Question

Essay Writer

The Byzantine Empire lasted more than 1,000 years, technically longer than the
Roman Empire. In one or two paragraphs, explain how the Byzantine Empire was
able to survive for so long. What changes eventually brought down the Byzantine
Empire?

Answer 1

The Byzantine Empire survived for as long as it did because of its great wealth. By controlling all the trade that passed through the Bosporus Strait, the Byzantines became wealthy. The city of Constantinople became especially important as a center of trade and culture. Great wealth allowed them to pay for large armies and expand their territory.

After a long time, the cost of war eventually brought down the Byzantine Empire, though. Invasions from the Turks and conflicts with the crusaders hurt the Byzantines. Even Constantinople was captured by crusaders. The empire finally fell when it was defeated by the Ottoman Empire.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

The Byzantine Empire was a vast and powerful civilization with origins that can be traced to 330 A.D., when the Roman emperor Constantine I dedicated a “New Rome” on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium. Though the western half of the Roman Empire crumbled and fell in 476 A.D., the eastern half survived for 1,000 more years, spawning a rich tradition of art, literature and learning and serving as a military buffer between Europe and Asia. The Byzantine Empire finally fell in 1453, after an Ottoman army stormed Constantinople during the reign of Constantine XI.

Byzantium

The term “Byzantine” derives from Byzantium, an ancient Greek colony founded by a man named Byzas. Located on the European side of the Bosporus (the strait linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean), the site of Byzantium was ideally located to serve as a transit and trade point between Europe and Asia.

In 330 A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine I chose Byzantium as the site of a “New Rome” with an eponymous capital city, Constantinople. Five years earlier, at the Council of Nicaea, Constantine had established Christianity — once an obscure Jewish sect — as Rome’s official religion.

The citizens of Constantinople and the rest of the Eastern Roman Empire identified strongly as Romans and Christians, though many of them spoke Greek and not Latin

Though Constantine ruled over a unified Roman Empire, this unity proved illusory after his death in 337. In 364, Emperor Valentinian I again divided the empire into western and eastern sections, putting himself in power in the west and his brother Valens in the east.

The fate of the two regions diverged greatly over the next several centuries. In the west, constant attacks from German invaders such as the Visigoths broke the struggling empire down piece by piece until Italy was the only territory left under Roman control. In 476, the barbarian Odoacer overthrew the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, and Rome had fallen.