Byzantine

Byzantine is a modern term for the Eastern Roman Empire, the continuation of the Roman state in the eastern Mediterranean after the political collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Its capital was Constantinople, founded by Constantine the Great on the site of Byzantium in 324–330. In its own time, inhabitants called themselves Rhomaioi (Romans); the name "Byzantine" derives from Byzantium. The term is used by historians to distinguish this Greek-speaking, Christian empire from classical Rome and later Western Europe.

Geographically, the empire encompassed the Balkans, Anatolia, Syria, and parts of Italy and Africa. It lasted from Constantinople’s founding until the city’s fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, with a period of disruption after 1204 when Latin crusaders created a rival state; the Byzantines recovered Constantinople in 1261.

Governance combined a centralized imperial authority with a sophisticated bureaucracy and a professional army. The legal tradition was shaped by Justinian I, whose Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) codified Roman law and influenced later European codes.

Culturally, Byzantium linked Greco-Roman heritage with Christianity. The Orthodox Church played a central role, and theological disputes contributed to the Great Schism of 1054. Iconoclasm (8th–9th centuries) affected religious art and worship. The empire preserved and transmitted ancient Greek and Roman texts, contributing to medieval learning.

Architecturally, Byzantium is renowned for domed churches and mosaics; Hagia Sophia exemplifies innovation. Byzantine art stressed religious imagery, iconography, and liturgical music. The empire’s legacy persisted in Eastern Orthodoxy, Balkan and Near Eastern culture, and in the broader medieval world through law, art, and administration.