The Byzantine Empire is often overlooked by Western scholars as an off-shoot of Greco-Roman tradition, an Eastern empire of little significance to Western European tradition. But Byzantium was really the only true European empire of the Middle Ages, the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East, long after the sacking of Rome by the Vandals. It began in 324 with the founding of Constantinople by the Christian emperor Constantine I. This city became the seat of the Eastern empire and the home and protector of Orthodox Christianity. It ended in 1453 with the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks. Byzantium left an enduring legacy through its art, in the Orthodox churches, and in its successor states such as Russia, Greece, and Serbia. The Byzantine Empire, its beginnings, development, and fall are summarized in a chronology and explained in the introduction. The dictionary then presents significant people (emperors, church leaders, generals, writers, etc.), events (wars, sieges, coups, councils and treaties) and important cultural aspects such as economics, art, and religion. A substantial bibliography is included for further reference on this extensive empire.

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