Byzantium: the surprising life of a medieval empire

Introduction: A different history of Byzantium

The city of Constantine

Constantinople, the largest city in Christendom

The East Roman Empire

Greek orthodoxy

The church of Hagia Sophia

The Ravenna Mosaics

Roman law

The bulwark against Islam

Icons, a new Christian art form

Iconoclasm and icon veneration

A literate and articulate society

Saints Cyril and methodios, 'apostles to the slavs'

Greek fire

The Byzantine economy

Eunuchs

The imperial court

Imperial children, 'born in the purple'

Mount Athos

Venice and the fork

Basil II, 'the bulgar-slayer'

Eleventh-century crisis

Anna Komnene

A cosmopolitan society

The fulcrum of the crusades

The towers of Trebizond, Arta, Nicaea and Thessanlonike

Rebels and patrons

'Better the Turkish turban than the Papal tiara'

The siege of 1453

Conclusion: The greatness and legacy of Byzantium.