What is your avatar?

Mine is a photo of a mosaic in Hagia Sophia (Istanbul/Constantinople) of the Byzantine emperor, John II Komnenos (r. 1118-1143).The original was historically defaced, one eye, the nose and mouth are missing, I replaced the missing parts digitally - to the best of my abilities. I put my conjectural reconstruction on Wikimedia Commons. It can be seen on the Wikipedia article on the emperor.

That’s pretty impressive, you must like your history!

I certainly do. Byzantium is the Medieval Roman Empire with armoured cavalry, rather than footslogging legionaries! 

Istanbul is believed to be a corruption of the Greek phrase,"eis tan polis" meaning "to the city".

Constantinople was considered the Second Rome. The Russians, being Orthodox like the Greeks, considered Moscow as being 'the Third Rome'. The Tsars (Tsar being a corruption of Caesar) thought of themselves as the successors of the Byzantine Emperors, who in turn considered themselves to be God's Vicegerent on Earth.

Martin said:

Byzantium

Just looked this word up, had no idea modern day Istanbul has Greek origins. 

Martin said:

Byzantium

Just looked this word up, had no idea modern day Istanbul has Greek origins. 

Istanbul is believed to be a corruption of the Greek phrase,"eis tan polis" meaning "to the city".

Constantinople was considered the Second Rome. The Russians, being Orthodox like the Greeks, considered Moscow as being 'the Third Rome'. The Tsars (Tsar being a corruption of Caesar) thought of themselves as the successors of the Byzantine Emperors, who in turn considered themselves to be God's Vicegerent on Earth.