Roman Empire Map

Byzantine Empire in AD 1000: map

A strong Byzantine Empire, centred on Anatolia and the Balkans.

Tap or scroll to load the interactive map

AD 1000about 854,602 km²Basil II rules a resurgent Byzantine Empire
Key

Territory

  • Roman Empire Territory at the chosen date
  • Eastern empire From AD 395, the part later called Byzantine
  • Western empire AD 395 and, as reconquests, AD 565

Layers

  • Province border Where provinces are shown, AD 200 outlines
  • Roman city Pleiades places attested in the period
  • Main Roman road Itiner-e, about AD 150 (not tied to the date)
  • Modern country border Today’s borders, for comparison

Borders are approximate and debated. Frontier zones were not hard lines, and client kingdoms are not counted unless the source map includes them. Outlines for 133 BC, 44 BC, AD 14 and the later dates are rebuilt from the province outlines of AD 200, so early frontiers look more settled than they were. 264 BC and the Byzantine dates follow modern regional boundaries and are coarser still. 753 BC is a symbolic dot on Rome.

Byzantine Empire in AD 1000 at a glance

In AD 1000 the empire covered about 854,602 km². That is 70.6% less than at AD 565. It took in all or part of 7 modern countries, with the biggest shares of Greece (100%), Turkey (79%) and Cyprus (62%).

Basil II was fighting the long war against Bulgaria that would make the empire strong in the Balkans. His court at Constantinople was one of the richest in Europe.

Basil II rules a resurgent Byzantine Empire. Ruler at the time: Basil II.

  • 854,602 km²area of the empire
  • -70.6%since AD 565
  • 7modern countries inside

Built from modern administrative units (Natural Earth admin-1) chosen to match the Byzantine themes; coarse, and Bulgaria was only taken in 1018. This outline is built from modern regions (Natural Earth states and provinces), so it follows modern boundaries and is coarser than the others. Borders are approximate and debated.

What changed since AD 565

The area fell by about 2,055,766 km² (70.6%), from 2,910,368 km² to 854,602 km². There is no province table for this date, so the map compares areas only.

Modern countries no longer inside: Algeria, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, France, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Palestine, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia and Vatican City.

Which modern countries were inside the empire in AD 1000?

7 modern countries were at least partly inside the empire. The share is the part of today's country that fell inside the outline above. The largest shares were Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Italy and Albania.

CountryShare insideArea inside (km²)
Roman Greece100%131,353
Roman Turkey79%617,199
Roman Cyprus62%5,736
Roman Bulgaria47%52,462
Roman Italy15%44,635
Roman Albania2.8%806
Roman Syria1.3%2,407

Shares are measured against the part of each country inside a box around the Mediterranean world, so overseas territories do not count. A country counts as inside only above 1% of its area or 500 km².

See every known Roman road on romanroadsmap.com →

Byzantine Empire map

Embed this map

Copy this code into your web page. It is free to use. Please keep the link under the map, as it is how people find where the map comes from.