In year 324 Constantine The Great defeated Licinius in a few battles and took sole possession of The Roman Empire. He relocated the state capital away from Rome which was being run over by various Barbarian tribes, and moved it to Byzantium in 330. Prior to this his chief city was Nicomedia which is modern day Izmit on the extreme east of The Marmara Sea.

Constantinople has had many, many emperors and a few empresses ruling over it. Over its history it was ruled by military generals, Queen Mothers, Church Patriarchs, Senate Leaders, and, even for half a century was run by a eunuch - John Orphanotrophos in the . 11th century.

The list of leaders is long with many prominent dynasties - Macedonian, Komnenian, Paleoligian, etc. Through the years the tides have changed and emperors have come and gone but the empire endured for over a thousand years. These emperors kept alive the empire that ruled the Europe, Asia Minor, The Mediterranean, Palestine, and, North Africa and transitioned the ancient eras through the medieval period into the modern era. Along the way it cradled Christianity and protected the rights of other cultures while handing over the classical legacies of Greece and Rome to the renaissance. Along with it came the literature of Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and, others. With it came the architecture of the arch and dome, and, the table fork, the arts, medical procedures, and, engineering.

In the following pages I will highlight my favorite emperors and empresses that may not have perhaps been ‘the best’ but have left their mark on The Byzantine Culture. Justinian I, for example was a brutal king but left his mark on the empire as a master-builder building the largest and finest churches that would not be equaled until the great cathedrals of Italy a thousand years later.