Timeline of the Byzantine Empire

The following is a timeline of the Byzantine Empire.

Date	Event
667 BC	The ancient city of Byzantium (the future Constantinople and Istanbul) is founded, according to legend, by Megarian colonists.
27 BC	Establishment of the Roman Empire.
c. 235 – 284	The "crisis of the 3rd century".
292	The reforms of Diocletian ("The Tetrarchy")
330	Constantine makes Byzantium into his capital, which is renamed "Constantinople" (The City of Constantine). It would remain the capital of the Byzantine Empire, with a half-century exception, for over a thousand years.
395	The Empire is permanently split into eastern and western halves, following on the death of Theodosius I.
527	Justinian I is crowned emperor.
April 7, 529	The Codex Justinianus is promulgated.
532–537	Emperor Justinian builds the church of Hagia Sophia
533–554	Justinian's generals reconquer North Africa and Italy from the Vandals and the Ostrogoths.
568	The Lombard invasion results in the loss of most of Italy.
602	The climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 commences.
626	The Byzantine capital of Constantinople is besieged by the Sassanid Persians and allied Avars and Slavs.
634–641	The Arab armies conquer the Levant and Egypt. In the following decades, they take most of North Africa (and later conquer Sicily as well).
697	The Byzantine city of Carthage in North Africa (capital of the Exarchate of Africa) falls to the Arab invasion.
730–787 and 813–843	The adoption of Iconoclasm by the emperors results in the loss of most of the Empire's remaining Italian territories, aside from some of the territories of the Mezzogiorno.
843–1025	The Macedonian dynasty is established and the leads the Empire to a military, cultural and territorial revival. Byzantine scholars record and preserve many of the remaining ancient Greek and Roman texts.
920–1042	The Byzantine Empire deals a string of defeats upon the Arab border emirates and the Abassid and Fatimid Caliphates, reconquering parts of Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine.
1002–1018	Emperor Basil II campaigns annually against the Bulgars, with the object of annihilating the Bulgar state.
1014	The Bulgarian army is completely defeated at the Battle of Kleidion
1018	Bulgaria surrenders and is annexed to the empire. The whole of the Balkans is incorporated into the Byzantine Empire, with the Danube restored as the imperial frontier to the north.
1025	With the death of Basil II, the zenith of the Empire's power is passed and the long decline of the Byzantine Empire begins.
1054	The Great Schism (split between Church in Rome and the Church in Constantinople).
1071	Emperor Romanos IV is defeated by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert. The subsequent civil wars result in the loss of most of Asia Minor to the Turks. In the same year, the last Byzantine outpost in Italy, Bari, is conquered by the Normans.
1081	The Komnenos dynasty is established by Alexios I and Byzantium becomes involved in the Crusades. Economic prosperity generates new wealth; literature and the arts reach new heights. In Anatolia, the Turks become established.
1091	The Imperial armies crush the Pechenegs at the Battle of Levounion.
1097	The recapture of Nicaea from the Turks by the Byzantine armies and the First Crusade.
1097-1176	The Byzantine armies recapture the coasts of Asia Minor from the Turks, and push east towards central Anatolia. The Crusader Principality of Antioch becomes a Byzantine protectorate.
1122	The Byzantines defeat the Pechenegs at the Battle of Beroia.
1167	The Byzantine armies win a decisive victory over the Hungarians at the Battle of Sirmium. Hungary subsequently becomes a Byzantine client state.
1176;	Byzantine-Seljuk Wars: Manuel I Komnenos is defeated at the Battle of Myriokephalon, the attempts to capture Konya, the capital of the Seljuk Turks, are abandoned after the destruction of his siege equipment. Within a year Manuel recovers the situation status quo ante bellum.
1180	With the death of Manuel I Komnenos, the decline of the Empire recommences.
1185	A successful rebellion is organized in Bulgaria, which recovers its independence, and other lands are lost in the Balkans.
1204	Constantinople is conquered by Fourth Crusade. The Empire fragments, a Latin Empire and a series of Latin states are established, while the Byzantine Greeks establish separate successor states (Epirus, Nicaea and Trebizond).
1261	Constantinople is reconquered by the Nicaean emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, who restores the Byzantine Empire.
1326	The city of Prusa in Asia Minor falls to the Ottoman Turks.
1331	The city of Nicaea, capital of the Empire only 100 years previously, falls to the Ottoman Turks.
1341–1347	A prolonged civil war and the advent of the Black Death cripple what remains of the Empire, which loses most of its territories to the Serbian Empire and the rising Ottoman emirate.
1453	The Ottoman Turks conquer Constantinople, and with the death of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the Byzantine Empire comes to an end, marking final destruction of the Roman Empire.
1460–1461	The last surviving Byzantine outposts, the Despotate of the Morea and the Empire of Trebizond, fall to the Ottomans.

See also

• Timeline of the Sasanian Empire