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Constantinople was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine on the site of the already existing city of Byzantium, which was settled in the early days of Greek colonial expansion. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour.
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The Nika revolt took place over a week in Constantinople. It was the most violent riot in the history of Constantinople, wiht nearly half the city being burned or destroyed and tens of thousands of people being killed.
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General Belarius went on several military campaigns to reconquest th western Roman territories occupied by Germanic people. He attacked the Vandals in North Africa, he recovered Italy from the Ostrogoths. Belarius quickly took Sicily and moved on to seize Naples and occupy Rome.
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The Hagia Sophia, whose name means "Holy Wisdom", was a domed church built in Constantinople. The construction of the church began in the time of the Nika revolts. It was built under the direction of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It resides in modern day Istanbul, Turkey.
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The Great Schism, also known as the East-West Schism, was the break of the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churces. Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael had excommunicated each other from the Christian Church and the religions have never been the same.
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During the time of the First Crusade, Emperor Alexios's officials appeared before Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza. They aksed for a small group of mercenary fources but the Pope sent way more then they had asked for.
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The Fourth Crusade was the caputure of Constantinople and was one of the most remarkable episodes in medievel history. An army of about 20,000 men and a fleet of 200 ships crewed by Venetian sailors and warriors, brok in and began to loot the greatest metropolis in the Cristian World. This was one of the major turning points in the fall of the Byzantine Empire.
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The Ottomans were commanded by 21-year-old Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who defeated an army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. The conquest of Constantinople followed a seven-week siege that had begun on Friday, 6 April 1453. The capture of Constantinople marked the end of the Roman Empire, an imperial state that had lasted 1,500 years. To some historians, this event marked the end of the Middle Ages.
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The prolonged and escalating Byzantine–Sassanid wars of the 6th and 7th centuries and the recurring outbreaks of bubonic plague left both empires exhausted and vulnerable in the face of the sudden emergence and expansion of the Arabs. The last of these wars ended with victory for the Byzantines: Emperor Heraclius regained all lost territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629.
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Te Bulgars had been raiding Byzantine lands since 976, the Byzantine government sought to cause dissension amongst them by allowing the escape of their captive emperor Boris II of Bulgaria. This ploy failed, so Basil used a respite from his conflict with the nobility to lead an army of 30,000 men into Bulgaria and besiege Sredets in 986.
