Since then, the Eastern Roman Empire has come to maintain itself as a separate entity from the Western Romans, though it still considered itself Roman and hailed the purple flag of Rome. The Catholics decided that they didn’t want to listen to the Pope of Rome and so, in the eleventh century, they broke away. The Western Roman Empire was primarily Orthodox Christian, whereas the Eastern Roman Empire was predominantly Catholic Christian. The main reason for the split was religious. This was when things between the two factions of the empire heated up very drastically. This division created by Diocletian eventually led to what is known to-day as “the Great Schism”, in the year 1054CE. Therefore, the Roman Empire ended up having two emperors. By the third century, the empire had become so vast, that in 284CE, Emperor Diocletian divided it into two halves – the east and the west – both governed by a tetrarchy (in Latin “rule of four”). Since then, Rome was ruled by monarchs and so, this phase, from 31BCE to 476CE, is referred by historians as the Roman Empire. After his death, things gradually changed and his nephew, Augustus Caesar, proclaimed himself the Emperor of Rome in the year 31BCE. The Roman Civilisation was a republic, until the rule of Julius Caesar. The story of the Byzantine Empire started with Rome, like most of Europe to-day. Hence, this article is going to talk about it and to highlight its importance. The Byzantine Empire was a very important part of world history, and yet, there is not much discussion about it, even among historians to-day.

Flag of the byzantine empire