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A Brief Summary of Byzantine History
The Byzantine Empire, founded when the capital of the Roman Empire was transferred from Rome to Constantinople in 324, existed in the eastern Mediterranean area until the fifteenth century. The arts and culture of this "New Rome" continued the pan-Mediterranean traditions of the late antique Greco-Roman world, setting the standard of cultural excellence for the Latin West and the Islamic East. The results of the cultural development of the Byzantine Empire during these centuries has had a lasting impact on such modern nations as Albania, Armenia, Belorus', Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Greece, Rumania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Syria, Ukraine, and Turkey.
Origins of Byzantium
The Early Period
The Middle Period
The Late Period
Influences on its Neighbors
Glossary
Timeline
Map
"Not since the world was made was there ever seen or won so great a treasure, or so noble or so rich, nor in the time of Alexander, nor in the time of Charlemagne, nor before, nor after, nor do I think myself that in the forty richest cities of the world had there been so much wealth as was found in Constantinople. For the Greeks say that two-thirds of the wealth of this world is in Constantinople and the other third scattered throughout the world."
--Robert of Clari, a French crusader who witnessed the pillage of the city in 1204, describing Constantinople.
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