History glossary
Byzantium
the ancient Greek city on the Bosporus that later became Constantinople; also a common shorthand for the Byzantine Empire.
- Category
- City and historical label
- Region
- Modern Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean
- Date range
- Ancient city; later name used for the medieval eastern Roman world
What it means
Byzantium was the ancient Greek city on the Bosporus where Constantine founded Constantinople in 330 CE. In medieval history, Byzantium is also often used as a shorthand name for the Byzantine Empire, the eastern Roman Empire ruled from Constantinople. The empire's own people usually called themselves Romans, so Byzantium is a useful modern label but not the name most inhabitants used for themselves.
Related terms
Stories using this term
Kievan Rus
The founding of the Rus’ state in the north.
The Viking Age
From raiders to traders, Vikings built kingdoms and networks that reshaped Europe and beyond.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was a civilisation of city-states, sailors, philosophers, soldiers, artists, and political experiments whose influence reached far beyond the Aegean world. From Athens and Sparta to the Persian Wars, democracy, philosophy, drama, and Alexander the Great, Greek history helped shape ideas about citizenship, empire, knowledge, and culture. Its legacy survived through Rome, Byzantium, Islam, and modern Europe, making Ancient Greece central to the story of the classical world.
The Crusades
From Pope Urban II's call at Clermont to the fall of Acre, the Crusades reshaped the medieval world through religious war, cross-cultural encounter, and lasting consequences for Europe and the Middle East.
The Ottoman Empire
From a small frontier principality in Anatolia, the Ottomans built a multiethnic empire across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa before reform, nationalism, and world war ended imperial rule.
