Byzantine Empire

Template:Short description Template:Protection padlock Template:Use dmy dates Template:EngvarB The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th centuryAD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'.Template:Efn

During the early centuries of the Roman Empire, the western provinces were Latinised, but the eastern parts kept their Hellenistic culture. Constantine I (Template:Reign) legalised Christianity and moved the capital to Constantinople. Theodosius I (Template:Reign) made Christianity the state religion and Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use. The empire adopted a defensive strategy and, throughout its remaining history, experienced recurring cycles of decline and recovery.

It reached its greatest extent under the reign of Justinian I (Template:Reign), who briefly reconquered much of Italy and the western Mediterranean coast. A plague began around 541, and a devastating war with Persia drained the empire's resources. The Arab conquests led to the loss of the empire's richest provinces—Egypt and Syria—to the Rashidun Caliphate. In 698, Africa was lost to the Umayyad Caliphate, but the empire stabilised under the Isaurian dynasty. It expanded once more under the Macedonian dynasty, experiencing a two-century-long renaissance. Thereafter, periods of civil war and Seljuk incursion resulted in the loss of most of Asia Minor. The empire recovered during the Komnenian restoration, and Constantinople remained the largest and wealthiest city in Europe until the 13th century.

The empire was largely dismantled in 1204, following the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade; its former territories were then divided into competing Greek rump states and Latin realms. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the reconstituted empire wielded only regional power during its final two centuries. Its remaining territories were progressively annexed by the Ottomans in a series of wars fought in the 14th and 15th centuries. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 brought the empire to an end, but its history and legacy remain topics of debate to this day.

Nomenclature

The empire's inhabitants, now generally termed "Byzantines", regarded themselves as Romans (in Greek, or ).Template:Sfnm Similarly, their Islamic contemporaries called their empire the "land of the Romans" ().Template:Sfn After 800 AD Western Europe called them "Greeks" (), as the Papacy and medieval German emperors regarded themselves as the true inheritors of Roman identity.Template:Sfnm The adjective "Byzantine", derived from ( in Latin), the name of the Greek settlement Constantinople was established on, was only used to describe the inhabitants of the city; it did not refer to the empire, called ( or "Romanland") by its citizens.Template:Sfnm

Following the empire's fall, early modern scholars referred to it by many names, including the "Eastern Empire", the "Low Empire", the "Late Empire", the "Empire of the Greeks", "Empire of Constantinople", and "Roman Empire".Template:Sfn The increasing use of "Byzantine" and "Byzantine Empire" started with the 15th-century historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles, whose works were widely propagated by Hieronymus Wolf.Template:Sfn "Byzantine" was used adjectivally alongside terms such as "Empire of the Greeks" until the 19th century.Template:Sfn It is now the primary term, used to refer to all aspects of the empire; some modern historians believe it should not be used because it was originally a prejudicial and inaccurate term.Template:Sfnm

History

Start date

Given the significant overlap in historiographical periodisations of "Late Roman history", "late antiquity", and "Byzantine history", there is no consensus on a foundation date for the Byzantine Empire. Scholarship with links to Greece or Eastern Orthodoxy has customarily placed it in the early 300s.Template:Sfn The growth of the study of "late antiquity" has led to some historians setting a start date in the seventh or eighth centuries.Template:Sfnm Others believe a "new empire" began during changes c. Template:TrimAD.Template:Sfn Geoffrey Greatrex believes that it is impossible to precisely date the foundation of the Byzantine Empire.Template:Sfn

Pre-518: Constantinian, Theodosian, and Leonid dynasties

A map showing the division of the Roman empire c. Template:TrimScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

Four-way division of the Roman Empire under the Tetrarchy system established by Diocletian

Between the 3rd and 1st centuriesBC, the Roman Republic established hegemony over the eastern Mediterranean, while its government developed into the one-person rule of an emperor.Template:Sfn The Roman Empire enjoyed a period of relative stability until the 3rd century AD, when external threats and internal crises caused it to splinter, as regional armies acclaimed their generals as "soldier-emperors".Template:Sfnm One of these, Diocletian (Template:Reign), recognised that the state was too big to be ruled by a single person.Template:Sfn He instituted the Tetrarchy, a system which divided the empire into eastern and western halves.Template:Sfnm The Tetrarchy quickly failed, but the division of the empire proved an enduring concept.Template:Sfnm

Constantine I (Template:Reign) secured absolute power in 324.Template:Sfn Over the next six years, he rebuilt the city of Byzantium as a new capital that he called "New Rome" (later named Constantinople).Template:Sfnm The old capital Rome was further from the prosperous eastern provinces and in a less strategically important location; it was not esteemed by the "soldier-emperors", who ruled from the frontiers, or by the empire's population.Template:Sfn Having been granted citizenship, they considered themselves just as Roman as those in the city of Rome.Template:Sfn He continued reforms of the empire's military and civil administration and instituted the gold solidus as a stable currency.Template:Sfnm He favoured Christianity and became an opponent of paganism.Template:Sfnm Constantine's dynasty prioritised a lengthy conflict against the comparably powerful Sasanid Persia and ended in 363 with the death of his nephew Julian.Template:Sfnm The reign of the short Valentinianic dynasty, marked by wars against the Goths, religious debates, and anti-corruption campaigns, ended in the East with the death of Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378.Template:Sfnm

A map showing the western and eastern Roman empires c. Template:TrimScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., divided in the Balkans and North Africa

Division of the empire after the death of Theodosius I in 395

  The Western Roman Empire

  The Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire

Valens's successor, Theodosius I (Template:Reign), secured peace in the east by allowing the Goths to settle in Roman territory;Template:Sfnm he also twice intervened in the western half, defeating the usurpers Magnus Maximus and Eugenius in 388 and 394, respectively.Template:Sfnm He actively condemned paganism, confirmed the primacy of Nicene Orthodoxy over Arianism in the East, and established Christianity as the Roman state religion.Template:Sfnm He was the last emperor to rule both the western and eastern halves of the empire.Template:Sfn After his death, the West was destabilised but the East thrived due to the civilian administrators who continued to hold power.Template:Sfnm Theodosius II (Template:Reign) largely left the rule of the East to officials such as Anthemius, who constructed the Theodosian Walls.Template:Sfn Constantinople had now entrenched itself as the empire's capital.Template:Sfnm

Aside from Constantinople's walls, Theodosius' reign was also marked by the compilation of the Codex TheodosianusTemplate:Sfnm and the theological dispute over Nestorianism (a doctrine later deemed heretical).Template:Sfnm His reign also saw the arrival of Attila's Huns, who ravaged the Balkans, leading to a large tribute being exacted from the eastern empire.Template:Sfnm Attila switched his attention to the rapidly-deteriorating western empire,Template:Sfnm and his people fractured after his death in 453.Template:Sfnm Later, Leo I (Template:Reign) failed in his 468 attempt to reconquer the West.Template:Sfnm The warlord Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476, killed his titular successor Julius Nepos in 480, and abolished the office of western emperor.Template:Sfnm

Through a combination of fortune and good political decisions, the Eastern Empire never experienced rebellious barbarian vassals or rule by barbarian warlords—the problems which ensured the downfall of the West.Template:Sfn Zeno (Template:Reign) convinced the problematic Ostrogoth king Theodoric to take control of Italy from Odoacer;Template:Sfnm dying when the empire was at peace, he was succeeded by Anastasius I (Template:Reign).Template:Sfnm His belief in monophysitism brought occasional issues, but Anastasius was a capable administrator and instituted successful financial reforms including the abolition of the chrysargyron tax.Template:Sfnm He was the first emperor since Diocletian not to face any serious problems affecting the empire during his reign.Template:Sfn

