History of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire as Eastern Rome

The Byzantine Empire was the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire, centered on Constantinople from the fourth century until its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. Although modern historians call it the "Byzantine Empire," its inhabitants called themselves Romans and referred to their state as the Roman Empire or Romanland. Constantine I established Constantinople as the eastern capital, while the empire preserved Roman political institutions, law, imperial authority, and Christian traditions after the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century. Over time, the empire developed a distinctly Greek-speaking and Eastern Christian culture. Greek gradually replaced Latin as the main administrative language, and Constantinople became a major political, economic, and religious center. The empire experienced cycles of expansion and contraction, reaching a high point under Justinian I, who codified Roman law and temporarily reconquered parts of the former western territories. Despite losing much of its land to Arab, Slavic, Bulgarian, and Seljuk conquests, and suffering fragmentation after the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the empire recovered Constantinople in 1261 and survived until the Ottoman conquest in 1453.

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Roman Identity and Byzantine Nomenclature

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