Greetings all,

March was the "first month" of our second year and it was a very good one for Byzantium Novum. Our main forum, the Senate and our business forums have all been quite active! Currently Byzantium Novum has a total of 156 Citizens, a gain of 6 for the month. Our Facebook contacts now number 1842, so 56 new people have found and "friended" us this month.

The biggest news for March 2011 is that the Senate has just approved the first official "colony" of Byzantium Novum: the Colony of "Megalopotamia," which comprises the modern US states of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

This is actually a huge step for us. It means we now have enough "citizens on the ground" in one area for them to be within reasonable travel distance of each other so they can gather for group meetings and events! From the start the goal of Byzantium Novum has been to get people together about "things Byzantine" in the physical world as well as online.

Our new nation project has already had one "physical" meeting of citizens in this last year, and the new Colony is an exciting step. Now that we have several new Counts (formally Eparchs) helping to coordinate other areas we will hopefully be able to add other new Colonies over the next few months!

In other news, the Byzantium Novum Chancellery has created an official "handbook" to help our new Counts and other local officers build a Byzantine presence in their local area. Many thanks are due to Senator Baduila Chalkas for creating this project, and Senator Amma Doukaina for her assistance also!

Senator Marcus Audens has also done some great new work on behalf of the Militarium in his Byzantine blog, located at: http://ByzantiumNovumMilitarium.blogspot.com and it is great to see historical research being done here!

In April, Byzantium Novum will begin commemorating the Fall of Constantinople from the siege which lasted from April 6th, 1453 until May 29th, 1453 AD. In May we will also be commemorating the founding of Constantinople, which was officially done on May 11, 330 AD.

May Byzantium Novum and it's Citizens have an active and prosperous Spring!


-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senate President, Byzantium Novum

State of the Nation - February 2011

Greetings all,

As of this month Byzantium Novum is one year old! February of 2011 has been a productive month and it is good to see business continuing in spite of the poor weather where many of our Citizens reside.

Byzantium Novum is now up to 150 official Citizens, so we've reached a fairly milestone number! We currently have 1,786 Facebook "friends" which also gives us an increasing public forum for announcements and publishing information.

Advertising efforts on CraigsList and other forums seems to have lagged somewhat, but efforts will continue in March to find new Citizens for our community. The online ads DO work, and the new Citizens do seem to be coming from where advertising has been done. Once again, we ask our Citizens to please keep up posting ads - this is the ONLY way Byzantium Novum is currently growing as we've had to step down on paid Internet marketing!

The big news this month is that we've been *very* fortunate to have ten Citizens volunteer to officially serve Eparchs in the new Provincial territories! This is excellent news in that it will give us ten real-world areas where people are working for local recruitment and organization. The vote on this is almost complete in the Senate.

I'm also proud to say that Byzantium Novum also has in the works the founding of our first Provincial Colony... an area where there are enough Citizens living locally to each other to set up real world local meetings and such. This is a wonderful sign of our international Byzantine community growing to the point of local participation!

A handbook for local Provinces is still in progress so there will be plenty of information on "what to do" as more of our Citizens can meet and work on rebuilding Byzantium in the real world.

As we enter March 2011 we begin our first month of our second year. I just want to thank everyone again for making our first year a success. We are continuing to set a great foundation for a real revival of Byzantine civilization!

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senate President
Byzantium Novum

Byzantium Novum One Year Anniversary

Greetings all,


The "official" one-year anniversary of Byzantium Novum was February 8th... we have successfully completed our first twelve months!

Most micronations never make it to this point. Recruitment issues, the amount of work, and internal disorganization claim most new nation projects within their first few months.

Happily, Byzantium Novum has continued to grow and become stronger with time. Our community is currently working on many projects including:

* Establishing local Provinces for live events and gatherings - Exarchs to coordinate several areas have been appointed and we are growing on the local level!

* Establishment of a Treasury - the Byzantium Novum Senate is currently working on a nonprofit corporation which will allow us to legally handle real-world affairs.

* New Information - current projects include a handbook for how to operate a Byzantine Province, and new information is being created for the Byzantium Novum website.

* New Advertising - Byzantium Novum is continuing to get its message out to those interested in "Things Byzantine" throughout the world!

In short, Byzantium Novum is doing everything possible to create a modern Byzantine community and to reestablish a living, functioning Byzantine state.

Many thanks to the many Citizens who have put their efforts into making Byzantium Novum a success so far - it is up to all of us to bring Byzantium back to life and so far all of us can be proud of our modern renewal of Byzantium!

May Byzantium Novum grow and prosper in the year to come!

End of Year Message 2010

Greetings fellow Citizens of Byzantium,

We have successfully completed our first calendar year in our effort to manifest a new Byzantine State!

