By·zan·tine a. Of or pertaining to Byzantium. -- n. A native or inhabitant of Byzantium, now Constantinople; sometimes, applied to an inhabitant of the modern city of Constantinople.  [Written also Bizantine.]
 Byzantine church, the Eastern or Greek church, as distinguished from the Western or Roman or Latin church. See under Greek.
 Byzantine empire, the Eastern Roman or Greek empire from a. d. 364 or a. d. 395 to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, a. d. 1453.
 Byzantine historians, historians and writers (Zonaras, Procopius, etc.) who lived in the Byzantine empire. --P. Cyc.
 Byzantine style Arch., a style of architecture developed in the Byzantine empire.
 Note: Its leading forms are the round arch, the dome, the pillar, the circle, and the cross. The capitals of the pillars are of endless variety, and full of invention. The mosque of St. Sophia, Constantinople, and the church of St. Mark, Venice, are prominent examples of Byzantine architecture.

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 Greek a.  Of or pertaining to Greece or the Greeks; Grecian.
 Greek calends. See under Greek calends in the vocabulary.
 Greek Church (Eccl. Hist.), the Eastern Church; that part of Christendom which separated from the Roman or Western Church in the ninth century. It comprises the great bulk of the Christian population of Russia (of which this is the established church), Greece, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The Greek Church is governed by patriarchs and is called also the Byzantine Church.
 Greek cross. See Illust. (10) Of Cross.
 Greek Empire. See Byzantine Empire.
 Greek fire, a combustible composition which burns under water, the constituents of which are supposed to be asphalt, with niter and sulphur. --Ure.
 Greek rose, the flower campion.


 Byzantine Church
      n : the Catholic Church as it existed in the Byzantine Empire
          [syn: Eastern Church]