The Byzantine Empire |
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Adrianople Alexius Alexius Angelus Andronicus Angelus Arcadius arms army Asia Minor Asiatic attack Avars Balkan Peninsula barbarian Basil BAYET Belisarius Bosphorus Bulgarians Byzantine Empire Byzantium Caliph capital century CHARLES BAYET chief Chosroës Christian Church civil Comnenus conquered conquest Constan Constantine Constantine IV Constantinople Crusaders danger Danube death destined died Ducas East East-Roman Eastern Emperor empire Empress enemy fell fight fleet force fortresses Franks frontier Gainas garrison Gothic Goths Greek hands Heraclius imperial invasion Isaac Isaurian Italy John Justinian Justinus king kingdom L'Art Byzantin land Latin Leontius Lombards Macedonian Magister militum Manuel Michael military Moslem Nicephorus numbers Orkhan Ostrogoths Ottoman palace Paleologus PARIS patriarch peace Persian Phocas prince provinces QUANTIN realm reign Roman Rome ruler Saracens seized Seljouk sent siege Slavs soldier Sophia successor Sultan Syria Theodore Theodosius Thessalonica Thrace throne took town troops Turkish Turks usurper Venetians victory walls Witiges Zimisces
Popular passages
Page 115 - of the columns and marbles with which the church is adorned ? One would think that one had come upon a meadow full of flowers in bloom— one wonders at the purple tints of some, the green of others, the glowing red and glittering white, and those, too, which nature, like a painter, has marked with the strongest contrasts of colour.
Page 113 - approach it in size. Within it is singularly full of light and sunshine ; you would declare that the place is not lighted from without, but that the rays are produced within itself, such an abundance of light is
Page 129 - Four years have now elapsed, and still they live at their ease in the land, and spread themselves far and wide, as far as God permits them, and ravage and burn and take captive, and still they encamp and dwell there.
Page 113 - In height it rises to the very heavens, and overtops the neighbouring buildings like a .ship anchored among them. It towers above the city which it adorns, and from it the whole of Constantinople can be
Page 129 - forts, and devastated and burnt, and reduced the people to slavery, and made themselves masters of the whole country, and settled in it, by main force, and dwelt in it as though it had been their own.
Page 113 - presents a most glorious spectacle, extraordinary to those who behold it, and altogether incredible to those who know it by report only. In height it rises to the very heavens, and overtops the
Page 276 - the commerce of the West with Persia, Egypt, Syria, and India, ceased to pass through the Bosphorus. Genoa and Venice became the marts at which France, Italy, and Germany, sought their Eastern goods. It is probable that the trade of Constantinople fell off by a third or even a half in the fifty years that followed the first Crusade.
Page 44 - were ridden down and trampled under foot. Then the Goths swept down on the infantry of the left wing, rolled it up, and drove it in upon the centre. So tremendous was their impact that
Page 71 - the most beautiful woman of her age. Procopius, the best historian of the day, says " that it was impossible for mere man to describe her comeliness in words, or imitate it in art.
Page 299 - the eye of the world, the ornament of nations, the fairest sight on earth, the mother of churches, the spring whence flowed the waters of faith, the mistress of Orthodox doctrine, the seat of the sciences, draining the cup mixed for her by the hand of the Almighty, and consumed by fires as devouring as those which ruined the five Cities of the Plain.