Romans

The Roman Empire was a vast empire that ruled most of Europe, North Africa and the Middle-East at its pinnacle between 0 and 190 AD. The first Roman emperor was Caesar August (or Augustus in Latin and originally known as Octavian). The Roman Empire had the strongest and the most disciplined army in its time. It is a playable civilization in the original Age of Empires The Rise of Rome. During the 4th century AD it was divided into two parts:

- The Eastern Roman Empire (later called Byzantines) with Constantinople as its capitol. This empire consisted of the Balkans, Greece, Anatolia, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt with Libya. The Eastern Roman Empire is commonly known as the Byzantine 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.

- The Western Roman Empire with Rome as its capitol. The Western part of the new division of the old empire consisted of Italy, North Africa west of Libya, Iberia, Gaul (France) as well as modern England and the border areas of Germany following the Rhine and Donau rivers. The Western Roman Empire is generally considered to have ended in 476 AD when the last Roman emperor was deposed by German barbarian invaders. All emperors after this date were puppets controlled by the German warlords who had conquered Western Europe. The Eastern Empire eventually attempted to restore Italy and parts of North Africa and Spain as provinces of the empire, but these efforts proved to be of limited success and lasting. When the Arabs launched their major invasions of Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries the Western Roman Empire was history. Different Frankish kingdoms would later try to revive the Empire, with Charlemagne in 800 AD as the most notable example. During the reformation and rennaisance eras the Austro-Hungarian Empire would also fight for the title of "Holy Roman Empire" because of the large prestige it held in Catholic Europe.

This period is the early "Middle Ages" also called "Dark Ages". In the middle ages there was a Holy Roman Empire which consisted of the territories of Germany and some adjoining areas, such as the Lowlands, Burgundy and Northern Italy. The Holy Roman Empire's most famous emperor was Frederick Barbarossa who had differences with the pope who resided in Italy. He joined the third crusade and drowned just before reaching the Holy Land. To pass the sea of Marmara he used the Byzantine navy. The Byzantines initially tried to block his route, but after the crusaders went on to damage the Hagia Sofia cathedral they were eventually allowed to pass by the terrified Byzantines. The most confusing thing is that the Teutons/Franks and the Byzantines where both Christian peoples. The theological and hierarchical breach between the Eastern (Greek Orthodox) and Western (Latin/Roman Catholic) churches in the mid 11th century, known as the Great Schisma (1054), had caused hatred and suspicion between the followers of the two branches of Christianity. Because of that the crusaders chose to fight for themselves in the Holy Land, and not for the restoration of the Byzantine Empire in Muslim-occupied areas (which was indeed the initial reason for launching the campaign).