Basic sources and survey of Byzantine diplomacy; Byzantium’s three main frontiers (West, North-East).
Survey of relations on the Western front (Germanophone/Latinophone peoples-Franks, Germans/Alamanni, Papal state, Holy Roman Empire, Normans, Venetians etc.-Italian maritime Republics, Crusades and Byzantium’s first fall in 1204)
Survey of Relations on the Northern front (pre-Ottoman Turkophone peoples [Avar-Slavs etc.]; period of Christianizations in the Balkans [Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats etc.]; Russians, later Turkophone peoples [Khazars, Hungarians/Magyars, Uzes, Patzinaks/Petchenegs, Kumans/Kiptchaks etc.])
Survey of relations on the Eastern front (Sassanid Persians, pre-Islamic and Muslim Arabs [Patriarchal Caliphate, Ummayads, Abbasids, Hamdanids, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mamluks, etc.]; Christians of the Caucasus region [Armenians, Iberians/Georgians], pre-Ottoman Turks: Turkomans, Seljuks, Danishmendids and other dynasties; Ottomans and Byzantium’s final fall).
The less known Southern front (North African regions: Cyrenaica, Egypt, Blemmyes and Nubians –Byzantine influences in sub-Saharan Africa).