Byzantium and the Via Egnatia

The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centred at its capital in Constantinople. In certain specific contexts, usually referring to the time before the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it is also often referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire. There is no consensus on the starting date of the Byzantine period.
Some place it during the reign of Diocletian (284-305) due to the administrative reforms he introduced, dividing the empire into a pars Orientis and a pars Occidentis. Others place it during the reign of Theodosius I (379-395) and Christendom's victory over paganism, or, following his death in 395, with the division of the empire into Western and Eastern halves. Others place it yet further in 476, when the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, was forced to abdicate, thus leaving to the emperor in the Greek East sole imperial authority. In any case, the changeover was gradual and by 330, when Constantine I inaugurated his new capital, the process of Hellenization and Christianization was well underway.
The term "Byzantine Empire"
The name Byzantine Empire is derived from the original Greek name for Constantinople; Byzantium. The name is a modern term and would have been alien to its contemporaries. The term Byzantine Empire was invented in 1557, about a century after the fall of Constantinople by German historian Hieronymus Wolf, who introduced a system of Byzantine historiography in his work Corpus Historiae Byzantinae in order to distinguish ancient Roman from medieval Greek history without drawing attention to their ancient predecessors.
Standardization of the term did not occur until the 18th century, when French authors such as Montesquieu began to popularize it. Hieronymus himself was influenced by the rift caused by the 9th century dispute between Romans (Byzantines as we render them today) and Franks, who, under Charlemagne's newly formed empire, and in concert with the Pope, attempted to legitimize their conquests by claiming inheritance of Roman rights in Italy thereby renouncing their eastern neighbours as true Romans.
The Donation of Constantine, one of the most famous forged documents in history, played a crucial role in this. Henceforth, it was fixed policy in the West to refer to the emperor in Constantinople not by the usual "Imperator Romanorum" (Emperor of the Romans) which was now reserved for the Frankish monarch, but as "Imperator Graecorum" (Emperor of the Greeks) and the land as "Imperium Graecorum", "Graecia", "Terra Graecorum" or even "Imperium Constantinopolitanus".
This served as a precedent for Wolf who was motivated, at least partly, to re-interpret Roman history in different terms. Nevertheless, this was not intended in a demeaning manner since he ascribed his changes to historiography and not history itself.
Later a derogatory use of 'Byzantine' was developed.
Early history
The Eastern Empire was largely spared the difficulties of the west in the 3rd and 4th centuries (see Crisis of the Third Century), in part because urban culture was better established there and the initial invasions were attracted to the wealth of Rome.
Throughout the 5th century various invasions conquered the western half of the empire, but at best could only demand tribute from the eastern half. Theodosius II enchanced the walls of Constantinople, leaving the city impenetrable to attacks: it was to be preserved from foreign conquest until 1204. To spare his part of Empire the invasion of the Huns of Attila, Theodosius gave them subsidies of gold: in this way he favoured those merchants living in Constantinople who traded with the barbarians. His successor Marcian refused to continue to pay the great sum, but Attila had already diverted his attention to the Western Empire and died in 453.
His Empire collapsed and Constantinople was free from his menace forever, starting a profitable relationship with the remaining Huns, who often fought as mercenaries in Byzantine armies of the following centuries.
In this age the true chief in Constantinople was the Alan general Aspar. Leo I managed to free himself from the influence of the barbarian chief favouring the rise of the Isauri, a crude semi-barbarian tribe living in Roman territory, in southern Anatolia.
Aspar and his son Ardabur were murdered in a riot in 471, and thenceforth Constantinople was to be free from foreign influence for centuries.
Leo was also the first emperor to receive the crown not from a general or an officer, as in the Roman tradition, but from the hands of the patriarch of Constantinople. This habit became mandatory as time passed, and in the Middle Ages the religious characteristic of the coronation had totally substituted the old form.

The Via Egnatia

Kypsela Phillipoi Kavala Amphipolis Thessaloniki Pydna Pella Edessa(Bodena) Florina Appolonia Dyrrachium(Durres)

The Via Egnatia has been such a road par excellence, being the connection between the Western and eastern part of the Roman Empire. Built in the 3rd century BC (under consul Egnatius) as an extension of the Via Appia, it runs through the Balkans from Durrës (Dyrrachium) in Albania, through FYRoMacedonia and Northern Greece all the way to Istanbul (Byzantium) in Turkey. Originally a military road, it served economic and social functions for more than two millenia. After the decline of the Roman Empire the Byzantines used and protected the road. After them came the Ottomans, who send their taxcollectors and trade-karavans along its trail. Used by soldiers and later by crusaders, preachers and bandits, merchants and peasants on their way to the local market, tax collectors, karavans with up to twohundred mules and donkeys, loaded with skins, wines, wood and sulphur, the road served local as well as interlocal purposes. Many different ethnic groups made use of the Via Egnatia, and met each other along its trails, in its karavan-serails: Greeks and Jews, Vlachs and Pomaks, Turks, Venetians, Egyptians and Roma. Also modern migrants travelled along it, for example the Evros-Greeks who left their country in the sixties and (many of them) came back in the last decade. So the Via Egnatia - with intervals due to political or geografical trouble - has been a real trans-Balkan highway.

