History of the Byzantines

Emperor Constantine I Founded the Byzantine Capital

330

Constantine I is said to be born Febuary 27th, 272 AD. He's a son to Constantius Chlorus (Flavius Valerius Constantius) who was married to Helena. Constantine I was a Roman Emperor from 306 AD to 337 AD. He restored the untiy of the Empire and was in charge of major governmental reforms as well as supported the Christian Church. Constantine knew that Rome was not a very good capital, but thought that Byzantine was the right place. The capital was built in 6 years and was divided into 14 parts.

Justinian Becomes Emperor of the Byzantines

527

Justinian I, also known as Justinian the Great, was a Byzantine Emperor in Easter Rome from 527 to 565 AD. When Justinian was in power, he brought back the greatness of the empire and re-beat the lost western half of historics Roman Empire.
Justinian became emporere a little while after Emperor Anastasius died in 518. Anastasius didn't leave a succesor when he died which caused the Senators and his troops to begin begging him to defend the empire, he tried to refuse but could not refuse.

General Belisarius Military Campaigns

Period: 533 to 545

General Belisarius was born 505 AD and died in 565 AD. He was the leading general under Justinian I reign. Belisarius won many important battles against the Persians and Ostrogoths. He also put and end to the Nika uprising. Belisarius was know to unselfishly loyay to the emperor. During Belisaruis campaigns, Justinian began to think that Belisarius was becoming to popular and replaced him a few times with other generals but eventually regained his position at the Byzantine Court.

Hagia Sophia Completed

537

The Hagia Sophia is a beautiful architectrual building and a very important monument to the Byzantine Empire. The building was built in 532 and completed in 537 under Justinian I reign. It was orignially an Eastern Orthodox cathedral from 537 to 1453 but was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral in 1204 that lasted until 1261. The Hagia Sophia then turned into a mosque in 1453 until 1931, then it opened up as a museum on Feburary 1st, 1935 in Istanbul, Turkey and stays standing today.

Islamic Conquests Parts of the Byzantine Empire

Period: Jan 1, 600 to Jan 1, 700

During the time period between 600-700 AD, there were many wars between the Arab Muslims and the Byzantine Empire. Under Rashiduns , and expansionists, reign, muslims set out to expand their territory but during the 630's there was a huge loss of the Byzatine's southern provinces.

Emperor Basil II Militay Conquests up to the Year 1025

Jan 1, 1025

Emperor Basil II was an emperor of the Byzantine Emperor. He came into power on January 10th ,976 and his reign lasted until December 15th, 1025. Basil was known to be a great Byzantine emperor who spread "imperial rule into Balkans, Mesopotamia, Georgia and Armenia". Basil didn't have any spark of interest towards learning but was said to spend most of his time on commission works of relgious arts and had many churches built/rebuilt.

Great Schism

Jan 1, 1054

The Great Schism is the development of Christianity into two parts. The two parts of christianity was beggining to fall apart, and when it finally did, the Western part became a Roman Catholic Church but after the east side turned into an Eastern Orthodox. During this time, theology and politics began to develop in different ways. The different branches also had differnet languages.
These two branches were isolated from each when the Balkans invaded them.

Emperor Alexios I and Pope Urban II

Jan 1, 1095

Pope Urban II started the first crusade when he called attack on the muslims to gain back ownership of the holy land.
Emperor Alexios I was the Byzantine Empeoror from 1081 to 1118. He beign to slow down the Byzantine decline and started "military, financial, and and territorial recovery."

Fourth Crusade (attack on Constantinople)

Jan 1, 1204

The fourth crusade was supposed to take over Jerusalem but instead of that, they invaded Constantinople which was one main reason why the Byzantine Empire began to decline.

End of the Byzantines

Jan 1, 1453

The Byzantine Empire fell to an end when it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. Constantinople was then turned into an Islamic city in Istanbul.