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1453 - Was the Fall of Constantinople a foregone conclusion, and is it correct to regard it as the fall of the once great city?  The fascinating story of the city, the characters and the sequence of events that led to the dramatic end of Roman culture.

1071 - The Seljuk Turks came to power and threatened Byzantine territory more than any other society before.  The Byzantines required a strong leader to stand up to this new powerhouse of the Middle East, and so a battle would take place with wider reaching ramifications to the world around it.

1014 - The tensions between the Bulgarians and the Byzantines reaches the point of no return when two great military monarchs called Samuel and Basil meet in battle, and a strategical match plays out which results in the ultimate destruction of one nation.

146 BCE - 1204 CE - This is the story of the Balkan Peninsula from its post Classical Greek and Hellenistic period when it was conquered by the Roman Republic, through to the defeat of the Byzantine Empire by the Latins of the Fourth Crusade.

976 - 1422 - The glorious period of Basil the Bulgar Slayer rampaging through Bulgaria and destroying it was the last great imperial act of the Romans before their slow and painful decline began.  We even speak of a conquest of the Byzantine Empire by Crusading Christians before the rise of the Ottomans even happened.

718 - 976 - This period represents a reestablishment of the Byzantine Empire in a new world of Christian competition, and emerging nations looking to challenge Byzantine dominance and ideology.

628 - 718 - The emergence of the Arabs and the Bulgars on the fringes of Byzantine lands had a profound effect on the legacy of the Heraclian dynasty of Byzantine rulers.  The empire dramatically decreased in size and had to become familiar with a new style of existence.

395 - 628 - How did Eastern Rome and Western Rome drift apart, and how did the fall of Western Rome impact Eastern Rome?  We meet Justinian, Belisarius and Heraclius and explore the Byzantine relationship with the Sasanian Persians, the Avars, the Ostrogoths and the Lombards.

1280 - 1453 - The story of how one of the great second millennium empires of Eurasia rose to significance and put the Christian world of south east Europe on notice with its military expertise and diplomatic guile.