Monasteries of the
Via Egnatia

Prefecture of Pella

The Monastery of Ayia Triada of Loggos at Edessa
The Monastery of Archangelos Michail of Almopia
The Monastery of Kimiseos Theotokou

Prefecture of Kilkis

The Monastery of Ayii Raphail, Nikolaos and Irini
The Monastery of Panayia Goumenissa

Prefecture of Thessaloniki

The Monastery of Perivleptos
The Monastery of Vlatadon
The Monastery of Latomou (Hosios David)
The Monastery of Ayios Nikolaos Orfanos
The Monastery of Ayii Apostoli of Thessaloniki
The Monastery of Evangelistis Ioannis Theologos of Souroti
The Monastery of Kimiseos Theotokou at Panorama
The Monastery of Ayios Georgios at Asprovalta

Prefecture of Serres

The Monastery of Timios Prodromos at Aidonochori
The Monastery of Timios Prodromos at Serres
The Monastery of Panayia Icosifinissa
The Monastery of Ayia Kyriaki at Alistrati
The Monastery of Analipsis at Proti

Prefecture of Drama

The Monastery of Analipsis Taxiarchon (Sipsa)

Prefecture of Kavala

The Monastery of Apostolos Silas
The Monastery of Metamorfosis Sotiros
The Monastery of Archangelos Michail
The Monastery of Kimiseos Theotokou at Maries

Prefecture of Xanthi

The Monastery of Panayia Kalamous
The Monastery of Pammegiston Taxiarchon
The Monastery of Panayia Archageliotissa
The Monastery of Ayios Nikolaos at Porto-Lagos

Prefecture of Rhodopi

The small Monasteries of Mount Papikion
The Monastery at Synaxi Maronias

Prefecture of Evros

The Monastery at Makri
The Monastery of Panayia Kosmosotira (Ferres)
The Hermitage of Ayii Theodori
The Monastery of Dadia
The Monastery of Portaitissa at Kornofolia
The Monastery of Ayios Athanasios

Southern FYROM

The Monastery of the Virgin Perivleptos
The Monastery of Saint John The Theologian
The Monastery of The Holy Apostles
The Monastery of The Virgiri Zaoum
The Monastery of Saint Stephen
The small Monasteries on the island of Grad
The Monastery of Saint Panteleimonas
The Monastery of Saint Nicholas Toplitski at Demir Chisar
The Monastery of The Virgin Bolnitsa
The Monastery of The Nativity of the Virgin
The Monastery of Ayios Erasmos
The Monastery of Saint George at Knezino
The Monastery of Saint Jonh The Baptist
The Monastery of Saint Naoum
The Monastery of Athanasios The Great
The Monastery of the Archangel Michael at Varos
The Monastery of the Transfiguration of The Saviour
The Monastery of the Assumption of The Virgin -Treskavec
The Monastery of Saint Athanasios of Alexandria
The Monastery of Saint Nicholas
The Monastery of Saint John The Baptist
The Monastery of The Virgin at Kicevo
The Monastery of Saint Leontios at Stromnitsa
The Monastery of The Virgin
The Monastery of Saint George at Polosko
The Monastery of The Virgin of Tenderness

Southern Bulgaria

Rila Monastery
The Monastery of Saint Dimitrios at Bobochevo
The Monastery of Saint John at Zemen
The Monastery of Iskretz
The Monastery of the Archangel Michael at Bilintzi
The Monastery of The Assumption of the Virgin
The Monastery of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary at Razboitchte
The Monastery of the Archangel Michael at Tran
Alino Monastery
Monastery of Saint Nicholas at Pechtera
Monastery of The Nativity of the Virgin (Rozen)
The Monastery of Saint Charalambos
The Monastery of Saint Nicholas at Malo Malovo
The Monastery of The Virgin Spileotissa
The Monastery of John The Baptist at Kardjali
Bachkovo Monastery
Monastery of Saint Paraskevi at Mouldava
Gomi Voden Monastery of St. Cyr and St. Juliette
Kouklen Monastery
The Monastery of Saint Anastasia
The Monastery of The Baptist at Sozopolis 

The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks

Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks ( _ru. Путь «из варяг в греки», "Put iz varyag v greki") was a trade route, which connected Scandinavia, Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire. The route allowed traders along the route to establish a direct prosperous trade with Byzantium, and prompted some of them to settle in the territories of present-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The route began in Scandinavian trading centres such as Birka, Hedeby, and Gotland, crossed the Baltic Sea entered the Gulf of Finland, followed the Neva River into the Lake Ladoga. Then it followed the Volkhov River, upstream past the towns of Staraya Ladoga and Velikiy Novgorod, crossed Lake Ilmen, and up the Lovat River. From there, ships had to be portaged to the Dnieper River near Gnezdovo. A second route from the Baltic to the Dnieper was along the Western Dvina (Daugava) between the Lovat and the Dnieper in the Smolensk region, and along the Kasplya River to Gnezdovo. Along the Dnieper, the route crossed several major rapids and passed through Kiev, and after entering the Black Sea followed its west coast to Constantinople. Dnieper River Volga River The Caspian Sea Birka Gotland Baltic Sea Gulf of Finland Neva River Lake Lagoda Volkhov River Staraya Lagoda Velikiy Novgorod Lovat River Gnezdovo Duagava River Kiev Black Sea Constantinople The Greek Trade route to Italy(Magna Grecia) Cicily Syracusa Akragas(Agrigento) Gela Selinius Catania Cefalú Erice Entella Halaesa-Τusa Morgantina Taormina Naxos(Sicily) Thapsos

Byzantine towns in Greece Mystrashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edessa,_Greece Monemvasia Mani Knossos Chania Chandakas(Candia-Heraklion) Kastoria(Macedonia) Kozani Veria Meleniko Edessa THESSALONIKI Byzantine Towns in F.Y.R.O.M Skopje Stobi Byzantine towns in Albania Dyrrachium GjiroKaster Berat Byzantine towns in Bulgaria Stara Zagora Sandanski-Rila Monastery