The rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire - Leonora Neville

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Most history books will tell you that the Roman Empire fell in the fifth century CE, but this would’ve come as a surprise to the millions who lived in the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages. This Medieval Roman Empire, today called the Byzantine Empire, began when Constantine, the first Christian emperor, moved Rome's capital. Leonora Neville details the rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire.
Lesson by Leonora Neville, animation by Remus & Kiki.
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[Redheadedmusician]

Fun fact, the Renaissance most likely wouldn't have started without the fall of Constantinople as all scholars that were in the city when it was conquered fled west to Italy and other Western Europe provinces, reintroducing medieval Europe to the Roman arts and kickstarting the Renaissance

[Zach T]

Oh that is fascinating. That part of the start of the Renaissance was due to Byzantine scholars still connected directly to antiquity.

[Redheadedmusician]

@Zach T it really shows that the best lessons we can learn are from the past, doesn't it

[brbjuke45]

And also the colonization of the new world since the ottomans now controlled the Mediterranean and the spice trade. European countries really had no choice but to sail west.

[jhu tfre]

Italy will become America of its age

[pan stantzos]

to the ancient Greek arts

[Combobulous]

I remember when I was younger I thought that the Roman Empire fell altogether to the barbarians, so when I was learning about the crusades not long ago I was astonished to find that the eastern half of the Roman Empire continued to thrive through the dark and Middle Ages.

[MistaKurisu]

I wouldn't call it thriving empire, it was more like a slowly rotting corpse.

[Gaurav Mall Tarlok]

@MistaKurisu Actually, they had many periods of amazing development, then destruction, then amazing development, then destruction, then amazing development... Until after the Komnenian restoration, they finally settled on destruction, and they fell.

[JP B]

@MistaKurisu The plague crushed any plan for byzantine to restore itself

[napolien 1]

@JP B you mean by the plague when Justinian was the emperor emperor?

[ok dude]

@napolien 1 pick one they had plenty.

[Allison Bilbey]

I absolutely adore this animation style :D. Also this whole city seems like something out of a story book. Golden lions that roared at you, golden birds that sung, elaborate buildings, emperors and crusaders fighting! Idk it all just it’s so interesting to me :3

[SusieR]

I think the same it is so i interesting.

[𐔟𐔓𐔍𐔠𐔇𐔙𐔛𐔀𐔐]

The Illyrians 🇦🇱 contributed a lot to the Roman/Byzantine Empire 🦅 (Fearsome Warriors). Here is the list of Roman Emperors 🤴 of Illyrian origin (🇦🇱): - Justinian I - Justin I - Anastasius I - Marcianus - Valentinian II - Gratian - Valens - Valentinian I - Jovian - Constantius II - Constantine the Great - Maximianus "Herculius - Diocletian - Probus - Aurelian - Quintillus - Claudius II "Gothicus - Hostilianus - Decius Source: The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third by Edward N. Luttwak, page 178, "high-grade cavalry (equites Illyriciani)" This region was late Romanized. It was famous for its excellent soldiers, frustrated but courageous. In Illyria (in the geographical sense) was indeed the most powerful of the Roman armies, in charge of watching over the Danube (nearly 12 legions, that is to say 130 000 men)....

[Nihil_HD]

@𐔟𐔓𐔍𐔠𐔇𐔙𐔛𐔀𐔐 albania never had an empire.sad

[𐔟𐔓𐔍𐔠𐔇𐔙𐔛𐔀𐔐]

@Nihil_HD The Illyrians are the ancestors of the current Albanians. The greatest scientific authorities of the world have pronounced themselves on the INDIGENOUS and Illyrian origin of the Albanians. I will quote among others: - 🇩🇪 Gottfried Leibniz - 🇸🇪 Johann Thunmann - 🇩🇪 Ritter von Xilander - 🇩🇪 Franz Bopp - 🇩🇪 Jakob Fallmerayer - 🇩🇪 J, von Hahn - 🇩🇪 Paul Kretschner - 🇦🇹 Norbert Jokl - 🇦🇹Maximilian Lambertz - 🇬🇧 William Leak - 🇬🇧 Stewart Mann - 🇬🇧 Dane Holger Pedersen - 🇮🇹 Angelo Masci - 🇦🇹 G. Mayer, H. Olberg - 🇦🇹 R. Solta - 🇨🇵 A. Ducellier - 🇭🇷 Milan Šufflay - 🇭🇷 Radoslav. Katicic Etc ... From the beginning of the Paleolithic the territory of Illyria (formerly, from the two banks of the Danube to Epirus) was occupied by men as proven by numerous discoveries of which the Karprina caves dating from approximately 160.000 years (currently in Croatia), the Gjatan cave (in Albania near Shkodër), etc. . Eugene Pittard (🇫🇷) affirmed in 1916: "I have already said elsewhere that Albania seems to me to contain the most important archaeological and anthropological documents for what concerns the origins of the MOST ANCIENT POPULATIONS OF THE BALKAN PENINSULA; populations that, at the dawn of history, we see appear under the name of Illyrians! Sources 📜 : (The peoples of the Balkans, antropological sketches, Neuchâtel / Paris)

[𐔟𐔓𐔍𐔠𐔇𐔙𐔛𐔀𐔐]

