The Roman, Byzantine and Islamic cultures are connected on a continuum if one looks at the decline of the Roman Empire, and the development of the Byzantine Empire and Islam during the early years of the middle ages. The Byzantine Empire represented the eastern or Greek division of the Roman Empire. Formed in the late 3rd century AD, the Byzantine Empire underwent two periods of civil unrest before being united as one under Constantine the Great. Constantine mandated a second capital fashioned after Rome be erected at Byzantium, to be called Constantinople. With western Rome in decline, the eastern division soon became the dominant one. One of the biggest differences between Latin Christian civilization and the Byzantine Empire was that the Roman history was modeled around paganism or polytheism. Such was not to be the case in the east. Constantinople was not only Greek as opposed to Latin, but it was also firmly Christian from its inception, a fact further severing its ties to the west, “Constantine’s legalization of Christianity was crucial for the subsequent development of the Byzantine empire. Gradually, over the following centuries, the Christian religion became the official religion of the Empire—and of medieval Europe as well—while pagan cults diminished both in importance and in the number of their adherents” (Byzantium 1).
As Rome continued to decline and eventually fell, so the fortunes of the Byzantine Empire rose. Constantine has established Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire. The site was a former Greek colony. The Byzantium Empire is one of the longest and most successful empires in world history. Its scope by the sixth century would reach from southern Spain to the borders of Iran. The cultures was throughout its history a mixture of diverse ethnic groups, languages, cults and creeds. All of them were combined within a Greco-Roman economic, political and cultural foundation. I...