The Byzantine Empire in 1050 AD had basically reached its peak under the Macedonians. Emperor Constantine IX was like many of the emperors after Basil II, well-meaning but incompetent at changing course in an age where rivals were getting more powerful and competing with them in ways that were unthinkable in previous ages.
Even so, with the empire’s stagnation, the Empire would have the highest levels of urbanization outside the Muslim Caliphates of the Abbasids and Tang China.
The Byzantine Empire clearly had a one huge city here that dominated the rest. It was Constantinople. There were only two cities with populations above 50,000, Antioch and Thessalonica. The city of Thessalonica was seen as the 2nd city of the Byzantine Empire.
Constantinople had a reputation that preceded it across the globe.
These charts showcase how much of a percentage the urban population was located within the great Theodosian Walls. In America, urban population is more distributed across many cities. In the medieval Byzantine Empire, one city was the greatest of all the metropolises in Europe.
Byzantine-Empire.com 