The Byzantine Empire acted as the eastern half of the Roman Empire and survived long after the Western Roman Empire ended in 476, falling to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. Constantine VII and Romanus II were part of the Macedonian dynasty, a period in which the Byzantine Empire underwent a massive revival in what is known as the Macedonian Renaissance.

The Macedonian dynasty was part of a golden age for the Byzantine Empire, when the empire’s reach expanded through military conflict. This saw the Byzantine Empire spread further east and the extension of Christianity across Europe, into Russia and the Balkans via its missionaries evangelising the Slavic people.