The name "Byzantine" is modern: it comes from Byzantium, the old Greek colony on the Bosphorus that Emperor Constantine refounded as Constantinople and inaugurated as his new capital in 330. Its people called themselves Romaioi, Romans, and saw their state as the continuation of the Roman Empire. While the Western empire fell in 476, the East survived another thousand years, Christian and increasingly Greek-speaking.
Milestones
- 330Constantine inaugurates Constantinople.
- 395On Theodosius' death the empire is split into East and West.
- 527-565Justinian reconquers Italy and Africa, issues his Code and builds Hagia Sophia.
- 7th centuryArabs and Slavs take much of the empire's territory; Greek becomes the official language.
- 726-843Iconoclast crisis: holy images are banned, then restored.
- 976-1025Basil II brings the empire to its medieval peak.
- 1054Schism between Eastern and Western Churches.
- 1071Defeat by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert.
- 1204The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople; the Latin Empire is founded.
- 1261Michael VIII Palaiologos retakes Constantinople.
- 1453Sultan Mehmed II conquers Constantinople; the last emperor, Constantine XI, dies.
Byzantine Greece
For centuries Greece was a peripheral province. Thessaloniki, Byzantium's second city, was a great commercial and religious centre. In the 6th and 7th centuries Slavic peoples settled much of the peninsula; over the following centuries they were Christianised and assimilated. From the 9th century Greece enjoyed new prosperity, seen in splendid churches such as Hosios Loukas and Daphni.
After 1204 crusaders and Venetians divided Byzantine lands: the Duchy of Athens, the Principality of Achaea in the Morea and the Duchy of the Archipelago on Naxos were born, while Venice took Crete and many islands. The Peloponnese partly returned to Byzantium, and Mystras, near Sparta, became in the 14th and 15th centuries capital of the Despotate of the Morea and the centre of a cultural revival: the Neoplatonist philosopher Gemistos Plethon taught there.
Art and faith
Byzantine art is religious art: gold mosaics, frescoes and above all icons, holy images painted on wood and venerated by the faithful. Churches often have a Greek-cross plan and a central dome symbolising heaven, with Christ Pantocrator at its centre. The last great school of Byzantine painting flourished on Crete after 1453, under Venice: from there Domenikos Theotokopoulos, El Greco, left for Italy and Spain.
Places to visit in Greece
| Place | What to see |
|---|---|
| Thessaloniki | St Demetrios, Hagia Sophia, the Rotunda, Early Christian mosaics, Museum of Byzantine Culture |
| Mystras | Byzantine ghost town with frescoed churches and the Despots' palace |
| Hosios Loukas | 11th-century monastery with gold mosaics, near Delphi |
| Daphni | Monastery with the famous Pantocrator, on the edge of Athens |
| Nea Moni, Chios | 11th-century mosaics |
| Mount Athos and Meteora | Monasteries still inhabited |
| Athens | Byzantine and Christian Museum, small churches such as Kapnikarea |
| Monemvasia | Byzantine and Venetian fortified town on a rock in the sea |
Legacy
Byzantium lives on in the Orthodox Church, liturgical music, the icons in every home, and in the language and identity of Greeks, for whom the fall of Constantinople (the Poli, "the City") is still mourned. The Byzantine double-headed eagle is the Church's emblem. Greek scholars who fled to Italy before and after 1453 brought manuscripts of the classics and contributed to the Renaissance.
See also the Orthodox Church and Ottoman Greece.