Overview of the Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire came into being in the year 330 when Constantine the Great established the city of Byzantium on the Bosphoros as the new capital of the Roman Empire. Byzantium was renamed Constantinople and as it had no history or culture of its own it absorbed all forms of cultures from all parts of the world.
The Byzantime Empire broke with the West in 395 and became East Roman Empire. The Empire expanded and contracted over time. Under Emperor Justinian the Empire reached its historic maximium absorbing Italy. Justinian could not hold the empire together and slowly it shrunk to include Constantinople, Greece and Asia Minor. Under Basil I in 867 the Empire once again expanded to include much of the earlier providences.
The revived empire came to an end with the fourth crusade when the crusaders captured Constantinople and plundered it. For a short time there was Western controled empire, which was replaced in 1261 by the third Byantine period. The Byzantine empire came to an end in 1453 when Mohamme