Byzantium

Origins and formation

The Byzantine Empire, also called the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the eastern part of the Roman Empire, centered on Constantinople, through late antiquity and the Middle Ages. It survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century and lasted until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The name Byzantine Empire was coined after the end. Its citizens called themselves Romans. Constantine I reigned from 324 to 337. A game that uses the later scholarly name is still that Roman continuation. It is not one empress and not one 11th-century emperor.¹

Defining periods

Theodora lived from about 490 or 500 to 28 June 548. She was the wife of Justinian I and Eastern Roman empress from 527 until her death. She was one of his chief political advisers and is commemorated as a saint on 14 November in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches. She was born to a bear-keeper in Constantinople, worked as a courtesan and actress, likely met Justinian before 524, and was crowned when he became emperor in 527. Basil II, called Porphyrogenitus and the Bulgar-Slayer, lived from 958 to 15 December 1025 and was senior emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but they were too young to rule. His reign of 49 years and 11 months was the longest of any Roman emperor. The two people are centuries apart. No Civilization VII Byzantium essay exists, so none is linked.^{2 3}

Leaders

The Byzantium and Gaul Pack, one of six in the New Frontier Pass, introduces Basil II as the leader of Byzantium and Ambiorix as the leader of Gaul. The Chinese page uses the ordinary names for both. The Leader Pass names Theodora of Byzantium in the Great Builders Pack and says she requires the New Frontier Pass and the Byzantium and Gaul Pack. The builders page says she was an actress when she caught Justinian’s eye, that he changed a law against marrying actresses, and that she became empress two years later. It also says she expanded women’s rights and influenced religious policy. This essay does not copy the culture yields on that page. A holy-site bonus is not 527.^{4 5 6 7}

Legacy and interpretation

The empire’s legacy in the lead is Roman survival until 1453. Theodora’s legacy is the reign from 527 to 548 and the political role the builders page describes. Basil’s legacy is the long reign from 976 to 1025. The fall of the city in 1453 belongs to the Ottoman conquest, not to either of these deaths. The published Ottoman essay is that later state.^{1 2 3}

A closer look

The Byzantium pack page describes religious strength, cavalry, and a hippodrome. Those are design sentences. This essay does not copy the amounts. A cavalry bonus is not the Bulgar-Slayer epithet and not the rising the biography only begins to name.^{4 2}

In Civilization VI

The civilization is New Frontier Pass. Basil is the pack’s Byzantine leader. Theodora is Leader Pass and requires that pack. Keep about 490, the coronation of 527, her death on 28 June 548, Basil’s reign from 976, his death on 15 December 1025, and 1453 apart.^{1 2 3 4 6}