Byzantium (Hungarian: Bizánc) is a historical play by Ferenc Herczeg presenting the last hours of the existence of the Byzantine Empire before the Fall of Constantinople.
Ferenc Herczeg was one of the most important Hungarian playwrights and writers of the beginning of the 20th century, a representative of the conservator-nationalist literature in Hungary.
Sándor Hevesi, critic, playwright and director of the National Theatre of Budapest at the beginning of the 20th century considered Byzantium to be the most successful Hungarian play of all times.
The play presents the hopeless efforts of emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos and his Genoese mercenaries to defend the city against the Ottoman assailants.
However, because of the superior forces their enemies and, even more, because of the internal conflicts of the Byzantine commanders and due to a succession of betrayals, the city is finally conquered by the Turks.
[1] György Selmeczi, who adapted the play by writing the opera, states: "In Byzantium, the historic action is based on a problematic which, even today, has not lost its authenticity.