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Byzantine

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Byzantine330 - 1453

Byzantine Empire: The Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. In certain specific contexts, usually referring to the time before the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it is also often referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire.

The Empire's native Greek name was "Romanía" or "Basileía Romaíon," a direct translation of the Latin name of the Roman Empire, "Imperium Romanorum."

The term Byzantine Empire was introduced in 1557, about a century after the fall of Constantinople by German historian Hieronymus Wolf, who presented a system of Byzantine historiography in his work Corpus Historiae Byzantinae in order to distinguish ancient Roman from medieval Greek history without drawing attention to their ancient predecessors. So far, it appears that there has been no study tracking the reasons why that term came to gain prominence.

There is no consensus on the starting date of the Byzantine period. Some place it during the reign of Diocletian (284–305) due to the administrative reforms he introduced, dividing the empire into a pars Orientis and a pars Occidentis. Some consider Constantine the Great its founder. Others place it during the reign of Theodosius I (379–395) and Christendom's victory over Roman religion, or, following his death in 395, with the division of the empire into western and eastern halves. Others place it yet further in 476, when the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, was forced to abdicate, thus leaving sole imperial authority to the emperor in the Greek East. In any case, the changeover was gradual and by 330, when Constantine inaugurated his new capital, the process of further Hellenization and increasing Christianization was already underway.

The decline of the empire began in 1025 with the death of the Byzantine emperor Basil II.

In 1204 Constantinople was conquered and looted by Crusaders (4th Cursade), who formed a Latin Empire which lasted until 1261when Constantinople was reconquered by Michael Palaeologus, Byzantine emperor of Nicaea.

The final demise of the Empire occurred with the Conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in the year 1453.

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Archer's Ring
Byzantine
12th - 13th century
Archer's Ring
Byzantine
12th - 13th century
Bowl
Byzantine
12th century
Christ with Four Apostles
Byzantine
16th century
Column Capital
Byzantine
c. 400- 500 CE
Column Capital
Byzantine
14th century
!960.40.A
Byzantine
c.1500
Pilaster Capital
Byzantine
c. 400-600 CE
Ring
Byzantine
12th - 13th century