Highlights of the history of Byzantium.

The early period in the history of Byzantium can be considered 395-476, that is, from the division of the Roman Empire into Western and Eastern and to the defeat of the Western Roman Empire by the German commander Odoacer. During this period, the famous walls of Constantinople were built.

The 6th century was the heyday of Byzantium, this is associated with the activities of the emperor Justinian. By 570, the empire controlled the entire coast of North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, southern Spain, Italy, Europe south of the Danube, lands from Colchis to the Red Sea.

The decline in the 7th century is associated with the strengthening of the Arabs in the east, part of the territories was lost, during the same period there was a struggle with the Slavs and Arabs.

726-842 was the iconoclastic period. There was a struggle against the veneration of icons.

In 864 the Byzantines influenced the baptism of the Bulgarians, and in 988 – Rus.

They mainly fought with these countries in the 9th-10th centuries.

In the second half of the 11th century, the next stage of the decline of the empire began due to the invasion of the Seljuk Turks from the east.

At the end of the 11th century, the crusaders came to the aid of the Byzantines, but soon contradictions began with them, everything ended with the defeat of Constantinople in 1204. The Crusaders founded the Latin Empire there, in 1261 it was defeated by Michael Palaeologus, he founded the last dynasty of Byzantium. From the beginning of the XIV century, a new period of decline began due to the struggle with the Ottoman Turks and due to internal conflicts. In 1402, the Turks almost took Constantinople, but the Byzantines were helped by the campaign of Tamerlane. He extended the existence of the empire for 50 years, although its size was very small (eastern Thrace is mainly and a little on the territory of modern Greece).