Portal:Byzantine Empire

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The Byzantine Empire Portal

The Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire is the historiographical term used since the 19th century to describe the Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople. Whilst it was known as the "Empire of the Greeks" to many of its Western contemporaries (due to the dominance of Medieval Greek language, culture and population), it was referred to by its inhabitants simply as the Roman Empire (Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων) or Romania (Ῥωμανία) and its emperors continued the unbroken succession of Roman emperors; to the Islamic worldit was known primarily as روم‎ (Rûm, land of the "Romans").

There is no consensus on exactly when the Byzantine period of Roman history began. Many consider Emperor Constantine I (reigned AD 306–337) to be the first "Byzantine Emperor". It was he who moved the imperial capital in 324 AD from Nicomedia to Byzantium, refounded as Constantinople, or Nova Roma ("New Rome"). The city of Rome itself had not served as the capital since the reign of Diocletian (284-305).

Some date the beginnings of the Empire to the reign of Theodosius I (379–395) and Christianity's official supplanting of the pagan Roman religion, or following his death in 395, when the political division between East and West became permanent. Others place it even later in 476, when Romulus Augustulus, traditionally considered the last western Emperor, was deposed, thus leaving sole imperial authority with the emperor in the Greek East. Others point to the reorganization of the empire in the time of Heraclius (ca. 620), when Latin titles and usages were officially replaced with Greek versions.

In any case, the changeover was gradual and by 330, when Constantine inaugurated his new capital, the process of hellenization and increasing Christianizationwas already under way. The Empire is considered to have ended after the fall of Constantinopleto the Ottoman Turksin 1453, although Greek monarchies continued to rule over parts of the fallen Empire's territories for several more years, until the fall of Mystrasin 1460, Trebizondin 1461, and Monemvasiain 1471. Show new selections edit

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The Empire of Nicaea (Greek: Βασίλειον τῆς Νίκαιας, Turkish: İznik İmparatorluğu) was the largest of the Byzantine Greek states founded by the nobility of the Byzantine Empire after Constantinople was conquered during the Fourth Crusade. It lasted from 1204 to 1261.

In 1204, Byzantine emperor Alexius V Ducas Murtzouphlos fled Constantinople after French crusaders invaded the city. Theodore I Lascaris, the son-in-law of Emperor Alexius III Angelus, was proclaimed emperor, but he too fled, to the city of Nicaea in Bithynia, realizing the situation in Constantinople was hopeless.

The Latin Empire, which was established by the Crusaders in Constantinople, had poor control over former Byzantine territory, and Byzantine successor states sprang up in Epirus and Trebizond as well as Nicaea. Nicaea, however, was the closest to the Latin Empire and was in the best position to attempt to re-establish the Byzantine Empire. Theodore Lascaris was not immediately successful, as he was defeated at Poemanenum and Prusa (now Bursa) in 1204, but he was able to capture much of northwestern Anatolia after the Latin Emperor Baldwin I had to defend against invasions from Kaloyan of Bulgaria. Theodore also defeated an army from Trebizond, as well as other minor rivals, leaving him in charge of the most powerful of the successor states. In 1206, Theodore proclaimed himself emperor at Nicaea.

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George of Trebizond (1395 – 1486), Greek philosopher and scholar, one of the pioneers of the Renaissance, was born on the island of Crete, and derived his surname Trapezuntius from the fact that his ancestors were from Trebizond.

At what period he came to Italy is not certain; according to some accounts he was summoned to Venice about 1430 to act as amanuensis to Francesco Barbaro, who appears to have already made his acquaintance; according to others he did not visit Italy till the time of the Council of Florence (1438-1439).

He learned Latin from Vittorino da Feltre, and made such rapid progress that in three years he was able to teach Latin literature and rhetoric. His reputation as a teacher and a translator of Aristotle was very great, and he was selected as secretary by Pope Nicholas V, an ardent Aristotelian. The needless bitterness of his attacks upon Plato (in the Comparatio Aristotelis et Platonis), which drew forth a powerful response from Johannes Bessarion, and the manifestly hurried and inaccurate character of his translations of Plato, Aristotle and other classical authors, combined to ruin his fame as a scholar, and to endanger his position as a teacher of philosophy. (Pope Pius II was among the critics of George's translations.) The indignation against George on account of his first-named work was so great that he would probably have been compelled to leave Italy had not Alfonso V of Aragon given him protection at the court of Naples.

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Photo credit:Vlado

Emperor Constantine Ipresents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and baby Jesus in this church mosaic. St Sophia, c. 1000 edit

Did you know...

... that Anna Komnene was a Byzantine princess and scholar who wrote the Alexiad, making her one of the first female historians after those such as Ban Zhao?

... that the Bureau of Barbarians, or Skrinion Barbaron, was a ministry of the government in the Byzantine Empire which begun as an Office of Protocol and became what is generally considered to be the first centralized foreign intelligence gathering agency (somewhat comparable to the modern Russian SVR or the British MI6) in world history?

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