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Byzantine
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Empire
330 A.D - 1453

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History
Overview
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire is also known as the Eastern Roman Empire,
for it was in fact a continuation of the Roman Empire into its eastern
part. At its greatest size, during the 500's AD, Byzantine included
parts of southern and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and northern
Africa.
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The Byzantine people called themselves Romans although they
were actually descendants of various ancient peoples and they
spoke Greek. The word Byzantine, in fact, comes from "Byzantium,"
which is the Greek name for a city on the Bosporus. The Greeks
colonized the area first, in the mid-600's BC, even before Alexander
the Great brought his troops into Anatolia (334 BC). Greek culture
continued its influence long after the region became part of the
Roman Empire, in the 100's BC. But it was when Roman emperor
Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Empire from Rome
to Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople (Istanbul today), in 330
AD, that the Byzantine Empire really began. It lasted over 1000
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years, ending finally in 1453, when the Ottoman Turks conquered
Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul.
Christianity had a strong influence on
Byzantine art, music, and architecture. Since
Constantinople was the political center of the
Empire, it also was the educational center,
where future government officials learned to
read and write the language of ancient
Greece. Thus this period produced
remarkable works in history as well as fine
poetry, and much religious prose. All the
visual arts flourished, too. Most of the artists
worked as servants of the court or belonged
to religious orders, and they remained
anonymous. Ivory carvings, Byzantine
crosses, and "illuminations," or small
manuscript paintings, attest to their skill.
Almost all that survives of the Byzantine
architecture are its churches, with their
glorious frescoes and mosaics. With Hagia
Sophia as an example, their architects and
artisans reached heady heights of
magnificence, indeed.
For 1100 years, the Byzantine's were able to
maintain control of their empire, although
somewhat tenuously at times; the Empire's
expansion and prosperity were balanced by
internal religious schisms (such as Nika Riot)
and recurring wars with enemies from the
outside. Finally, weakened by recurring
waves of attack, the Ottomans overcame the
exhausted Byzantines and a new era of
leadership began. The Byzantine Empire,
however, had left its mark on the culture,
never to be entirely erased even after the
Conquest.
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Byzantine
Clothing
M 330 A.D - 1453
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Overview
Byzantium Clothing

• Byzantine dress was very conservative under the influence of the

Christian view that the body was not beautiful but sin. The
Byzantines liked color and pattern and made and exported very
richly patterned cloth. One of the most famous fabrics of that time
and place was Byzantine silk which was woven and embroidered for
the upper classes and resist-dyed and printed for the lower.

• The Byzantine costume tradition took its form from the Roman
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Empire and its color and decorative tradition from the Orient and the
Middle East. The Roman roots are easy to understand. After all, the
Byzantine Empire began in the fourth century C.E. as the Eastern
Roman Empire; its capital, Constantinople, was for a short time the
capital of the entire Roman Empire. From the Romans the
Byzantines inherited their basic clothing forms, the tunic and toga for
men, and the stola, a type of long dress, for women, as well as their
shoes and their hairstyles. These basic garments had become more
ornate and luxurious late in the Roman Empire, yet it was not long
after the fall of the Roman Empire in that the Byzantines began to

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modify and extend the Roman costume tradition to become
something uniquely their own.
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Men Clothing
The chemise was a long-
sleeved undergarment worn by
both sexes, and its purpose
was similar to today’s
undershirt.
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M represent those who
After the chemise, the garment most
prominently worn was the belted
tunica. It is modeled after the Roman
tunica manicata or talaris, a garment
with long sleeves cut in one with the
garment or sewn and attached at the
shoulders. The tunica fell into a
straight-lined skirt, and the length of
the skirt varied from below the knee all
the way to the ankle.
Another type of
tunica, the dalmatica, In addition, historians
believe that underneath
was also widely worn the tunic, nearly all
and has been noted Byzantine men wore
as the most hose or stockings. What
recognizable is not known is whether
Byzantine garment. the stockings were
Looser in the sleeve gartered, but what
historians do know is
area, it originally was that the top of the hose
worn over another was always to be
tunica. Wearing a concealed by the tunica.
dalmatica came to
were priests or rulers.
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Women Clothing
However, when a belt was Women’s necklines, were different too. They
The tunic and chemise were worn slightly still wore tunicas with the slit and V-neck
worn, Byzantine art shows
different from the men. When worn, the styles like men did, but they also had a third
that the belt was worn at least
chemise would peek out from under the type: the scoop neckline.
in three different levels: just
tunica at the wrists, skirt, and neck.
below the bosom, at the
natural waistline, or just
below the waistline.

