The Byzantine empire

The Eastern Roman Empire or else Byzantium was a majestic empire which lasted over a milenia. Its capital Constantinople (Nova Roma) was founded by emperor Constantine the Great in 330 AD, at the place of the ancient Greek city Byzantio. The empire was the ark of the ancient Greek knowledge, because many ancient documents preserved in the monasteries and the library of Constantinople. The Byzantine empire was connected with the Greek element, because in the eastern roman empire, people used the Greek language and after the 7th century AD it became the official language. The Byzantine society was very advanced, the capital reached 1.000.000 citizens. Also their weapons were very advanced, for example the liquid fire or else the Greek fire as it is called, was a flamethrower weapon and with its use they destroyed the Arab fleet and save europe from Islam. In 530AD emperor Justinianus with his architects Anthemius and Isidorus built the temple of Aghia Sofia, which was the wonder of medieval times. The economy of Byzantium was not Feudalism, as it was in Europe, it was a commercial economy. The empire with missionaries helped culture to expand in the slavic and russian kingdoms. Cyril and Methodius created the slavic alphabet or else Cyrilic alphabet as it called and converted them to Orthodox christianity. The Byzantine empire had many enemies, but outlasted them for many years, especialy with emperor Basil the 2nd the empire was restored. After the death of the emperor Basil (1025) Byzantium began to fall because of incapable emperors. In the year 1071 the Byzantines lost the battle of Manzikert against the Turks, while at the same time Bari fell to the Normans. Emperor Alexius Comnenus and his sucessors began the restoration of the empire. In the year 1204 Constantinople was captured by the crusaders of the 4th crusade. The remnants of the empire were divided in the empire of Nikea, of Trapezunta and in the despotate of Epirus. In the year 1261 Constantinople was recaptured by the Byzantines and Michael Palaeologos became Emperor. The Palaeologian dynasty was the last dynasty of Byzantium. The two civil wars at the years 1324-1357 torn appart the empire. The civil wars gave the oppotunity to the Ottoman turks to invade europe. Emperor John Palaeologos in a last effort asked for help from the Pope, but the people of Constaninople refused his help. In May 29 1453 Constaninople fell to sultan Mehmet the 2nd of the Ottomans. The capital renamed to Istanbul and became the capital of the Ottoman empire. After the capture of the Byzantine capital the Balkans and Hungary fell to the Ottomans rule. The Despotate of Morea fell in 1460 and the empire of Trapezunta fell in 1461. The destruction of the Byzantine empire triggered Renaissance age, because many ancient documents from the monasteries and greek scholars fled to Italy, where they translated the documents from greek to Italian and Latin. The legacy of the Byzantine empire is Orthodoxy, the Orthodox church preserved the memories and the values of the empire until the present day.