In 326 AD Constantine the Great started construction of his new city of Constantinople on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium on the Bosphorus. Thus began the split between the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire. With the fall of the western half and Rome itself to the "barbarians", the eastern half was Rome. Although the inhabitants were mainly Greek, they considered themselves Roman. Later historians called it the Byzantine Empire, though that was not it's name at the time. For convenience, the Byzantine Empire can be considered to start in the reign of Anastasius I (491 -518 AD), because that was when the coinage was changed from a Roman type to a completely new style.
Parts of the Western Empire were re-captured under Justinian I (527 - 565 AD) but these were eventually lost. Although Constantinople was a Christian beacon of opulence and splendour, it's resources and lands were slowly eaten into by various enemies, such as Sassanians, Avars and Magyars. In 622 AD, another threat reared it's head - Islam. The conquests of the Muslims, and later the Turks and Mongols, encroached on Byzantine territory. This was not helped by the take-over of Constantinople by the Crusaders (1204-1261). In 1453, the Ottoman Great Sultan, Muhammed II, stormed the walls of Constantinople. The last emperor, Constantine XI was last seen on the walls, defending the city to the last. The great bastion of Christianity in the east had fallen, Constantinople becoming Istanbul and the great cathedral of St Sophia becoming a mosque. |
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The Byzantine Empire
The Germanic Migrations