Sorry if this quiz is a little obscure for the front page. I have found the Byzantine Empire to be fascinating ever since I read Belisarius by Robert Graves.
I enjoyed it very much...& if you like the Byzantine Empire & like historical fantasy, you might like Guy Gavriel Kay's The Sarantine Mosaic (Sailing to Sarantium & Lord of Emperors).
There should be more quizzes like this on the front page. Why underestimate the people who come to this site? Challenging and obscure quizzes can be fun, too. They don't all have to be mindless and easy. And besides, not everyone's area of knowledge is the same; for example, this quiz, for me, was way easier than trying to name top footballers or baseball record holders. There are four quizzes posted every day. There is plenty of room for this and other quizzes like it.
I put this quiz up because it's an interesting topic to me. And it seems like people like the quiz, which is good. Unfortunately, it has only been taken 3,772 times so far. We'd go out of business pretty quick if that was average for our featured quizzes.
It doesn't have to beat the average to be front-page worthy. Many successful content providers understand this. Take HBO, for example. They have their marquis shows like Game of Thrones that attract millions of eyeballs globally. But then they also produce more niche, odd, or cerebral programming to appeal to different segments of the population and get them to download the HBO+ app, too. Those people who enjoy the niche programming might not be as numerous as the more regular viewers, but they still add up and still count, some of them contribute to the totals for GoT, some don't, but they wouldn't be there at all if the mainstream shows were all that was being offered, and the more mainstream audiences would likely leave, too, if the available content wasn't as diverse and offered them different things to watch when they weren't binging the most popular stuff.
...some mindless but popular quizzes might get a lot of takes but if every quiz was similar that wouldn't mean that all quizzes on the site or that the site itself would be more popular... it would probably actually mean the opposite... the quizzes get too repetitive and boring and eventually they *all* start getting fewer page visits when people lose interest in returning to the site.
This quiz was quite complex, labyrinthine even. You could say it was convoluted, knotty, tangled, tortuous, and… some other word I can’t quite put my finger on.
"Can you name these facts about the history of the Byzantine Empire? Probably not, haha." Is that click bait? Half the answers are what everyone should know. I got 18/20. I can't complain about the quiz itself though, adequate questions and all that.
got 9. didnt think to put christianity for the religion, kept trying greek orthodox, roman orthodox, roman catholic (i have no idea if these are accurate though).
The Orthodox and Catholic Churches didn't exist at that time. Around 390, it's logical to just say "christianity", though you could talk of Nicenes and Arians.
Haghia Sophia is a standard spelling. Also, the Latin name Sancta Sophia was often used to refer to the building in Western Europe, so you might want to consider using those as answers.
"Eastern Orthodox version of the Pope" - that's fighting talk! Patriarch is an older title than Pope (at least in the way it's used today).
Excellent quiz, thank you. I happened to watch a documentary about the emperor Justinian the other day, but still couldn't remember his wife's name. Duh.
As others have said, this is an interesting and challenging quiz. More please. I have a keen interest in history and in theology, and managed to bluff my way to 16/20.
Great quiz! I would have received 19/20 if you accepted " schizm" as a spelling. I see a lot worse misspellings. I have spelled it that way since I heard my teacher refer to it in fourth grade- she had a horri le accent so it sounded like a "z" lol! I also had to explain to a French girl in class, that " lepid" which is how this illiterate pronounced leopard, was in fact leopard. The French girl was shocked but notad much as I was. Esa señora estaba loca!!!
Excellent quiz, thank you. I happened to watch a documentary about the emperor Justinian the other day, but still couldn't remember his wife's name. Duh.