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History vocabulary · Empires, States and Rulers

Byzantine Empire

Meaning in history, with examples

nounCore term

In history, Byzantine Empire means: The eastern part of the Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople, which survived the fall of the western half and lasted until the Ottoman conquest of 1453.

In Turkish: Bizans İmparatorluğu, Doğu Roma İmparatorluğu

How it is used

The adjective Byzantine describes its art, church, army and administration. In everyday English byzantine with a small b also means extremely complicated, as in byzantine rules. Many historians now also say the Eastern Roman Empire.

Example sentences

  1. Hagia Sophia was the greatest church of the Byzantine Empire.

  2. The Byzantine Empire lost much of central Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

Common collocations

  • the Byzantine Empire
  • Byzantine art
  • the Byzantine emperor
  • Byzantine Constantinople
  • Ottoman EmpireThe state founded in north-western Anatolia around 1300 by the dynasty of Osman, which grew into an empire across south-eastern Europe, western Asia and North Africa and lasted until 1922.
  • antiquityThe ancient past, especially the age of the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilizations before the Middle Ages; also an object surviving from that time.
  • empireA large state or group of territories and peoples ruled by a single supreme authority, often an emperor or sultan, and usually built through conquest.
  • conquestThe act of taking control of a country, city or people by military force, or a territory that has been taken in this way.

More terms: Empires, States and Rulers

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