One of the most enduring human institutions ever, the empire, centered on the city of Constantinople (formerly Byzantium), was a polical-cultural and religious epicenter of the world for more than a thousand years. The beginnings of the Byzantine Empire may be traced to the year 330 CE when Constantine converted to Christianity and moved his capital from Rome to Byzantium (the city was renamed Constantinople, modern day Istanbul).
Control of the empire was divided into an Eastern and a Western empire after Constantines' death and the distinctiveness of Byzantine rule did not became apparent until after the disappearance of the Western empire sometime in the 5th Cent. The most significant of these distinctiveness was the association of the empire with Greek-speaking Christianity in contrast to the Latin Church of the west. The empire began to lose most of its territories in Egypt and North Africa to the Muslims in the 7th Cent and became confined to Anatolia and the Balkans. It was conquered by the West in 1204. It was revived in 1261 but its precarious existence was terminated when Constantinople was conquered by Sultan Mehmed on 29 May 1453 and made part of the Ottoman Empire.
©ALBERITH