People tend to oppose calling it just Roman Empire, and fair enough it might create some confusion with Holy Roman Emperor, but with "eastern"-prefix, it should be good, no?
Similarly, at what point did Constantinople stop seeing the areas of the former Western Empire as rightfully Roman territory temporarily outside of their control?
As I understand it, the ‘Byzantine’ Empire was the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire and as such considered itself Roman. However, as native Greeks came to dominate the upper and imperial class, and the official language was eventually changed to Greek, I’m curious what exactly the inhabitants of the empire, specifically those who were native Greeks, thought of their roots? Did they consider themselves ‘Roman’ before ‘Greek’? Was there greater reverence for Roman figures and culture? Did Hellenic identity see a resurgence, for example, did native styles of dress and art have a renaissance over ‘Roman’ tradition, or did their identity as Romans supersede their ethnicity?
It’s something I’m very curious about, and any answers would be appreciated to help me understand how the Byzantines saw themselves!
Did they view themselves as a single roman state under 2 rulers, or 2 separated allied states? When the western empire was besieged by the goths and huns in the 5th century, why didnt the eastern legions come to their aid? Also - did the western empire and eastern empire ever come under direct conflict with one another?
I have heard that one of the reasons why the eastern half of the Empire continued on for several more centuries was that it was far more urbanized, or had more mass sedentary population centers in the form of big cities than its western counterpart. I do want to add the caveat, that besides Rome itself which was still relatively highly urbanized even towards the end of the western empire, and that urbanism in the west certainly did exist in the west it was not to the same extent as the east.
This era would end around 1000 with emperor Odysseus. Odysseus would usher the Empire into an era of conquest. At 1000 he launched an expedition to conquer India and bring it under the Byzayines rule. India at this time is split up in many states not one bug collective force. He would land on the west coast seizing the kingdom's on that. Then he would move around to the East coast seizing territories there. Using those based he would began the march inwards. This will all happen in around 10 years. The Sassinads who were also during a prosperous age would move in and seize the north of India. After seizing India he would return home a conquer and a man who has brought great wealth to the Empire. He would also start to move more inland in Africa from around Ethopia where previous emperor's had seized. At the end of his reign he would have gained control of India and started to move settlers there and move inland in Africa. His successor Constantine the X would lead further expositions to Asia. He would seize modern day Myanmar, Thailand , Cambodia,southern half of Vietnam and Laos, Sumatra, Java and Borneo. Those land were parts of the very profitable spice route and the only empire that had part of it was the Sassinads but thanks to the alliance from the times of Maurice peace was held. With the spice route all but under the Empire’s control the Byzantines in a time when most of Europe was collapsing was in it golden age. The main threat was the German kingdom( Holy Roman but since pope stayed in Rome it is not holy nor Roman) and the franks. The rest of Constantine the X life was spent building Roman influence in conquered lands and improving the Romans infrastructure. After Constantine's death his successor Julius the second would focus more close to home. He would launch a campaign against the weak Visigoth pushing them until all the Visogoths held were north of the Cordillera Cantábrica. With Spain under their control Julius would have succeed in basically reuniting all of Rome except for France and Britain. With this he would remain them the Roman Empire. No eastern Roman. Just Roman. This would speak of the powers the romans had. While Constantine the X was the conquer of Asia and Julius the second of Spain, Augustus would be of Africa. He would push the mostly Costal empire inland. He would push the armies to the Zamabzi river and to the Easten half of the Congo and seize all of the White Nile. He would launch a campaign to take over Madagascar and
... keep reading on reddit ➡A friend and I have been playing a coop campaign. He is the west and I am the east. When I hit to end my turn in the year 413, the game ends, giving me the "Defeat" banner and him the "Victory" banner. We are military allies and both doing well with secure borders, stable amounts of control, etc. This happened during our last campaign (same two factions) and we chalked it up to a bug and restarted. No events pop up and my emperor has good influence with loyal subjects. When it happened last time we reverted back to an earlier save and just ended our turns until we got to the problematic year. We were able to get by it but my emperor died. Is there something we are missing? Why am I unable to advance beyond the year 413 as the east?
