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At the Council of Nicaea, Constantine 1 had established Christianity as Rome’s official religion
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Roman emperor Constantine 1 dedicated a “new Rome” on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium as the site of a new Roman capital, Constantinople.
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Constantine died at the imperial villa at Ankyrona. His body was carried to the Church of the Holy Apostles, his mausoleum. He wished to be buried in Constantinople which caused outrage in Rome, the Roman senate still decided on his deification.
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Emperor Valentinian 1 again divided the empire into western and eastern sections, putting himself in power in the west and his brother Valens in the east.
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Council of Chalcedon officially established the division of the Christian world into five patriarchates, each ruled by a patriarch: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem.
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The Scirian barbarian Odoacer overthrew the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, and Rome had fallen. Odoacer became the first King of Italy.
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Justinian 1 was the first great ruler of the Byzantine Empire who domed the Church of Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia (532-37).
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A fire during the Nike Revolt burned the second Hagia Sophia to the ground. Justinian 1 decided to build a third and entirely different basilica, larger and more majestic than its predecessors on 23 February 532, only a few weeks after the destruction of the second basilica. The third Hagia Sophia was completed after 5 years and 10 months on construction.
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Muhammad and followers fled to Medina because he angered the Meccan merchants with his strong monotheistic message. They were afraid that trade, which they believed was protected by the pagan gods, would suffer.
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During the eighth and early ninth centuries, Byzantine emperors started a movement that denied the holiness of icons, or religious images, and prohibited their worship. Known as Iconoclasm, the movement did not end definitively until 843.
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A series of holy wars waged by Western Christians against Muslims in the Near East. It continued to build between Byzantium and the West, culminating in the conquest and looting of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Refugees from Constantinople fled to Nicaea, site of a Byzantine government-in-exile that would retake the capital and overthrow Latin rule in 1261.
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During the rule of the Palaiologan emperors, the economy of the once-mighty Byzantine state was crippled, and never regained its former stature. In 1369, Emperor John V unsuccessfully sought financial help from the West to confront the growing Turkish threat, but was arrested as an insolvent debtor in Venice. Four years later, he was forced to become a vassal of the mighty Turks.
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After an Ottoman army stormed Constantinople, Mehmed triumphantly entered the Hagia Sophia, which would become the city’s leading mosque. Emperor Constantine XI died in battle that day, and the decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire was complete.
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After an Ottoman army stormed Constantinople, Mehmed triumphantly entered the Hagia Sophia, which would become the city’s leading mosque. Emperor Constantine XI died in battle that day, and the decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire was complete.
