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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Only a Poor Old Man, post: 4643628, member: 111037&quot;]Very nice write-up. My only objection (if you can call it that) is calling the empire &#039;Roman&#039; when there was nothing &#039;Roman&#039; about it by this point. This is probably why historians came up with the made-up term &#039;Byzantine&#039;. As early as the 6th century it had become a slow and peacefull Greek take-over of the eastern half of the old Roman empire. Greek was the officiall language, and its people were mostly ethnically Greek even though it was a quite diverse empire with plenty of other local ethnicities in areas like Asia Minor. And of course the glue that kept it all together was the common religion of its people, the Eastern Orthodox Church. Yes, they regarded themselves as the continuation of the Roman Empire (after all they called themselves &#039;Ρωμαιοι&#039;), but they were quite aware of their differences to the &#039;latins&#039; of Rome. I think this association with the old Roman empire was mostly political and to make the emperors feel &#039;legit&#039;. Relations of course took a turn for the worse after the religious schism of 1054, not to mention the 4th crusade and the sacking of Constantinople in 1204. Under these circumastances I can understand why the unification of the churches didn&#039;t really work out. Would it have made any difference if it had happened? That is one of the great IFs of history...</p><p><br /></p><p>Coin-wise, I would love to have a coin of the last emperor. (I think my avatar is a good hint <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> )I have heard that you can actually pinpoint if they were minted during the last siege of Constantinople. But they are very rare and usually in terrible condition.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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