Question

How did the Byzantines continue the Roman Empire?

Answer 1

It was not the Roman Empire as we know it that carried on until the Middle Ages. What carried on was the Byzantine Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine) was set up in 476 AD. Basically because the area ruled by Rome had become too vast to be controlled by one emperor. It out lasted the Western Roman Empire which collapsed in 476 AD,due to invasion from barbarian tribes. The Byzantine's actually made good in roads into reconquering the areas lost by the Western Empire for the same reasons the Empire was split it found it was over stretched and could not administer the lands it held.Militarily the Byzantine Empire was far more advanced than its Western forebear, even to the point of using very early flame throwers called Greek fire, they even used mirrors angled at a target (usually a ship) to deflect the sun and cause wide spread fires. The Byzantine Empire was predominantly Greek speaking though Latin was also spoken, their capital-Constantinople was named after the Emperor Constantine, the first Roman Emperor to embrace Christianity. The Eastern Roman empire ended in 1483 when it was invaded by the Ottoman Turks. So yes, one part of the Empire did carry on until the Middle ages.