Population_of_the_Byzantine_Empire

Population of the Byzantine Empire

Population of the Byzantine Empire

Add article description

The population of the Byzantine Empire encompassed all ethnic and tribal groups living there - Albanians, Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Byzantine Greeks, Bulgarians, Goths, Latini, Slavs, Thracians, Tzans, Vlachs and other groups. It fluctuated throughout the state's millennial history. The reign of the Emperor Justinian I in the mid-sixth century was the high point of the empire's expansion;[1] however, the arrival of plague in 541 AD and its subsequent recurrences caused a severe depletion of the population.[2] After the reign of Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641 AD) and the loss of the empire's overseas territories, Byzantium was limited to the Balkans and Anatolia. When the empire began to recover after a series of conflicts in the 8th century and its territories stabilized, its population began to recover. By the end of the 8th century the population of the empire was around 7,000,000, a figure that climbed to over 12,000,000 people by 1025 AD.[3] The numbers began falling steadily to 9,000,000 people at 1204 AD and even lower to 5,000,000 people at 1282 AD with the arrival of the Turks.[4]

Population estimates

The Byzantine Empire may have had a population of over 26 million at its height.
More information Year, Population (estimated) ...

References

  1. [1]
    James 2010, p. 3
  2. [2]
    Treadgold 1997, p. 196
  3. [3]
    Treadgold 1997, p. 570.
  4. [4]
    Treadgold 1997, p. 700.
  5. [5]
    Treadgold 1997, p. 137.
  6. [6]
    Treadgold 2001, p. 236.
  7. [7]
    Treadgold 1997, p. 278.
  8. [8]
    Treadgold 1997, p. 841.

Bibliography

  • James, Liz, ed. (2010). A Companion to Byzantium. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4051-2654-0.
  • Treadgold, Warren T. (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2.
  • Treadgold, Warren T. (2001). A Concise History of Byzantium. Basingstoke: Palgrave. ISBN 0-333-71829-1.

Further reading
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Population_of_the_Byzantine_Empire, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.