@Nihil_HD First of all I open a parenthesis about the name of Albania or Albanians quoted by Strabo (around 58-21/25) in the 1st century BC and Claudius Ptolemy (around 100 - 170 AD) in the 2nd century AD. It derives from the name of an Illyrian tribe, the Albanoi, which was located around the city of Albanopolis (now Zgërdhesh located in the region of Krujë). Moreover, even today, a region of Albania, from the north of Tirana (between the rivers Mat and Erzen), is called Albëni (gheg dialect) or Arbëri (tosk dialect). But this name Albanoi with its various variants (Arbanites, Arvanites, Arvanitis, Arvanos, Arban, Arbani, Arbanon, Arnavuts, Arnauts, Arbëri, Arbër, Arbëni, Arbën, Albën, Albanois, or Albanians) really began to spread when the Albanian territories became a field of hostility and a buffer zone between Byzantines and the new Slavic invaders (Serbs, Croats etc.. ...) towards the beginning of the seventh century AD. Several writers of the eleventh century, including Michel Attaliate and Jean Skyltzes, have recounted this kind of confrontation and widely spoken of these Albanian mountain tribes. It is the Angevin chancelleries (Charles I of Anjou, brother of St Louis, proclaimed himself king of Albania in 1272) which, in the 13th century, conveyed the name of Albanian or Albanians, which spread rapidly, like wildfire, throughout Europe. It should be noted that the Albanians never use this name (Albanian) to designate their own ethnic group: they call themselves Shqiptar, that is to say son or child of the eagle. Source 📜 : Albanie: histoire du Moyen Age au XXe s, P.54, Mathieu AREF (Histoire et langue) ou l'incroyable Odyssée d'un peuple préhellénique.

[Catelin San Jose]

“The Earth is littered with the ruins of the Empires that believed they were eternal.” - Camille Paglia

[The Emir of Jaffa]

Crucial lesson for all: nothing lasts forever

[Joseph Manno]

And yet the Roman Empire lives on in the hearts, minds and souls of millions, unlike any other that ever existed. No other empire can compare. The exception that proves the rule.

[Apollo1]

@Joseph Manno People call the Mongols or the British the greatest empires, but greatness isn't measured in only land despite all three having plenty, it is based on it's legacy, Rome lasted for a thousand years and created the cultures and governmental system of western civilization. No other civilization has had this effect on the world.

[Alejandro Tavera-Reyes]

Ok emo

[Catch Generics]

Apollo - There’s no doubt that the Romans left a significant impact on the world...but culture, and art and architecture is only one way of measuring an empire’s impact. The Mongols have left a genetic legacy unlike any other. And people from all over the world feared the Mongols and their military prowess.

[Τσάδιος]

To anyone wondering why we Greeks call ourselves "Ρωμιοί" (Romaioi-Romans), it's because when the Western Roman Empire fell, we felt we had the "legitimacy" of continuing the ideals and the spirit of the Empire. But we never abandoned the name "Έλληνες" (Hellenes), but we reserved it for our ancient identity. Also it was because of Roman law, according to which, everyone that was a law-abiding citizen according to Roman morals and ethos, was a "Roman citizen". And this was a political term, as it wasn't referring to any ethnic group as the Roman Empire was consisted of various ethnicities, including Greeks.

[Efestione Valentino]

Well the Eastern Roman Empire was Greco-Roman. But saying that it was a Greek empire is wrong...

[Son of Nothing]

1182

[Kevin Rivas]

It was not a matter of legitimacy (and i don't get why the " " in legitimacy they even receive the imperial insignia when the west part fell) or something legal, it was simply reality, the Roman Empire was divide in two administrations West and East, both were the Roman Empire, both were the wings of the same eagle, it was natural that if West or East part fell, the other part is what is left of the Roman Empire (being the case that the East part was the one that survive more time and preserve the legacy of the Empire to the end), idk why this is even a debate for some people, 2 sides of the same coin, west and east, both Roman Empire.

[ΘΕΟΦΑΝΩ ΚΟΜΝΗΝΟΣ]

@Efestione Valentino not at all whit time it became that

[Barbary]

"we"

[Ethan]

Ted-Ed is amazing...I can't even explain it in words. You guys are so informational and make it fun to learn about these things. The art and animation is great, and I watch all your videos and show them to my friends. My social studies teacher is also a BIG fan of your work, so keep up the great work! I hope one day I could be as good as you.

[Kings and Generals]

Expect the "Roman vs. Byzantine" fight in the comments. :-)

[][zaak C]̶[̶ay]

Kings and Generals your channel is awesome

[david garcia]

Kings and Generals actually everyone knows the ERE is the Roman empire.

[Basil of Good Wishes]

Kings and Generals Well by the logic of the people for Byzantines being roman, ALL civilizations are the successor to the Sumerians, ALL.

[TheExplorer]

Well you guys don't have to fight over it, because we turks were the last roman empire. :D

[General G. S. Patton]

Actually I would expect the "Roman vs. Ottoman" fight but there will be a flamewar nonetheless.

[Alex Monteverde]

As someone who took several Roman and "Byzantine" history classes in college, this is a well-done video

[palemoonlight96]

It's interesting that when you nowadays ask Greeks about what they associate with their land's tradition everyone will immediately answer "ancient Greece!" but they seem to have forgotten the byzantine part of history, which is so important and rich in details!

