but that was wester Rome; what ever happened to the east?  The eastern

sector of the already large Roman Empire when Constantine the Great,

a Roman Emperor came into power, he recreated the Byzantine named city

into what was Constantinople or Istanbul after being conquered by the

Ottoman Turks.  The Byzantine Empire was pretty much the same as the

Roman Empire just without the Rome.

  You know the old saying: All roads lead to Rome!  It's true, at the

time of the Roman Empire very few roads existed which is why this

saying came to be and also might be how the Western Roman Empire fell

and created the Eastern into Byzantine.  More than likely when the

barbarians over-ran Rome they probably used the roads to travel faster

and knowing the direct route to Rome since all Roads led to Rome!

  The Byzantine Empire was stretched to its limits most of the time

but all this stretching either rewarded the Byzantines or virtually

destroyed them.  Emperor Justinian I and his wife Theodora were

attempting to restore the Eastern Roman Empire, now Byzantine Empire,

to its former glory and they pretty much did so and gained great extent

to the Byzantine Empire covering three continents, Europe, Africa, and

Asia.  They held a firm grip unto the country now called Turkey, and

its Dardenell Straight, Bosphorous Straight, and Marmara Sea; as we

should now know, Constantinople was directly bordering all three of

these and if you look at a map, Istanbul does border almost all three

perfectly.  If you look at the map you will see that the also held a

good deal of Egypt, Morocco, Tusnia, Algeria, and Libya in Africa

and almost all of north and central middle east.  This of course was at

the extent of the Empire at its greatest time uinder Justinian I.

  Side Note:  Justinian's wife was a whoar before she married Justinian

and after she married him though she ended this habit.  This was not

a happy note for Justinians Board but they had to agree with him.

  The Byzantine Empire was the rival of the Arabs learning development

for they were by far more technological advanced than the seemingly

barbarians Franks, Anglo-Saxon descendants of Britian, or the Barbarian

Goths; Ostro meaning west and Visi meaning East, so as you can see the

Byzantines were clearly more advanced than the Barbarians of Eastern Europe.

  The daily life of a young Byzantine man would commonly include military experience, school for the wealthy children, or military school for the less fortunate children.  Of course the children did not suffer or be any better than the one type of person.  He might even be married!

  The Byzantine Empire often depended on their military which was horribly defeated at the battle of Manikertz which left the Empire so crippled it would never recover.  The Byzantines lost much of their land to the Seljuk Turks, but when a crusade was launched to reclaim Byzantine land it lasted for nearly 100 years.  Only the first the crusade launched was a successful venture.  The first crusaders were ones from peasant villages and Byzantine Emperor Alexius I allowed the villagers to buy their food at market; only problem with that was that they didn't want to buy their food so they stole it from merchants coming into Constantinople or the farms on the outside.  With this the Emperor Alexius quickly wished the crusaders away across the Marmara Sea and unfortunately sent them to their death against the harsh Seljuk Turks.  Though the first real Crusade with Godfrey, Geoffry, and Baldwin were able to capture such cities as Damascus, Tripoli (not the one in Africa/ Libya) Jaffa, Acre, and of course Jerusalem.

  The Byzantine Empire was sacked by one of the crusades when they had an old fisherman of Venice tell them to help put him back onto the throne in Constantinople.  They agreed with him and ended up creating the first Latin Emperor of Byzantinium.  This of course was not a steady Empire and could hardly have helped Byzantinium.  Byzantine Empire slowly killed itself with horrible loses and revolts from citizens. The Byzantines just didn't have it in them any more to fight back from the Ottoman Turks and other such invaders.  The Byzantine Empire lasted almost 1000 years more than its counterpart, the Roman Empire and was more technologically  advanced and steady but still like the Romans they could not hold of the steady invasions from all ends of their domain. With Byzantinium exhausted and lacking man power to defend itself it finally collapsed.  The Ottoman Turks who only fell after World War One when they to ran out of resources.

A Few Extra Facts:

They were Christians. They were the true start for the crusades.

They were the boundary between the middle east and Europe. They were the boundary between the Asian Empires and Europe.