When the Roman Empire collapsed in 476, Constantinople became the capital of the new Byzantine Empire. Constantinople was founded by Emperor Constantine I in 324.
The edges of the Roman Empire’s territories had been captured by barbarians so the early emperors of Byzantium, Anastasius (491-518) and Justinian (527-565), fought to reclaim Rome’s former territories.
The Empire at its height, having the same borders as its Roman predecessor, stretched from Spain into the Middle East, down across North Africa, and north up to the Danube River and north of the Black Sea.
In the Early Byzantine period, Byzantium’s educated elite used Roman law, and Greek and Roman culture, to maintain a highly organized government centered on the court and its great cities. Slowly, however, through the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, a distinct culture emerged, which has been call Byzantine - a word coined by later historians, from the old Greek name of its capital city, Byzantium.
Byzantine Empire
