This is the parent category for Byzantine Emperors. Articles should go in one or both of the subcategories, not here.
The Byzantine Empire is the name historians have given to the Eastern Roman Empire from roughly the CE Fourth Century to 1453 CE. The distinction is made purely for historiography, as the Byzantine Empire was a Christian empire with Greek cultural leanings as opposed to the pagan, Latin-speaking ancient western Roman Empire. Nonetheless, the people of the Byzantine Empire considered themselves to be Romans, and the emperors counted their line back to Augustus, although Constantine I, known as the Great, was the founder of Constantinople and the model followed by subsequent Byzantine rulers. The final split in the empire came with the death of Theodosius I in 395 CE. His son Arcadius became emperor of the Eastern Empire, while another son, Honorius, succeeded in the West.
The title of all Emperors preceding Herakleios was officially Augustus, although other titles such as Dominus were also used. Their names were preceded by Imperator Caesar and followed by Augustus. Following Herakleios, the title commonly became the Greek Basileus (Gr. Βασιλεύς), which had formerly meant sovereign, though Augustus continued to be used in a reduced capacity. Following the establishment of the rival Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, the title Autokrator (Gr. Αὐτοκράτωρ) was increasingly used. In later centuries, the Emperor could be referred to by Western Christians as the "Emperor of the Greeks". Towards the end of the Empire, the standard imperial formula of the Byzantine ruler was "[Emperor's name] in Christ, Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans" (cf. Ῥωμαῖοι and Rûm). When on occasion rendering their names and titles in Latin in the centuries following the adoption of Basileus and Greek language, Byzantine rulers used Imperator for senior emperors and Rex for junior emperors.
In the medieval period, dynasties were common, but the principle of hereditary succession was never formalized in the Empire, and hereditary succession was a custom rather than an inviolable principle.
The rule of this wiki is that only Emperors after the 395 schism are listed, beginning with Arcadius. At present, all of Harry Turtledove's works involving the Byzantines have a Point of Divergence after that time, or are set in OTL. Therefore the rule applies to both OTL and ATL.
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