However, a condensed history of Byzantine would include the foundation of the city of Constantinople or "the City for the guards of the God" in 330 A.D., on the order of Emperor Constantine, the division of the Roman Empire in 395 A.D. into western and eastern empires; the last revival of the Roman Empire by Emperor Justinianus; the wars between Emperor Heraclius and Persia, during the 7th century; the Isaurian dynasty which stopped the advance of the Islamic Empire westward and saved Europe from clashing with the Arabs on two different fronts; Byzantine emperors of Armenian origin, called the Macedonian dynasty, which during the 10th century transformed Byzantine to a military super power; the fatal defeat at Manazkert against the Seljuk Turks; the successes during the crusades; the loss of the countries in the Balkans; and finally, its incontrovertible disintegration in 1453 as Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks.
The Byzantine Empire was a vital link, both geographically, and chronologically. Geographically, it formed the bridge between Europe and Asia; chronologically, it connected ancient times with the modern era.
The most important task that Byzantine carried out, however, is best described by Alfred Rambaud in his beautiful work about this epoch: "The Byzantine Empire, which continued the role of the Roman Empire, as far as it was able to, was the shield of Europe against the east. It was in the shelter of this shield that the west was able to pull itself together, organize and develop. Many attacks and invasions took place and the Byzantine army defended us against them. The Empire was able to, on its own and without the aid of other western countries, stand against the blows of the Asiatic attackers. The Byzantine chroniclers, much like our own, are inefficient and during these eleven centuries of struggle were content with describing the events from year to year and devoted their time to describing the conquest and re-capture of a particular place, while the daily details have been forgotten. It is as if none of them understood the importance of the duty which rested upon their country, of guarding the borders of Europe and being the pioneers of Christianity. The continuous and difficult struggle was full of horrifying defeats. What made the task of the Byzantine harder and made them suffer even more was the fact that this endpoint of Europe, which was exposed to the greatest danger, was also the peak of civilization. Byzantine had scientists and poets, a great interest for circus and theatre and was very pedantic regarding entertainment, social security and welfare, luxury, and fashion. Despite this, it was from this environment that they departed to battle and fight against the Slavic people, who used poisoned arrows and crucified their prisoners, or against the Turks who pierced their prisoners through their bottoms. Instead of conquering its adversaries, the empire tried to enlighten those whom they perceived had the potential for civilisation. While they left alone the "savages" from many different cultures, the plain-dwelling tribes, the empire transformed other people such as Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians and Russians into Europeans. And now, we westerners believe that we do not owe them anything? How should we today know so much about the Greek and Roman authors if it were not for the non-religious chroniclers and local religious persons who interpreted these scripts, and extracted their texts when warriors put were burning everything and priests were treating and cleaning the leather-parchments in order to write prayers on them? If the two cultures of Greek originhad not evolved, first the renaissance after the crusades, the origin of which was Greek and not Arabic, and the second, the renaissance which took place through the enlightenment of Greek literature in Constantinople, how would the European culture have been able to flourish and develop?"
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