Nevertheless, it remained one of the most splendid churches of the Eastern Empire, where the Byzantine Emperors were crowned.

Konstantinos Porphyrogennetos, the fourth emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire in the 9th century AD, referred to Asia Minor as East thema, " ανατολικόν θέμα " ( from the Greek words anatoli: east, thema: administrative division ), placing this region to the East of Byzantium, while Europe was lying to the West.

The Aegean Sea was later invaded by the Persians and the Romans, and inhabited by the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, the Venetians, the Genoeses, the Seljuq Turks, and the Ottoman Empire.

In the Byzantine Empire, Anatolikon called also Theme of the Anatolics ( ανατολικόν θέμα ) was a theme covering the western and central parts of Turkey's present-day Central Anatolian Region.

In the Byzantine Empire, Anatolikon called also Theme of the Anatolics ( ανατολικόν θέμα ) was a theme covering the western and central parts of Turkey's present-day Central Anatolian Region.

After the division of the Roman Empire, Anatolia became part of the East Roman, or Byzantine Empire.

Byzantine control was challenged by Arab raids starting in the 7th century ( see Byzantine – Arab Wars ), but in the 9th and 10th century a resurgent Byzantine Empire regained its lost territories and even expanded beyond its traditional borders, into Armenia and Syria ( ancient Aram ).

Control of Anatolia was then split between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, with the Byzantine holdings gradually being reduced.

Alp Arslan led Seljuq Turks to victory against the Byzantine Empire | Byzantines in 1071.

In 1068, en route to Syria, Alp Arslan Oush invaded the Byzantine Empire.

While the Byzantine Empire was to continue for nearly another four centuries, and the Crusades would contest the issue for some time, the victory at Manzikert signalled the beginning of Turkish ascendancy in Anatolia.

* 527 – Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.

Its great natural strength and situation, not far from the mouth of the Sis pass, and near the great road which debouched from the Cilician Gates, made Anazarbus play a considerable part in the struggles between the Byzantine Empire and the early Muslim invaders.

This is regarded by some historians as the real end of the Byzantine Empire.

Troy cannot have been Asagarth, Snorri realizes, the reason being that the Æsir in Asaland were unsettled by the military activities of the Romans ; that is, of the Byzantine Empire.

* 450 – Pulcheria becomes empress of the Byzantine Empire after her brother Theodosius II is killed during an hunting accident.

The " Rubens Vase " ( Byzantine Empire ).

* 1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.

Alexios used the opportunity of meeting the crusader leaders separately as they arrived and extracting from them oaths of homage and the promise to turn over conquered lands to the Byzantine Empire.

He presented himself to Robert Guiscard who used him as a pretext to launch his invasion of the Byzantine Empire.

Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus (, 1056 – 15 August 1118 — note that some sources list his date of birth as 1048 ), was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power.

Ezekiel is commemorated as a saint in the liturgical calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church — and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite — on July 21 ( for those churches which use the traditional Julian Calendar, July 21 falls on August 3 of the modern Gregorian Calendar ).

* August 26 – Battle of Manzikert: The Byzantine Empire loses to a Turkish army led by Alp Arslan.

* August 9 – Byzantine Empress Irene

* August 1 – Justin I, Byzantine Emperor ( b. 450 )

* August 15 – Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian and Khan Tervel of Bulgaria force the troops of the Umayyad Caliphate to abandon the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople ( 717 – 718 ), preventing a major Arab incursion into the Byzantine Empire.

* August 15 – Alexius I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor ( b. 1048 )

* August 29 – Basil I, Byzantine Emperor

* August 12 – With the help of the Genoese, Byzantine co-emperor Andronicus IV Palaeologus invades Constantinople and dethrones his father, John V Palaeologus, as co-emperor.

** August 1 – The Fourth Crusade elevates Alexius IV as Byzantine Emperor, after the citizens of Constantinople proclaim as emperor Isaac II Angelus ( Alexius IV's father ).

* August 24 – Michael V, Byzantine Emperor ( b. 1015 )

* August 24 – the Byzantine city of Thessalonica is sacked by the Norman Sicilian troops.

* August – Abdallah, son of the Aghlabid emir Ibrahim II, represses a revolt of his Muslim subjects and then initiates a campaign against the last Byzantine strongholds in Sicily.

* August 16 – Theodore II Laskaris, emperor of Nicea ( Byzantine Emperor in exile )

* August 15 – Michael VIII Palaeologus is crowned Byzantine emperor in Constantinople.

Then there is " Byzantine New Year's Eve " ( 31 August ) celebrating the beginning of the New Year according to the old civil calendar of the Byzantine Empire.

Justin I (, ; c. 450 – 1 August 527 ) was Byzantine Emperor from 518 to 527.

* August 1 – Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold in Sicily, is captured by the Aghlabid army.

* August 20 – Battle of Achelous: A large-scale Byzantine expedition against Bulgaria is routed by Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria.

* August 20 – Constantine Lips, Byzantine admiral

* August 14 – Tiberius II Constantine, Byzantine Emperor