Byzantium Unearthed

Bettany learns how treasures found in the empire's capital, modern-day Istanbul, reveal much about the life and importance of a civilisation that, whilst being devoutly Christian and the inheritors of the Romans, was also exotic and eastern.

Historian Bettany Hughes rediscovers a forgotten empire and those who ran it.

Bettany Hughes uses the latest archaeological evidence to learn about the Byzantine empire

Bettany examines the public and private life of the Byzantines. Women had unprecedented power in the Empire, as did the mysterious 'third sex' of eunuchs. But in this part-Roman, part-fundamentalist Christian state, dangerous political factions would keep the blood of political dynasties flowing.

Historian Bettany Hughes turns to archaeology to reveal what life was like in Byzantium.

Bettany Hughes uses the latest archaeological evidence to learn about the Byzantine empire

Bettany ventures to the eastern edge of the empire, where the new religion of Islam first gained a foothold.

For nearly a thousand years the empire made war and peace with the Muslim countries to its south and east. However, the fatal blow to Byzantium came not, as is widely thought from the Ottoman Turks in 1453, but from the Christian West 250 years earlier.

Bettany Hughes ventures to the troubled borders of this massive empire.

Bettany Hughes uses the latest archaeological evidence to learn about the Byzantine empire