In the 557th year after the fall of Constantinople this community has been formed to reawaken Byzantium as a living civilization and culture.

Our goals are simple; to continue the story of Byzantine history by renewing Byzantine community, to rebuild as much of the Byzantine world as is possible by legal and peaceful means, and to work toward the dream of someday founding a new symbolic Byzantine Capitol. This would be the ultimate proof that Byzantine civilization, the heir to Classical Greece and Rome, has not completely perished.

Although our goals are simple the work to achieve them is not. Byzantium is little known or remembered in these days. Far too often it is overshadowed by other historical eras and dismissed as an odd sidenote of history. Such ignorance and dismissal is absurd - Byzantium was the jewel of Western civilization for over a thousand years with as important a history and legacy as any empire before or since.

We here are proof that the Byzantine Empire is worthy of not just honor, but also continuation. By declaring our intent to carry on the functions and traditions of this ancient civilization, we directly continue its work and reestablish a valid place for it in the world.

Through this endeavor we are both renewing an ancient legacy and making a contribution to future history. By agreeing to manifest Byzantium anew we have undertaken the responsibility to fill - and to heal - a void which has been left in Western civilization. Our existence as a community and as a serious sovereignty project is significant! It is now up to us to prove that we truly can rebuild some of what has been lost for centuries.

In these first ten months we have made a wonderful start. We began with nothing. We now have:

1. A living international community which makes Byzantine Citizenship available to all and which has continued to expand each month.

2. A public declaration of our serious intent which is visible worldwide.

3. A Byzantine Internet presence that is now extant all over the world and still growing.

4 A working Byzantine government to administer this living Byzantine community.

5. The beginnings of local Byzantine communities (Provinces) in many areas of the world.

6. Working Byzantine Culture interest groups working to restore participation in Things Byzantine.

7. A foundation for a Byzantine Militarium to promote Byzantine Living History, both military and civilian.

8. The comencement of Byzantine Charity toward worthy causes worldwide.

9. A Marketplace which we hope will be the seed for a renewed Byzantine economy for our community.

10. A spiritual foundation for the Byzantine Orthodox Church in our community, as well as something of the Classical religions that came before.

With this new effort and infrastructure the Byzantine Empire has begun to awaken from centuries of sleep.

None of these things could have been done without the Citizens of Byzantium Novum. I would like to thank each of you for being willing to be counted as Byzantine Citizens, and for your work in helping to build our community. We are all stewards of a cultural legacy, as well as Founders of a new nation. Anyone willing to undertake such roles is worthy of respect and acknowledgement. Many heartfelt and sincere thanks to each Citizen!

Byzantium Novum has much to look forward to in 2011! In this New Year we will be working to grow the number of Byzantine Citizens, and set a firm foundation for our Provinces. We will work to expand appreciation of and participation in "Things Byzantine." We will participate in efforts to preserve and explore Byzantine history. In short, we will continue what we've started in the knowledge that our cause is worthwhile. It is an effort that will not only enrich our own lives, but the world around us for generations to come.

May each of us, and Byzantium Novum, have a blessed, prosperous and wonderful 2011!

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator, Byzantium Novum

State of the Nation - December 2010

Greetings all,

December has been another good month for Byzantium Novum! We are in our 10th month, and currently have reached a total of 135 Citizens, a gain of 11 for the month.

As of this morning Byzantium Novum has 1,633 Facebook contacts on our page located at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/ByzantiumNovum . We'll be doing more announcements there after the holidays as this has continued to be a good resource for us.

This month our lists have been active and we've had some wonderful new folks join the public forums! The Senate has continued to do business and is currently voting on some minor changes to the Byzantium Novum flag, and the appointment of new Eparchs for the various Provinces. Updates have also been made to the main website. It has been great to see our community busy even during the holiday season.

We are already working to make 2011 an even better year - with more growth and more local opportunities for participation in "things Byzantine!"

The only sad news this month comes from a situation beyond our control - the Turkish government has continued with its plans to flood the Roman archaeological site at Allianoi. The entire site has been covered with sand in an effort to "preserve" it. The archaeological community believes this will not only be no protection, but due to mineral conditions will actually hasten the complete obliteration of the site while it is under water. Last minute efforts to halt the flooding continue.

I would like to remind everyone that it is still NOT TOO LATE to email the Turkish embassy and protest this action. It seems unlikely that the Turkish government will halt this project and that is a tragedy. This is a huge loss to Roman/Byzantine history but hopefully we will be able to act for the preservation of other Byzantine Heritage sites in the future.

May everyone have a great holiday as we look forward to continuing to restore Byzantium in 2011!


