August 31: After a sudden and unspecified illness, the Byzantine Empress Theodora Porfirogeneta died in 1056 childless and so ended the Macedonian Dynasty, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, based in Constantinople, now Istanbul.

Theodora, detail of a Byzantine mosaic in the Basilica of Saint Vitale, Ravenna.

The Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, came after the fall of Rome in 476 by Germanic barbarians.

The last of the Roman emperors in the west, Romulus was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer in 476 and became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome. “Barbarians” stayed in Rome until 1453 when the Ottoman Turks invaded Constantinople, and initiated their advance towards central Europe.

Justinian and Theodora, San Vitale, Ravenna 

The capital of the Byzantine Empire was Constantinople, previously Byzantium, and the language they spoke was Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek.

Byzantine mosaic: empress Theodora and a train of court ladies.

The Empire was composed of the current countries: Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Bulgaria, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Libya, San Marino, Tunisia, Malta and parts of Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Algeria and Ukraine.

Map of the Mediterranean World in 530.