As the Roman Empire expanded to help govern it better, it brought out the (old) Western Romans in Western Europe and the (new) Eastern Romans in Eastern Europe. Many in the West saw the East as the Greeks, but the Eastern Romans saw themselves as the Roman Empire with its capital at Constantinople. At first Emperor Constantine tried to keep them united, but as the 5th and 6th centuries passed, each of them had gone their separate ways. With chaos in the west, the east prospered after the west fell to the Germanic tribes and the east later became known as the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire lasted from 330 to 1453, a thousand years longer than the Western Roman Empire. Due to the location of the Byzantine Empire and its capital, this empire became very rich. It was positioned between the Black Sea and the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, at the center of a trade route used by Asians, Europeans and North Africans. As their walls resisted many invasion attempts, the walls of the Byzantine Empire were destined to fall due to the advent of the cannons of the Ottoman Empire at the helm of Mehmed II. At the beginning of the new millennium, as the Roman Empire was in decline, the emperor thought it wise to divide it in half because he thought it would be easier to control. In 330 Constantinople was inaugurated and given a second name, New Rome. This city goes through great changes and acquires a new religion, a new center of gravity and an important cultural modification. Constantinople offered the emperor a strategic place to protect the Western Empire from invaders such as the Persians in the Middle East. Although Constantinople marked the beginning of the Byzantine Empire, it was the end of the Roman Empire. For centuries... half the paper...lah, and Muhammad is its prophet. The great church, for many centuries the most magnificent in Christendom, now begins its career as a mosque. And Constantinople gradually acquires a new name; the urban area, commonly called eis tin polin (in the city) in everyday Greek, becomes Istanbul (5, www.historyworld.net). The great eastern city, once at the top of Europe, was now in Muslim hands. The Byzantine Empire helped maintain Roman and Greek culture, as well as Christianity, spreading its ideas throughout the world. These “new” Romans had made their mark by carrying on the legacy of fallen emperors and sister empires. Even though the city fell, the new conquerors still thought they were carrying on Roman customs. The fall of Constantinople meant the closure of the famous trade route, the Silk Road. Works Cited History of World Societies