A little history
Friday, May 29th, 2009 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caddymanAs pointless notes go, I should like to highlight the fact that today is the 556th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turk forces of Sultan Mehmet II.
This brought an end to the Byzantine Empire, a civilization that evolved from the Roman Empire – indeed to its citizens it was the Roman Empire. Byzantium was founded as the Eastern Roman Empire in AD 285 when Diocletian split the Roman Empire in two for administrative reasons. Constantinople was founded in May 330 and served as the eastern capital for over a millennium before the fall (with a short interregnum after 1204, but we gloss over the Latin Empire and the Fourth Crusade).
This brought an end to the Byzantine Empire, a civilization that evolved from the Roman Empire – indeed to its citizens it was the Roman Empire. Byzantium was founded as the Eastern Roman Empire in AD 285 when Diocletian split the Roman Empire in two for administrative reasons. Constantinople was founded in May 330 and served as the eastern capital for over a millennium before the fall (with a short interregnum after 1204, but we gloss over the Latin Empire and the Fourth Crusade).