(Today the city is known as Istanbul.) The Byzantine Empire, sometimes referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the east during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, originally founded as Byzantium).
At its greatest extent, the Byzantine Empire covered much of the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, including what is now Italy, Greece, and Turkey along with portions of North Africa and the Middle East.
Byzantium (/bɪˈzæntiəm, -ʃəm/) or Byzantion (Ancient Greek: Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul in modern times.
In later centuries, Byzantines still considered themselves to be Romans, despite the fact that they spoke Greek and practiced Eastern Orthodox Christianity. However, Byzantine society was incredibly diverse and included Christian Greeks, Slavs, Armenians, Georgians, Coptics, and Jewish populations.
Greeks and Byzantines would have a lot in common, both speaking Koine Greek, being Orthodox and living in roughly the same area. Before the formation of the modern Greek state (1830) Greeks would call themselves "Romioi" the Greek term for Romans, as the Byzantine Empire was the Roman Empire (eastern).
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Are Byzantines orthodox or Catholic?
A central feature of Byzantine culture was Orthodox Christianity. Byzantine society was very religious, and it held certain values in high esteem, including a respect for order and traditional hierarchies. Family was at the center of society, and marriage, chastity, and celibacy were celebrated and respected.
The Byzantine Empire embraced Christianity as its official religion. The shift from traditional Roman religion to Christianity began with the conversion of the emperor Constantine on his deathbed. Constantine was the first Roman emperor to become a Christian.
The Byzantine Empire lasted from 395 AD until 1453 AD. Finally, the Ottoman Empire spanned the time period between the years 1299 AD and 1922 AD. Each of these empires occupied some of the same territory, and the Byzantine Empire's existence overlapped with the existence of both the Roman and Ottoman empires.
In 1453, a large Ottoman army under Sultan Mehmet II sieged Constantinople, then took the city. The emperor was killed in battle and the Byzantine Empire came to an end. The remaining scattering of princes in the area who still declared loyalty to the empire were defeated in battle.
In addition to Greek, the Byzantines spoke many other languages. In Late Antiquity, Latin and Greek, the two "world languages", were not only the primary cultural languages, but also the sole official languages, of the Roman Empire.
By the late 13th century, Varangians were mostly ethnically assimilated by Byzantines, though the guard operated until at least the mid-14th century, and in 1400 there were still some people identifying themselves as "Varangians" in Constantinople.
Constantinople. Formerly Byzantium, the capital of the Byzantine Empire as established by its first emperor, Constantine the Great. (Today the city is known as Istanbul.)
The Germanic king Odoacer defeated the Roman Empire in 476 AD. However, his invasion was simply the "straw that broke the camel's back". Rome had been in a state of decline for centuries and had suffered two previous sacks by Germanic tribes.
Some prominent members of the nobility successfully managed to escape the grasp of the Ottomans however, fleeing to western Europe. The existence of genuine male-line descendants of any Byzantine emperor today is considered doubtful.
The Ottoman Empire sided with Germany in World War I (1914–18); postwar treaties dissolved the empire, and in 1922 the sultanate was abolished by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who proclaimed the Republic of Turkey the following year.
The population of the Byzantine Empire encompassed all ethnic and tribal groups living there, mainly Byzantine Greeks, but also Albanians, Armenians, Assyrians, Bulgarians, Goths, Kartvelians, Latini, Levantine Arabs, Serbs and Croats, Thracians, Tzans, Vlachs and other groups.
The majority of believers belong to the Orthodox Christian denomination. Russia adopted Christianity under Prince Vladimir of Kiev in 988, in a ceremony patterned on Byzantine rites. Russia's baptism laid the foundations for the rise of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The color Byzantium is a particular dark tone of purple. It originates in modern times, and, despite its name, it should not be confused with Tyrian purple (hue rendering), the color historically used by Roman and Byzantine emperors.
Byzantine Greek language, an archaic style of Greek that served as the language of administration and of most writing during the period of the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman, Empire until the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.
Greeks or Hellenes (/ˈhɛliːnz/; Greek: Έλληνες, Éllines [ˈelines]) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Anatolia, parts of Italy and Egypt, and to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea.
The Mongol invasion of Byzantine Thrace took place in the winter of AD 1263/1264. The Seljuk Sultan of Rûm Kayqubad II appealed to Berke, Khan of the Golden Horde, to attack the Byzantine Empire in order to free his brother Kaykaus II.