-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator, Byzantium Novum

Byzantium Novum - State of the Nation November 2010

Greetings all,

November has been a good and active month for Byzantium Novum, despite the fact we are heading into the holidays!

We are now in our ninth month since our founding. We now have a total of 124 Citizens, a gain of 10 for this month. Not bad at all during a time when many people were busy with the Thanksgiving holiday in the US!

As of this morning Byzantium Novum has 1,560 Facebook contacts on our page located at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/ByzantiumNovum . We now have so many friends the system only allows us to add those who contact us so we are definitely getting attention. We did put out a request for Citizens on Facebook this month and have had at least three people join from there.

Our online cause to protest the destruction of the ancient Roman hospital archaeological site in Allianoi, Turkey has been going well, and we now have 297 people participating! Hopefully all have sent messages to the Turkish Embassy requesting that the reservoir project intended to flood the site forever be halted at least until proper archaeology can be done. The link to the cause page is here: http://www.causes.com/causes/532756/about?m

This month Byzantium Novum also added two new discussion forums:

The first is the Byzantium Novum Foreign Ministry, located at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ByzantiumNovumForeignMinistry/?yguid=457948310

This group is dedicated to the study of the cultures which surrounded ancient Byzantium and it also serves as a contact point for other nations today. All are welcome to join!

The second group is the Byzantium Novum New Citizens List, located at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ByzantiumNovumNewCitizens/

This group is a welcoming and orientation point for new (and potential) Citizens to learn more about our community, ask questions, and more. All are welcome to join, and we hope to see many of our experienced Citizens there so they can help new folks make their Byzantine experience a pleasant one!

Both these sites will be linked to the main Byzantium Novum site shortly. :)

Again a reminder about our Citizen Map located at: http://www.communitywalk.com/byzantium_novum/map/543922 .

All Citizens are able to personalize their info by adding a comment to their listing. If anyone is unsure of which point represents their location, just email us at ByzantiumNovum@aol.com.

Byzantium Novum is heading into it's first Christmas / Winter Solstice. Hopefully Byzantium will continue to stay active and gain new members during this busy time.

I wish everyone a happy and peaceful holiday season!

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator, Byzantium Novum

Byzantium Novum State of the Nation - October 2010

State of the Nation - October 2010

Greetings all,

October has been another good month for Byzantium Novum! It has now been eight months since our founding, and we currently have 114 official Citizens. This is an average of 14 new Citizens each month, which is quite good for a beginning micronational sovereignty project!

A reminder, our Citizen map is located at: http://www.communitywalk.com/byzantium_novum/map/543922 . Citizens are able to personalize their map point by adding a comment. If anyone is unsure of which point represents their location, just email us at ByzantiumNovum@aol.com.

As of this morning Byzantium Novum has 1,481 Facebook contacts on our page located at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/ByzantiumNovum . For the past three months all new contacts have been from people finding us and sending friend requests, so our presence is getting out there! This has also been a great forum to broadcast information about our micronation.

Perhaps the biggest news of the month is that Byzantium Novum has started a public campaign to protest the destruction of the ancient Roman city and hospital archaeological site at Allianoi, in Turkey. This large site, which was populated well into the Byzantine era, is scheduled to be flooded for a backup reservoir in a local dam project. There has been no time to do proper archaeology at this site. Byzantium Novum has been publishing to many forums to ask people to write respectful letters to the Turkish Government and point out the value of this site, and how it can benefit Turkey more as a historical site than as a lake.

So far we have officially recruited 165 people to the protest cause, and have hopefully influenced many more people to email the Turkish Embassy in their country. This has been our nations first public project and even though the project schedule has left us little promotion time we have done very well!

In other news, the Byzantium Novum Senate has begun its first official vote. Vote topics include the establishment of a group to study the cultures around ancient Byzantium, including those cultures that were part of Byzantine Provinces, ratification of some of our founding documents, and organization structure of the provinces of Byzantium Novum. The Byzantium Novum Senate list archives are public and can always be viewed at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ByzantiumNovumSenate/

The only downside of this month is that it has been a very busy month for many of our Citizens, myself included. Traffic on our public forums has been slower than expected. Keeping these lists active is important not only for keeping our Citizens involved, but also to show visitors that our community is indeed active! I have been involved in some large projects that will end by the end of the month, and hope to do much more posting myself. Hopefully other Citizens will get some discussion going also. :)

Finally, I would like to once again thank all Citizens who have helped Byzantium Novum by continuing to list us on Craig's List. This has been hugely helpful in getting the word out and letting new Citizens find us! Thank you!!

Hopefully November will continue to be a productive month for Byzantium - and that our protest cause will be helpful in saving the archaeological site in Turkey.

Hail Byzantium !

-Marcus Cassius Julianus
Senator