Byzantine Empire

Where it sits in time

Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold, what it replaced or followed and what replaced or followed it in grey.

Before and after

The states the record files it as replacing or following, and those that replaced or followed it - Wikidata's own statements, each read from this state's side.

Rulers

The line of Byzantine emperor.

140 rulers, 107 with terms dated as terms, covering 337 – 1453. Median reign 8 years. 60 of 112 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.

Ground held, by year

km² inside its borders as the borders dataset draws them, measured on an equal-area grid; a step series, held between the years the dataset maps.

1.98 million km² in 435, 23,600 km² in 1453; at its largest 2.38 million km² in 585. Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0.

What happened within it, by century

Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.

Among all states

Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.

• How long it stood1,168 years

  stood longer than 98% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.

• The most ground it held2,602,100 km²

  held more ground at its peak than 94% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.

• Wars recorded per century0.9

  had more wars on record per century than 92% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.

• How long a reign lasted, at the median8 years

  had longer reigns, at the median, than 29% of 967 states whose dated line can carry a median.

• Rulers on record140

  has more rulers on record than 100% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.

What led to it, and what came of it

The investigation's own picture: 12 causes the record names and 6 results, the strongest six of each at their own years, joined to the state by the kind of claim - a recorded statement solid, the article's sentence dashed, a theory dash-dot.

Open the investigation: every row with its evidence, the conditions at the time, the theories condition by condition, and the succession analysed.

Theories that apply to its ending

Of 3 theories of why states fall, 1 has every condition present at this ending; each is applied by its own logic, condition by condition, and whether its authors named this case is a footnote.

• Challenge, failed response and dissolution

  Toynbee 1934 · Toynbee & Somervell 1946

  Applies by its own logic: 2 of its 2 conditions held here (it needs all of them), and this is the kind of outcome it predicts — the state's ending.

  • territory shrank by 25% over the 100 y ending 25 y before — territory -93
  • unrest, adverse regime change or atrocity within 100 y in the state, or a war the state is fighting, still under way, or a war the state fought, ended within 50 y, or battle within 50 y in the state — prior