Byzantines

n. native or inhabitant of Byzantium

The Byzantine Empire or Byzantium is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople. The Empire is also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, although this name is more commonly used when referring to the time before the fall of the Western Roman Empire. During much of its history it was known to many of its Western contemporaries as the Empire of the Greeks because of the dominance of Greek language, culture and population. To its inhabitants, the Empire was simply the Roman Empire (Greek: ) and its emperors continued the unbroken succession of Roman emperors. In the Islamic world it was known primarily as (Rûm, land of the "Romans").
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adj. Byzantine

<jargon, architecture> A term describing any system that has so many labyrinthine internal interconnections that it would be impossible to simplify by separation into loosely coupled or linked components.
The city of Byzantium, later renamed Constantinople and then Istanbul, and the Byzantine Empire were vitiated by a bureaucratic overelaboration bordering on lunacy: quadruple banked agencies, dozens or even scores of superfluous levels and officials with high flown titles unrelated to their actual function, if any.
Access to the Emperor and his council was controlled by powerful and inscrutable eunuchs and by rival sports factions.
[Edward Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"].
(1999-01-15)

BIZANTINI