Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred objects

from BBC Radio 4. What does a great empire do when it's faced with imminent invasion and destruction?

It can re-arm at home and seek allies abroad, but more cunningly it can revisit its history to forge a myth

that will unite the people and carry them through to victory. A myth that will demonstrate

to everyone that their country has been specially chosen by God and by history to uphold justice and

righteousness.

History reimagined can be a very powerful weapon.

When the Christian Byzantine Empire faced obliteration at the hands of the Ottoman Turks around 1400 it turned to its past found an event

that proclaimed its unique and divinely ordained purpose and turned that into a

national myth.

The Byzantine's promoted their myth in the most public media at their disposal.

They established a new religious feast day and they commissioned a religious icon to market.

This icon is a document of a political event.

I felt immediately that it was similar to the evening news.

This debate about images just rolls in Christianity.

Sometimes the image lovers win, sometimes the image lovers win.

Sometimes the image haters win. A history of the world of Orthodoxy

painted in Istanbul

in the late 14th century.

This week our programs are about how people use objects to get closer to their gods,

and how states use religious imagery to help rally the public.

For the Byzantine Empire around 1400, it had never been more important to seek divine help.

...