When the Roman Empire was divided in two, the eastern empire was called the Byzantine Empire in the A.D. 500s. It stretched from the Balkan Peninsula to Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. Scholars have called the empire Byzantine after the ancient name of its capital, Byzantium, or the Eastern Roman Empire, but to creation and in official vocabulary of the time, it was simply Roman, and its subjects were Rhomaioi. The capitol of Byzantine was Constantinople, which had many cultures. Constantinople became a capital of the Roman Empire in 330 after Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, founded again the city of Byzantium and named it after himself.
Between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1200 the Byzantine civilization was one of the most advanced in the world. …
