The Byzantine Army, Dark To Golden Age

[Zeus]

Even though the Byzantine struggled to exist for a good thousand years after the fall of the Western Empire, atleast they actually did survive for a thousand years. Shows that the legacy of Rome was still strong in them.

[Mens-Sarda]

Even though the Byzantine struggled to exist for a good thousand years after the fall of the Western Empire, atleast they actually did survive for a thousand years. Shows that the legacy of Rome was still strong in them.

Not to mention that the Byzantine Empire protected Western Europe blocking foreign invasions for centuries, in a period when Western Europe was virtually without defense and totally disorganized after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

In VIIth century the Byzantine Empire stopped the Persian invasion, then they stopped the Arab invasion for centuries. If Byzantium was conquered by Persians or Arabs in VIIth century, the history of Europe would have been very different and we would be speaking Persian or Arab. Then they stopped the Turks for other 4 centuries. When the Turks finally managed to conquer the Empire, the nations of the Balkans and of central Europe were well organized and strong enough. The conquest of the Balkans was a bloody mess for the Turks, and they were never able to expand further north, they simply arrived too late to prevail over the Europeans kingdoms.

I also admire the way the Byzantine Empire ended, they never surrendered even if at the end all that remained of the Empire was their capital, and they fought a glorious battle against an overwhelming enemy, with their Emperor fighting side by side with his men like a simple soldier.