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The Byzantine Empire was a theocracy, said to be ruled by God working through the emperor. Jennifer Fretland VanVoorst argues, "The Byzantine Empire became a theocracy in the sense that Christian values and ideals were the foundation of the empire's political ideals and heavily entwined with its political goals."
- Byzantium
- Byzantine Empire Flourishes
- Eastern Roman Empire
- Council of Chalcedon
- Justinian I
- Iconoclasm
- Byzantine Art
- The Crusades
- Fall of Constantinople
- Legacy of The Byzantine Empire
The term “Byzantine” derives from Byzantium, an ancient Greek colony founded by a man named Byzas. Located on the European side of the Bosporus (the strait linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean), the site of Byzantium was ideally located to serve as a transit and trade point between Europe and Asia. In A.D. 330, Roman Emperor Constantine I cho...
The eastern half of the Roman Empire proved less vulnerable to external attack, thanks in part to its geographic location. With Constantinople located on a strait, it was extremely difficult to breach the capital’s defenses; in addition, the eastern empire had a much smaller common frontier with Europe. It also benefited greatly from a stronger adm...
As a result of these advantages, the Eastern Roman Empire, variously known as the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium, was able to survive for centuries after the fall of Rome. Though Byzantium was ruled by Roman law and Roman political institutions, and its official language was Latin, Greek was also widely spoken, and students received education in Gre...
In terms of religion, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 officially established the division of the Christian world into separate patriarchates, including Rome (where the patriarch would later call himself pope), Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. Even after the Islamicempire absorbed Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem in the seventh century, the Byzan...
Justinian I, who took power in 527 and would rule until his death in 565, was the first great ruler of the Byzantine Empire. During the years of his reign, the empire included most of the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, as Justinian’s armies conquered part of the former Western Roman Empire, including North Africa. Many great monuments of t...
During the eighth and early ninth centuries, Byzantine emperors (beginning with Leo III in 730) spearheaded a movement that denied the holiness of icons, or religious images, and prohibited their worship or veneration. Known as Iconoclasm—literally “the smashing of images”—the movement waxed and waned under various rulers, but did not end definitiv...
During the late 10th and early 11th centuries, under the rule of the Macedonian dynasty founded by Michael III’s successor, Basil, the Byzantine Empire enjoyed a golden age. Though it stretched over less territory, Byzantium had more control over trade, more wealth and more international prestige than under Justinian. The strong imperial government...
The end of the 11th century saw the beginning of the Crusades, the series of holy wars waged by European Christians against Muslims in the Near East from 1095 to 1291. With the Seijuk Turks of central Asia bearing down on Constantinople, Emperor Alexius I turned to the West for help, resulting in the declaration of “holy war” by Pope Urban II at Cl...
During the rule of the Palaiologan emperors, beginning with Michael VIII in 1261, the economy of the once-mighty Byzantine state was crippled, and never regained its former stature. In 1369, Emperor John V unsuccessfully sought financial help from the West to confront the growing Turkish threat, but he was arrested as an insolvent debtor in Venice....
In the centuries leading up to the final Ottoman conquest in 1453, the culture of the Byzantine Empire–including literature, art, architecture, law and theology–flourished even as the empire itself faltered. Byzantine culture would exert a great influence on the Western intellectual tradition, as scholars of the Renaissancesought help from Byzantin...
The following list starts with Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, who rebuilt the city of Byzantium as an imperial capital, Constantinople, and who was regarded by the later emperors as the model ruler.
PortraitName [a]ReignConstantine I "the Great" Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ ...25 July 306 – 22 May 337 (30 years, 9 ...Born at Naissus c. 272 as the son of the ...Constantius II Κωνστάντιος Fl. Iulius ...22 May 337 – 3 November 361 (24 years, 1 ...Born on 7 August 317, as the second ...Julian "the Apostate" Ἰουλιανὸς ὁ ...3 November 361 – 26 June 363 (1 year, 7 ...Born in May 332, grandson of Constantius ...Jovian Ἰοβιανός Claudius Iovianus ...27 June 363 – 17 February 364 (7 months ...Born c. 332. Captain of the guards under ...- 29 May 1453
- Constantine I
- 11 May 330
- Constantine XI
Sep 19, 2018 · Who founded the Byzantine Empire? The Byzantine Empire was founded by Roman emperor Constantine I who separated the Roman Empire into western and eastern parts. Was Byzantine Greek or Roman? The Byzantine Empire was both Roman and Greek. It started out more Roman but over the centuries it drifted further away from the traditions of the Western ...
- Mark Cartwright
The Byzantine Empire and the Sultanate of Rûm before the Crusades. After Manzikert, a partial recovery (referred to as the Komnenian restoration) was made possible by the Komnenian dynasty. [129] The first Komnenian emperor was Isaac I (1057–1059), after which the Doukas dynasty held power (1059–81).
May 10, 2022 · Origins. Justinian I. Byzantine Dark Age. Byzantine comeback? The Great Schism of 1054. The Fourth Crusade. The end. Additional resources. Bibliography. Timeline. The Byzantine Empire, also known...
Byzantine Empire. 330–1453. The empire in 555 under Justinian the Great, at its greatest extent since the fall of the Western Roman Empire (its vassals in pink) The change of territory of the Byzantine Empire (476–1400) Capital. Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) Common languages. Latin and Greek.
