The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria and Serbia. It is believed the name was brought to the region in the 7th century by the Bulgars who applied it to the area, as a part of ...
Stilicho's fall and Alaric's reaction Stilicho had news of the coup at Bononia (where he was probably waiting for Alaric). His small escort of barbarians was led by Sarus, who rebelled. His Gothic tro ...
The Roman Empire reached its greatest physical extent under Trajan (emperor 98–117), who ruled a prosperous state that stretched from Mesopotamia to the coasts of the Atlantic. Its financial system a ...
Finally, the Christian Orthodox city of Constantinople was under Ottoman control. When Mehmed II finally entered Constantinople through what is now known as the Topkapi Gate, he immediately rode his h ...
The city was originally founded as a Greek colony under the name of Byzantium in the 7th century BC. It took on the name of Konstantinoupolis ("city of Constantine", Constantinople) after its re-found ...
The last hope for a reunited Empire came in 493, as Odoacer was replaced by Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Theodoric had been forced to appear subservient to Zeno in order to deal with a ...
The system of the Tetrarchy quickly ran aground when the Western Roman Empire's Constantius died unexpectedly in 306, and his son Constantine the Great was proclaimed Augustus of the West by the legio ...
As the Roman Republic expanded, it reached a point where the central government in Rome could not effectively rule the distant provinces. Communications and transportation were especially problematic ...
The Byzantine economy was among the most advanced in Europe and the Mediterranean for many centuries. Europe, in particular, was unable to match Byzantine economic strength until late in the Middle Ag ...
The Macedonian period also included events of momentous religious significance. The conversion of the Bulgarians, Serbs and Rus' to Orthodox Christianity permanently changed the religious map of Europ ...
The first use of the term "Byzantine" to label the later years of the Roman Empire was in 1557, when the German historian Hieronymus Wolf published his work Corpus Histori? Byzantin?, a collection o ...
Life in ancient Rome revolved around the city of Rome, located on seven hills. The city had a vast number of monumental structures like the Colosseum, the Forum of Trajan and the Pantheon. It had thea ...
The prosperity brought by Nerva and Trajan continued in the reigns of subsequent emperors, from Hadrian to Marcus Aurelius. Hadrian withdrew all the troops stationed in Parthia and Mesopotamia, abando ...
According to the founding myth of Rome, the city was founded on 21 April 753 BC by twin brothers Romulus and Remus, who descended from the Trojan prince Aeneas and who were grandsons of the Latin King ...
Heresy is any provocative belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs. A heretic is a proponent of such claims or beliefs. Heresy is distinct from both apostasy, ...
