3 pages on the Byzantine Empire and the Slavs

When the Roman Empire was divided in two, the eastern empire was called the Byzantine Empire in the A.D. 500s. It stretched from the Balkan Peninsula to Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. Scholars have called the empire Byzantine after the ancient name of its capital, Byzantium, or the Eastern Roman Empire, but to creation and in official vocabulary of the time, it was simply Roman, and its subjects were Rhomaioi. The capitol of Byzantine …

…in their region for transportation and trade. In A.D. 800s a trade route ran from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. Early Eastern Slavs were not warlike. Before the late A.D. 900s Eastern Slavs honored nature spirits and ancestors and worshiped many deities. The most popular gods were Perun, the god of thunder and lightning. In addition was the Great Mother, goddess of land and harvest.