Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Understand
Byzantium
Known for its charismatic emperors, powerful armies, refined culture and convoluted politics, Byzantium's legacy
resonates to this day.
The Eastern Roman Empire
Legend tells us that the city of Byzantium was founded in 667 BC by a group of colonists from Megara, northwest
of Athens, led by Byzas, the son of Megara's king. An alliance was eventually formed with the Romans, and the
city was officially incorporated into their empire in AD 79. In the late 3rd century, Emperor Diocletian (r 284-305)
split the empire into eastern and western administrative units. His actions resulted in a civil war in which a rival,
Constantine I, triumphed. Constantine made Byzantium his capital in 330, naming it 'New Rome'.
The new capital soon came to be known as Constantinople. Constantine died in 337, but the city continued to
grow under the rule of emperors including Theodosius I ('the Great'; r 379-95), Theodosius II (r 408-50) and
Justinian (r 527-65). The eastern and western empires had been politically separated after the death of Theodosius
I, but the final tie with Rome wasn't severed until 620, when Heraclius I (r 610-41) changed the official language
of the eastern empire from Latin to Greek, inaugurating what we now refer to as the 'Byzantine Empire'.
The Byzantine Empire
For the next eight centuries the empire asserted its independence from Rome by adopting Orthodox Christianity.
Ruled by a series of family dynasties, it was the most powerful economic, cultural and military force in Europe un-
til the Seljuk Turks acquired much of its territory in Asia Minor in 1071.
In 1204 Constantinople fell to Latin soldiers of the Fourth Crusade. The powerful Byzantine families went into
exile in Nicaea and Epirus, and the empire was split between Greek and Latin factions. Despite being reclaimed by
the Nicaean emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261, it was plagued by a series of civil wars and finally fell to
the Ottomans in 1453, when Mehmet II (Fatih, or Conqueror) took Constantinople. The last Byzantine emperor,
Constantine XI Palaiologos, died defending the walls from Mehmet's onslaught.
