Byzantine Empire

Weapons of the Middle Ages: the Medieval Catapult

It was the spring of 1097 and the Turks guarding the walls of Nicaea were in a confident mood. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Greek Fire

The year was ad 678, 46 years after the death of the prophet Mohammed. Now the Mohammedans, determined to bring the light of Islam to Arabia and beyond, were streaking across the whole of the Middle East like a comet. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Military Myths and Legends: Belisarius

It was a sorry tale. A brilliant general, military hero, and faithful servant of the state, blind and reduced to penury in his old age, sitting on the main street of Constantinople begging for his living. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Deus le Veult! The Siege of Antioch

Shortly before dawn on June 3, 1098, Bohemund of Taranto, one of the leaders of the First Crusade and the survivor of many campaigns, stood in the shadow of the Tower of the Two Sisters, one of the strongest points in the defenses of the ancient city of Antioch. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Spies in the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars

Byzantium, the successor state to ancient Rome, lasted over a thousand years. But it all could have been different because its first major enemy—Persia—was a fierce and determined competitor bent on the Empire’s demise. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Death of an Empire: The Fall of Constantinople

Early in the morning of Tuesday, May 29, 1453, they came swarming like hungry wolves over the plain between the Turkish palisades and the battered walls of Byzantium. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Siege of Rhodes: The Will Of The Hospitallers

Although the great Crusades were over by 1309 ad, one old crusading order continued to evolve, flourish, and make enemies—the Knights Hospitallers of St. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Harald “Land Waster” Hardradi

For many history buffs, the date 1066 conjures up an image of Norman knights breaking through the shield wall of the ax-wielding Anglo-Saxons at Senlac Hill. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Baptism or Death: The Wendish Crusade, 1147-1185

By the middle of the 12th century, much of western Europe had settled into a tenuous, often interrupted peace, and many modern nation-states had begun to emerge. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Dorylaeum: The First Christian-Muslim Clash of the Crusades

The Battle of Dorylaeum, fought on July 1, 1097, marked the first full-scale military clash between the Christian armies of the West and the Muslim armies of the East. Read more

Byzantine Empire

The Fourth Fitna: A Family Feud that Crippled a Caliphate

To his contemporaries, Harun al-Rashid, fifth caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, seemed the most fortunate of men. Read more

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Army’s Varangian Guard

Byzantine Emperor Basil II suffered a massive defeat against the Bulgarians on August 17, 986, at a strategic mountain pass known as Trajan’s Gate in Bulgaria. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Sack of Constantinople

Dawn broke clear and hot over Constantinople on July 17, 1203.

All manner of war machines were clustered around the Latin crusaders’ fortified camp on a hill where the Monastery of Saints Cosmas and Damian was located. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Charlemagne: Warlord of the Franks

On Christmas morning, 800 ad, a tall, powerfully built man walked up the steps of Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Hungary’s National Hero

Janos Hunyadi, Hungary’s national hero, was one of the great captains in the war between Europe and the Ottoman Turks. Read more

Byzantine Empire

Clash of the Tyrants

In the early 15th century, the strongest military powers in the world resided in Asia. Arguably, no two were more powerful than the Ottoman Empire of Bayezid I and the Tartar Empire of Tamerlane (Timur the Lame). Read more

Byzantine Empire

Crusader Crucible: The Horns of Hattin

The Saracen host commanded by Saladin—Sultan of Egypt and Damascus—crossed the Jordan River south of Lake Tiberius (the “Sea of Galilee”). Read more

Byzantine Empire

The Worst Leaders in History: Igor I of Kiev

As the Slavic people began to form what would eventually become the Russian Empire, there were inevitable missteps along the way. Read more