Byzantine Anatolia

The history of the Eastern Roman Empire (324–1453) is generally considered to fall into three distinct eras:

During the late 3rd and the 4th century the sheer size of the Roman empire, as well as the pressure on its frontiers from its enemies often made it difficult for one person to govern and a practice arose of either appointing minor emperors (Caesares), or having multiple senior emperors (Augusti). In the middle of the 3rd century the empire briefly split into three, but there followed repeated cycles of division and reunification. Diocletian (284–305) established an administrative centre at Nicomedia in Bithynia. Constantine the Great 324–337 managed to reunite the empire, but having done so almost immediately set about creating a new capital in Anatolia (330) but this time chose Byzantium in Thrace, on the Bosphorus. Initially designated Nova Roma (New Rome), but then Constantinopolis in Constantine's honour (although its official title remained Nova Roma Constantinopolitana). Byzantium had long been considered of strategic importance, guarding the access from the Black Sea to the Aegean. Various emperors had either fortified or dismantled its fortifications depending on which power was using it and for what. Byzantium featured in Constantine's last war against Licinius in which Constantine had besieged the city, and after the war was over he further investigated its potential. He set about renewing the city almost immediately, inaugurating it in 330. This is a year sometimes picked as the beginning of the Byzantine Empire. The new capital was to be distinguished from the old by being simultaneously Christian and Greek (although was initially mainly Latin speaking like its Balkan hinterland) and a centre of culture. However the empire split again on his death, only to be reunited again by Theodosius I (379–395).

Theodosius died in Milan in 395, and was buried in Constantinople. His sons Honorius (395–423) and Arcadius (395–408) divided the empire between them and it was never again to be united. Thus the Eastern Empire was finally established by the beginning of the 5th century, as it entered the Middle Ages, while the west was to decay and Rome to be sacked under Honorius. The west limped on under a series of short lived emperors and progressively shrinking empire, in which the east frequently intervened, effectively ending with Julius Nepos (474–475).

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