Editing Megali Idea (section)

==Fall of Constantinople==
{{Main|Fall of Constantinople}}
[[File:Zonaro GatesofConst.jpg|thumb|180px|Sultan [[Mehmed the Conqueror|Mehmed II]]'s entry into Constantinople.]]

The [[Byzantine Empire]] was [[Division of the Roman Empire|Eastern Roman]] in origin and was called the "Roman Empire" by its inhabitants, though often not by the [[Latin West]], which regarded it as [[Greek East|Greek]]. After its fall, [[Hieronymus Wolf]] popularized the usage of "Byzantium". An informal cultural division had existed within the Roman Empire for centuries. Although Latin was the official language of the empire, Greek was the lingua franca in the East and was regularly used alongside Latin in official business. The division of the Empire following the death of Emperor [[Theodosius I|Theodosius]] in AD 395 added a formal political layer to the informal cultural division. Following the adoption of Christianity in the 4th century, Greek was also the dominant liturgical language, as exemplified by the fact the New Testament was written in Greek. These factors ultimately led to [[Byzantium under the Heraclians|Greek replacing Latin as the official language]] in AD 620. 

Byzantium held out against numerous invasions over the centuries and during the 10th and early 11th centuries managed to reclaim considerable territory in the Balkans, Anatolia and to a lesser extent Syria. The Turkish invasion of the mid to late 11th century however greatly weakened the Empire and, although it partially recovered under the [[Byzantine Empire under the Komnenos dynasty|Komnenos dynasty]], it never managed to regain control of the Anatolian interior, cutting the empire off from a valuable source of manpower and tax revenue. In 1204 Constantinople was besieged and sacked during the [[Fourth Crusade]] and became the Capital of what has come to be known as the [[Latin Empire]], a French dominated crusader state, until it was liberated by the [[Empire of Nicaea]], the Byzantine state in exile, in 1261. However, Byzantine strength would rapidly diminish towards the end of the 13th century and evaporated almost entirely during the 14th century, to the extent that by 1400 little remained of the Empire except Constantinople, the city’s immediate surroundings and some small territories in modern-day Greece.  In 1453 the Ottoman Turks besieged and captured Constantinople officially marking the end of the Roman Empire and also the end of Greek predominance in the city; although it would continue to have a considerable [[Greeks in Turkey|Greek speaking population]] and the Patriarch of Constantinople continued to reside in the city.