Byzantine Empire (Byzantine Khazaria)

The Byzantine Empire (or Byzantium) was the eastern division of the Roman Empire which survived well after the fall of Rome, centered around its capital of Constantinople, and ruled by emperors in direct succession to the ancient Roman emperors. During its medieval existence of more than a thousand years, the Empire remained one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe, despite setbacks and territorial losses to the Turks and Arabs.

The Empire recovered during the Comnenus dynasty, rising again to become a pre-eminent power in the Eastern Mediterranean by the late eleventh century, rivaling the Fatmid Caliphate of Egypt. Despite more losses to the Seljuks, the empire began to concentrate on its northern borders. By the 1400's, it had underwent a massive transformation into one of the largest nations in Europe, with the conquest of much of Russia. Byzantine rule extended from Syria in the east to Switzerland in the west, and ushered in a new golden age remembered today as the 'Glory Years of Great Byzantium'.

History
Byzantium was originally founded as the key to three continents, on the land of Thrace, which connected Greece and Anatolia, and thus, Europe and Asia. It was absorbed into the Roman Empire sometime in the 100's BC. In 324, Constantine I became emperor of the Roman Empire. He made Byzantium the new Roman capital because he recognized the richer eastern Roman provinces had become even more important than Rome itself. Byzantium was renamed Nova Roma, but was soon called Constantinople, after Constantine.

In 395, the empire was permanently split into a Latin Western Roman Empire and a Greek Eastern Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire quickly disintegrated and collapsed with the fall of Rome in 476. The Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire's early history was marked by struggle after struggle to repel encroaching Germanic and Slavic tribes. Persian invasions also weakened the crumbling empire. In 610, the emperor Heraclius temporarily rid Constantinople of the Persian threat by winning the Romano-Persian wars and driving the Persian shahs back to Mesopotamia. In 634, the Byzantines begin to collapse again when they were struck by an invasion of the Arab Muslims, who went on to overrun North Africa, Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. A large Byzantine army was destroyed in Syria by 642, and the Arabs went on to defeat the Byzantine navy off the coast of Anatolia.

By the 700's, the Byzantine Empire had barely managed to turn back the Muslims from the gates of Constantinople itself. During the 800's, the Byzantines begin to expand again. Their control of the major trade routes made Constantinople one of the richest cities in the known world. Business grew, and the empire prospered. However, the Byzantine Greeks were shaken again when a quarrel with Western Europe began in 1054 over matters of religion. That year, growing disputes over Papal authority led to a permanent split between the Roman church, into eastern (Orthodox) and western (Catholic) sections.