If we were judging by famous ancestors, Aelia Galla Placidia had collected quite a few plums. Daughter of Emperor Theodosius I and his second wife, Galla, who was the daughter of Emperor Valentinian I. Her half brothers were emperors Honorius and Arcadius, and nephew was Theodosius II, emperor in Constantinople. Her son went on to […]
Category: Byzantium
FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO BARBADOS (VIA CORNWALL) -The strange fate of the last Byzantines
Americas, Byzantium, Caribbean, England, Northern Europe, Rest of the World
On the 29th of May 1453 Constantine XI Palaeologus, last Emperor of the Byzantines, died fighting the Ottoman Turks besieging his capital. With his death, the 1,000 year history of the Eastern Roman Empire came to an end but not all the imperial family perished in the Fall of Constantinople. Some of the surviving Palaeologus […]
The Founding of Constantinople
Byzantium was an old city. There had been a settlement on the banks of the Bosphorus since the 5th century BCE. Its strategic position guarding the strait from the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea made it an important waterway for trade all the way from Western Europe to Asia.By the time of Constantine […]
Empress Theodora- Purple is the Noblest Winding Sheet
Born the daughter of a bearkeeper and an acrobat, the prospects for the new baby girl born in the vast city of Constantinople were not that great. Likely she would become a performer like her parents, and if she was lucky the mistress of a wealthy man who would take care of her. At that […]