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Soon after Constantine began his rule as emperor, he renamed the city of Byzantium. Therefore, the city of Constantinople was founded.
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Once Justinian became emperor, he tried to regain the western part of the empire that had been lost. He only partially succeeded.
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Hagia Sophia means "Holy Wisdom" and was first built as a church. It then was used as a mosque and now is a museum in Istanbul.
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Belisarius was the military general under Justinian's rule. He helped Justinian in his quest to regain part of the western empire. Belisarius is also sometimes known as the "Last of the Romans".
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Muhammed started the Islamic Conquests. Syria, North Africa, and Armenia were overtaken by the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates.
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Basil, just like Justinian, had tried to regain some of the lost empire. He was later nicknamed "the Bulgar-Slayer" because of his conquests in Bulgaria.
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The Great Schism was the division of Christianity into two different branches: the Greek branch and the Latin branch. Some of the reasons of this schism include disagreements between different rituals, and where Constantinople stood in terms of Pentarchy.
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Emperor Alexios I started what was called the Komnenian Restoration which dealt with the military, the government, and financial restoration in the Byzantine empire. Pope Urban II started the First Crusade which was an attempt to regain territory lost during the Islamic Conquests.
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The original idea of the Fourth Crusade was to conquer Jerusalem, but instead was used to attack Constantinople. This marked the last attempt at conquering the Holy Lands.
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Ottoman forces took over the Byzantine empire by means of a seven week war. This meant that the Roman empire had ended.
