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Byzantine Empire: New Rome
built 630 days ago
The Byzantine Empire that survived the fall of Rome was no minor civilization. Its capital, Constantinople, was one of the great early cities, with a population of nearly one million people, several imperial palaces, and a vast system of roads, shops, and public spaces. It ... included the major cities of Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria. While most of western Europe failed to develop during the Middle Ages (c. 500–c. 1500 C.E.), the Byzantine Empire established powerful armies, a complex system of government and church officials, and trading networks that spanned the Middle East and Asia.
The Byzantine Empire's most catastrophic defeat of this period was the Battle of Yarmuk, fought in Syria. Heraclius and the military governors of Syria were slow to respond to the new threat, and Byzantine Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, and the Exarchate of Africa were incorporated into the Muslim Caliphate in the 7th century, a process which was completed with the fall of Carthage in 698. The Byzantines made little attempt to regain the lost provinces, dominated as they were by Monophysitism.
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In the Byzantine Empire, if you wondered aloud what type of bread Jesus created at the Sermon on the Mount, your life would be in jeopardy. Depending on your answer, you might have murderous Ryeists, Sourdoughists, Foccaciaists, or Paniniists knocking on your door in the middle of the night. Either that, or you might inadvertently start a new Bread Sermon cult that would burn down a city in Asia Minor.
The history itself begins with Constantine and Christianity; going to include the changes of religion in the Byzantine Empire and the beginning troubles with the Church and Papacy in Rome. His and Diocletian’s reforms are succinctly recorded, and an extremely detailed line of Emperors and the Byzantine society up until the sixth century follow. The amazing depth of knowledge can already be grasped at its overwhelming size, and these are only the first two comprehensive chapters!
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The Nicean Empire is remembered today as primary rally point for the Byzantine Empire during its exile. For nearly 60 years Constantinople was in authorities of Westerners, who during their rule, achieved nothing. Michael Palaeologus rode into Constantinople on August 15, 1261, as the proud Emperor of the new Byzantine Empire. But even now, with most of the former land restored, the Byzantine Empire at best was a ghost of its former glory. The wound caused by the Forth crusade would eventually prove too great to be healed.
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By 894, the Byzantine Empire was coming under repeated attacks by Bulgars. Whenever the Bulgars would capture a Byzantine city, they would always follow the routine pattern of torching it, looting it, urinating in the public square, writing obscenities on the walls, doing horrible things to the womenfolk, and tipping over every two cows in every pasture. Under the rule of the very grumpy Czar Simeon I, the Bulgars would beat the Byzantines so badly that they had to pay annual tributes to the Bulgars, and the young Byzantine emperor Constantine VII was forced to marry the fattest and ugliest daughter of Simeon I. Surviving text from that time states that their honeymoon was not fun; their dinner was terrible, they had nothing in common, the sex they had[12] late in the evening was short and unsatisfying for both, and the whole time she kept complaining that she wanted to go to Rome.
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