Byzantine Rome

Civilization	Bonuses and Unique Units	Strategy
Byzantium The Byzantine Empire, or the Eastern Roman Empire (known in-game as Byzantine Rome) was one of the original civilizations available for Empire Earth. Game description The Byzantine Empire, centered in Constantinople, stood for over one thousand years. The Byzantines maintained a strong army and almost singlehandedly kept the art of ship building alive throughout the Dark Ages. At its height, following the reign of Justinian I in the 6th Century AD, the empire included modern day Turkey, the Balkans, Egypt and North Africa, Italy, and even southern Spain. The original city of Byzantium, a Greek settlement, became part of the Roman Republic when Greece was conquered by Rome during the 2nd Century BC. Hundreds of years later, in 330 AD, Emperor Constantine renamed the city Constantinople and transformed it into the new capital of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Though Rome collapsed in the 5th Century AD, the “Eastern Roman Empire” endured for another millennium. Constantinople became the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which developed down a separate but parallel path from the Roman Catholic Church. Byzantine military strength began to decline in the 11th Century AD, while neighbors, such as the Ottoman Turks, gained in strength and power. Constantinople’s extensive fortifications kept enemies at bay for many years, but the city finally fell in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks, who battered its walls with early cannon.