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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1629931, member: 19463&quot;]Only occasionally does history cooperate with the neat little package theory that makes it easy to write high school textbooks.&nbsp; The Roman Empire did not fall in 476 AD any more than it began with a ceremony in 27 BC when Octavian became Augustus.&nbsp; Constantine can be considered the start of the Byzantine Empire because he moved the capital to Byzantium (old name) which he renamed Constantinople.&nbsp; Moving the capital does not make a new country.&nbsp; Theodosius I was the last Emperor to rule both East and West so some people make his son Arcadius the first Byzantine because he got the Eastern part (brother Honorius got the West so people think he was more Roman).&nbsp; Rome today is the capital of a country called Italy but in the time of Constantine and Theodosius there were several other places that were equally important and &#039;Rome&#039; was the whole thing not just one town where it all began over a thousand years before.&nbsp; Numismatists often call Anastasius the first Byzantine because he instituted a major currency reform issuing big copper 40 nummi coins (the ones with an M on the reverse) that look nothing like anything the earlier Romans ever considered.&nbsp; As a coin collector I like that choice but you can pick your candidate or just be realistic and realize that the world is an analog place and rarely fits into neat little labeled boxes.&nbsp; Many people collect &#039;ancient&#039; Byzantine coins and &#039;medieval&#039; European ones that are several hundred years older than the later Byzantines.&nbsp; Some of these people also collect 14th century Russian wire money of Ivan the Terrible but call them &#039;Modern&#039;&nbsp; because they come from a country that still exists.&nbsp; Confused?&nbsp; You probably should be.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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