Byzantine Empire

""The Basileus"—for so he began— "Is a royal sagacious Mars of a man, Than the very lion bolder; He has married the stately widow of Thrace"— "Hush!" cried a voice at his shoulder. ... “The Porphyrogenita Zoe the fair Is about to wed with a prince much older, Of an unpropitious mien and look"— "Hush!" cried a voice at his shoulder. ... "The child of the Basileus," wrote the monk, “Is golden-haired, tender the Queen's arms fold her, Her step-mother Zoe doth love her so"— "Hush!" cried a voice at his shoulder. ... "The queen," wrote the monk, "rules firm this realm, For the king gets older and older; The Norseman Thorkill is brave and fair"— "Hush!" cried a voice at his shoulder."

"Constantinople was full of inventors and craftsmen. The "philosopher" Leo of Thessalonika made for the Emperor Theophilos (829–42) a golden tree, the branches of which carried artificial birds which flapped their wings and sang, a model lion which moved and roared, and a bejewelled clockwork lady who walked. These mechanical toys continued the tradition represented in the treatise of Heron of Alexandria (c. AD 125), which was well-known to the Byzantines."

"The Byzantine Empire became a theocracy in the sense that Christian values and ideals were the foundation of the empire's political ideals and heavily entwined with its political goals."

"The constitution of the Byzantine Empire was based on the conviction that it was the earthly copy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as God ruled in Heaven, so the Emperor, made in his image, should rule on earth and carry out his commandments ... It saw itself as a universal empire. Ideally, it should embrace all the peoples of the Earth who, ideally, should all be members of the one true Christian Church, its own Orthodox Church. Just as man was made in God's image, so man's kingdom on Earth was made in the image of the Kingdom of Heaven."