518–717: Justinian and Heraclian dynasties

The reign of Justinian I was a high point in east Roman history.Template:Sfn Following his accession in 527, the legal code was rewritten as the Corpus Juris Civilis, which streamlined Roman law across the empire;Template:Sfnm he reasserted imperial control over religion and morality through purges of pagans, heretics, and other "deviants";Template:Sfnm and having ruthlessly subdued the 532 Nika revolt he rebuilt much of Constantinople, including the Hagia Sophia.Template:Sfnm Justinian I took advantage of the confusion, following Theoderic the Ostrogoth’s death, to attempt the reconquest of Italy.Template:Sfn The Vandal Kingdom in North Africa was subjugated in late 533 by the general Belisarius,Template:Sfnm who then invaded Italy; the Ostrogothic Kingdom mostly ended in 554.Template:Sfnm

In the 540s, Justinian began to suffer reversals on multiple fronts.Template:Sfn Capitalising on Constantinople's preoccupation with the West, Khosrow I of the Sasanian Empire invaded Byzantine territory and sacked Antioch in 540.Template:Sfnm A devastating plague killed a large proportion of the population and severely reduced the empire's social and financial stability.Template:Sfn The most difficult period of the Ostrogothic war, against their king Totila, came during this decade;Template:Sfn while divisions among Justinian's advisors undercut the administration's response.Template:Sfnm He also did not fully heal the divisions in Chalcedonian Christianity, as the fifth ecumenical council failed to make a real difference.Template:Sfnm Justinian died in 565; his reign was more successful than any other emperor, yet he left behind an unstable empire.Template:Sfnm

Justin II (Template:Reign) inherited an empire stretched thin both financially and territorially.Template:Sfn He was soon at war on many fronts.Template:Sfnm Fearing the aggressive Avars, the Lombards conquered much of northern Italy by 572.Template:Sfnm The Sasanian wars restarted in the same year, and would not conclude until 591;Template:Sfn by this time, the Avars and Slavs had repeatedly invaded the Balkans, causing great instability.Template:Sfnm Maurice campaigned extensively in the region during the 590s, and although he re-established Byzantine control up to the Danube, he pushed his troops too far in 602—they mutinied, proclaimed an officer named Phocas as emperor, and executed Maurice.Template:Sfnm The Sasanians seized their moment and reopened hostilities;Template:Sfnm Phocas was unable to cope and soon faced a major rebellion led by Heraclius.Template:Sfn Phocas lost Constantinople in 610 and was executed;Template:Sfnm this destructive civil war accelerated the empire's decline.Template:Sfnm

A photograph of a large double-layered fortification.

The Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, very important during the 717–718 siege

Under Khosrow II, the Sassanids occupied the Levant and Egypt and advanced into Asia Minor, and the Avars and Slavs raided in the Balkans.Template:Sfnm The Empire’s control of Italy also weakened.Template:Sfn After successfully repelling a siege of Constantinople in 626,Template:Sfn Heraclius won a decisive victory at the Battle of Nineveh (627),Template:Sfn eventually defeating the Sassanids later that year.Template:Sfnm The triumph would prove short-lived.Template:Sfnm The Arab conquests soon saw the conquest of the Levant, Egypt, and the Sassanid Empire by the newly-formed Arabic Rashidun Caliphate.Template:Sfnm By Heraclius' death in 641, the empire had been severely reduced economically and territorially—the loss of the wealthy eastern provinces had deprived the empire of as much as three-quarters of its revenue.Template:Sfnm

The next century is poorly documented.Template:Sfn Arab raids into Asia Minor started quickly, and the Empire responded by holding fortified centres and avoiding battle wherever possible.Template:Sfnm Although Anatolia was invaded annually, it avoided permanent Arab occupation.Template:Sfn The outbreak of the First Fitna in 656 gave the Empire breathing space, which it used sensibly:Template:Sfn some order was restored in the Balkans by Constans II (Template:Reign)Template:Sfn following his administrative reorganisation which over time evolved into the "theme system", a structure that allocated troops to defend specific provinces.Template:Sfnm Constantine IV (Template:Reign) repelled the Arab efforts to capture Constantinople in the 670s using Greek fire,Template:Sfnm but suffered a reversal against the Bulgars, who soon established an empire in the northern Balkans.Template:Sfnm Nevertheless, he had done enough to secure the empire's position,Template:Sfn especially as the Umayyad Caliphate was undergoing another civil war.Template:Sfn

Beginning in 695, when Constantine's son Justinian II was first deposed, the empire entered an era of political instability that lasted for the next 22 years.Template:Sfnm While Justinian had stabilised the situation with the divided Arabs,Template:Sfn the threat of the reconstituted caliphate was met by Leo III when he repelled the 717–718 siege, the first serious challenge against Arab expansion.Template:Sfnm

718–867: Isaurian, Nikephorian, and Amorian dynasties

Two gold coins, each depicting a man

Gold solidus of Leo III (left), and his son and heir, Constantine V (right)

Leo and his son Constantine V (Template:Reign), two of the most capable Byzantine emperors, withstood continued Arab attacks, civil unrest, and natural disasters, and reestablished the state as a major regional power.Template:Sfnm Leo's reign produced the Ecloga, a new code of law to succeed that of Justinian I.Template:Sfnm He also continued to reform the theme system in order to lead offensive campaigns against the Muslims, culminating in a decisive victory in 740.Template:Sfnm Constantine overcame an early civil war against his brother-in-law Artabasdos, made peace with the new Abbasid Caliphate, campaigned successfully against the Bulgars, and continued to make administrative and military reforms.Template:Sfnm Due to both emperors' support for the Byzantine Iconoclasm, where the use of religious icons was banned, they were later vilified by Byzantine historians;Template:Sfnm Constantine's reign also saw the loss of Ravenna to the Lombards, and the beginning of a split from the Roman papacy.Template:Sfnm

In 780, Empress Irene assumed power as regent for her son Constantine VI.Template:Sfnm Although she was a capable administrator who temporarily resolved the iconoclasm controversy,Template:Sfnm the empire was destabilised by her conflict with her son. The Bulgars and Abbasids inflicted numerous defeats on the Byzantine armies, and the papacy crowned Charlemagne as Roman emperor in 800.Template:Sfnm In 802, the unpopular Irene was overthrown by Nikephoros I; he reformed the empire's administration but died in battle against the Bulgars in 811.Template:Sfnm Military defeats and societal disorder, especially the resurgence of iconoclasm, characterised the next eighteen years.Template:Sfnm

Map centred on Western Europe. The territories of the Byzantine Empire are shaded dark green; namely the Italian islands, southern Greece, south-central Bulgaria, southern Crimea and most of Turkey.