[Jaojao]

palemoonlight96 true

[Παναγιώτα Σερμετη]

Well im greek and believe me even if i wanted to forget it i cant.... im studying it in school

[Koukiss]

I havent

[mariosx12]

Well, maybe it's the same way they will not want to associate with the Ottomans. The last time Greece was truly independent was in the times of Ancient Greece and right after Alexander. After that they got captured by the Romans, who were ruling until right before the Ottoman Empire. The East Roman Empire, were still Romans, that were not interested on the greek culture, on the other hand they even destroyed temples, statues etc. Even until 1453, all the state documents were in Latin. So the East Roman Empire was SOMEWHAT Greek in the since that from some point the Greek Language was used more often, and that some Emperors were of greek heritage. But many will argue that the Roman Empire would have more greek elements than the East Roman one. I think this may explain the phenomenon.

[Klutz]

"Who were the barbarians? Non-Romans said the Romans being invaded by non-Romans."

[maha S]

Chicken north africans

[Michael Keehan]

R.I.P Roman Empire, or at least half of it.

[Microska 26]

The other half is just fine

[ABthedragon]

But it's not in Rome anymore so let's give it a new name.

[German Gonzalez]

i always thought they were Huns..maybe i was wrong.

[Thanos And No Bill]

By the way, Lord of the Rings had many inspirations from Roman Empire. The people from Numenor (inspired by the myth of Atlantis) created the old kingdom that centuries after split in two like old Roman Empire. The western part called Arnor that destroyed similar to the West Roman empire but the Eastern part called Gondor survived exactly like Byzantium. The capital of Gondor was the city of Minas Tirith with huge walls like Constantinople that fought for centuries eastern barbarians from Mordor or in real-world Turkey.

[Zippy Parakeet]

Turkey was part of the Roman Empire for a thousand years what are you talking about. It is the fall of Asia Minor (today's turkey) to the Turks that began the slow death spiral for the Empire.

[MHAK]

We can also relate the Corsairs of umbar to the barbary Corsairs of North Africa

[izzojunior]

The animation is absolutely top drawer...quite gripping and Addison’s narrations never fail 🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿👍🏿👍🏿

[Quidam Graecus]

Nice video, the Byzantine empire was the Eastern Roman empire, the main differences from the ancient and western Roman empire was that the Byzantines spoke Greek, they did had Greek literature and their culture was Greco-Roman not just Roman or just Christian. And they did continued the way of life of late antiquity in the middle ages. They did had bath houses and chariot races, wrestling etc and spectacles.

[𐔟𐔓𐔍𐔠𐔇𐔙𐔛𐔀𐔐]

The Illyrians 🇦🇱 contributed a lot to the Roman/Byzantine Empire 🦅 (Fearsome Warriors). Here is the list of Roman Emperors 🤴 of Illyrian origin (🇦🇱): - Justinian I - Justin I - Anastasius I - Marcianus - Valentinian II - Gratian - Valens - Valentinian I - Jovian - Constantius II - Constantine the Great - Maximianus "Herculius - Diocletian - Probus - Aurelian - Quintillus - Claudius II "Gothicus - Hostilianus - Decius Source: The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third by Edward N. Luttwak, page 178, "high-grade cavalry (equites Illyriciani)" This region was late Romanized. It was famous for its excellent soldiers, frustrated but courageous. In Illyria (in the geographical sense) was indeed the most powerful of the Roman armies, in charge of watching over the Danube (nearly 12 legions, that is to say 130 000 men)...

[Maka]

@𐔟𐔓𐔍𐔠𐔇𐔙𐔛𐔀𐔐 Illyricum isn’t Albania

[Nihil_HD]

@Maka yea,also many roman emperors from today spain or illyricum were indeed romans whos family just seatteled/lived in those areas.at least the roman emperors who were part of the aristocracy at birth

[Σοβαρευτείτε..]

The enemies of Greece refuse to accept that it was a Greek empire.

[sonia mehta]

love these history lessons! please keep making these, as well as riddles and myths!

[Heath Anderson]

Calling the Eastern Romans “Byzantines” is like calling Americans “New Yorkers.” They were simply “Romans.”

[James Kresl]

More like calling Americans "New Amsterdamers".

[Edater Charles]

calling eastern Romans "Romans" is like calling Americans "british" they're greeks

[Edater Charles]

@Br محمد anis it's funny how the name "roman" is derived from "rome" yet it's been a long time since the eastern "Romans" lost Rome, and they replaced it with Constantinople, so if we use the logic of the true Romans, eastern "Romans" should be referred to as "Constantinopleans" or "Byzantines" because of the old Athenian colony that was present on the same exact location as Constantinople. so calling them "Romans" is like giving a new country a culture that the country that controlled the area before it had, it's like saying "Kazakhstan is Russian because Russia once ruled it" while Kazakhstan is Kazakh even before Russia invaded it in the 18th century

[We Wuz Irlyrilians and shiiit]

@Br محمد anis ok Sasha. *MACEDONIA® IS GREECE*

[Min Sek Fau]

@Edater Charles "Nova Roma", aka. "New Rome"

[drees]

"As My City Falls, I Will Fall With It" -Constantine XI, Last Emperor Of Byzantium

[Long Bow]

Last Emperor Of Rome

[Unplugk1]

@Long Bow XD

[FormulaVase3806]

One of my personal favorites of the Byzantium Emperors.

[Trabzon Rumcası]

They never called themselves byzantine emperor. They called them selves romans!

[glacierlegion]

@Trabzon Rumcası If I call myself Roman am I one? It’s funny how transphobes logic can be used against them.

[Chaos Online]

This is amazing! So educational and I love the animations that went along with the narration! Thank you for sharing this!

