Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - byzantine

 I. adjective  Date: 1651  1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the ancient city of Byzantium  2. of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a style of architecture developed in the ~ Empire especially in the fifth and sixth centuries featuring the dome carried on pendentives over a square and incrustation with marble veneering and with colored mosaics on grounds of gold  3. of or relating to the churches using a traditional Greek rite and subject to Eastern canon law  4. often not capitalized  a. of, relating to, or characterized by a devious and usually surreptitious manner of operation a ~ power struggle  b. intricately involved ; labyrinthine rules of ~ complexity  II. noun  Date: 1651 a native or inhabitant of Byzantium