In 476 AD, the deposition of Romolus Augustus saw the end of the Roman Empire. The Eastern part of the Empire survived, and has been labelled by modern historians as the Byzantine Empire. However, nobody in its days called it that way.
For its contemporaries, Byzantium was only the ancient name of the city, used before emperor Constantin chose it to be the new capital of the declining Roman Empire, in 330 AD. Rome had been infact sacked and devastated several times by barbarians hordes, and could no longer be defended or reconstructed.
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| The division between Eastern and Western halves of the Roman Empire in 460 AD, before the collapse of the West in 476 AD |
After the collapse of the western half of the Roman Empire, Constantinople - the New Rome - became the fulcrum of administrative, cultural and social roman values in the East. The Eastern Roman Empire was therefore not a new empire, as it has mainly been seen today, but a continuation of the Roman Empire, simply located in the East because the western territories had been lost.
Byzantines kept calling themselves romaioi (romans).The Byzantine Empire was institutionally roman, religiously christian and culturally latin - greek.
The political structure of the byzantine world was enherited from the Roman tradition: the Emperor controlled a highly centralized beaurocratic state, divided into prefectures, which were in turn subdivided in dioceses. This administrative units carried out fiscal, judicial and political duties in the Empire's territories.
Despite escaping the collapse of its Western counterpart, byzantine Emperors soon found themselves dealing with the same barbarian hordes who had taken over western Europe. Germanic and slavic tribes were infact pressing against the Empire's borders along the Danube river. In the East, the Persians were trying to fullfill their old ambitions on Levant and Anatolia.
The man who led the empire into these difficult times was Justinian. He came to power in 527, and soon reformed and gave a new shape to Eastern Empire.
In 532 Justinian signed a peace treaty with the Persians, securing the eastern borders. In the same year, the emperor brutally put down the revolt of the Nika riots, but wisely reformed the administrative structure of the state, limitating officers' political powers in the peripherical regions of the empire.
After stabilizing borders and internal situation, Justinian started a series of brilliant military campaigns, defeating the Vandals in Africa (534), the Ostrogoths in Italy (553) and the Visigoths in Spain (554).
Despite escaping the collapse of its Western counterpart, byzantine Emperors soon found themselves dealing with the same barbarian hordes who had taken over western Europe. Germanic and slavic tribes were infact pressing against the Empire's borders along the Danube river. In the East, the Persians were trying to fullfill their old ambitions on Levant and Anatolia.
The man who led the empire into these difficult times was Justinian. He came to power in 527, and soon reformed and gave a new shape to Eastern Empire.
In 532 Justinian signed a peace treaty with the Persians, securing the eastern borders. In the same year, the emperor brutally put down the revolt of the Nika riots, but wisely reformed the administrative structure of the state, limitating officers' political powers in the peripherical regions of the empire.
After stabilizing borders and internal situation, Justinian started a series of brilliant military campaigns, defeating the Vandals in Africa (534), the Ostrogoths in Italy (553) and the Visigoths in Spain (554).
