In the 320's AD the Emperor Constantine moved the capital of his Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople, and until its fall in 1453 remained a major artistic centre. Under successive emperors and empresses for more than a thousand years, artists, archtects and craftsmen produced superb and intriguing works ranging fom the grandest public buildings to the smallest and most personal items. Today this art is generally termed early Christian and Byzantine. Working from the surviving material this work explains how and why early Christian and Byzantine art was made and used. The reader is taken on a journey of discovery as the ideas this art sought to express are considered.