Boost for Oxford study of Byzantium

Arts 04 Jan 11 The study of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire has been boosted by the opening of a new research hub at Oxford University. Oxford is already one of the leading centres for the study of the Byzantine period, one of the most complex and rewarding in world history. The new Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research (OCBR) will bring together experts from several disciplines including history, archaeology and classics. It will host seventy scholars, including 19 professors - an unusually high number - of which 13 are Fellows of the Royal Academy. 'Both the topic and the region are profoundly exciting,' says Dr Peter Frankopan, director of the OCBR. 'We already have some outstanding scholars studying the period and now we want to showcase what they do.' The Byzantine era stretched from the fourth century, when Roman emperor Constantine adopted Christianity, to the mid-fifteenth century when the empire fell to the Ottoman Turks. Byzantium was a hugely powerful military and economic force until its defeat and its capital, Constantinople, became a major trading centre for Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean.