When the ancient Roman Empire grew too big to be administered in one unit from the capital city of Rome, Emperor Diocletian decided that it should be divided.

In 306 CE, Constantine became emperor of the entire Roman empire, east and west, and decided to move the capital city from Rome to an old fortress city on the Bosphorus, then called Byzantium. He wanted it to be called New Rome but the city gradually adopted the name of Constantinople in his honor.

The Byzantine Empire expanded and contracted many times over its history. However, it was reduced in the eleventh century CE to its core territory in the Balkans and Asia Minor. The capital fell in 1453 CE and with it a once mighty empire and civilization.

The Roman Civilization commenced in 509 BCE as the Roman Republic. It transformed into the mighty Roman Empire with the dictatorship of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE and the ascension to power of Augustus Caesar in 31 CE.

Emperor Constantine had adopted Christianity as his faith and he died the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire. After Constantine became a Christian, and saw it become accepted as a religion, and after it subsequently became the only tolerated religion, the empire slightly modified its old pagan tradition of worshipping the god-emperor. The emperor was no longer a deity; however, it was believed that he was ordained of God to rule, and his power was divine.

Although Latin was the official language of early Constantinople, as it was of the entire Roman Empire, that language was replaced by Greek after the sixth century CE. Greek, which had long been the vernacular in Constantinople anyway, became the language of government in Byzantium. As a result, as time went by Byzantine scholars and religious figures did not have to, nor did they tend to, learn to read Latin.

The influence of ancient Greece and its culture was immense, and thus many residents of Constantinople continued to worship the old Greek gods. Emperor Justinian put a stop to this in 528 CE.

The issue under debate was the church attitude toward the views of a group, the Arians, followers of a priest from Alexandria named Arius (250- 336 CE) who emphasized the uniqueness of God the Father and maintained that Jesus had been a man like all other men, not a part of God himself. Opposed to that view was one which maintained that Jesus Christ had been simultaneously both human and divine. The Council of Nicaea attendees decided to opt for the latter view, ruling that God was coeternal and begotten from the same substance as God the Father. The Council adopted a creed and a series of anathemas, principally to repudiate Arianism.

In the Byzantine structure of government and religion, the church was a department of the state and, thus, for all practical purposes the emperor was the head. In fact, one of the emperor’s titles was “Equal to the Apostles.” Thus, the emperor at Constantinople played two roles simultaneously: the role of the emperor and the role of pope. This became known as “caesaropapism”.

One result of the theological controversies that arose from the spirit behind Arianism was the development within Byzantine civilization of a religious orientation known as the “Monophysites.” The Monophysites have been those who believe that Christ was both human and divine. To this day, the Egyptian, Syrian, Ethiopian, and Armenian Christians continue their religious practices as Monophysites.

India is one country in which icons are to this day typically found in all Hindu temples. Icons are visual representation of deities. They remind the beholder of the supernatural form of the deities and their supernatural powers. Certain birds and animals, as well as rivers, plants, and stones associated with deities are also placed on icons and worshipped. For instance, icons might show believers bathing in the Ganges, which is believed to be a holy river. Many Hindu temples even center their worship services around icons and iconography.

St. Augustine, who lived from 354 to 430 CE, was a theologian from North Africa (modern day Tunisia) whose teachings contributed mightily to the development of Christianity early on.

St. Augustine preached that man was encased in evil; he inherited evil tendencies because of the first man Adam and his sin, committed in the Garden of Eden. He preached that because of that first sin, man could not benefit from doing good deeds alone. He believed any good deed if performed by man on earth was an act of God performed through him and that what was needed was good deeds plus faith. One way that man could overcome sinful temptations and redeem himself, thought St. Augustine, and attain salvation through his religious faith, was by practicing monasticism.

The result of the Roman Empire’s encouragement of large latifundia was to be found throughout the early Byzantine Civilization. These were huge estates owned by wealthy cultivators; on them, landless peasants worked in exchange for being given a portion of the yield.

The theme system was created to defend each of the provinces of the sprawling Eastern Roman and then, the Byzantine Empire. These themes were established in the middle of the seventh century following the Slavic invasion of the Balkans. They were also used after conquest of parts of the Byzantine territory by Muslims. The themes were created from the areas of encampment of the armies of the Roman Empire, and they were given the names of the Roman military forces that had previously occupied regions.

In the sixth century, Byzantine Emperor Justinian united the empire after conquering much of Italy, North Africa and Spain. In the seventh and eighth centuries, a new system of military government was developed. This newly created system combined civil and military administration and was first implemented in Italy and North Africa. The overhaul and reforms, beginning with Italy and Africa, were meant to create a powerful system of military administration. The two areas, Italy and Africa, were placed under the control of a commander who was also the civil governor. Such figures were called (borrowing from the ancient Greek) exarchs, and the provinces under them were called exarchates.

This immense work of codification resulted in the Codex Justinianus, later known as the Code of Justinian or, after a printed edition of 1583, appeared as the Corpus Juris Civilis. This became the basis for civil law throughout Western Europe.

The Code of Justinian included all legislation since the reign of Hadrian in 117-138 CE. Earlier laws were codified in the Digest, an even bulkier work. The Institutes, a handbook for students, served as an introduction to both compilations. It is noteworthy that all parts of these documents were written exclusively in Latin, but other laws made by Justinian himself were in Greek.

At Byzantium, for public entertainment, chariot races were held in place of the more horrible and degrading gladiatorial spectacles that were seen in Rome during earlier days. However, unlike the situation elsewhere, such as in Rome years earlier, here the charioteers represented two rival parties, demes. In the Byzantine era, the term was used to refer to one of four chariot-racing factions, the Reds, the Blues, the Greens, and the Whites.

The two leading demes were labeled the Blues and the Greens. The rivals held opposite views on political, religious, social and economic matters. In general, the Blues tended to represent the aristocratic and orthodox social strata, while the Greens were composed of followers from the less affluent classes and individuals who were heterodox in their religious views.

The imperial government prohibited the export of gold from the empire to preserve it from depletion. Nomisma, a Byzantine gold coin that was the standard of exchange for buying and selling goods all over the Mediterranean and in the East, lasted for many centuries. It was called a gold solidus and introduced by Constantine. With smaller bronze coins, it became the standard of exchange and was not debased until late in the eleventh century. Later, Byzantine currency tended to be made of silver.

Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. This spelled the end, after eleven centuries of life, of the Byzantine Empire, but their civilization and culture has survived in various forms (especially religion) to the present day.