Become a fan of h2g2 And therefore I have sailed the seas and
come To the holy city of Byzantium. - WB Yeats, 'Sailing to
Byzantium' Without Byzantium there would have been no Europe. -
Judith Herrin, Professor of Byzantine History at King's College,
London The Roman Empire dominated Europe for centuries. At its
greatest extent, it covered all of Southern Europe, extended
north as far as the Rhine and Danube1, east as far as Persia,
and also included all of Africa north of the Sahara Desert. The
Romans brought stable civilisation to a continent. But in 330
AD, two things happened which were to change the Empire for
ever: The emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Empire
from Rome to the city of Byzantium, which was also known as
Constantinople and is now called Istanbul. The Empire adopted
Christianity as the official religion, throwing out the old
pagan gods. The move to the east brought with it a gradual
change of language from Latin to Greek; this, along with the new
religion, changed the whole chara