[Minifridge]

The video is a little vague on why Constantine moved the capital, so I’d like to explain why. The Roman Empire during the time of Constantine dealt with a lot of issues, but their primary issue was the East. While the West was far from tamed, it was in a far better place than the East. Rival empires began to form in the Middle East and contest with Roman rule. Constantine made the decision to split the empire in 2 and move to the East to better rule against eastern powers. At this point in history, Rome had become somewhat irrelevant to most emperors and only stood as a slowly decaying symbol

[Rhomaios Comrade]

Great video and really captures the Roman spirit that permeated the empire.However, it should be noted that the empire improved upon the ancient one in a multitude of ways, particularly in diplomacy and bureaucracy. What the medieval Roman empire lacked in sheer military power in strenuous times, it made up in cunning diplomacy and political manipulation of their enemies.

[Eliya Waters]

We studied Roman & Greek history just recently. It was bit of a surprise to there learn that Rome didn't fall all together. We had studied in elementary the splitting of Rome, but somehow the term fall of Rome I never thought it just meant the eastern part and the west continued to exist for another 1000 years. Also there was mention that Rome wasn't taken over by another kingdom really instead Odoacer declared himself the king of Rome, senate regarded him a foreign occupier. So Rome wasn't completely wiped out.

[It’s Not Rocket Science]

So interesting and well done as always 💛

[Temp Temp]

You literally watch every video I watch

[BlacK40k]

You are everywhere, from Pewdiepie to TED Ed

[𐔟𐔓𐔍𐔠𐔇𐔙𐔛𐔀𐔐]

The Illyrians 🇦🇱 contributed a lot to the Roman/Byzantine Empire 🦅 (Fearsome Warriors). Here is the list of Roman Emperors 🤴 of Illyrian origin (🇦🇱): - Justinian I - Justin I - Anastasius I - Marcianus - Valentinian II - Gratian - Valens - Valentinian I - Jovian - Constantius II - Constantine the Great - Maximianus "Herculius - Diocletian - Probus - Aurelian - Quintillus - Claudius II "Gothicus - Hostilianus - Decius Source: The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third by Edward N. Luttwak, page 178, "high-grade cavalry (equites Illyriciani)" This region was late Romanized. It was famous for its excellent soldiers, frustrated but courageous. In Illyria (in the geographical sense) was indeed the most powerful of the Roman armies, in charge of watching over the Danube (nearly 12 legions, that is to say 130 000 men)...

[Vangelis Skia]

"It may be said, however, that despite its multi-national character, three forces tended to give it unity. One was Orthodoxy, the other a common language, and the third the imperial tradition. The first and the second were Greek and to the extent that they were Greek the Empire was Greek also. The third was Roman, and to that extent the Empire was also Roman" The Transfer of Population as a Policy in the Byzantine Empire Author(s): Peter Charanis Source: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 3, No. 2, (Jan., 1961), pp. 140-154 Published by: Cambridge University Press

[Alê Teixeira Vix]

Podiam ter vídeos com legendas traduzidas para o Português 💚💛

[Brady Barnes]

So informative thank you! Feels like some of the greatest minds of their times, or since, came from said empire. Would love such a topic to be covered by this channel!

[L. C.]

Constantinople became Istanbul in 28/03/1930. Ottoman called it as Constantinople too. It's name changed in Turkey's time.(after Ottoman)

[Penny Smirlis]

It is Constantinople with Turkish accent. the Greeks used to I am going "Is Tin Polin" (to Polis- Constantinople). "Is Tin Polin" was turned to IsTanBul by the Turks.

[Dimitris Pelkas]

Not Constantinople, its Constantiniyye

[Senan Mv]

Canan boyle yazmakla ellerine su serpiyosun bunlarin

[Sentetik Tiner]

Cat People documentarys Cry

[Kimse]

Aslında Onu ilk Islambul olarak kullandılar ve bunu Fatih Sultan Mehmet öne sürdü.

[Gustavo Villegas]

Whoever animated these deserves a raise! My brother and I love this person's art style

[ValiaS18]

I liked the bit where you showed a person pulling a huge carriage filled with statues while saying that Constantine moved the capital, because it literally happened like that. Constantine really had many statues brought to Constantinople in order to make the city beautiful and a little more familiar for all the people who would come.

[Minh Đào]

Wow, so there is actually a system of beacons running the width of the Byzantine Empire. I remember in the Lord of the Rings, there is also a system of beacons running from Gondor to Rohan. Is there any chance that Tolkien was inspired by this system of beacons of the Byzantine Empire?

[mortaché]

Things like this were relatively common although super expensive to maintain. Its said that under the caliphate from Baghdad, the entirety of North Africa was connected in this way, i.e you could communicate from Egypt to Morocco

[Aldrin Miles Partosa]

@mortaché that is not what he is asking. And the answer is more likely yes, considering how there are also plots in the book that is similar to roman history.

[david garcia]

The Eastern Roman Empire had the most professional army and navy ever to date. And the during the Macedonian Dynasty had the Skutatoi which was the best heavy infantry known in the medieval world, and a direct continuation of the roman legion.

[david garcia]

LagiNaLangAko23 you mean Greek Fire (aka liquid fire or roman fire). But yes they used a flammable weapon that no one to this day knows its secrets.

[Lorddervish212 Quinteros Aranda]

they also have Viking warriors in their ranks!

[andres polo]

Don't forget their cataphracts.

