Byzantine Empire

Anthony Bryer considers the life and work of this great historian, who died in November 2000.

Archaeologists in Turkey believe they could have unearthed some of the remains of the Great Palace of the Byzantine Empire which ruled much of the known world for nearly a thousand years from the heart of Constantinople.

Penny Young details the archaeological work being carried out to save an early Christian church on the Black Sea coast.

Nicholas Soteri reflects on the often-overlooked Jewish kingdom of Khazaria, and the vital role they played in balancing Christian and Muslim power in the early medieval period.

Archaeological wonders in the Mediterranean

Michael Antonucci discerns Byzantine origins in today's international power politics.

Alexander Kazhdan considers the influence of totalitarianism and meritocracy in the Byzantine empire – and its relationship to the growth of the Russian and other successor states in the East.

Judith Herrin considers the Jekyll-and-Hyde output of Justinian's court historian, alternately respectful official chronicler and tabloid-style exposer of imperial scandal.

In his book The Sicilian Vespers, Sir Steven Runciman wrote: 'The massacre was one of those events in history which altered the fate of nations and of world-wide institutions. To understand its importance we must see it in its international setting.'

'A people's prospects are affected by its image of its past' - Arnold Toynbee presents an exclusive extract from his book on the Greek sense of the past, The Greeks and Their Heritages.