Byzantium

Slaves in the Byzantine Empire were first granted social rights beginning in the 4th century. Christianity questioned slavery for being contrary to natural and divine law. Even though Byzantium continued the tradition of slave ownership it inherited from the Roman...

Istanbul is a name that the Greeks actually gave to the city. "Istanbul" derives from the Greek phrase "Is tin poli," meaning "into the city."

The Akathist Hymn, which is chanted on the first five successive Fridays of Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is dedicated to Virgin Mary.

With perhaps a bit of poetic license, The Metropolis of Atlanta’s Diakonia Center is, if not Mystras, then it is a Mystras-in-process.

The position of women in Byzantine society is not easy to assess considering the vast reach of the empire. It was an empire comprised of different cultures of Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, West Asia, and North Africa. In the course...

The Via Egnatia was an ancient Roman road that stretched across an impressive distance between the Adriatic coast and Byzantium (modern day Istanbul) on the Bosphorous Strait.  It was actually a continuation of Via Appia, one of the earliest...

A pair of 1,500-year-old lady's sandals with a sweet message in Greek was discovered during a dig in Istanbul. The sandals have become one of the major attractions of the city's archaeological museum. There is a message in Greek on...

The last descendant of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Palaiologos is buried in the most unlikely of places - on the island of Barbados in the Caribbean. Ferdinand Paleologos asserted his descent from the Palaiologos dynasty, particularly through his ancestor Thomas...

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were the two epics that brought the ideas of Greek civilization to the world and served as the foundation of Western literature. Both works were composed in the late eighth or early seventh century BC. They...

The contribution of the Byzantine Empire to Western Civilization was of great importance as it preserved ancient Greek knowledge in philosophy and science