BYZANTINEEMPIRE
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the predominantly Greek-speaking continuation of the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Its capital city was Constantinople, originally known as Byzantium. Initially the eastern half of the Roman Empire, it survived the 5th century fragmentation and collapse of the Western Roman Empire and continued to thrive, existing for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" are historiographical terms applied in later ...The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Byzantine Empire
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.