Western culture and polity never quite got to terms with the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium. Yet for a millenium it was the most developed part of Europe an

Western culture and polity never quite got to terms with the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium. Yet for a millenium it was the most developed part of Europe and Constantinople its only true capital. For reasons that are not entirely clear it remained a medieval, stagnating center well past the time it was safe to do so. Eventually it got dismembered, first by the rising new European powers and finally by newcomers from Asia. The resulting new equilibrium wiped out thousands of years of Greek/Hellenistic cultural influence in the Eastern Med basin and successor societies in the region have practically no connection with that heritage.