Byzantines

The Eastern Roman Empire (later called Byzantines) had Constantinople as its capitol. This empire consisted of the Balcans, Greece, Anatolia, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt with Libya. The Eastern Roman Empire is commonly known as the Byzantine Empire after the Arab conquest of most of the ancient territories in the 7th century. The Byzantines, having lost of most of ancient Roman and Christian world to Muslim invasions, withstood several Arab attacks on Constantinople itself. The Byzantines recovered in the 10-11th centuries but when the newly Islamized Turks attacked in the 1070s the end of the Empire seemed near at hand. Despite a slight recovery until the mid 1300s, the Ottoman Turks finished off the Byzantines during the next century with the conquest of Constantinople itself in 1453 as the final blow. As such, the Eastern Roman Empire survived almost 1000 years longer than its Western counterpart.

Gameplay Information
The Byzantines (in Age of Empires II) are the only civilization to have access to all standard technologies available, except for the Blast Furnace. This makes them unpredictable to play against in multiplayer. Their team bonuses grant them advantages for Camels, Spearmen/Pikemen/Halberdiers, and monks; their unique unit is a heavy cavalry unit. Thus, Byzantines are likely to go for cavalry and anti-cavalry, but, again, their access to the full tech tree make them unpredictable to play as and against.

Unique Unit: Cataphract (anti-infantry cavalry) Unique Tech: Logistica (Cataphracts cause trample damage)

Cultural Bonuses

 * Buildings +10% HPs in Dark Age, +20% Feudal Age, +30% Castle Age, +40% Imperial Age
 * Camels, Skirmishers, Pikemen, Halberdiers* costs -25%
 * Fire ships and fast fire ships +20% attack speed
 * Advance to Imperial Age costs -33%, costing 667 food and 536 gold instead of 1,000 food and 800 gold.

Team Bonus

 * Monks +50% heal speed* . At one point it was three times faster.

In-game dialogue language
The language spoken by the Byzantine units is Medieval Latin, (in reality they would have spoken Greek).

Ain? (really?)

Impero (I command)

Presto (I'm ready)

Salve (Hello)

Correctus (right)

Ago (I do)

Sane (Certainly)

Caedo (I fell [tree])

Pobulo (I forage)

Venatus (Meat, hunter)

Capto (I catch [fish])

Colo (I cultivate)

Fodio (I mine)

Condo (I build)

Reficio (I repair)

Velio! (I skirmish!)

Comitta (Commit! or Comita! Follow!)

Punio! (Punish!)

Porro! (Forward!)

Leaders (Single-player):
Emp. Romanus II (938-963)

Emp. Anastasius (c.430-518)

Emp. Tiberius III (-706)

Michael the Stammerer (-829)

Emp. Michael V (1015-1042)

Emp. Alexius IV (c. 1182-1204)

Belisarius (c500-565)

Heraclius the elder (-610)

Emp. Mauricius (539-602)