The Byzantine Empire c. Template:Trim

Stability was somewhat restored during the reign of Theophilos (Template:Reign). He capitalised on economic growth to complete construction programmes, including rebuilding the sea walls of Constantinople, overhaul provincial governance, and wage inconclusive campaigns against the Abbasids.Template:Sfnm After his death, his empress Theodora, ruling on behalf of her son Michael III, permanently extinguished the iconoclastic movement;Template:Sfnm the empire prospered under their sometimes-fraught rule. Michael was posthumously vilified by historians loyal to the dynasty of his successor Basil I, who had him assassinated in 867 and was credited with his predecessor's achievements.Template:Sfnm

867–1081: Macedonian and Doukas dynasties

Basil I (Template:Reign) continued Michael's policies.Template:Sfnm His armies campaigned with mixed results in Italy but defeated the Paulicians of Tephrike.Template:Sfnm His successor Leo VI (Template:Reign)Template:Efn compiled and propagated a huge number of written works. These included the Basilika, a Greek translation of Justinian I's legal code incorporating over 100 new laws created by Leo; the Tactica, a military treatise; and the Book of the Eparch, a manual on Constantinople's trading regulations.Template:Sfnm In non-literary contexts Leo was less successful: the empire lost in Sicily and against the Bulgarians,Template:Sfnm and he provoked theological scandal by marrying four times in an attempt to father a legitimate heir.Template:Sfnm

The early reign of this heir, Constantine VII, was tumultuous, as his mother Zoe, his uncle Alexander, the patriarch Nicholas, the powerful Simeon I of Bulgaria, and other influential figures jockeyed for power.Template:Sfnm In 920, the admiral Romanos I used his fleet to secure power, crowning himself and demoting Constantine to the position of junior co-emperor.Template:Sfnm His reign, marked by the end of the war against Bulgaria and successes in the east under the general John Kourkouas, ended in 944 due to the machinations of his sons, whom Constantine then usurped.Template:Sfnm Constantine's ineffectual sole rule has often been construed as the zenith of Byzantine learning, but the works compiled were largely intended to legitimise and glorify the emperor's Macedonian dynasty.Template:Sfnm His son and successor died young; under two soldier-emperors, Nikephoros II (Template:Reign) and John I Tzimiskes (Template:Reign), the army claimed numerous military successes, including the conquest of Cilicia and Antioch, and a sensational victory against Bulgaria and the Kievan Rus' in 971. John in particular was an astute administrator who reformed military structures and implemented effective fiscal policies.Template:Sfnm

After John's death, Constantine VII's grandsons Basil II and Constantine VIII ruled jointly for half a century, although the latter exercised no real power.Template:Sfn Their early reign was occupied by conflicts against two prominent generals, Bardas Skleros and Bardas Phokas, which ended in 989 after the former's death and the latter's submission, and a power struggle against the eunuch Basileios, who was dismissed in 985.Template:Sfnm Basil, who never married or had children, subsequently refused to delegate any authority: he sidelined the military establishment by taking personal command of the army and promoting officers loyal to him.Template:Sfnm His reign witnessed the decades-long campaign against Bulgaria, which ended in total Byzantine victory at the Battle of Kleidion in 1014.Template:Sfnm Diplomatic efforts, critical for this success,Template:Sfnm also contributed to the annexation of several Georgian provinces in the 1020s and coexistence with the new Fatimid Caliphate.Template:Sfnm When he died in 1025, Basil's empire stretched from the Danube and Sicily in the west to the Euphrates in the east; his swift expansion was unaccompanied by administrative reforms.Template:Sfnm

Depiction of an army attacking a walled town

The seizure of Edessa (1031) by the Byzantines under George Maniakes and the counterattack by the Seljuk Turks

After Constantine VIII's death in 1028, his daughters, the empresses Zoe (Template:Reign) and Theodora (Template:Reign), held the keys to power: four emperors (Romanos III, Michael IV, Michael V, and Constantine IX) ruled only because of their connection to Zoe, while Michael VI (Template:Reign) was selected by Theodora.Template:Sfnm This political instability, regular budget deficits, a series of expensive military failures, and other problems connected to over-extension led to substantial issues in the empire;Template:Sfnm its strategic focus moved from maintaining its hegemony to prioritising defence.Template:Sfn

The empire soon came under sustained assault on three fronts, from the Seljuk Turks in the east, the Pecheneg nomads in the north, and the Normans in the west. The Byzantine army struggled to confront these enemies, who did not organise themselves as traditional states, and were thus untroubled by defeats in set-piece battles.Template:Sfnm In 1071 Bari, the last remaining Byzantine settlement in Italy, was captured by the Normans, while the Seljuks won a decisive victory at the Battle of Manzikert, taking the emperor Romanos IV Diogenes prisoner.Template:Sfnm The latter event sparked a decade-long civil war, and as a result the Seljuks took possession of Anatolia up to the Sea of Marmara.Template:Sfnm

1081–1204: Komnenos and Angelos dynasties

One prominent general, Alexios I, usurped the throne in 1081. In contrast to the prior turmoil, the three reigns of Alexios (Template:Reign), his son John II (Template:Reign), and his grandson Manuel I (Template:Reign) lasted a century and restored the empire's regional authority for the final time.Template:Sfnm Alexios immediately faced the Normans under Robert Guiscard and repelled them through warfare and diplomacy.Template:Sfnm He then targeted the Pechenegs and decisively defeated them in 1091 with help from the Cumans, who were in turn defeated three years later.Template:Sfnm Finally, looking to recover Asia Minor from the Seljuks, he approached Pope Urban II for help c. Template:Trim. He did not anticipate the scale of western Christendom's response—the First Crusade led to the recapture of western Anatolia, although Alexios and its leaders soon fell out.Template:Sfnm The rest of his reign was spent dealing with the Normans and Seljuks, establishing a new, loyal aristocracy to ensure stability, and carrying out fiscal and ecclesiastical reforms.Template:Sfnm

A mosaic depicting a haloed woman holding a baby, flanked by a man and woman, both crowned and haloed

A mosaic from the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople (modern Istanbul), depicting Mary and Jesus, flanked by John II Komnenos (left) and his wife Irene of Hungary (right), 12th century

Alexios' concentration of power in the hands of his Komnenos dynasty meant the most serious political threats came from within the imperial family—before his coronation, John II had to overcome his mother Irene and his sister Anna, and the primary threat during his reign was his brother Isaac.Template:Sfnm John campaigned annually and extensively—he fought the Pechenegs in 1122, the Hungarians in the late 1120s, and the Seljuks throughout his reign, waging large campaigns in Syria in his final years—but he did not achieve large territorial gains.Template:Sfnm In 1138, John raised the imperial standard over the Crusader Principality of Antioch to intimidate the city into allying with the Byzantines, but did not attack, fearing that it would provoke western Christendom to respond.Template:Sfnm

Manuel I used his father's overflowing imperial treasury in pursuit of his ambitions, and also to secure the empire's position in an increasingly multilateral geopolitical landscape.Template:Sfnm Through a combination of diplomacy and bribery, he cultivated a ring of allies and clients around the empire: the Turks of the Sultanate of Rum, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Cilician Armenians, Balkan princes, Italian and Dalmatian cities, and most importantly Antioch and the Crusader States, marrying one of their princesses in 1161.Template:Sfnm Manuel averted the threat of war during the tumultuous passage of the Second Crusade through Byzantine territories in 1147, but the campaign's failure was blamed on the Byzantines by western contemporaries.Template:Sfnm He was less successful militarily: an invasion of Sicily was decisively defeated by King William I in 1156, leading to tensions with Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor;Template:Sfnm two decades later, an invasion of Anatolia was resoundingly defeated at the Battle of Myriokephalon.Template:Sfnm

A painting of an army marching into a city gate with much smoke in the background

The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople, by Eugène Delacroix (1840)

Manuel's death left the empire rudderless and it soon came under intense pressure.Template:Sfnm His son Alexios II was too young to rule, and his troubled regency was overthrown by his uncle Andronikos I Komnenos: he was replaced by Isaac II in 1185.Template:Sfnm Centrifugal forces swirled at the borders as ambitious rulers seized their chance: Hungary and the Turks captured Byzantine territories, an exiled Komnenian prince seized Cyprus; and most injuriously, a revolt in 1185 caused the foundation of a resurrected Bulgarian state.Template:Sfnm Relations with the West deteriorated further after Constantinople allied with Saladin, the vanquisher of the Third Crusade, whose leaders also fought against Byzantium as they passed through its territory.Template:Sfnm In 1195, Isaac II was deposed by his brother Alexios III; this quarrel proved fatal.Template:Sfn

The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to target Egypt, but amid strategic difficulties, Isaac II's son Alexios Angelos convinced the crusaders to restore his father to the throne in exchange for a huge tribute.Template:Sfnm They attacked Constantinople in 1203, reinstating Isaac II and his son to the throne. The new rulers swiftly grew unpopular and were deposed by Alexios V, an event used by the crusaders as a pretext to sack the city in April 1204, ransacking the wealth it had accumulated over nine centuries.Template:Sfnm

1204–1453: Palaiologos dynasty

A map showing the competing states after the Fourth Crusade.