[david garcia]

Lorddervish212 Quinteros Aranda the Varangian Guard. Then yes. Unfortunately the Skutatoi became disbanded by the early 11th century ad. Being replaced by Varangian Guardsmen, Pronoiars, and Athanatoi.

[david garcia]

andres polo How can I. Both the Cataphracts and Clibanarii are the best professional heavy cavalry ever known. Heck even Norman knights are impressed by them.

[Theodora Delibasoglu]

An amazing empire with lots of scientific and architectural achievements

[Manolis Marinakis]

Great animation and a really good job on making it simple but inclusive. Next time please ask someone Greek on how to pronounce Greek words, or at least type them on Google translate and listen to the pronounciation there, this works fine with Greek.

[Ray Huang]

Great animation as usual. I always learn something new from this channel.

[John Vincent De Toro]

Brilliant and beautiful as always! Thank you Ted Ed!

[flapjackss]

I watched this is class today and I’ve gotta say, it was actually pretty interesting. The characters and artwork for this is great

[Kevin Sigue]

The animations never fail to amaze me. Great Work!

[MishpachatAlexander]

Ted Ed is very awesome. The best history video in the AP class.

[Stranger Happened]

*I wish the fact that the Byzantine Empire was Greek was stressed in the very beginning.* It is a fundamental difference from the Western Roman Empire. Despite the many mentioned similarities, the culture was distinct (and some argue it was better as even in the Western empire Greek was a higher style language, and in Byzantine it was accessible to many more people than to just the very top elites).

[Stranger Happened]

@Imperium of Mankind The Byzantine Empire was drastically different since besides very few at the top people there were Greek, not Roman. We should not confuse it with the Roman Empire which was Latin. The situation was kind of inverted.

[almalayuwiyyah]

@Stranger Happened even roman is not even latin. thew were influence by ancient greek. now it reversal. the greek eastern roman inspire by latin ancient roman. greco-roman cant be seperated. they one of the same.

[Don Juan Marco]

Thank you Ted Ed! I love your videos. It is History made easy to understand.

[Vitor Ferreira Peçanha]

Video sensacional, canal excelente. Sou um novo e um fiel inscrito. Muito bom. Thanks by the subtitles in portuguese.

[user228]

I love the short and clear explanations of history

[Nghĩa Nguyễn Hữu]

Yes! Byzantines are one of my fav empires in history. And Kudos to the illustrators for making the animations so cool

[Natalie Kelemen]

I was especially fascinated by the golden lions, the gold birds, and the throne that could raise itself.

[Juan Perez]

Very informative video. I learned a lot in 5 minutes.

[Leto]

This animation was so nice! Also, I never knew about this part of Roman history! So fascinating.

[Torian]

nyxxtheaverage greeeK HISTORY GREEEK NOT ROMAN

[Efestione Valentino]

Roman history.

[Francisco Cruz]

Excellent video as usual, thank you for fostering education for free :)

[Venezuelan Poodle Moth]

In a history exam i had to write an essay about the fall of the Roman Empire. I wrote that The Western Roman Empire collapsed 400 AD and the Byzantine not long after that. We weren't really taught much about Byzantine so i was a bit suprised when my teacher had commented that actually Byzantine existed over 1000 years after that. So i came here to educate myself

[Claudia G.]

Next to the lessons, the animation got to be my favorite part of this channel, especially lately!

[Pedro Larroza]

The stunning animation (by Remus & Kiki) shows clear inspiration from the UPA cartoons of the 1950s and 1960s.

[Valentin S.]

It's facinating how much impact the fall of Byzantium had. The scholars and philosophers fled from the turks to their ancient capital of Roma with the old knowledge thus creating the Renaissance. With the Bosburus in muslim hands the connection to the east broke and the silkroad came to an end. But because nobody wanted to give up eastern goods the europeans sailed to the east by themself creating the age of discovery

[Nancy Thomas]

Thank you for this easy to follow video. The pacing is great for my middle school students. Crash Course goes way too fast. Great video!

[giorgio longhi]

I love your videos ! Exspecially on history subjects !

[Evangeline A.K. McDoWell]

So basically Romans had lived through the Dark Age and they only lost the western part of their empire to other tribes. During the millennium, those who continually lived in the Eastern part developed some unique characters slightly different from the fallen Western part. Two of the most funniest points are: Although ERE had more advanced technology than others, the Empire kept being carved up and fell completely. Secondly, the fact that Ottoman Turks claimed to be a true successor of the Roman is pretty ridiculous. If you are going to be Roman, you must be conquered by Romans not you yourself conquer their empire and claim to be part of their cultures with little assimilation.

[A T]

really great animation on this one

[Seth Leoric]

A T then watch the berlin wall ones

[Jaojao]

A T yes me too

[Nikhil Ray]

Remus and Kiki did it.

[Wiem Mlaiel]

Yesss I L O V E IT SO MUCH !! 😍

[Atomic Pink Fireball HS]

@Nikhil Ray who are they? the animators?

[Orin]

This animation is great! Artists Remus & Kiki you are breathtaking)

[dhr]

This is the BEST animation style ever! Especially loved the Rise and Fall of The Berlin Wall video too.

[King Quality]

Who needs months of history classes when you could learn it all in just an hour of binge-watching?

[Fred F]

Thank you. Very informative. Amazing animation.

[lialiailion]

Italy:I will make rome great again. Greece:No,I will make rome great again. Greco~Italian war.

