BYZANTINE EMPIRE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Byzantine Empire

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/bˈɪzəntˌaɪn ˈɛmpaɪər/ Listen

adjective

Byzantine adj. (Written also Bizantine) Of or pertaining to Byzantium.

Byzantine church, the Eastern or Greek church, as distinguished from the Western or Roman or Latin church. See under Greek.

Byzantine empire, the Eastern Roman or Greek empire from a. d. 364 or a. d. 395 to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, a. d. 1453.

Byzantine historians, historians and writers (Zonaras, Procopius, etc.) who lived in the Byzantine empire.

Byzantine style (Arch.), a style of architecture developed in the Byzantine empire. Note: Its leading forms are the round arch, the dome, the pillar, the circle, and the cross. The capitals of the pillars are of endless variety, and full of invention. The mosque of St. Sophia, Constantinople, and the church of St. Mark, Venice, are prominent examples of Byzantine architecture.

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Etymology of 'Byzantine Empire'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Byzantine empire" Quotes from Famous Books

... of lawlessness or violence which its troops committed. But as a champion of republican Greece against foreign enemies no other power of the age rendered equal services. After the first overthrow of the Byzantine empire Aetolia passed to a branch of the old imperial house (1205). In the 15th century it was held by Scanderbeg (q.v.) and by the Venetians, but Mahommed II. brought it definitely under Turkish rule. In the War of Independence ...

— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... marched with Hannibal on Rome. In some of the North African kingdoms the infiltration of Negro blood was very large and kings like Massinissa and Jugurtha were Negroid. By way of the Atlantic the Carthaginians reached the African west coast. Greek and Roman influences came through the desert, and the Byzantine Empire and Persia came into communication with Negroland by way of the valley of the Nile. The influence of these trade routes, added to those of Egypt, Ethiopia, Benin, and Yoruba, stimulated centers of culture ...

— The Negro • W.E.B. Du Bois

... of the Byzantine Empire, presenting with extraordinary power the siege of Constantinople, and lighting its tragedy with the warm underglow of an Oriental romance. As a play it is a ...

— The Adventures of Bobby Orde • Stewart Edward White

... Porphyrogene: from Greek words meaning "purple" and "begotten," hence, born in the purple, royal. This term, or "porphyrogenitus," was applied in the Byzantine empire to children of the monarch born after his accession to the throne. It is not clear whether the word is used here as a descriptive adjective or as the name of ...

— Selections From Poe • J. Montgomery Gambrill

... there is included much curious information and striking incident. But their main interest is in the light they throw on the gradual sinking of the splendid administrative organisation of the second century towards the sterile Chinese hierarchy of the Byzantine Empire, and the concurrent degradation of paganism, both as a political ...

— Latin Literature • J. W. Mackail