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.

Stories using this term

The Rise of Islam

From Muhammad's first revelations to the early caliphates, Islam grew from a Meccan message into a civilisation spanning Africa, Asia and Europe.

The Roman Empire

From Augustus to the fall of the Western Empire, Rome built a vast imperial system whose law, cities, armies and ideas shaped the ancient and medieval worlds.

The Byzantine Empire

From Constantine's new capital to the fall of Constantinople, Byzantium preserved Roman law, Orthodox Christianity, imperial government and classical learning through more than a thousand years of adaptation.

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.