Byzantium - Timeline

Byzantium - Timeline
  • 150 Protoevangelium of James (Gospel of James)
  • 325 First Council of Nicaea
  • 330 Foundation of the city of Constantinople
  • 410 Rome sacked by the Visigoths (and St. Augustine begins The City of God)
  • 430 Death of St. Augustine of Hippo
  • 431 Council of Ephesus (Nestorius exiled 4 years later)
  • 451 Council of Chalcedon
  • 450s Church of St Mary of Blachernae built
  • 453 Death of Empress Pulcheria
  • 483 Birth of Justinian
  • 497? Birth of Theodora
  • 517 Timothy becomes patriarch of Alexandria
  • 518 Justin Emperor in Constantinople
  • 520 Theodora in Alexandria and Antioch till 522?
  • 524 Boethius executed in Rome
  • 525? Theodora marries Justinian
  • 527 Justinian becomes Emperor
  • 529 Justinian closes the Greek pagan schools; St. Benedict founds Monte Cassino
  • 530 Battle of Dara: Belisarius' Byzantines decisively defeats the Persian army
  • 532 Nika riots: Hagia Sophia burnt down and 30,000+ killed in the Hippodrome. Construction begins on a new Hagia Sophia (completed by 537) - below. The Islamic minarets came later.
Hagia-Sophia
  • 535 Death of Patriarch Timothy III of Alexandria
  • 536 Severus of Antioch anathematized (he died a few years later)
  • 540s Justinian’s general, Belisarius, takes Ravenna but for the rest of the decade, things begin to go badly for the Byzantines – Persians sack Antioch in 540.
  • 542 Major bubonic plague pandemic in Constantinople and across the empire - millions die.
  • 544 Three Chapters controversy
  • 548 Death of Theodora
  • 554 Plague in Constantinople
  • 557 Earthquake in Constantinople, Hagia Sophia dome rebuilt
  • 566 Death of Justinian
  • 570s Birth of Mohammed?
  • 614 Sack of Jerusalem by the Persians
  • 626 Virgin Mary saves Constantinople from Persian invasion
  • 640 Byzantine power in Syria and Palestine shattered