Paul Freedman, professor of history at Yale, surveys Byzantine history from the sixth through the eleventh century as part of his course The Early Middle Ages, 284-1000. He divides the period into four phases: Justinian's expansion of the empire from 532 to 565, the long contraction and crisis that followed from 565 to 717, the army's reorganization and partial recovery from 717 to 843, and a further expansion from 843 to 1071. Along the way he covers the Iconoclast controversy, the theological dispute over sacred images that split the empire during the recovery period. The lecture moves chapter by chapter through contraction, reconstruction, survival, and expansion, tracing how Byzantium repeatedly rebuilt itself after losing Justinian's conquests. Recorded at Yale in Fall 2011, it works as a compact narrative spine for five centuries of imperial history.