Byzantines

The Eastern Roman Empire (later called Byzantines) had Constantinople as its capital. This empire consisted of the Balkans, Greece, Anatolia, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt with Libya. They also possesed North Africa, Spain and Italy for a short while. 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.

Overview
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 bonuses grant them advantages for Camels, Spearmen/Pikemen/Halberdiers, and a team bonus for Monks. In addition, their unique unit is a heavy cavalry unit which deals bonus damage towards infantry. 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), Greek Fire (Range of Fire Ship get increased by one)

Civilization Bonuses

 * Buildings gain +10% HPs in Dark Age, +20% Feudal Age, +30% Castle Age, +40% Imperial Age
 * Camels, Skirmishers, Spearmen are 25% cheaper
 * Fire Ships attack 20% faster
 * Advance to Imperial Age costs 33% less (costing and  instead of the usual  and )
 * Town Watch technology free
 * Team Bonus: Monks heal 50% faster

In-game dialogue language
The language spoken by the Byzantine units is Medieval Latin.
 * Aen? (Yes?)
 * Impero? (I command?)
 * Presto (I'm ready)
 * Salve! (Hello!)
 * Correctus (Right)
 * Ago (I do)
 * Sane (Certainly)
 * Caedo (I cut [tree])
 * Pabulo (I forage)
 * Venatus (Meat, hunter)
 * Capto (I catch [fish])
 * Colo (I cultivate)
 * Fodio (I dig/extract)
 * Condo (I build)
 * Reficio (I repair)
 * Deleo! (I destruct!)
 * Comitta! (Commit! or Comita! Follow!)
 * Pugno! (I fight!)
 * Porro! (Forward!)

Notes/corrections about language
The language spoken by the Byzantine units is Medieval Latin. However, this Latin isn't pronounced as Romans spoke it (rolled r, French gn, Italian c) and many mispellings appear, as for 'hunter'. Moreover, the Byzantines spoke Greek for the larger part of their history, considering their existence during Middle Ages, Latin being kept only in some fields such as administration.


 * 1) Impero? The wanted meaning was 'command?'. Then, the word should be imperium?;
 * 2) Presto. Praesto in classical Latin, from praestare. It means something like "I am available for you" or "I serve you", or simply "Ready"
 * 3) Correctus. It means 'corrected, fixed', while it should be recte.
 * 4) Venatus. This noun means 'hunt'. 'Hunter' must be translated by venator.
 * 5) Pabulo. It's pabulor.