Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire is the name given to the eastern part of the Roman Empire, which survived until well into the Middle Ages. First split into an Eastern and Western divisions by Diocletian in 293, the Eastern Empire went on to outlive its Western half by 1000 years. Founded by the Emperor Constantine in 330 in the city of Constantinople, a coincidence that want't to be matched until Cecil Rhodes discovered Rhodesia, the empire was multi-ethnic and predominantly Greek-speaking. The empire's heritage consisted of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Greek philosophy,Greek language, Byzantine Art and Architecture and Roman law. They were also responsible for originating and popularising what is now known as a Turkish Kebab.

Though Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Empire, his immediate sucessors were not that sympathetic, preferring the older Roman gods. The Emperor Julian the Apostrophe, 331 -360, went as far as outlawing Christianity but on his death, it was reintroduced by his sucessor, the Emperor Jovial.

The Empire was often at war with at least one foreign power and as a result, its borders fluctuated greatly over time. However, other than the period 1204 to 1261, the Empire was always centred in Constantinople.

While taking on offensive position to "reunite" with the west under Justinian in the 500's, for the most part the position of the Empire was defensive in nature, having little desire, or for the most part, ability, to increase its borders. For years the cultured Byzantine Empire was the protector of Dark Age Europe, repelling Islamic armies that would stretch to control lands from Morocco to India via Hungary. This didn't stop the Western forces of the Fourth Crusade sacking Constantinople in 1204 and setting up their own "Latin" Empire, so called because of their attempts to make Latin the official language of the Empire rather than Greek, which lasted until the Byzantine reinstatement in 1261.

On May 29 1453, after the refusal of the Christians in the West to come to their aid, Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottoman Turks after a long cannon bombardament - though by this time, following the fall of the city to the Latins in 1204, the Empire had been reduced to a mere shell of its former self. It is believed by some that the last indirect descendant of Constantine Palealogous XXI, the last Emperor of Byzantium, was Lady Joanna Constantine, who died in Northampton, England, in October 1859.

In time, the Ottoman conquerors, whose original capital had been located in Sofa, now in Bulgaria, renamed the city Istanbul.