Byzantine Empire
The Eastern Roman Empire and its successor states and legacy, including the Palaiologan exiles and Moscow's claim to Byzantine heritage.
Category: States
- 331Constantine orders fifty Bibles for Constantinople
In 331 the emperor Constantine commissions Eusebius of Caesarea to supply fifty Bibles for the churches of his new capital, Constantinople, an early sign of large-scale Bible production.
- 863Cyril and Methodius begin translating the Gospels into Slavonic
Arriving in Great Moravia in 863, the brothers Cyril and Methodius translate the Gospels and liturgical books into Old Church Slavonic, using the Glagolitic script they devised.
- c. 1130A Byzantine circle writes new Aristotle commentaries
A circle around Anna Komnene in Constantinople, including Eustratius of Nicaea and Michael of Ephesus, writes extended commentaries on neglected works of Aristotle, among them the Nicomachean Ethics (completed 1138 or later). Robert Grosseteste later translates the Ethics set.
- July 6, 1439The Council of Florence proclaims the union of the Latin and Greek churches
On 6 July 1439 Pope Eugene IV and Emperor John VIII Palaiologos sign the decree Laetentur caeli at Florence. The East rejected it, and it never took effect, even after Constantinople fell in 1453.
- May 29, 1453Fall of Constantinople
The Ottomans take the Byzantine capital, ending the Eastern Roman Empire.
- May 29, 1460Mehmed II conquers the Morea; Mistra falls
Ottoman forces take Mistra, seat of the Despotate of the Morea ruled by the Palaiologos family, ending the last Byzantine holdout in Greece. The despots had been brothers of the last emperor, Constantine XI.
- August 15, 1461Mehmed II takes Trebizond, ending the last Byzantine successor state
Emperor David Komnenos surrenders the Empire of Trebizond on the Black Sea to Mehmed II after a month's siege. Historians treat it as the end of Byzantine continuity.
- 1468Cardinal Bessarion gives his Greek manuscripts to Venice
Basilios Bessarion, a Greek refugee cardinal, donates his library of Greek and Latin manuscripts to the Republic of Venice (letter of 31 May 1468); it becomes the core of the Marciana library and a hub for Greek learning in Italy.
- 1472Ivan III of Moscow marries Sophia Palaiologina, niece of the last Byzantine emperor
Raised in Rome under Cardinal Bessarion, Sophia marries the grand prince of Moscow (proxy ceremony in Rome in June, wedding in Moscow in November). The match fed Moscow's later claim to be the 'Third Rome'.
- January 16, 1547Ivan IV is crowned first tsar of Russia with Byzantine imperial ritual
Ivan IV is crowned in Moscow's Dormition Cathedral by Metropolitan Macarius with a rite modelled on Byzantine precedent, presenting Moscow as heir to the Roman and Byzantine emperors.