- #1
- 21,910
- 6,335
First of all, the history is fascinating with the Byzantine Empire juxtaposed between the Roman Empire and the Middle East (Asia Minor) and Central Asia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire#Early_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Roman_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_of_the_Third_Century
Byzantium was at the cross-roads of the world in it's time. Parallel to its history is the westward migration of various nomadic tribes from central Asia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city-state, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas. The name "Byzantium" is a Latinization of the original Thracian-Greek name Byzantion (Βυζάντιον; see also List of traditional Greek place names).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire
WikipediaByzantine Empire (Greek: Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων) is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. In certain specific contexts, usually referring to the time before the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it is also often referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire. There is no consensus on the starting date of the Byzantine period. Some place it during the reign of Diocletian (284–305) due to the administrative reforms he introduced, dividing the empire into a pars Orientis and a pars Occidentis. Others place it during the reign of Theodosius I (379–395) and Christendom's victory over paganism, or, following his death in 395, with the division of the empire into western and eastern halves. Others place it yet further in 476, when the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, was forced to abdicate, thus leaving sole imperial authority to the emperor in the Greek East. In any case, the changeover was gradual and by 330, when Constantine I inaugurated his new capital, the process of further Hellenization and increasing Christianization was already underway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire#Early_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Roman_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_of_the_Third_Century
Byzantium was at the cross-roads of the world in it's time. Parallel to its history is the westward migration of various nomadic tribes from central Asia.