[Mr. Atari 2600]

Rome: Your Country is mine! Greece: No! *4 wars later* Greece: Fine, take it! *many years later* Italy: Your Country is mine! Greece: No! Germany: Yes!

[Val d'Asgard]

Holy Roman Empire: I will make reborn a German-Roman Empire 1rst French Empire: I will make reborn a Gallo-Roman Empire * Wars of 4 european Coalition against the french, but Napoléon succeeds and HRE is no more. * Europe again 3 times: "i'm gonna end this man's whole career"

[E A]

lialiailion I know it’s old and actually a good joke, but ironically Italians played a huge role in the Greek independence.

[Kosta Georgiou]

ooof

[ANTI COMMUNIST]

Roman's we are and two. You belong to Roman empire and we stayed the Roman empire because the empire broke in two parts the east and the west Roman empire. We were the east and you were in west and the west Roman empire collapsed by barbarian tribes and we collapsed by ottomans

[OK Play]

Learning history is so much easier with this video!

[Andy Zhang]

I love this art style. I need more.

[berry]

Woah. You made 5th grade Greek history fun and interesting!

[Karol Maciejewski]

It wasn't hard task to make it interesting.

[Catch Generics]

It’s not really Greek history. It’s Roman and Byzantine.

[TMPOUZI]

@Catch Generics Α big portion is Greek cultured. Roman is a political term and Byzantine is a misleading term

[𐔟𐔓𐔍𐔠𐔇𐔙𐔛𐔀𐔐]

The Illyrians 🇦🇱 contributed a lot to the Roman/Byzantine Empire 🦅 (Fearsome Warriors). Here is the list of Roman Emperors 🤴 of Illyrian origin (🇦🇱): - Justinian I - Justin I - Anastasius I - Marcianus - Valentinian II - Gratian - Valens - Valentinian I - Jovian - Constantius II - Constantine the Great - Maximianus "Herculius - Diocletian - Probus - Aurelian - Quintillus - Claudius II "Gothicus - Hostilianus - Decius Source: The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third by Edward N. Luttwak, page 178, "high-grade cavalry (equites Illyriciani)" This region was late Romanized. It was famous for its excellent soldiers, frustrated but courageous. In Illyria (in the geographical sense) was indeed the most powerful of the Roman armies, in charge of watching over the Danube (nearly 12 legions, that is to say 130 000 men)....

[ta sa]

​@Catch Generics it's the same

[Enrico Rodolico]

Possible correction? Around 4:20 you mention that some of the inhabitants of the region continued to call themselves Romans through the early 21st century, but I think you would mean the 20th century. They weren't calling themselves Romans 10 years ago, rather right around the Ottoman falling did they cease reffering to themselves as romans

[LadyCeag840]

I love watching all of TED-Ed's historical and entertaining episodes, but I graduated from college 10 years ago! XD

[Russian Bear]

Apparently, Attila the Hun himself saw the walls of Constantinople, and walked away.

[It not me It u]

More like he saw the Constantine walls decided it wasn’t worth the siege and demanded money to leave the ERE

[letsomethingshine]

@It not me It u Oh yes? Was it similar to how Sennacherib surrounded Jerusalem's citadel, and then the king Hezekiah paid tribute and so Sennacherib had his army leave and Hezekiah could not hurt Sennacherib at all, but lied like the religious leadership often do and said (or wrote in his paid royal history book once he died, included in almost all the Christian Bibles) that Yahweh made Sennacherib's army magically disappear?

[It not me It u]

letsomethingshine maybe? I don’t really know that story but it’s pretty well documented that Attila was burning through the north of the ERE but saw the Constantine walls and knew there was a pretty high likelihood he couldn’t siege the city so demanded that the ERE pay him to leave, which they did and then he went on campaign against the WRE and other factions

[M E]

Well, jokes on ERE, cause Atilla's great great grandson Mehmet (Huns = Old-Turks) took the challenge and succeeded. If you think about it, we ended both WRE & ERE.

[Prajeeth S]

@M E Wasnt attila defeated by aeitus?

[Clive Pereira]

Great video! I love this artstyle, brings back memories.

[Let's Go Get Them]

The Greek had a legend of the last emperor of Rome, calling him the "marble emperor" who would return one day.

[Σοβαρευτείτε..]

It wasn't Rome. Rome was the west. Here it was Greek

[Account 1]

I like to see that my culture has still lived on, thanks to my Byzantine cousins.

[Account 1]

Anders ᛖᛚᛁᚨᛋᛖᚾ 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[dynadude]

Anders ᛖᛚᛁᚨᛋᛖᚾ actually, it was after his adopting father :P

[FrontLineTexan 21]

Rome lived into the middle ages. Funny how that worked. They technically survived to almost the discovery of America. Where Rome’s truest successor, The United States of America would be born. Like Rome, America would bring new advanced values to the world and spread them. Like Rome America would hate the idea of kings. Like Rome America would expand.

[dynadude]

@FrontLineTexan 21 "america is the successor to rome" That's even funnier that a german "empire" claiming to be roman

[dynadude]

@ΡΩΜΑΙΟΣ ΚΑΤΑΦΡΑΚΤΟΣ literally every democratic country today has similarities to the roman republic. That doesn't make them successors

[Kostas K]

Great work, spot on and objective.

