![]() ![]() Its remaining territories were progressively annexed by the Ottomans in the Byzantine–Ottoman wars over the 14th and 15th centuries. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small rival states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. The empire was delivered a mortal blow during the Fourth Crusade, when Constantinople was sacked in 1204 and the territories that the empire formerly governed were divided into competing Byzantine Greek and Latin realms. The empire recovered during the Komnenian restoration, and by the 12th century, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe. Civil wars and the ensuing Seljuk invasion led to the loss of most of Asia Minor. It then lost Africa to the Umayyads in 698, before the empire was rescued by the Isaurian Dynasty.ĭuring the Macedonian dynasty (9th–11th centuries), the empire expanded again and experienced the two-century long Macedonian Renaissance, which came to an end with the defeat by Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 exhausted the empire's resources, and during the Early Muslim conquests of the 7th century, it lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Rashidun Caliphate. During the reign of Justinian I ( r. 527–565), the empire reached its greatest extent after re-conquering much of the historically Roman western Mediterranean coast, including Africa, Italy and Rome, which it held for two more centuries. The borders of the empire fluctuated through several cycles of decline and recovery. In the reign of Heraclius ( r. 610–641), the Empire's military and administration were restructured and Greek was gradually adopted for official use in place of Latin. ![]() Under Theodosius I ( r. 379–395), Christianity became the state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Constantine I ( r. 324–337) reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital and legalised Christianity. Several events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empire's Greek East and Latin West diverged. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians distinguish Byzantium from its earlier incarnation because it was centered on Constantinople, oriented towards Greek rather than Latin culture, and characterised by Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm its citizens continued to refer to their empire simply as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans -a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. ![]() ![]() It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. Laiou, The Economic History of Byzantium, 2002. ^ See Population of the Byzantine Empire for more detailed figures taken provided by McEvedy and Jones, Atlas of World Population History, 1978, as well as Angeliki E.^ Following the East–West Schism of 1054.^ Tolerated after the Edicts of Serdica (311) and Milan (313) state religion after 380.In 395 the empire was permanently divided in two halves after the death of Theodosius I. ^ Constantinople became the capital of the (united) empire in 330.The Empire of Nicaea is considered by historians to be the legitimate continuation of the Byzantine Empire because it managed to retake Constantinople. ^ Between 12 there was an interregnum when the Latin Empire took control of Constantinople, causing the Byzantine Empire itself to be divided into the Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus.^ Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων may be transliterated in Latin as Basileia Rhōmaiōn, literally meaning "Monarchy of the Romans", but commonly rendered "Empire of the Romans". ![]()
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