| a. | 1. | Of or pertaining to
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| Noun | 1. | Byzantine - a native or inhabitant of Byzantium or of the Byzantine Empire |
| Adj. | 1. | Byzantine - of or relating to the Eastern Orthodox Church or the rites performed in it; "Byzantine monks"; "Byzantine rites" |
| 2. | Byzantine - of or relating to or characteristic of the Byzantine Empire or the ancient city of Byzantium | |
| 3. | Byzantine - highly involved or intricate; "the Byzantine tax structure"; "convoluted legal language"; "convoluted reasoning"; "intricate needlework"; "an intricate labyrinth of refined phraseology"; "the plot was too involved"; "a knotty problem"; "got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering"; "Oh, what a tangled web we weave"- Sir Walter Scott; "tortuous legal procedures"; "tortuous negotiations lasting for months" | |
| 4. | Byzantine - characterized by elaborate scheming and intrigue; devious; "Byzantine methods for holding on to his chairmanship"; "a fine hand for Byzantine deals and cozy arrangements" |
| (jargon, architecture) | Byzantine - A term describing any system that has
so many labyrinthine internal interconnections that it would
be impossible to simplify by separation into loosely coupled
or linked components. The city of Byzantium, later renamed Constantinople and then Istanbul, and the Byzantine Empire were vitiated by a bureaucratic overelaboration bordering on lunacy: quadruple banked agencies, dozens or even scores of superfluous levels and officials with high flown titles unrelated to their actual function, if any. Access to the Emperor and his council was controlled by powerful and inscrutable eunuchs and by rival sports factions. [Edward Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"]. |