Byzantium: How the Roman Empire Survived Another Thousand Years

Most people are taught that the Roman Empire fell in 476. Half of it did. The other half lasted another thousand years, and this full-length documentary tells its whole story, from the founding of Constantinople in 330 to the fall of the city on 29 May 1453. This is the history of the Byzantine Empire, which never used that name: its people called themselves Romans, their law was Roman law, and their capital was officially New Rome. The video covers why Constantine moved the capital to the Bosporus, how the Theodosian Walls held off every army for a thousand years, and how a state that lost two-thirds of its territory in a single decade reorganised itself instead of collapsing. Inside: Justinian and Theodora and the Nika riots of 532; the building of Hagia Sophia and the invention of the pendentive dome; the Corpus Juris Civilis, the legal code that still underlies most of continental Europe; Belisarius and the reconquest of Africa and Italy; the plague of 541; Heraclius and the last Roman-Persian war; the Arab conquests and the loss of Syria and Egypt; Greek fire and the siege of 717; the iconoclast century; Basil the Bulgar-Slayer; the gold solidus that held its value for seven centuries; the Varangian Guard; the schism of 1054; Manzikert in 1071; the Fourth Crusade and the sack of 1204; the exile at Nicaea and the return in 1261; Mehmed the Second, the great bombards, the ships dragged overland into the Golden Horn, and the last stand of Constantine the Eleventh. It also covers what survived: the Greek manuscripts that Byzantine scribes copied for a thousand years and that reached Italy in time for the Renaissance, the Orthodox Church, the Cyrillic alphabet, and the idea of a Third Rome that still shapes politics today. CHAPTERS 00:00 Chapter 0 — Introduction 01:05 Chapter 1 — The City on Two Seas 02:26 Chapter 2 — New Rome 03:47 Chapter 3 — They Never Called It Byzantium 05:04 Chapter 4 — The Walls 06:43 Chapter 5 — The Half That Survived 08:12 Chapter 6 — Justinian and Theodora 10:11 Chapter 7 — Hagia Sophia 11:55 Chapter 8 — The Law 13:27 Chapter 9 — Belisarius and the Reconquest 15:18 Chapter 10 — The Plague 16:44 Chapter 11 — The War That Broke Both Empires 18:32 Chapter 12 — The Loss of the East 19:37 Chapter 13 — Greek Fire and the Second Siege 21:19 Chapter 14 — The War Over Images 22:53 Chapter 15 — Two Emperors 24:30 Chapter 16 — The Gold Standard of the Middle Ages 26:23 Chapter 17 — The Bulgar-Slayer 28:22 Chapter 18 — Born in the Purple 29:53 Chapter 19 — The Palace That Vanished 31:12 Chapter 20 — How to Lose a Throne 32:41 Chapter 21 — The Women Who Ruled 34:20 Chapter 22 — The Varangians and the North 36:01 Chapter 23 — Living in the City 37:23 Chapter 24 — The Army of the Manuals 38:56 Chapter 25 — The Churches Divide 40:15 Chapter 26 — Manzikert 42:04 Chapter 27 — The Emperor Who Asked for Help 43:54 Chapter 28 — 1204 45:56 Chapter 29 — Exile and Return 47:25 Chapter 30 — The Last Two Centuries 49:08 Chapter 31 — Mehmed 50:31 Chapter 32 — Fifty-Three Days 52:08 Chapter 33 — 29 May 1453 53:56 Chapter 34 — What the Conquerors Kept 54:56 Chapter 35 — What Was Saved 56:14 Chapter 36 — The Empire That Would Not Die 57:36 Chapter 37 — Why It Lasted So Long 59:11 Chapter 38 — The Ghost of New Rome SOURCES Procopius, Wars and Secret History; Anna Komnene, the Alexiad Encyclopaedia Britannica — Byzantine Empire, Justinian I, Constantinople, Fall of Constantinople UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Historic Areas of Istanbul Sourced Wikipedia articles: Byzantine Empire, Walls of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia, Nika riots, Corpus Juris Civilis, Plague of Justinian, Heraclius, Greek fire, Siege of Constantinople (717-718), Basil II, Battle of Manzikert, Fourth Crusade, Fall of Constantinople, Varangian Guard