On May 11, 330, Constantine founded the city to which he gave his name. This ceremony marked the birth of the future empire, which today is commonly called the Byzantine Empire, although the emperors themselves and their subjects always considered it Roman. The Byzantine Empire lasted more than a thousand years, until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. This book describes the political, social and economic history of Byzantium and shows how the Eastern Roman Empire adapted to changing historical conditions, achieving the maximum possible balance between local autonomy and the tendency to centralization.