History of the Byzantines

  • Period: 300 BCE to 1500 BCE

    History of the Byzantines

  • Founding the Byzantine capital
    330

    Founding the Byzantine capital

    This town was named the new capital city of Eastern roman empire. They named Constantinople after Emperor Constantine. Constantinople was extremely important as the successor to ancient Rome and the largest and wealthiest city in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
  • Nika Revolt
    532

    Nika Revolt

    This was a revolt, or rise in rebellion, against Emperor Justinian I. Theodora helped make some important decisions with these riots. The Nika Revolt took place over the course of a week in Constantinople.
  • General Belisarius Military Campaigns
    535

    General Belisarius Military Campaigns

    Belisarius led imperial armies against the Sāsānian empire (Persia), the Vandal kingdom of North Africa, the Ostrogothic regime of Italy, and the barbarian tribes coming upon Constantinople. Belisarius had difficulties with his soldiers, and then he was stripped of his command on charges of disloyalty.
  • Hagia Sophia completed
    537

    Hagia Sophia completed

    Also called Church of the Holy Wisdom or Church of the Divine Wisdom, was a cathedral built at Constantinople in the 6th century. Built under the direction of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. It's the most important Byzantine structure. Took 6 years to built. The Hagia Sophia is said to have "changed the history of architecture".
  • Early Muslim conquests
    Feb 8, 639

    Early Muslim conquests

    The Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire and a great territorial loss for the Byzantine Empire. The reasons that the Muslims were so successful was that they were hard to reconstruct in hindsight, because only few sources from the period have survived.
  • Emperor Basil II military conquests of Bulgaria
    Feb 8, 970

    Emperor Basil II military conquests of Bulgaria

    A series of problems between the Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantine Empire led to the conquest of Bulgaria by the Byzantines. The resistance was lead by the Cometopuli brothers, who based in the unconquered western regions of the Bulgarian Empire led it until its fall under Byzantine rule in 1018.
  • Great Schism
    Jan 1, 1054

    Great Schism

    Also known as the East-West Schism, it was the event that divided Christianity into western (roman) Catholicism and eastern Orthodoxy. The causes were disputes over papal authority. The roman pop claimed he held authority of the four eastern patriarchs.
  • Emperor Alexios I contacts Pope Urban II for military help in Middle east
    Nov 27, 1095

    Emperor Alexios I contacts Pope Urban II for military help in Middle east

    Otherwise known as the First Crusade. Europeans attempted to capture the Holy Land, called by Pope Urban II. Wanted to help the Byzantines and to free the city of Jerusalem.
  • Fourth Crusade (attack on Constantinople)
    Jan 1, 1204

    Fourth Crusade (attack on Constantinople)

    Pope Innocent asked rulers of Europe to participate in another crusade. He wanted to take Jerusalem away from the Ayyubids. This time the tried something different. Instead of coming down from the north, European armies sailed south from Egypt and then came up.
  • Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. (official end to Byzantines)
    May 29, 1453

    Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. (official end to Byzantines)

    This was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by an invading army of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were commanded by 21-year-old Mehmed the Conqueror, the seventh sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who defeated an army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos.