples in antiquity. Moreover, an examination of the apparent sequential connections among military, economic, and cultural forms of progress might help explain the dynamics of historical change. The common explanation of these apparent conn- ections in the case of Byzantium would run like this: when the empire had turned back enemy raids on itsown territory and had begun to raid and conquer enemy territory, Byzantine resources naturally expanded and more money became available to patronize art and lit-erature. Therefore, Byzantine military achievements led to economic advances, which in turn led to cultural revival.No doubt this hypothetical pattern did apply at timesduring the course of the recovery. Yet it is not clearthatmilitary advances invariably came first. economicadvances second, and intellectual advances third. In the 860s the Byzantine Empire began to recoverfrom Arab incursions so that by 872 the military balance with theAbbasid Caliphate had been permanently altered in theempires favor. The beginning of the empires economicrevival, however, can be placed between 810 and 830. Finally, the Byzantine revival of learning appears tohave begun even earlier. A number of notable scholarsand writers appeared by 788 and, by the last decade ofthe eighth century, a cultural revival was in full bloom, arevival that lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.Thus the commonly expected order of military revival followed by economic and then by cultural recovery was reversed in Byzantium. In fact, the revival of Byzantine learning may itself have influenced the subsequent economic and military expansion. | 
