The Byzantine Empire Byzantine Emperor Manuel Komnenos and his wife, Maria of Antioch (1118-1180), Vatican Library. The Byzantine Empire was the predominantly Greek-speaking continuation of the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), originally known as Byzantium. Initially the eastern half of the Roman Empire (often called the Eastern Roman Empire in this context), it survived the 5th century fall of the Western Roman Empire and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are historiographical terms applied in later centuries; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire. All of the ancient white people migrating westward towards the Middle East and Africa from Central Asia, passed through Byzantine territory. Their encroachments caused wars and conflicts. Over time, the only way that the Black Greeks of the Byzantine Empire could gain some semblance of peace, was to marry white princesses, thus creating a nobility that had many Mulattoes. Their art often reflected this admixture. Note: The ancient and medieval black kings of Europe also had to marry the daughters of their white subjects. That resulted in widespread admixtures. In fact, the majority, it seems, of medieval Europes black rulers, were indeed men and women of mixed racial backgrounds. egyptsearch/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic%3Bf%3D15%3Bt%3D003821%3Bp%3D2
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 20:00:04 +0000
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