(Image credit: RichieChan via Getty Images)Ĭonstantinople was built on the site of Byzantium, an urban center that had a long history of prior occupation. He was proclaimed Roman Emperor here in A.D. "The most significant of these changes were the emergence of Christianity as the favored (and then the official) religion of the state, and the creation of Constantinople as the new urban center of the empire on the shores of the Bosphorus, midway between all the empire's frontiers," Gregory noted.Ī statue of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, 274-337, situated outside York Minster, England. With the empire reunited, Constantine brought in a number of important changes that laid the foundations for the Byzantine Empire. 324 Constantine became emperor of the entire Roman Empire after winning the Battle of Chrysopolis in what is now Turkey against Licinius, the emperor in the east. Legends told during Constantine's lifetime say that before the battle, Constantine had some sort of religious experience that resulted in him warming to Christianity. 312 against Maxentius, a rival claimant for the western throne. Upon his death in 306, the army declared his son, Constantine, as augustus.Ĭonstantine took control of the western half of the Roman Empire after winning the Battle of Milvian Bridge in A.D. Constantius (lived 250-306) was named one of these caesars and eventually rose to be augustus in the west. This effectively split the empire into four regions - two of which were ruled by emperors (augustus), and the other two ruled by each emperor's heir (caesar). 293, the emperor Diocletian introduced a system known as the tetrarchy. However, it had become difficult to govern and rife with problems, so in A.D. Originsīy the early fourth century A.D., the Roman Empire covered a huge territory, from northern England to Syria. The Byzantine Empire eventually fell when Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453 following a siege.
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