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Hello, I'm Dr. Eleanorianica, and welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves into the greatest millennium in human history.

We uncover the greatest mysteries, the gobsmacking details, and the latest groundbreaking

research from the Vikings to the Normans, from kings to popes, to the crusades. We delve into

the rebellions, plots, and murders that tell us who we really were. And how we got here.

Today, I'm setting out to debunk some myths that have continued to surround the

demise of a city, and with it, an empire.

Located where Asia and Europe almost touch, where three seas wrap around stone walls like a moat,

the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium was chosen by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 3.30 of the Common Era and reborn as Constantinople.

As Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 and the Western Roman Empire finally cracked, the eastern half, based in Constantinople,

held its ground and continued to call itself Rome. So, in the centuries that followed,

why didn't the West simply accept that the Roman Empire was alive and well in Constantinople?

Well, because the West saw the East as a rival. In 800, the Pope crowned Charlemagne Emperor,

creating a new Roman Empire and declaring politically and spiritually that Rome could belong to the West again.

It was a blow to Byzantine prestige, and it deepened a dangerous idea.

If there should be one Christian church, then there should be one Roman Empire.

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