Byzantium 1.0 (iOS)

In 312 AD, Constantine the Great saw a shining cross of light in the sky. This is the legend that has become attached to the Roman Emperor who is today widely seen as having played a crucial role in the transmission of Christianity to the West. Constantine is often credited with having made two important and interlinked decisions that were to play a major part in the shaping of modern Europe. The first was his toleration, and subsequent adoption, of Christianity. The second was the relocation of the capital of the Empire to the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium. The term Byzantine derives from this city of Byzantium, founded in 667 BC by Greek colonists from Megara and named in honour of their leader Byzas. Re-founded as Nova Roma or New Rome in 330 AD, this new capital became better known as Constantinople or the city of Constantine. The Byzantine Empire grew out of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire and was to continue long after the Western Empire finally fell to Germanic tribes in 476 AD. Indeed, the Byzantine Empire would endure until as late as 1453 and the eventual fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman empire