Though the Byzantine Empire, or the Eastern Roman Empire, certainly was a unique in its retention of Hellenism and the reign of Constantine I, it wouldn’t be until the deposition of Romulus Augustus and the subsequent fall of the Western Roman Empire by the year 476 that Byzantium would go on to shape much of the cultural and religious landscape throughout Europe and the Asias. For the latter, due to its unique position as a domineering force for Christian expansion, it was able to exert its philosophies in ecclestasial architecture much more easily.
From its inception, Constantine I decreed Nicene Christianity as the state religion of Byzantine through the Edict of Milan, a contrast to the religious persecution predating this declaration. Henceforth, due to this newfound toleration of Christian faith, new places of worship were to be constructed apace. While its architectural roots were certainly of Greco-Roman thought, the divergence would progress across iterations of early Byzantine architectural evolutions through the influences of prominent emperors Constantine I and Justinian I. The latter, in particular, is most notable in contribution for his commission of the great Hagia Sophia, one of the earliest grand monuments of its time and the basis for the next generations of Byzantine and post-Byzantine, including Eastern Orthodox, church architecture.
Though the Byzantine Empire’s reign would end with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, its legacy lives on both in standing historical monuments and the architectural schools of thought post-Byzantine. In the West, the Byzantine style was a precursor to the Medieval and pre-Renaissance Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles. Prior to its appearance in Gothic architecture, evidence of flying buttresses were actually discovered in the Grand Baths of Constantia in Cyprus, a structure dated approximately in 528 (Stewart 2012, 5).
In the East, though the Ottoman Empire ultimately conquered the Byzantine Empire, they retained much of their architecture and even adapted some teachings in future constructions. For example, in 1463, construction of a new mosque took place in Constantinople during Ottoman reign, in which the Fatih Camii (Mosque of the Conqueror) was modeled closely to the Hagia Sophia in terms of its layout (Ousterhout 2004, 170). Mehmet the Conqueror would also retain the fabled Hagia Sophia’s structure, converting it to a mosque and erasing much of its former Christian icons and artworks.
To this day, Byzantine’s reach extends far beyond its own borders, with even architectural revival movements occurring in the 19th century in Western Europe and Eurasia. It is proof enough that one of the longest running empires in history has an enduring, awe-inspiring reach.