History of the Byzantines

Founding of Byzantine Capital

330

Emperor Constantine founded the Byzantine Capital, by rebuilding the Greek city Byzantium, as an imperial residence. He had the capital named Constantinople after himself. From this capital New Rome spread across the eastern Meditteranean. This Constantinople capital was the capital of what came to be called the Byzantine empire.

History of the Byzantines

Period: 330 to Jan 1, 1453

Suppression of Nika Revolts

532

The Nika Revolts were started as a result of multiple arrests of partisans. People started off with rebellious chants outside a church of St. Lawrence but quickly became more violent as protests turned to riots, hence the name. General Belisarius recieved orders from Justinian I saying the mobs must be suppressed and shut down, so he gathered his troops and stormed the cities in which the revolts were the strongest. The army split into two regiments and the result was a massacre.

Construction of Hagia Sophia

537

The Hagia Sophia was a originally a church, then a mosque, and now a museum. It is a grand architectural feat towering high at 270 ft, and spanning wide at 240 ft. It has a magnificent dome and beautiful relics and mosaics inside. When it was built, it was intended to be a church and it was created to be dedicated to the God of Wisdom. It has since gone through multiple reconstructions, the most common being the addition of minarets.

Plague of Justinian

541

The first outbreak of the bubonic plague was in the sixth century and was nicknamed the Plague of Justinian after Justinian I who got infected but survived after extensive treatment. The epidemic killed about 50 million people and kept spreading because of the trades taken place in his capital. Some people believed he was a "demon of an emperor" for creating the plague and other people believed he was being punished for his sins.

Arab-Byzantine Wars

Jan 1, 630

The first expansions of Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula was when they conquered Byzantine areas (Syria and Egypt). After that first conquest, the caliphs of Arabs for the next 50 years set out to conquer the entire Byzantine Empire. They repeatedly fought for Asia Minor and eventually destroyed the Byzantine Empire leaving their cultures to take over and spread.