[Ciaphas Cain]

Kind of off topic. A few nights ago I found myself once more studying the history of what today is known as the Byzantine Empire, but was known throughout its history as the eastern Roman Empire. And I realized something:

Had Emperor Maurice not been assassinated in 602, there would have most likely been no war with the Persians. And each would have been sufficiently powerful enough to constrain Islam, which was just then being founded and led by Muhammad. If Maurice had lived, Islam might have forever been isolated to the deserts around Mecca and Medina. It would not have been sufficiently strong and driven to race across Northern Europe and into Spain and France, or go north toward Turkey and Armenia and Persia.

It also might mean that the Roman Empire as a reunited realm between its western and eastern halves could still be with us today.

Amazing how history can turn around just one individual.

[Sam Gamgee]

I am a bit of history buff too and read some stuff on the Byzantine Empire. The saddest part was when the West sacked the capitol, forever weakening the Empire.