Byzantine Empire

Mosaic of Constantine IX Monomachos, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. Agefotostock/Alamy.

The Normans in Byzantium

Spreading east in the 11th century, the Normans soon became a feared part of the Byzantine army, but a mercenary’s loyalty is always to his paymaster, as the empire would soon discover.

Peter and Paul embracing, Byzantine mosaic, 12th century.

Though the beginnings of the Byzantine Empire are unclear, its demise is not. The history of the Eastern Roman Empire, from its foundation in 324 to its conquest in 1453, is one of war, plague, architectural triumphs and fear of God's wrath.

A Blueprint for Byzantine Power

An embattled emperor offered guidance to his successors in the shape of a ‘mirror for princes’.

The king’s property: a slave market, by Yahya ibn Al-Wasiti from Al Maqamat, ‘The Meetings’, by Al-Hariri, 13th-century Iraq. Ms Ar 5847 f.105 © Bibliothèque Nationale/Bridgeman Images.

Justifying Slavery

The changing shape of the slave trade in the medieval Mediterranean.

Theophilus makes a proclamation, the Scylitzes Chronicle, 11th century.

Death of the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus

The Byzantine Empire's ban on the veneration of icons died with its last iconoclast emperor on January 20th, 842.

More details The Rus under the walls of Tsargrad. Detail from a medieval Russian icon.

Russians Abroad – Old and New

Russian hooligans at a football match might be a relative novelty, but there is nothing new under the sun.

Death of Justinian I

The Byzantine emperor died in Constantinople on 14 November 565.

Sicilian Vespers (1846), by Francesco Hayez

A Vanished World: The Byzantine Empire

In drawing parallels with international events of the 1980s and 1990s, Michael Antonucci’s article from 1993 neglected the ideology that underpinned Byzantine diplomacy.