ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Byzantine Senate

The Byzantine Senate was a group of people who helped the leader of the Byzantine Empire make decisions. Imagine you are playing a game with your friends and everyone has their own ideas on how to play. The Byzantine Senate was like your friends in this game, but instead of playing, they helped the leader of the empire make big decisions. These decisions could be about anything from what laws to make to how to go to war.

The Byzantine Senate was made up of important people like wealthy landowners, military leaders, and religious leaders, kind of like how you have different friends with different skills and interests. These people were called senators, and they had important jobs in the empire. They would meet in a big building called the Senate House to talk about what the leader should do.

Sometimes, the leader of the empire, called the emperor, couldn't be there to talk with the Senate. This would be like if your parents were busy and couldn't play the game with you and your friends. When this happened, a person called the praefectus praetorio would represent the emperor and talk with the Senate on his behalf. It was really important that the senators and the praefectus praetorio could come to an agreement because their decisions affected the entire empire.

The Byzantine Senate was around for a long time, from about 300 AD to 1453 AD. That's like playing the same game with your friends for over a hundred years! Even though the Byzantine Senate is no longer around, we still use the word "senate" today to describe a group of people who meet to make important decisions.