*the empire in 555 under ‘justinian the great’*
(its greatest extent since the fall of the ‘western roman empire’ in 476)
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*aka “eastern roman empire”*
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*the byzantine empire was the continuation of the ‘roman empire’ in the ‘east’ during ‘late antiquity’ + the ‘middle ages’, when its capital city was ‘constantinople’ (modern-day ‘istanbul’, originally founded as ‘byzantium’)*
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(it survived the ‘fragmentation’ + ‘fall’ of the ‘western roman empire’ in the ‘400s’ and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the ‘ottoman turks’ in ‘1453’)
(during most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful [(‘economic’ / ‘cultural’ / ‘military’) force] in ‘europe’)
(both “byzantine empire” + “eastern roman empire” are ‘historiographical terms’ created after the end of the realm)
(its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the roman empire (greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, tr. basileia tôn rhōmaiōn / latin: imperium romanum), or romania (Ῥωμανία), and to themselves as ‘romans’)
(several signal events from the ‘300s’ to the ‘600s’ mark the period of transition during which the roman empire’s ‘greek east’ + ‘latin west’ divided)
(‘constantine I’ (r. 324–337) reorganized the empire, made ‘constantinople’ the new capital, and legalized ‘christianity’)
(under ‘theodosius I’ (r. 379–395), ‘christianity’ became the empire’s ‘official state religion’ + other ‘religious practices’ were ‘proscribed’)
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*intolerant by nature it seems…regardless of the tenets of their so-called ‘official religion’*
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(finally, under the reign of ‘heraclius’ (r. 610–641), the empire’s ‘military’ + ‘administration’ were restructured + adopted ‘greek’ for official use instead of ‘latin’)
(thus, although the ‘roman state’ continued + ‘roman state traditions’ were maintained, modern historians distinguish ‘byzantium’ from ‘ancient rome’ insofar as it was centered on ‘constantinople’, oriented towards ‘greek’ rather than ‘latin’ culture, and characterized by ‘orthodox christianity’)
(the borders of the empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of ‘decline’ + ‘recovery’)
(during the reign of ‘justinian I’ (r. 527–565), the empire reached its greatest extent after reconquering much of the (historically roman) western mediterranean coast, including ‘north africa’, ‘italy’, and ‘rome’ itself, which it held for 2 more centuries)
(during the reign of ‘maurice’ (r. 582–602), the empire’s eastern frontier was expanded + the north stabilized)
(however, his assassination caused the ‘byzantine–sasanian war’ of 602–628, which exhausted the empire’s resources and contributed to major territorial losses during the ‘muslim conquests’ of the ‘7th century’)
(in a matter of years, the ’empire’ lost its richest provinces (‘egypt’ + ‘syria’) to the ‘arabs’)
(during the ‘macedonian’ dynasty’ (10th–11th centuries), the empire again expanded + experienced the 2-century long ‘macedonian renaissance’, which came to an end with the loss of much of ‘asia minor’ to the ‘seljuk turks’ after the ‘battle of manzikert’ in ‘1071’)
(this battle opened the way for the ‘turks’ to settle in ‘anatolia’ as a homeland)
(the ’empire’ recovered again during the ‘komnenian restoration’, such that by the 12th century ‘constantinople’ was the ‘largest’ + ‘wealthiest’ european city)
(however, it was delivered a mortal blow during the ‘4th crusade’, when ‘constantinople’ was sacked in ‘1204’ and the territories that the ’empire’ formerly governed were divided into competing ‘byzantine greek’ + ‘latin’ realms)
(despite the eventual recovery of ‘constantinople’ in ‘1261’, the ‘byzantine empire’ remained only 1 of several small ‘rival states’ in the area for the final 2 centuries of its existence)
(its remaining territories were progressively annexed by the ‘ottomans’ in the ‘1400s’)
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(the ‘fall of constantinople’ to the ‘ottoman empire’ in ‘1453’ finally ended the ‘byzantine empire’)
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*21 june 533* —>
(a ‘byzantine’ expeditionary fleet under ‘belisarius’ sails from ‘constantinople’ to attack the ‘vandals’ in ‘africa’ (via ‘greece’ + ‘sicily’))
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*👨🔬🕵️♀️🙇♀️*SKETCHES*🙇♂️👩🔬🕵️♂️*
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👈👈👈☜*“THE ROMAN EMPIRE”* ☞ 👉👉👉
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💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