cheap Read By Lars BrownworthIn AD 476 the Roman Empire fell or rather, its weste half did.Its easte half, which would come to be known as the Byzantine Empire,would endure and often flourish for another 11 centuries. Though itscapital would move to Constantinople, its citizens referred to them selves as Roman for the entire duration of the empires existence.Indeed, so did its neighbors, allies, and enemies: When the TurkishSultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople in 1453, he took the titleCaesar of Rome, placing himself in a direct line that led back toAugustus.For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, the storyof the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet for more thana millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christiancivilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fastagainst Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. When literacyall but vanished in the West, Byzantium made primary education availableto both sexes. Students debated the merits of Plato and Aristotle andcommonly committed the entirety of Homers Iliad to memory. Streamsof wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedentedwonders of art and architecture, from fabulous jeweled mosaics andother iconography to the great church known as the Hagia Sophia thatwas a vision of heaven on earth. The dome of the Great Palace stoodnearly two hundred feet high and stretched over four acres, and thecitys population was more than twenty times that of Londons.From Constantine, who founded his eponymous city in the year 330, toConstantine XI, who valiantly fought the empires final battle morethan a thousand years later, the emperors who ruled Byzantium enacteda saga of political intrigue and conquest as astonishing as anythingin recorded history. Lost to the West is replete with stories ofassassination, mass mutilation and execution, sexual scheming,ruthless grasping for power, and clashing armies that soaked ...