[Maira Dis]

The animation is so entertaining! It makes the facts in the video even more interesting

[Mxte]

Remus and Kiki are just top notch animators

[99batran]

I consider the Byzantines to be one of the most tragic Empires in history. They were direct descendants of Rome, with the goal in mind to continue or rebuild their old glory. They were so close in the 500s, and they kept falling and recovering throughout their thousand years of existence. Yet they could never make it, but they still held on to the old idea of Rome

[my dog's butler]

it's not quite right to claim them direct descendent of Rome because the main ethnic demographic in the eastern Roman empire was Romanized Greeks.

[99batran]

@my dog's butler i was mainly talking about direct descendants in a political continuity sense. I dont think the logic by culture or ethnicity is universally applied to everything. The Roman empire is very diverse and at times Native Italian Latins are very much a minority in their empire throughout later parts of history, but they are still Roman, correct? But if we apply the logic to other countries, is it really fair? If say, the United States, founded by ethnic Anglo-Saxon Christian's, experience a profound shift in demographics away from that where they are no longer the ruling majority (let's say mostly Latino), is it still the United States? You think that is a fair assessment then? Ig it depends on who you ask when it comes to identity.

[Eleftherios Tarlantezos]

An important note: what we call today Roman law, it's actually Byzantine law, not classical Roman. The corpus of Roman laws codified for the first time in the time of Justinian I. In other words, we have to keep in mind that, speaking about Roman law, we mean the Justinian Code and other additions made by later emperors.

[Maia]

I love how this is animated, I would watch this show no cap

[Abyss]

nO CAp

[AB]

Another amazing and educational video 👍

[Juha Salminen]

Never mind the epic tale this video tells! The animation is on FLEEK!

[Vangelis Skia]

"With the collapse of the empire in the west, its eastern counterpart became, in reality, an entirely new and independent state, at once Greek by language and Roman in name: 'A Greek Roman empire'." Roderick Beaton, "The Greeks: a global history", New York: Basic books 2021, pp. 212

[Fakedude]

Hey TED-ED, please never get rid of the narrator and keep having this animator work on future videos as well. I love the pretty art style and the narrator voice is absolutely perfect.

[Ikmalreza 1998]

Imagine how badass it would be if the Byzantium Empire lasted to the modern day.

[Okan Güven]

In Turkey we still call Greeks "Roman" okay we call them "Rum" which comes from the word "Rome".

[Vassiliki]

and we still called ourselves Ρωμιοί (Romans) up until gaining independence from Turkey in the 19th century when we started calling ourselves Έλληνες (Greeks) again. We still use it in certain cases, as when we celebrate the independence heroes like Athanasios Diakos whose last words were "I was born a Roman and I will die a Roman" in 1821.

[TheExplorer]

Vassiliki Sin Well we turks still call you guys rum(romans) so in our eyes you guys are still romans :D

[Yagiz Karaman]

my family always calls greeks as "yunan" and we call rome as "rum"

[gijijijijijijijijijijji]

Really? I thought you called us Yunan, which comes from the ancient greek word "Ιων" (= Ion)

[marvelfannumber1]

+Vassiliki Sin Make Greece Roman again!

[Addy and Layla]

Thanks for informing us on this it really helped me in world history today!!!

[hiba sohail]

I genuinely appreciate the animation over here. Good job😭

[Smiley _ßoy]

The animation is top notch like always

[Dzikrina Saira]

I wish I had history teacher like this, that taught us with fun way :)

[Dyl]

It was said that when the first Russian (Kievan Rus) envoys were sent to Constantinople to see the Hagia Sofia and learn about Eastern Christianity, they wrote back to their King saying: "we know longer knew whether we were in Heaven or on Earth, nor such beauty. We do not know how to tell this." To be left so utterly speechless you cannot fathom words to describe what you see. It's tragic that we will never know what that may look like now.

[Sutapa Pawar]

I really hope you make a video on the Mesopotamian empire or the Harappa Valley Civilisation. By the way, I just simply luv these videos. Please keep making more. At least it teaches me more things than school.

[Ilona Sapel]

indus valley civilization, Harappa is one of their cities

[Sutapa Pawar]

Ilona Sapel yes but in India we call it the Indus Valley civilisation or Harappan Civilisation

[Jaojao]

Sutapa Pawar yes good idea

[Basil of Good Wishes]

Sutapa Pawar Like it's founding myth.

[savioblanc]

I wish someone decodes the Harrapan script. That's the main reason why no one trylu has a clue about who these people were and what they actually did. All we know is that they don't seem to have had any Kings, they had well planned cities, a Great Bath and that they traded with the other civilisations of that period. Nothing else really

[Laurence Ellis]

Nice video TED-ED. Please do a video on the Holy Roman Empire please!

[Da Dev]

How did you forget to mention that the Byzhantine Empire was Orthodox Christian and the rest not. That was probably the biggest and most important cultural and traditional difference, which also had a huge impact on the legacy.

[The Rogue of Space]

Fascinating! The Byzantine Empire sounds like it's full of interesting history

[Pineda León Emmanuel]

Ted Ed is the best combination of quality and quantity

[Samuel Pudge]

Sort of ignoring the whole "Greek empire or still Roman empire?" debate. The empire is a great example of a peoples and empire evolving to fit its current situation. I would definitely say that the empire had evolved because it had lasted so long, while still keeping to its traditions.

[Christos]

Greek *or* Roman? Doesnt make sense.

