The Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire is the Empire which directly succeeded the Ancient Roman Empire, it was practically the eastern half of the early empire though at times it controlled most of the coastal regions of the Ancient Roman empire. the empire had endured during the crusades and plagues, the Mongol invasion and the eternal war which raged in Europe during the medieval times.

Diocletian to the fall of the Western Empire

the Roman Empire had been first divided by the emperor Diocletian, which created two empire-the western and the eastern. the empire was rejoined and divided a few times through the 4th century but the final division came in 395. the western empire doomed to fall to the barbarian hands. but the eastern empire sustained its freedom due to the strong battlements on the Danube and the fact that any barbarians who crossed the Danube could be more easily defeated by the byzantine armies or bribed by the immense treasury of the Eastern Roman Empire. in 476 the barbarian warlord Odokar was crowned king of Italy by the Eastern Roman Emperor and this was the end of the Western Roman Empire