h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The hostory of the byzantine empire, did not just end with Justinian on the 6th century, as said the empire went on another 800 years. Jusat after the death of Justinian, Rome fell again, this time to the Lombards, it was only on 'Byzantine' hands for 53 years, the other areas of Justinian's conquests: Spain and Carthage in Africa, faired a little bit better. By the reign of Heraclius( 610 to 641) in the 7th Century, outposts in Spain remained, Carthage was still held and Southern Italy was still in 'Byzantine' hands. However he hoped to re-organise the Empire, make it more centralised, and defensible. He re-organised the army, and divided the Empire into administrative sectors, or 'themes.' He abandoned Spain, mainly due to the distance away from the empire, and the fact that it was not easily defensible. He then basically went on a campaign against the Sassanid Empire (based in the middle East), he re-conquered Jerusalem, and took back the holy cross, leaving the Sassanids utterly beaten and disabled.

This was a huge success, and if Heraclius abdicated or died then, he would be known as one of the greatest rulers of the empire. However this was not to be. After the death of Muhammad, in the late 630's, the Arabs poured out the Arabian peninsula and in ten years the had conquered Alexandria, Carthage, Sicily, Jerusalem and Antioch. Heraclius, however very old at this time, barely did anything to counter this, to have all his achievements shattered so quickly he probably questioned reality itself. He did however put up some resistance to this onslaght, this however resulted in defeat at Yarmuk in 636

He did however leave a long dynasty for the empire, but none of them was nowhere near the likes of him.

Yeah, I'm still researching the stuff post-Justinian.

I plan to do a good bit on the empire during the Crusades (particularly in 1204 when Constantinople was sacked by the Latins and turned into a western puppet-state)