The partition of the empire following the Fourth Crusade, c. Template:TrimTemplate:Sfnm

Byzantine territories fragmented into competing political entities. The crusaders crowned Baldwin I as the ruler of a new Latin Empire in Constantinople; it soon suffered a crushing defeat against the Bulgarians in 1205. It also failed to expand west or east, where three Greek successor states had formed: the Empire of Nicaea and the Empire of Trebizond in Asia Minor, and the Despotate of Epirus on the Adriatic. The Venetians acquired many ports and islands, and the Principality of Achaea emerged in southern Greece.Template:Sfnm Trebizond lost the key port of Sinope in 1214 and thereafter was unable to affect matters away from the southeastern Black Sea.Template:Sfnm For a time, it seemed that Epirus was the one most likely to reclaim Constantinople from the Latins, and its ruler Theodore Doukas crowned himself emperor, but he suffered a critical defeat at the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230, and Epirote power waned.Template:Sfnm

Nicaea, ruled by the Laskarid dynasty and composed of a mixture of Byzantine refugees and native Greeks, blocked the Latins and the Seljuks of Rum from expanding east and west respectively.Template:Sfnm John III (Template:Reign) was a very capable emperor.Template:Sfnm His protectionist economic policies strongly encouraged Nicaean self-sufficiency,Template:Sfnm and he made many diplomatic treaties, especially after Mongol armies ravaged Bulgaria and defeated Rum between 1237 and 1243. This chaos was an opportunity for John, and he fought many successful campaigns against the states disrupted by the Mongol invasions.Template:Sfnm Soon after his death, his grandson was usurped by Michael VIII, founder of the Palaiologos dynasty, who recaptured Constantinople in 1261.Template:Sfnm

Michael desired to restore the empire's glory through a rebuilding programme in Constantinople, clever diplomatic alliances, and expansionist wars in Europe.Template:Sfnm He staved off the threatening Charles I of Anjou first by recognising papal primacy and certain Catholic doctrines at the 1274 Second Council of Lyon, and then by aiding the Sicilian Vespers against Charles in 1282.Template:Sfnm However, his religious concessions were despised by most of the populace, and were repudiated by his successor Andronikos II (Template:Reign).Template:Sfnm He and his grandson Andronikos III (Template:Reign) led several campaigns to restore imperial influence, succeeding in Epirus and Thessaly. They also made several critical mistakes, including dismissing the fleet in 1285, hiring the mercenary Catalan Company, who turned on the Byzantines, in the 1300s, and fighting each other between 1320 and 1328.Template:Sfnm A disastrous civil war between 1341 and 1354 caused long-term economic difficulties, while the Ottoman Turks gradually expanded.Template:Sfnm

A painting of a siege of a city

The siege of Constantinople in 1453, depicted in a 15th-century French miniature

The diminished and weak Byzantine state only survived for another century through effective diplomacy and fortunately-timed external events.Template:Sfn The Ottomans gradually subjugated Anatolia and simultaneously expanded into Europe from 1354, taking Philippopolis in 1363, Adrianopolis in 1369, and Thessalonica in 1387.Template:Sfnm Emperors were crowned and deposed at the whim of the Venetians, Genoese, and Ottomans.Template:Sfn After Manuel II (Template:Reign) refused to pay homage to Sultan Bayezid I in 1394, Constantinople was besieged until the rampaging warlord Timur decisively defeated Bayezid in 1402, with the city perilously close to surrender.Template:Sfnm

Manuel II oversaw two decades of peace while the Ottomans convulsed in civil war.Template:Sfnm In 1421, his unsuccessful backing of the claimant Mustafa Çelebi led to a renewed Turkish assault.Template:Sfn Although John VIII (Template:Reign) reconciled with the Catholic West at the Council of Florence, his empire steadily diminished.Template:Sfnm In 1452, Sultan Mehmed II resolved to capture Constantinople, and laid siege early the following year. On 29 May 1453, the city was captured, the last emperor, Constantine XI, died in battle, and the Byzantine Empire ended.Template:Sfnm

Structures of the state

Governance

Diocletian and Constantine's 4th-century reforms reorganised the empire's provinces into overarching Dioceses and then into Praetorian prefecture's, separating the army from the civil administration.Template:Sfnm The central government, led by the emperor from the time of the earlier pax romana and into the late Palaiologan era, typically focused on the military, foreign relations, administering the law, and collecting taxes.Template:Sfnm The senate evolved into a ceremonial body within the imperial court.Template:Sfnm

Cities had been a collection of self-governing communities with central government and church representatives from the 5th century.Template:Sfnm However, constant warfare significantly altered this, as regular raids and ongoing conflict led to power centralising due to the empire's fight for survival.Template:Sfnm After the 7th century, the prefectures were abandoned, and in the 9th century, the provinces were divided into administrative units called themes (or themata), governed solely by a military commander (strategos).Template:Sfnm

Law

Theodosius II (Template:Reign) formalised Roman law by appointing five jurists as principal authorities and compiling legislation issued since Constantine's reign into the Codex Theodosianus.Template:Sfnm This process culminated in the Corpus Juris Civilis under Justinian I (Template:Reign), who commissioned a complete standardisation of imperial decrees since Hadrian's time and resolved conflicting legal opinions of the jurists.Template:Sfnm The result became the definitive legal authority. This body of law covered civil matters and also public law, including imperial power and administrative organisation.Template:Sfnm After 534, Justinian issued the Novellae (New Laws) in Greek, which marked a transition from Roman to Byzantine law. Legal historian Bernard Stolte distinguishes Roman law as this because Western Europe inherited law through the Latin texts of the Corpus Juris Civilis only.Template:Sfnm

Zachary Chitwood argues that the Corpus Juris Civilis was largely inaccessible in Latin, particularly in the provinces.Template:Sfn Following the 7th-century Arab conquests, people began questioning the development and application of law, leading to stronger ties between law and Christianity.Template:Sfn This context influenced Leo III (Template:Reign) to develop the Ecloga, which placed an emphasis on humanity.Template:Sfnm The Ecloga inspired practical legal texts like the Farmers' Law, Seamen's Law, and Soldiers' Law, which Chitwood suggests were used daily in the provinces as companions to the Corpus Juris Civilis.Template:Sfn During the Macedonian dynasty, efforts to reform law began with the publication of the Procheiron and the Eisagoge, which aimed to define the emperor's power under prevailing laws, and to replace the Ecloga due to its association with iconoclasm.Template:Sfnm Leo VI (Template:Reign) completed a complete codification of Roman law in Greek through the Basilika, a work of 60 books which became the foundation of Byzantine law.Template:Sfnm In 1345, Constantine Harmenopoulos compiled the Hexabiblos, a six-volume law book derived from various Byzantine legal sources.Template:Sfn

Christianity and the Church

Template:See Christianity, bolstered by Constantine's support, began shaping all aspects of life in the early Byzantine Empire.Template:Sfnm Despite the transition, the historian Anthony Kaldellis views Christianity as "bringing no economic, social, or political changes to the state other than being more deeply integrated into it".Template:Sfn When the Roman state in the West collapsed politically, cultural differences began to divide the Christian churches of the East and West.Template:Sfnm Internal disputes within the Eastern churches led to the migration of monastic communities to Rome, exacerbating tensions between Rome and Constantinople.Template:Sfnm These disputes,Template:Efn particularly in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, eventually split the church into three branches: Chalcedonian, Monophysite (Coptic), and Nestorian.Template:Sfnm The Chalcedonian group maintained dominance within the empire's territories, while the Monophysite and Nestorian branches largely fell under Muslim rule in the 7th century.Template:Sfn