[AlLaST0I2]

"Present your shield, swords, arrows, and spears to them, so that they may learn that they are dealing with the descendants of the Greeks and the Romans." ( From the final speech of the last roman emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos)

[𐔟𐔓𐔍𐔠𐔇𐔙𐔛𐔀𐔐]

The Illyrians 🇦🇱 contributed a lot to the Roman/Byzantine Empire 🦅 (Fearsome Warriors). Here is the list of Roman Emperors 🤴 of Illyrian origin (🇦🇱): - Justinian I - Justin I - Anastasius I - Marcianus - Valentinian II - Gratian - Valens - Valentinian I - Jovian - Constantius II - Constantine the Great - Maximianus "Herculius - Diocletian - Probus - Aurelian - Quintillus - Claudius II "Gothicus - Hostilianus - Decius Source: The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third by Edward N. Luttwak, page 178, "high-grade cavalry (equites Illyriciani)" This region was late Romanized. It was famous for its excellent soldiers, frustrated but courageous. In Illyria (in the geographical sense) was indeed the most powerful of the Roman armies, in charge of watching over the Danube (nearly 12 legions, that is to say 130 000 men)....

[lavishlyenigmatic]

great animation !!much helpful!! cheers mate!

[Panagiotis Nikiforou]

Actually the emperor constantin originally named the city " Η ΠΟΛΗ" which means city in greek but the residents kept calling it constantinopole and that's how the name came up

[mychalis2]

I'm a greek (hellene) and I would like to express my point of view and how we greeks (hellenes) perceive history of byzantium. First of all Byzantine Empire is a post historic term was used by western european scholars of studying greek history of the former eastern part of roman empire. Either one refers to greeks or hellenes, romioi, yunans are the same term of people living in the current land of Greece and all of those people living previously in Minor Asia (Μικρά Ασία) or nowadays land of Anatolia Turkey. The term ''hellene'' ceased to be used almost from the third century because of the fact that this term meant someone to believe in 12 gods and not in christianity. The term ''hellene'' was revived again by greek and western political thinkers and revolutionaries in 17th-18th century. Instead of ''hellene'', the term ''roman'' citizen had started to be used in order to be self-proclaimed by any citizen of the Roman Empire (but in reality Eastern-Roman-Empire). It could be a greek, a former roman and latin citizen or an armenian or a slav or any other nationality to join the empire. Of course the majority of them were greeks, speaking greek and were christian orthodox and were guided in religioun by the patriarch of Constantinople ( the other pole of power along with the emperor). Most of the western powers at the time already called the realm Greek Imperium or Greek Empire but not Roman. In contrary to this, the greek-phone or ellino-phone people called themselves as roman citizen or ''romioi'' in greek language. Of course my predecessors were not roman (the modern italian people do not accept this term - they are right) but they inherited the roman structure, the roman power and roman continuity of an empire. The crucial historical point was the establishment of the new capital in the eastern part of the empire in the old greek town of Byzantion ( founded by ancient greeks in 7th century before Christ) with the name New Rome. This term was never be used for the descpription of the capital but the term (polis of Constantine - city of Constantine ) in other words Constantine-polis or Constantinopolis or Κωνσταντινούπολη in greek language was dominated from then until 1930 when the new-born country Turkey came up as the continuity of the former Ottoman Empire, had changed the name to Istanbul. Finally I would like to add the words of Helene Glykatzi-Ahrweiler born 1926 who is a Greek academic Byzantinologist of what Byzantine Empire was. Byzantium is divided in 3 periods of time, during 1000 years of its existence. The first period approximately (330AD - 680AD) Byzantium was a roman empire with roman structure, christian population under the dominance of the greek language, the second period approximately (680AD -1100AD) was a empire with christian structure, christian population and greek majority population and the third period (1100AD - 1453AD) was a greek empire with greek structure and greek -orthodox population.

[Brenda Rua]

This was wonderful! Thanks!

[Chris S]

“What do you mean the ships are walking?” -Last Words of Constantine XI, 1453

[Mojew JewJew]

Give some context to this.

[킴솔]

@Mojew JewJew When the Ottoman was unable to break through the Golden Bay defense, they carried the ship like a Viking. That was fatal. But in our country, this is what it says. ‘When Constantinople fell, Constantinus XI, who had no intention of living a miserable life, was reportedly killed in action against the surging Turkic army, taking advantage of the collapsing wall with the guards who followed him to the end.’ "The city has fallen, but I am still alive!“ “Is there no Christian who will recover my body?"

[Nerdoroni]

@킴솔 I love the fact that the ottomans just went "hey we should carry our ships on our backs lmao"

[BigSchmill]

@Nerdoroni Lol thats oddly inspirational but like, in the unconventional way. "So you hit a road block. Have you tried just going around it?"

[just a cheese • 34 years ago]

@BigSchmill "eh, if those greek crazy enough to raise a giant chain on a sea, then I'm definitely crazy enough to walk our ship on Land and Montain" - Mehmed II 1453

[Tom Bombadil]

*Sometimes, I still cry at night over the fall of the Byzantine Empire.*

[Mike Oxsmal]

Tom Bombadil I fell

[zakback99]

You should cry when constantinople was sacked by crusading Venetian Banker

[Bone Bard]

even though it was the christians repeatedly sacking it?

[Maria Teresa Roque]

Owl Eyes Sack it, sure. But hey, atleast they didn't conquer it and rename it...

[Aris Chisholm]

Owl Eyes **Catholics. We were Orthodox.

[Online Commentator]

Great video and great animation!

[Chris Miller]

an entire school year of history in 5 mins and actually entertaining

[PhasmaWink]

Gotta love the rise and fall series.