From its founding by Constantine the Great in 330 to its final fall on the morning of 29^th May, 1453, the Byzantine Empire traversed one thousand one hundred and twenty-three years. It is a period of longevity almost unrivalled in history; and yet, until recently it is a period written off by historians as merely the extended decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Its coinage has been found from Iceland to Ceylon.

A world seemingly so unlike ours, the relevance of Byzantium lingers: the president of Russia is now sworn in by the Patriarch under a banner depicting the great double-headed eagle of the Palaeologi; while enmities and confederacies stemming from policies forged in the Palace of Blachernae shape the present day alliances of the Balkans and near-East. No other lasting empire has held such temporal power mixed with such spiritual devotion.

The legendary wealth of Constantinople, with its sublime craftsmanship and awesome golden mosaics, (the "Sages standing in God's Holy fire," of Yeats' much quoted poem,) was coupled with a spirituality that dictated penance and abstinence even for a soldier who had killed in battle.