Eastern patriarchs frequently sought the Papacy's mediation in doctrinal and practical matters, but the pope's authority was not universally acknowledged, even in nearby regions like Northern Italy.Template:Sfnm By 600, the Slavic settlement of the Balkans disrupted communication between Rome and Constantinople, further widening the divide.Template:Sfnm The Arab and Lombard invasions, and the increased Frankish presence, deepened this estrangement and intensified disputes over jurisdiction and authority between the two spiritual centres.Template:Sfn Differences in ritual and theology, such as the use of unleavened bread and the Filioque clause, as well as divergences in ecclesiology—plenitudo potestatis versus the authority of Ecumenical Councils—and issues of mutual respect, contributed to the separation of Western Christianity from Eastern Christianity.Template:Sfnm This separation began by 597 and culminated in 1054 during the East–West Schism.Template:Sfnm

Warfare

Military evolution

In the late 6th century, following Justinian I's wars, seven mobile field armies called comitatenses, numbering around 150,000 troops, were deployed around the empire; they remained the finest armies in Europe.Template:Sfnm They were aided by twenty-five frontier garrisons of approximately 195,000 lower-quality limitanei troops.Template:Sfnm Additional troops included subsidised allied forces and imperial guard units like the Scholae Palatinae.Template:Sfn Naval forces were limited: flotillas were based at key locations, while 30,000 oarsmen were assembled to row 500, mostly requisitioned, transports to support the Vandalic War in Africa in 533.Template:Sfnm

The losses suffered in the 7th-century Arab conquests led to fundamental changes.Template:Sfnm The field armies were withdrawn into the core Anatolian territories and assigned to settle in specific districts, which became known as themata and eventually replaced the old provinces.Template:Sfnm The thematic armies, supported by the proceeds of their districts, came to resemble a provincial militia with a small professional core, aided by foreign mercenaries and imperial regiments at Constantinople.Template:Sfnm To defend against its new Muslim enemy, the navy was similarly reorganised into several provincialised fleets.Template:Sfnm It became the dominant power in the eastern Mediterranean, with dromons equipped with Greek fire proving crucial on several occasions.Template:Sfnm

As the 8th-century empire stabilised, the thematic militias proved rebellious and only suitable for defensive operations.Template:Sfnm The professional tagmata regiments, first introduced in the mid-700s and consisting of native Byzantine units alongside foreign forces such as the Varangian Guard, had completely replaced them by the 11th century.Template:Sfnm The mobile tagmata, suitable for offensive warfare, evolved new tactical and strategic structures;Template:Sfn the late 10th-century army, perhaps the highest-quality force the empire produced, numbered approximately 140,000, up from below 100,000 in the late 700s.Template:Sfnm However, its defensive capacities were neglected, especially during the 11th-century civil wars, leading to the loss of Anatolia to the Seljuks.Template:Sfnm The navy had also been reduced, as the empire increasingly relied on potentially hostile powers such as Venice.Template:Sfn

Post-1081 reforms re-established an effective army; the institution of feudal-like pronoia grants provided revenue to individuals in exchange for soldiers.Template:Sfnm The new army heavily relied on foreign mercenaries alongside indigenous Byzantine troops, but the financial demands of a standing army proved too much for the Byzantine state, which succumbed to the Fourth Crusade in 1204.Template:Sfnm The army of the Palaiologan dynasty, which retook Constantinople in 1261, was generally composed of a similar mix of mercenaries and indigenous troops, but it had lost all offensive capability by the late 1200s.Template:Sfnm The empire's continued survival depended on foreign armies; attempts in the 1340s to rebuild the fleet, unwisely disbanded in 1284, were forcibly halted by Genoa.Template:Sfnm No post-1204 Byzantine field army fielded more than 5,000 troops, and less than 8,000 defended the final siege of Constantinople in 1453.Template:Sfnm

Diplomacy

Manuscript illustration of an embassy travelling between two rulers

The embassy of John the Grammarian in 829, sent by emperor Theophilos to the Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun

Byzantine strategy was primarily defensive, aside from the brief period of aggression between the ninth and eleventh centuries, because of the empire's habitual lack of resources.Template:Sfnm To avoid risky and expensive military campaigns, the Byzantines engaged in extensive diplomatic efforts.Template:Sfnm These took various forms, including: formal embassies, client management, alliance or peace negotiations, political marriages, propaganda and bribery, or even espionage and assassination.Template:Sfnm

Defensively-oriented Byzantine diplomacy was intended to protect the oikoumenē, the civilised Christian world which the empire rightfully ruled.Template:Sfnm The decline of the key limitrophe system, wherein client states along the borders served as intermediaries between the empire and other large enemies, exposed the empire to attack. By the eleventh century, Byzantine diplomacy was more bilateral and balanced.Template:Sfn Although it lost some important advantages post-1204, diplomacy, including the still-influential Orthodox church, was nevertheless a central element in the empire's lengthy survival until 1453.Template:Sfnm

Society

Demography

Scholars associate the Roman, Hellenic, and Christian imperial identities with the general population, but there is ongoing debate about how these and other regional identities blended together.Template:Sfnm

As many as 27 million people lived in the empire at its peak in 540, but this fell to 12 million by 800.Template:Sfnm Although plague and territorial losses to Arab Muslim invaders weakened the empire, it eventually recovered and by the near end of the Macedonian dynasty in 1025, the population is estimated to have been as high as 18 million.Template:Sfnm A few decades after the recapture of Constantinople in 1282, the empire's population was in the range of 3–5 million; by 1312, the number had dropped to 2 million.Template:Sfnm By the time the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople, there were only 50,000 people in the city, one-tenth of its population in its prime.Template:Sfnm

Education

Education was voluntary and required financial means, so the most literate people were often those associated with the church.Template:Sfnm Primary education focused on teaching foundational subjects like reading, writing, and arithmetic whereas secondary school focused on the trivium and quadrivium as their curriculum.Template:Sfn The Imperial University of Constantinople was formed in 425, and refounded in 1046 as a centre for law.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Slavery

During the 3rd century, 10–15% of the population was enslaved (numbering around 3 million in the east).Template:Sfnm Youval Rotman calls the changes to slavery during this period "different degrees of unfreedom".Template:Sfnm Previous roles fulfilled by slaves became high-demand free market professions (like tutors), and the state encouraged the coloni, tenants bound to the land, as a new legal category between freemen and slaves.Template:Sfnm From 294 the enslavement of children was progressively forbidden; Honorius (Template:Reign) began freeing enslaved prisoners of war, and from the 9th century, emperors freed the slaves of conquered people.Template:Sfnm Christianity as an institution had no direct impact, but by the 6th century it was a bishop's duty to ransom Christians, there were established limits on trading them, and state policies prohibited the enslavement of Christians; these changes shaped Byzantine slave-holding from the 8th century onwards.Template:Sfnm Non-Christians could still be enslaved, and prices remained stable until 1300, when prices for adult slaves, particularly women, started rising.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfnm

Socio-economic

Agriculture was the main basis of taxation and the state sought to bind everyone to land for productivity.Template:Sfnm Most land holdings were small and medium-sized lots around villages, and family farms were the primary source of agriculture.Template:Sfnm The coloni, sometimes called proto-serfs, were free citizens, though historians continue to debate their exact status.Template:Sfnm

The Ekloge laws of 741 made marriage a Christian institution and no longer a private contract, where it evolved alongside the increased rights of slaves and the change in power relations.Template:Sfnm Marriage was considered an institution required to sustain the population, transfer property rights, and support the elderly of the family; the Empress Theodora had also said it was needed to restrict sexual hedonism.Template:Sfnm Women usually married between the ages of 15 and 20, and the average family had two children.Template:Sfnm Divorce could be done by mutual consent but was restricted over time, for example, only being allowed if a married person was joining a convent.Template:Sfnm

Inheritance rights were well developed, including for all women.Template:Sfnm The historian Anthony Kaldellis suggests that these rights may have been what prevented the emergence of large properties and a hereditary nobility capable of intimidating the state.Template:Sfnm The prevalence of widows (estimated at 20%) meant women often controlled family assets as heads of households and businesses, contributing to the rise of some empresses to power.Template:Sfnm Women played significant roles as taxpayers, landowners, and petitioners, often seeking the resolution of property disputes in court.Template:Sfnm

Women

Women had the same socio-economic status as men, but faced legal discrimination and limitations in economic opportunities and vocations.Template:Sfnm Prohibited from serving as soldiers or holding political office, and restricted from serving as deaconesses in the Church from the 7th century onwards, women were mostly assigned labour-intensive household responsibilities.Template:Sfnm They worked in the food and textile industries, as medical staff, in public baths, in retail, and were practising members of artisan guilds.Template:Sfnm They also worked in entertainment, tavern keeping, and prostitution, a class where some saints and empresses may have originated from.Template:Sfnm Prostitution was widespread, and attempts were made to limit it, especially during Justinian's reign under the influence of Theodora.Template:Sfnm Women participated in public life, engaging in social events and protests.Template:Sfnm Women's rights were better in the empire than in comparable societies. Western European and American women took until the 19th century to surpass them.Template:Sfnm

Cuisine and dining

Feasting was central to the culture.Template:Sfn By the 10th century, dining shifted from reclining to tables with clean linen.Template:Sfn The introduction of the fork and salad dressing (with oil and vinegar) further shaped Italian and Western traditionsTemplate:Sfnm Classical Greco-Roman era foods were common such as the condiment (similar to fermented fish sauces today) as well as the still popular baklava.Template:Sfnm Fruits like aubergine and orange, unknown during classical times, were added to diets.Template:Sfn Foods that have continued into the modern era include the cured meat paston, Feta cheese, salt roe similar to the modern boutargue, Black sea caviar, tiropita, dolmades, and the soup .Template:Sfnm There were famed medieval sweet wines such as the Malvasia from Monemvasia, the Commandaria, and the eponymous Rumney wine which were drunk, as were millet beer (known as ) and retsina.Template:Sfnm

Recreation

A depiction of a board game

A game of τάβλι (tabula) played by the Byzantine emperor Zeno in 480 and recorded by Agathias in c. Template:Trim because of a very unlucky dice throw for Zeno (red)Template:Sfn

Chariot races were held from the early era until 1204, becoming one of the world's longest continuous sporting events.Template:Sfnm Mimes, the pantomime and some wild animal shows were prominent until the 6th century.Template:Sfn Because Christian bishops and pagan philosophers did not like these activities, the state's funding for them ceased, leading to their decline and a move to private entertainment and sporting.Template:Sfnm A Persian version of polo introduced by the Crusaders called Tzykanion was played by the nobility and urban aristocracy in major cities during the middle and late eras, as was the sport of jousting introduced from the West.Template:Sfnm Over time, game boards like tavli became increasingly popular.Template:Sfn

Language

Latin and Greek were the primary languages of the late Roman Empire, with the former prevalent in the west and the latter in the east.Template:Sfn Although Latin was historically important in the military, legal system, and government, its use declined in Byzantine territories from 400 AD.Template:Sfnm Greek had begun to replace it even in those functions by the time of Justinian I (Template:Reign), who may have tried to arrest Latin's decline. Its extinction in the east was thereafter inevitable.Template:Sfnm A similar process of linguistic Hellenization occurred in Asia Minor, whose inhabitants had mostly abandoned their indigenous languages for Greek by early Byzantine times.Template:Sfn Still, much of the population of the empire would have known neither Latin nor Greek, especially in rural areas—their languages included Armenian in that people's homelands, Aramaic dialects such as Syriac in Mesopotamia and the Levant, Coptic in Egypt, Phoenician on the Levant coast and in Carthage, and Berber in rural North Africa.Template:Sfnm

The empire lost its linguistic diversity in the wars of the 7th and 8th centuries, becoming overwhelmingly Greek-speaking.Template:Sfn During this troubled period, classical Attic Greek—one of the linguistic registers the Byzantine Greeks inherited—fell out of use, while the everyday vernacular registers were still used.Template:Sfn As the empire gained some stability from the 9th century onwards, and especially after the Komnenian restoration, Attic Greek came back into fashion for written works. In a phenomenon called diglossia, the gap between vernacular spoken Greek, which was rarely written in published works, and literary registers only spoken in formal contexts, became very wide.Template:Sfnm

During the Palaiologan period, although classically-written works remained the normal style, Western-inspired writers began to use more vernacular elements, especially for romances or near-contemporary histories. One example is the Chronicle of the Morea, probably written by a French immigrant who was ignorant of formal Greek literature and who incorporated spoken Greek into his work.Template:Sfnm All such written vernacular was in verse form, becoming the ancestor of modern Greek poetry, while prose remained classically-written.Template:Sfnm

Economy

The empire's geographic and maritime advantages reduced the costs of transporting goods and facilitated trade, making it a key driver of economic growth from antiquity and through the post-classical period.Template:Sfnm Infrastructure, including roads, public buildings, and the legal system, supported trade and other economic activities.Template:Sfn Regions like Asia Minor, the Aegean islands, Egypt, the Levant, and Africa thrived as mature economic centres despite political challenges and military insecurities.Template:Sfnm From the mid-6th century onward, plagues, invasions, and wars caused populations and economies to decline, leading to the collapse of the ancient economy.Template:Sfnm Major cities like Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Thessaloniki continued to support substantial populations exceeding 100,000, while the countryside transitioned into fortified settlements.Template:Sfnm These rural areas developed into hamlets and villages, reflecting an economic shift between historical periods towards more efficient land use.Template:Sfnm

Low population density prompted emperors to encourage migration and resettlement, stimulating agriculture and demographic growth.Template:Sfn By the 9th century, the economy began to revive, marked by increased agricultural production and urban expansion.Template:Sfnm Advances in science, technical knowledge, and literacy gave the empire a competitive edge over its neighbours.Template:Sfn The 11th and 12th centuries witnessed consistent and rapid population growth, marking the peak of this revival.Template:Sfnm Italian merchants, particularly the Venetians, Genoese, and Pisans, took control of international trade, thus reducing the influence of native merchants.Template:Sfnm The political system grew increasingly extractive and authoritarian, contributing to the empire's collapse in 1204.Template:Sfnm

The fall of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 destroyed centuries of its wealth.Template:Sfn Large landholdings were confiscated, and the empire fragmented into smaller rump states ruled by competing factions, making governance inefficient and increasing the costs of doing business.Template:Sfnm The state gradually lost control over trade practices, price regulations, the outflow of precious metals, and possibly even the minting of coins.Template:Sfn Italian merchants further dominated trade as the events of 1204 opened the Black Sea to Western merchants, permanently altering the empire's fortunes.Template:Sfnm Farmers and manufacturers increasingly produced goods for local use and were affected by the insecurity of constant warfare.Template:Sfnm Despite these challenges, the empire's mixed economy (characterised by state interventions, public works, and market liberalisation)Template:Sfn remained a model of medieval economic adaptability, even as it deteriorated under external pressures.Template:Sfnm

