History of the Byzantines

History of the Byzantines

Period: 300 BCE to 1500 BCE

Founding the Byzantine capital

330

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.