When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD, Rome did not actually end â it simply continued, in a different form, for nearly another thousand years through what historians now call the Byzantine Empire, centered on the magnificent city of Constantinople.
The Byzantines themselves never called their state "Byzantine" â they considered themselves Romans, the direct continuation of the Roman Empire, speaking primarily Greek rather than Latin but maintaining Roman law, Roman administrative structures, and a direct unbroken line of emperors tracing back to Augustus himself. The term "Byzantine Empire" was actually coined by later European historians, well after the empire's eventual fall in 1453.
During the centuries when most of Western Europe is popularly imagined as experiencing technological and cultural stagnation during early medieval period, Constantinople remained one of the largest, wealthiest and most technologically and culturally sophisticated cities on Earth â a center of trade connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa, home to extraordinary architectural achievements like the Hagia Sophia, and a preserver of classical Greek and Roman knowledge that would eventually help fuel the European Renaissance centuries later.
The empire survived numerous existential crises that would have ended most states â plague, civil wars, religious schisms, and repeated sieges from Arab, Bulgar, Crusader, and eventually Ottoman forces â partly through sophisticated diplomacy, partly through formidable fortifications, and partly through military technologies like Greek Fire that gave it decisive advantages during critical moments.
Constantinople finally fell to Ottoman forces under Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, an event that many historians mark as the definitive end of the ancient world and the true beginning of the early modern era â nearly two thousand years after the founding of Rome itself.
#archaeohistories
Pope Leo XIV in Madrid: âI encourage you to nurture the process of European Union, which is not merely a counterweight to other powers, but a gift to humanity.â
Wonderful.
A powerful reminder of how beautiful and hopeful the European project truly is.
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