Arts and sciences

Art and architecture

Subjects in Byzantine art were primarily Christian and typically non-naturalistic in their representation.Template:Sfn Emerging from both the earliest Christian and Late Antique art,Template:Sfnm many early examples were lost amid the Roman Persecutions; the fragmented mosaics of the 3rd-century Dura-Europos church are a unique exception.Template:Sfn Such Byzantine mosaics, known for their gold ground style, became a hallmark of the empire, displaying both secular and sacred themes in diverse places, including churches (Basilica of San Vitale), the circus (Hippodrome of Constantinople), and the Great Palace of Constantinople.Template:Sfnm The early 6th-century reign of Justinian I saw systemic developments: religious art came to dominate, and once-popular public marble and bronze monumental sculpture fell out of favour due to pagan associations.Template:Sfnm Justinian commissioned the monumental Hagia Sophia church, and its influential elements became architectural hallmarks for the empire: the immense size, large dome, innovative use of pendentives and highly decorative interior were imitated as far north as the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Novgorod and the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev.Template:Sfnm The Hagia Sophia's creators, the engineer-architects Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, are uniquely esteemed;Template:Sfnm most Byzantine artists were unrecorded and typically deemed to have little importance.Template:Sfn

Smaller-scale art flourished throughout the entire Byzantine period: costly ivory carvings—often as diptychs (Barberini ivory) or triptychs (Harbaville Triptych)—featured imperial commemorations or religious scenes and were particularly valued, as were metalwork and enamels.Template:Sfnm Other costly objects included illuminated manuscripts, which were lavishly illustrated for a wide range of texts, and silks, often dyed in the prized imperial purple; both became highly popular in Western Europe.Template:Sfn The rise of small, portable icon paintings, used for both public and private religious worship, grew increasingly controversial.Template:Sfnm During two periods of Byzantine Iconoclasm (726–843), possibly influenced by Islamic prohibitions on religious images,Template:Sfn icons were suppressed and enormous amounts of figurative religious art was destroyed.Template:Sfn Iconoclasts condemned their use, likening them to pagan idolatry and ascribing recent Umayyad defeats as divine retribution for their use. Iconophiles eventually prevailed, maintaining their essential use for veneration, considered distinct from worship, and found precedent in gospel references.Template:Sfnm

Post-iconoclast Macedonian art (867–1056) saw a cultural renaissance, and many artworks from this period survive.Template:Sfnm Subjects and styles became standardised, particularly cross-in-square churches, and already-existing frontality and symmetry evolved into a dominant artistic aesthetic, observable in the small Pala d'Oro enamel and the large mosaics of the Hosios Loukas, Daphni, and Nea Moni monasteries.Template:Sfnm The subsequent Komnenos-Angelos periods (1081–1204) saw increased imperial patronage, alongside figurative artwork of increased emotional expression (Dead Christ and Mourners, c. Template:Trim).Template:Sfn Byzantine artistic influence spread widely to Norman Sicily (the Madrid Skylitzes) and Venice (the mosaics of St Mark's Basilica).Template:Sfn Serbian churches flourished, as three successive schools of architecture—Raška (1170–1282), Byzantine Serbia (1282–1355), and Morava (1355–1489)—combined a Romanesque aesthetic with increasingly voluminous decorations and domes.Template:Sfn As smaller Palaeologan artworks (1261–1453) gained relic status in Western Europe—many looted in the 1204 Fourth Crusade—they greatly influenced the Italo-Byzantine style of Cimabue, Duccio, and later Giotto; the latter is traditionally regarded by art historians as the inaugurator of Italian Renaissance painting.Template:Sfnm

Literature

Byzantine literature concerns all Greek literature from the Middle Ages.Template:Sfn Although the empire was linguistically diverse, the vast majority of extant texts are in medieval Greek,Template:Sfn in two diglossic variants: a scholarly form based on Attic Greek, and a vernacular based on Koine Greek.Template:Sfn Most contemporary scholars consider all medieval Greek texts to be literature,Template:Sfn but some offer varying constraints.Template:Sfnm The literature's early period (c. Template:Trim) was dominated by the competing cultures of Hellenism, Christianity and Paganism.Template:Sfnm The Greek Church Fathers—educated in an Ancient Greek rhetoric tradition—sought to synthesise these influences.Template:Sfn Important early writers include John Chrysostom, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Procopius, all of whom aimed to reinvent older forms to fit the empire.Template:Sfn Theological miracle stories were particularly innovative and popular;Template:Sfn the Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum) were copied in nearly every Byzantine monastery.Template:Sfn During the Byzantine Dark Ages (c. Template:Trim), production of literature mostly stopped, though some important theologians were active, such as Maximus the Confessor, Germanus I of Constantinople and John of Damascus.Template:Sfn

The subsequent cultural Macedonian Renaissance (c. Template:Trim; the "Encyclopedism period") saw a renewed proliferation of literature and revived the earlier Hellenic-Christian synthesis.Template:Sfn Works by Homer, Ancient Greek philosophers and tragedians were translated, and hagiography was heavily reorganised.Template:Sfn After this early flowering of monastic literature, there was a dearth until Symeon the New Theologian in the late 10th century.Template:Sfn A new generation (c. Template:Trim), including Symeon, Michael Psellos and Theodore Prodromos, rejected the Encyclopedist emphasis on order, and were interested in individual-focused ideals variously concerning mysticism, authorial voice, heroism, humour and love.Template:Sfn This included the Hellenistic-inspired Byzantine romance and chivalric approaches in rhetoric, historiography and the influential epic Digenes Akritas.Template:Sfn The empire's final centuries saw a renewal of hagiography and increased Western influence, leading to mass Greek to Latin translations.Template:Sfn Authors such as Gemistos Plethon and Bessarion exemplified a new focus on human vices alongside the preservation of classical traditions, the latter greatly influenced the Italian Renaissance.Template:Sfn

Music

Byzantine music is eclectically descended from early Christian plainsong, Jewish music, and a variety of ancient music; its exact connections to ancient Greek music remain uncertain.Template:Sfnm It included both sacred and secular traditions, but the latter is little known, whereas the former remains the central music of Eastern Orthodox liturgy into the 21st century.Template:Sfnm The empire's church music, known as Byzantine chant, was exclusively unaccompanied monodic vocal music, sung in Greek.Template:Sfn From the 8th century, chant melodies were governed by the Oktōēchos framework, a set of eight modes—echos (; Template:Lit.)—each of these provide predetermined motivic formulae for composition.Template:Sfnm These formulae were chosen for proper text stress and occasionally for text painting, then collated through centonisation into hymns or psalms.Template:Sfnm

Byzantine chant was central to the Byzantine Rite; the earliest music was not notated,Template:Sfn including early monostrophic short hymns like the troparion.Template:Sfn Proto-Ekphonetic notation (9th century onwards) marked simple recitation patterns. The neumatic Palaeo-Byzantine notation system emerged in the 10th century, and the Middle Byzantine "Round Notation" from the mid-12th century onwards is the first fully diastematic scheme.Template:Sfnm Several major forms developed alongside well-known composers: the long kontakion (5th century onwards), popularised by Romanos the Melodist; the also-extensive kanōn (late 7th century onwards), developed by Andrew of Crete; and the shorter sticheron (at least 8th century onwards), championed by Kassia.Template:Sfnm By the Palaiologan period, the dominance of strict compositional rules lessened and John Koukouzeles led a new school favouring a more ornamental "kalophonic" style which deeply informed post-empire Neo-Byzantine music.Template:Sfn

Secular music, often state-sponsored, was ubiquitous in daily life and featured in a variety of ceremonies, festivals, and theatre.Template:Sfn Secular vocal music was rarely notated, and extant manuscripts date much later, suggesting the tradition was passed through oral tradition and likely improvised.Template:Sfn Prohibited for liturgical use, a wide variety of Byzantine instruments flourished in secular contexts, although no notated instrumental music survives.Template:Sfn It is uncertain to what extent instrumentalists improvised or if they doubled vocalists monophonically or heterophonically.Template:Sfnm Among the best known instruments are the hydraulic organ, used for circus and imperial court events; the ancient Greek-descended aulos, a wind instrument; the tambouras, a plucked string instrument; and mostly popularly, the Byzantine lyra.Template:Sfnm Prominent genres included acclamation chants of laudation or salutation; the celebratory Acritic songs; symposia instrumental banquets, based on ancient symposiums; and dance music.Template:Sfn

Science and technology

A photograph of the interior of a building built with blue arches and pillars and ornate yellow walls

Interior of the Hagia Sophia; the influence of Archimedes' principles of solid geometry is evident.

