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A great civilization known as the Byzantine Empire was created
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Roman Emperor Constantine I chose Byzantium as the site of a new Roman capital, Constantinople
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Though Constantine ruled over a unified Roman Empire, this unity proved illusory after his death
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Byzantine LinkEmperor Valentinian again divided the empire into western and eastern sections
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The Council of Chalcedon in officially established the division of the Christian world into five patriarchates,each ruled by a patriarch
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The western half of the Roman Empire crumbled and fell
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the barbarian Odoacer overthrew the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, and Rome had fallen.
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Justinian I, was the first great ruler of the Byzantine Empire, but die at 565 A.D
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Many great monuments of the empire would be built under Justinian, including the domed Church of Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia.
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Byzantine LinkThe Byzantine Empire reigned supreme as the largest and most powerful state in Europe.
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A new, even more serious threat arose in the form of Islam, founded by the prophet Muhammad in Mecca.
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Byzantine LinkMuslim armies began their assault on the Byzantine Empire by storming into Syria.
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Byzantine Link Byzantium would lose Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt and North Africa (among other territories) to Islamic forces.
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Byzantine LinkThe Byzantine Empire finally fell in 1453, after an Ottoman army stormed Constantinople during the reign of Constantine XI.