The silhouette of
women’s tunics
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themselves was
also slightly
different from that
of men. Women’s
tunicas were more
form-fitting and,
thus, more often
required the use of
girdles instead of
belts.
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Byzantine Royal Clothing

At first empresses wore
The formal clothing of an Emperor essentially the same form as
comprised of the imperial loros which emperors, but from around
was a special costume combining the the 9th century a new style
Roman and Christian influences of the appears. The hanging end
Empire. was longer and much
broader, and after reaching
The loros for the down to the ankles turned
Emperor upwards to be folded over the
comprised of a left forearm, or fastened or
long strip of a tucked into the belt.
rich cloth which
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dropped all the In later period, the

way to the feet in Empress’ loros
the front and was began to feature
longer at the exceptionally wide
back so that the
additional portion
sleeves and highly
of the cloth at the intricate collars
back was pulled which were
to the front and embellished with
carried in a fold jewels, pearls and
M on a bent arm. rich embroidery.
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Fabric
Materials
Used in Byzantine Era

Although various weaves of linens, cotton, and wool were the basic materials used to make
clothing, the Byzantine Empire’s geographic location and status as the trading capital of the
known world allowed it to be exposed to the many resources that merchants and traders brought
from afar. As a result, Byzantine clothing was relatively luxurious in comparison to its surrounding
regions. Clothing would be adorned with borders, pearls, jewels, and even gold. Weaving strips of
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gold into fabrics, a technique dating back to biblical times, was practiced only amongst nobility.

The silkworm was introduced from the East during the reign of Justinian in the sixth century A.D.
Soon, silk became one of the most popular clothing materials to wear. One particular use of silk
was to create the large, rectangular veils that noble women often wore. Byzantine clothes makers
would add embroidery, gold, and jewel appliqués to a specific type of strong, thick silk called
samite for garments.

Patterns characteristic of Byzantine clothing included those with dots, stars, and circles.
Patterned embroidery often appeared near the wrists, waist, and skirt hemline.

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Byzantine The jewelry of Byzantine Empire reached new heights in craftsmanship,

bringing in what is probably the pinnacle of ornate and opulent jewelry.
While such “statement jewelry” has come in and out of fashion over time,

Jewelry we have never quite reached the heights of Byzantine the quality
possessed by something that is excessively expensive.

Byzantine jewelry is a type and style from

the Byzantine era. Authentic Byzantine
jewelry was created during the Byzantine
Empire, which was from the fourth
century AD to approximately the mid
1400s. The jewelry is influenced by the
art of the Byzantine civilization, which
made heavy use of the Christian cross
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and other early religious symbols. The

Byzantine time period was full of wealth
and riches, so there was an abundance
of gold metal used during this time.

Nothing was held back when it came to Byzantine jewelry.

Heavy gold pieces were set with garnets, pearls, amethysts,
jade, lapis, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and other precious
stones acquired in trade with India, Persia, and the Orient.
Cloisonné enamel, a finish achieved by pouring colored molten
glass into soldered patterns, was especially popular and gave
M Byzantium its famously colorful pieces.
 10 Byzantine’s wore the half- There are examples with
moon-shaped earrings that pierced decoration, with
Byzantine jewelry is typically made from weighty gold with generous were in wide use up through filigree basketwork.
amounts of gemstones. Common gemstones used in Byzantine jewelry the 12th century.
include garnets, pearls, corundum, and beryls, which were traded from The figures of enameled
birds facing each other on
the Eastern countries such as India and areas of Persia. The amount of a golden half-moon.
gold that was used is one of the classical characteristics of Byzantine art
and jewelry.

Typical types of jewelry that were made

during the Byzantine time period include
necklaces, neck pieces, head pieces
along with bracelets, rings, earrings, and
other ornamental jewelry. Bangles were What made the jewelry of the
very popular during this period of jewelry Byzantine Empire so unique was not
that it was made specifically for
art, and often people wore more than special occasions or to be passed
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one at a time on each arm. Each of the
jewelry arm pieces was very heavy due
to the gold, so one amazing aspect of
Byzantine jewelry is that they were worn
in abundance as status symbols.
down. The Empire prospered from
the many gold mines within its
borders and its prime location for
trade. This abundance led to jewelry
becoming as essential and common
to daily dress as shoes.

Nothing was held back when it came to Byzantine jewelry.

Heavy gold pieces were set with garnets, pearls, amethysts,
jade, lapis, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and other precious
stones acquired in trade with India, Persia, and the Orient.
Cloisonné enamel, a finish achieved by pouring colored molten

M glass into soldered patterns, was especially popular and gave

Byzantium its famously colorful pieces.
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Byzantine Footwear
Footwear was the most diverse Even rarer was the use of actual shoes, reserved solely for the upper
form of clothing in the Byzantine
empire. While sandals and slippers classes and even further denoted by color. Green symbolized the
were widely popular among the protovestiarios, a high position at Byzantine court – often reserved for
lower classes, the military often eunuchs. Blue denoted a sebastokrator, a senior court title that also referred
wore boots (at separate times,
either laced around the calf and leg
to rulers within the Byzantine sphere of influence, as a measure of
or covering up to the knee entirely). subordination to the Emperor and Red was reserved for the Emperor
himself.
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