The scholars of the empire played a principal role in transmitting classical knowledge to the Islamic world and Renaissance Italy, as well as producing commentaries that helped expand scientific knowledge.Template:Sfnm This medieval Greek scholarship was not only based on scientific treatises from antiquity but also drew from Islamic, Latin, and Hebrew works, which helped spearhead new developments as late as the 11th and 12th centuries.Template:Sfnm Although the Empire is sometimes not associated with scientific innovation or major discoveries,Template:Sfnm its scientific contributions have also been described as underestimated.Template:Sfn Incomplete assessments of Byzantine textsTemplate:Sfn and the challenges of applying modern definitions of science to pre-modern contexts are factors in these ongoing debates.Template:Sfn

Two pots surrounded by caltrops

Ceramic grenades which were filled with Greek fire, surrounded by caltrops, 10th–12th century, National Historical Museum, Athens

Key people passed on important traditions that underpinned this scholarship, especially in the realms of philosophy, geometry, astronomy, and grammar.Template:Sfn For example, the Hagia Sophia architect Isidore of Miletus (c. Template:Trim), compiled Archimedes' works which Leo the Mathematician (c. Template:Trim) incorporated into formal courses, and is why the Archimedes Palimpsest is known today.Template:Sfnm John Philoponus and his critiques of Aristotelian physics, the pharmacologist Pedanius Dioscorides, and Ptolematic geography and astronomy had an important influence on western science, as seen with Ptolemy's influence on Copernicus and Philoponus on Bonaventure, Gersonides, Buridan, Oresme and Galileo.Template:Sfnm

Military innovations included the riding stirrup which provided stability for mounted archers and dramatically transformed the army; a specialised type of horseshoe; the lateen sail, which improved a ship's responsiveness to wind; and Greek fire—an incendiary weapon capable of burning even when doused with water, first appearing around the time of the Siege of Constantinople (674–678).Template:Sfnm In healthcare, the empire pioneered the concept of the hospital as an institution offering medical care and the possibility of a cure for the patients, rather than merely being a place to die.Template:Sfnm

Legacy

Political aftermath

A map centred on Greece and Turkey in 1450 AD. The Byzantine Empire holds only Southern Greece and northwestern Turkey

The Eastern Mediterranean just before the Fall of Constantinople

After Constantinople fell, the Ottomans quickly absorbed the remaining independent territories, including Morea in 1460, Trebizond in 1461, Acciaiuoli Athens in 1456, and Gattilusi Lesvos in 1462.Template:Sfnm They dismantled the Empire's political and secular institutions, leaving the impoverished Church to manage what would be later called the Rum Millet, primarily as a tool for taxing its followers.Template:Sfnm As the sole sovereign Orthodox state, Russia developed the Third Rome doctrine, emphasising its cultural heritage as distinct from Western Europe, because the latter had inherited much of the empire's secular learning.Template:Sfnm The Danubian Principalities became a haven for Orthodox Christians and Phanariot Greeks who sought to recreate a Byzantine Greek Empire.Template:Sfn In modern Greece, members of the Rum Millet increasingly identified as Greeks, eventually leading to a successful war of independence in the 19th century.Template:Sfnm The modern Greek state nearly doubled its territory through the pursuit of the Megali Idea—a colonialist vision of reclaiming the former lands of the eastern empire—achieving limited success during the Crimean war but making significant gains during the Balkan wars.Template:Sfnm

Since the 15th century, Byzantine history has been deeply politicised, woven into nationalist, colonialist, and imperialist narratives.Template:Sfnm This politicisation appears not only in Greece but also in Bulgarian, Romanian, Serbian, Hungarian, and Turkish nationalism, as well as in former French and Russian imperialist agendas.Template:Sfnm In the English-speaking world, interpretations of Byzantine history frequently surface in political debates, alongside the growing appreciation for its legacy.Template:Sfnm The complexity of this history makes it a sensitive topic, especially regarding Greece's role in Europe's evolving sense of identity and the origin stories of many European nations.Template:Sfnm

Cultural aftermath

A photograph of statue, which depicts two bearded and hooded men; the one on the left is holding up a cross and the one on the right is holding up a book

Monument to St. Cyril and St. Methodius, Byzantine missionaries to the Slavs, on Mt. Radhošť in Czechia

The Byzantine Empire distinctively blended Roman political traditions, Greek literary heritage, and Christianity, creating the civilisational framework that laid the foundation for medieval Europe.Template:Sfnm The Empire preserved European civilisation by acting as a shield against forces from Eurasian Steppe people such as the Avars, Bulgars, Cumans, Huns, Pechenegs, and Turks.Template:Sfnm

The empire's legal codes significantly influenced the civil law traditions of continental Europe, Russia, Latin America, Ethiopia, and even the English-speaking common law countries; and possibly influenced Islamic legal traditions as well.Template:SfnmTemplate:Sfn It also preserved and transmitted classical learning and manuscripts, making important contributions to the intellectual revival which fuelled Italian humanism.Template:Sfnm

The Byzantine Empire played a pivotal role in shaping Christianity by supporting early Church fathers and the decisions of Church councils; developing the institution of monasticism; and fostering the Orthodox tradition which continues to define much of Eastern European identity.Template:Sfnm It was also instrumental in preserving the Greek language and is credited with developing the Glagolitic alphabet, which later evolved into the Cyrillic script and Old Church Slavonic.Template:Sfnm These innovations provided the first literary language for the Slavs and formed the educational foundation for all Slavic nations.Template:Sfnm

See also

• Byzantine dress
• Family tree of Byzantine emperors
• Index of Byzantine Empire–related articles
• List of Byzantine revolts and civil wars
• List of Byzantine wars
• List of Roman dynasties
• Outline of the Byzantine Empire

Bibliography

Books

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• Template:A History of the Byzantine State and Society

Book chapters and encyclopaedias

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Further reading

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External links

• Template:In Our Time
• 12 Byzantine Rulers Template:Webarchive by Lars Brownworth of The Stony Brook School; audio lectures.
• 18 centuries of Roman Empire by Howard Wiseman (Maps of the Roman/Byzantine Empire throughout its lifetime).
• Byzantine studies homepage at Dumbarton Oaks. Includes links to numerous electronic texts.
• Byzantium: Byzantine studies on the Internet. Template:Webarchive. Links to various online resources.
• Translations from Byzantine Sources: The Imperial Centuries, c. 700–1204. Online sourcebook.
• De Re Militari. Resources for medieval history, including numerous translated sources on the Byzantine wars.
• Medieval Sourcebook: Byzantium, hosted by Fordham University. Template:Webarchive. Numerous primary sources on Byzantine history.
• Bibliography on Byzantine Material Culture and Daily Life. Hosted by the University of Vienna; in English.
• Constantinople Home Page. Links to texts, images and videos on Byzantium.
• Byzantium in Crimea: Political History, Art and Culture.
• Institute for Byzantine Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (with further resources and a repository with papers on various aspects of the Byzantine Empire)