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The History of the Byzantine Empire: A Legacy of Power
A sweeping overview of the Byzantine Empire, the eastern Roman state that endured for about a thousand years, and how its political power rose, shrank and ended.
Empires and Wars
The Byzantine Empire
The eastern Roman state, its power, its legacy and its end at Constantinople.
Hagia Sophia and Byzantine Church Building
How Hagia Sophia was built in the 530s, how its great dome works, and how Byzantine builders shaped domed churches with brick, mosaics and light.
The Byzantine Empire: A Legacy of Medieval History
What the Byzantine Empire passed on to later ages: Roman law, Orthodox Christianity, a distinctive art tradition and the preservation of Greek learning.
The Byzantine Empire: A Medieval Power in the Eastern Mediterranean
How the Byzantine Empire used diplomacy, trade, a navy and its capital's position to deal with Persians, Arabs, Turks, Bulgars and Italian merchants.
The Fall of Constantinople: A Turning Point in History
The 1453 siege of Constantinople: the city's walls, the Ottoman army and cannon under Mehmed II, the harbor chain, and the final assault on May 29.
The Fall of Constantinople: A Turning Point in Medieval History
Why 1453 is often used as a marker for the end of the Middle Ages, what the date does and does not show, and why historians treat it as a convention.
The Fall of the Byzantine Empire
How the Byzantine Empire weakened over nearly four centuries, from Manzikert and the sack of 1204 to Ottoman pressure and the final years before 1453.
The Medieval Period of the Byzantine Empire
A timeline of the Byzantine Empire across the medieval centuries, from the 500s to 1453, with the main rulers, crises, recoveries and turning points.
The Varangian Guard
Who the Varangian Guard were: the foreign axe-bearing bodyguard of the Byzantine emperors, drawn from Rus, Scandinavians and later English exiles.
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