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Constantine rebuilt the city of Byzantium and renamed it after himself, Constantinople. He made Constantinople the new capital of the Roman Empire.
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During Justinians reign, he led the reconquering of North Africa, Italy, and the southern Iberian Peninsula. He created a body of civil laws called the Justinian Code. He led the rebuilding of the church of Hagia Sophia, meaning Holy Wisdom.
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General Belisaruius was the general during Emperor Justinians reign. His Byzantine armies reconquered North Africa, Italy, and the southern Iberian peninsula.
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Emperor Justinian ordered for the construction of the Hagia Sophia to begin after the previous church had been destroyed in riots. It is filled with mosaics of religous figures and is used today as a museum.
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Arab armies started to gain much control of the Mediterranean world, but they failed to take Constantinople. The Byzantines kept their land in the Balkans and Asia Minor to themselves.
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Emperor Basil II worked to extend imperial rule into the Balkans, Mesopotamia, Georgia, and Armenia. He is known as the "Bulgar-slayer" because he helped to defeat the Bulgarians. He increased his domestic authority by attacking the most powerful interests of the military aristocracy and of the church.
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The Great Schism was a split between eastern and western Chrisrianity. During this, the pope and the patriarch treated each other as rivals and not as branches of the same faith. The Byzantine church became known as the Eastern, or Greek, Orthodox Chruch, while the western branch was known as the Roman Catholic.
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Emperor Alexios I was Byzantine emperor from 1081-1118 and was a part of the Komnenian dynasty, his family's dynasty which came to full power during his reign. Pope Urban II was Pope from 1088-1099, and initiated the First Crusade. His goal was to respond to an appeal from Alexios I Komnenos who had requested that the western volunteers help to repel the invading Turks from Anatolia.
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The Fourth Crusade was the final of all the Crusades and was intended to conquer Jerusalem. The Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and attacked Constantinople. Many saw this as one of the final acts in the Great Schism and an important turning point of the decline of the empire and of Christianity.
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After many invasions, and hundreds of years of ruling power, the Byzantine empire collapsed. For 1,000 years, the Byzantines used the culture of the Hellenistic world. The Byzantines also extended achievements in engineering and law along with the blending of Christian religous beliefs with Greek science, philosophy, arts, and literature.
