Byzantine Empire Timeline |
667 BC |
The ancient city of Byzantium (the future Constantinople and future Istanbul) is founded. |
27 BC |
The rise of the Roman Empire. |
ca. 235 - 284 |
The "crisis of the 3rd century". |
292 |
The reforms of Diocletian ("The Tetrarchy") |
330 |
Constantine makes Byzantium into his capital (Nova Roma), which is renamed "Constantinople" (The City of Constantine), sometime after Constantine's death in 337. It would remain the capital of the Byzantine Empire, with a half-century exception, for over a thousand years. |
395 |
The Empire is permanently split into eastern and western halves, following on the death of Theodosius I. |
527 |
Justinian I is crowned "emperor". |
April 7, 529 |
The Codex Justinianus is promulgated. |
532–537
|
The Emperor, Justinian, builds the church of Hagia Sophia |
533–554 |
Justinian's generals reconquer North Africa and Italy from the Vandals and the Ostrogoths. |
568 |
The Lombard invasion results in the loss of most of Italy. |
634–641 |
The Arab armies conquer the Levant and Egypt. In the following decades, they take most of North Africa (and later conquer Sicily as well). |
697 |
The Byzantine city of Carthage in North Africa (capital of the Exarchate of Africa) falls to the Arab invasion. |
730–787 and 813–843 |
The Iconoclasm controversies result in the loss of most of the Empire's remaining Italian territories, aside from some of the territories of the Mezzogiorno. |
843–1025 |
The Macedonian dynasty is established and the Empire experiences a military and territorial revival. Byzantine scholars record and preserve many of the remaining ancient Greek and Roman texts. |
960–1042 |
The Byzantine Empire deals a string of defeats upon the forces of the Abassid and Fatimid Caliphate, reconquering parts of Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine. |
1002–1018 |
The Emperor, Basil II, campaigns annually against the Bulgarians, with the object of annihilating the Bulgar state. |
1014 |
The Bulgarian army is completely defeated at the Battle of Kleidon (Basil II becomes known as The Bulgar Slayer). |
1018 |
Bulgaria surrenders and is annexed to the empire. The whole of the Balkans is incorporated into the Byzantine Empire, with the Danube as the new Imperial frontier to the north. |
1025 |
With the death of Basil II, the zenith of the Empire's power is passed and the long decline of the Byzantine Empire begins. |
1054 |
The Schism (split between Church in Rome and the Church in Constantinople). |
1071 |
The Emperor, Romanos IV, is defeated by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert, losing his position in most of Asia Minor. In the same year, the last Byzantine outpost in Italy (Bari) is conquered by the Normans. |
1081 |
The Komnenos dynasty is established by Alexios I and Byzantium becomes involved in the Crusades. Economic prosperity generates new wealth; literature and the arts reach new heights. In Anatolia, the Turks become established. |
1091 |
The Imperial armies defeat the Pechenegs at the Battle of Levounion. |
1097 |
The recapture of Nicaea from the Turks by the Byzantine armies and the First Crusaders. |
1097-1176 |
The Byzantine armies recapture the coasts of Asia Minor from the Turks, and push east towards central Anatolia. The Crusader Principality of Antioch becomes a Byzantine protectorate. |
1122 |
The Byzantines defeat the Pechenegs at the Battle of Beroia. |
1167 |
The Byzantine armies win a decisive victory over the Hungarians at the Battle of Sirmium and Hungary subsequently becomes a Byzantine client state. |
1176 |
Byzantine-Seljuk Wars: Manuel I Komnenos is defeated at the Battle of Myriokephalon; attempts to capture Konya, the capital of the Seljuk Turks are abandoned after the destruction of his siege equipment. Within a year Manuel recovers the situation status quo ante bellum. |
1180 |
With the death of the Emperor, Manuel I Komnenos, the decline of the Empire recommences. |
1185 |
A successful rebellion is organized in Bulgaria and other lands are lost in the Balkans. |
1204 |
Constantinople is conquered by Crusaders, attempting to establish a Latin Empire. |
1261 |
Constantinople is reconquered by the Patriarch of Constantinople sponsored Emperor of Nicaea, Michael VIII Palaiologos, re-establishing Greek rule of a terminally diminished empire. |
1326 |
The city of Prusa in Asia Minor falls to the Ottoman Turks. |
1331 |
The city of Nicaea, capital of the Empire only 100 years previously, falls to the Ottoman Turks. |
1453 |
The Ottoman Turks conquer Constantinople, and with the death of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire, the Byzantine Empire comes to an end, marking final destruction of the Roman Empire. |