According to Robert Byron, the greatness of Byzantium lay in the fusion of a Roman body, a Greek mind and an Oriental spirit and from its traditional foundation by the colonist Byzas the Megarian in 667BCE to the present day it is easy to see why he thought this. Occupying a position outside of the main theatre of Greece, Byzantion received limited notoriety. The city did experience its first taste of orientalism when it was conquered by the Persians but by 478BCE the Pan-Hellenic League had expelled the Persian garrison.

Byzantium briefly gained renown as the base of a renegade Spartan King but for the next six centuries the city stayed out of the spotlight. Even the Roman conquest in around 173BCE received little press. Under the Romans, Byzantium began to grow and as the Roman Empire extended eastwards, the city became more important as the bridge between Europe and the Orient. Following the death of the emperor Commodus, Byzantium became a centre in a civil war. The city was held by one of the claimants but was eventually captured and heavily damaged by the eventual victor, Septimius Severus. Seeing the strategic position of Byzantium, the new emperor restored and expanded the city and famously built the original Hippodrome. However, despite this interest from one emperor, no one could have predicted the meteoric rise that Byzantium experienced over the next century and a half.

Upon becoming undisputed ruler of Rome in 324CE, Constantine decided that the Roman Empire needed a new capital and because of its central position between east and west, Byzantium was chosen. After an amazingly fast six year building programme, the 'city of Constantine' was dedicated and would for the next 1,600 years be known as Constantinople. Throughout the next century, the east and west halves of the Roman Empire grew wider apart and by the turn of the fifth century they were virtually separate entities. While the Western Roman Empire collapsed under the weight of several Germanic tribes, the Eastern Roman Empire, later known as the Byzantine Empire, prospered.

Under the leadership of Justinian and his generals, the Byzantines reconquered much of the west but with an empire of such size, the Byzantines became a target for many enemies. Over the next three centuries, Byzantine power was eroded in Spain, Italy, Africa, Egypt, Africa and even Greece. By the eleventh century, Greece had been recovered but with it only Anatolia, Constantinople and some islands made up the Empire.

The 1000’s started well but ended very badly. Headway was made in northern Greece but a disastrous defeat at Manzikert cost the Byzantines almost all of Asia Minor. Some of Anatolia was recovered in the wake of the Christian crusades but in truth Byzantium had ceased to exist as a major power. Another debacle at Myriocephalum was a prelude to the Empire’s most calamitous period. In 1204, the Christian soldiers of the Fourth Crusade stormed and sacked Constantinople, sending the Byzantines into a period of exile from their spiritual home. Although the city was recovered, the Byzantine Empire was in its final death throes. Gradually all the provinces were lost to the advancing Ottoman Empire as, powerless to stop it, the Byzantines watched from behind the near impregnable walls of Constantinople.

The long overdue end of the Byzantine Empire came in 1453 when the Ottomans finally stormed the walls, but the city itself was to undergo a renaissance and once again became a vibrant city as the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The city still survives today in the guise of Istanbul, one of the most important cities in modern day Turkey.

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J.J. Norwich, (1997), A Short History of Byzantium
C. Scarre, (1995), Chronicle of Roman Emperors
C. McEvedy, (1992), Atlas of Medieval History
C. McEvedy, (2002), Atlas of Ancient History