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Emeror Constantine I, oftenly called Constantine the great, founded the city of Constntinople. This city bacame the capital of one of the most dominant empires we have seen to this day, the Byzantine Empire. The city was named Byzantium before Constantine I conquered it in 300 AD and renamed it after himself.
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Justinian was co-emperor to his uncle, Justin I. When Justin I died in 527, Justinian became the emperor of the Byzantine Empire. Something special about him is that he came from modest origins, as he was born in a peasant family. He is most known for the fact that his expansive personality brought him to conquer lost territory due to Gemanic tribes.
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The Hagia Sophia was completed in 537 AD. It was an Eastern Orthodox Cathedral as well as the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The use of this structure was changed to a Roman Catholic Cathedral from 1204 to 1261. It was changed again in 1453 to a mosque which lasted until 1931. It was then changed to a museum.
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Flavius Belisarius headed many campaigns against tribes and empires while defending the Byzantine Empire. In 533 AD, he led the conquest of the Vandal tribes. He also conquered the Ostrogoth Empire in 535. Finally, in his last campaign, he defeated the Kutrigur burglars.
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When the Byzantine Empire was at its weakest; after successive attacks by Persians, Slavs, Vikings, Huns, and Turks, the Arab Muslims attacked. They slowly gained much of the Mediterranean territory, but the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, stayed intact. This was also where the military weapon Greek fire was first used.
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Emperor Basil II was the emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 976 to 1025. His first major conquest was his crushing of the revolt in Anatolia. Then came his campaigns against the Fatimid Caliphate. After that, he defeated Samuel of Bulgaria, and gained all of Bulgaria.
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The Great Schism, also known as the East-West Schism, was the splitting of Christianity into the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches respectively. This was caused by many things such as the fact that Byzantine Christians used pictures of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the saints in their worship. This was outlawed by a Byzantine Emperor in the 700s. Also, the Byzantine Christians did not put an emphasis on Christmas.
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Pope Urban II and Emperor Alexios I are mostly known for the First Crusade. Pope Urban II pushed the creation for the army that would be the First crusade. After the council approved it, Emperor Alexios led the Crusaders.
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This crusade was intended to be on Muslim-controlled Jerusalem. Instead, the crusaders attacked Constantinople. They ended up sacking the city and starting the decline of the Byazantines.
