To get a sense of how important the Byzantine Empire was, let’s imagine it had never existed. Picture another world, where the Roman Empire came to a complete end with the fall of Rome in 476 CE.
How would that world be different from our own world? Would the United States even be a democracy? Would we have the paintings and sculptures created by the great artists of Europe, or the science and technology that we use in our modern lives? It’s hard to say, but we might not. The Byzantine Empire was key to preserving much of the ancient knowledge that went on to shape our modern world. From portrait painting to surgery, we can thank Byzantine scholars for a great deal of our progress today.
