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CITIES
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In the year 395, when
the Roman emperor Theodosum I divided the empire and
placed his son Arcadius at the head of the Easternside and his other son
Honorius on the throne of the Western side, he could not have known what
kind of effect this action was to have on the future of The Western
Roman Empire. With Honorius at its head, was to have a short life. The
Eastem Roman Empire, however, was to last almost one thousand years until
it was finally put to an end by the Ottoman Emperor, Mehmet II, when he
conquered the city of Istanbul in 1453. The city of Byzantium was chosen
to be the capitol of the Eastern Roman Empire. Sixty five years later,
however, the name of the city was changed to Constantinople in honor of
its founder, Constantine. Even though this radical change was made in
the concept of the empire, the Byzantines always referred to themselves
during their one thousand year long history as the Roman Empire and their
nation as the Nation of Rome. After the collapse of the empire, however,
historians began to refer to this empire as the "Byzantine" Empire and
so it is remembered today. This empire began in 330 and lasted until 1453,
for 1123 years. A struggle between Moslems and Christians began to arise
in the Middle Ages. Those warriors known as the Crusaders were the most
concrete example of the struggle between these two major religious beliefs.
The most important change made when the Roman Empire evolved into the
Byzantine was the change in religion. While Rome was a polytheistic society,
the Byzantines accepted monotheism as the basis for their religious belief.
The second greatest change that occurred in the empire was the change
in language. The Roman Empire used a number of languages, but Latin was
the official language of its government.
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Latin
was used increasingly
less after the founding of Byzantium, and Greek began to take its
place as the official language. Naturally, this change also brought
with it major political changes. The Byzantine Empire began with
the Emperor Constantine who reigned for thirteen years; a total
of 88 emperors were to |
reign during the course
of the empire.
These emperors came from various family lines. The leading groups were
from Heraclion, Syria, Phrygia, Macedonia, Commenos, Angelos, and Palaiologos.
Although the Byzantines began their empire with a vast territory of land
inherited from the Roman Empire, they soon lost the territories around
the Northern and Eastem Mediterranean and they became an empire with generally
Aegean territory. By the time of the collapse of the Empire, Byzantium
merely consisted of the city of Istanbul and its immediate surroundings.
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