Between AD 270 and the late 500s, the Roman Empire declined and fell to Germanic invaders, while a new, Byzantine Empire arose in the East.

At least, that's what it looks like. But states and peoples are different things. Sometimes a founding people dies, but its state lives on. That is what happened in Rome in the 3rd century. The original Roman people lost power to a new, hungry race of frontier-fighters: the so-called Illyrian Soldier-Emperors.

Contrary to the common opinion, the Illyrian-Danubian emperors weren't the outcome of increasing "diversity" or "tolerance" of the Roman State. They were a new, as-yet-unnamed people, who--abandoned by the central government--took matters into their own hands.

From Aurelian "the Restorer of the World" to Diocletian, Constantine the Great, Theodosius I and Justinian, these "Illyrians" built a state-within-a-state, kept the Roman Empire alive for two centuries, and carved out a new empire from its ruins. They restructured army, shook up the administration, and oversaw the most radical religious reform in European history. Theirs is the real history of the "late Roman" and "early Byzantine" empires.

Only amidst the chaos of the Persian and Islamic invasions of the early 600s did the 300-year-old Illyrian regime succumb... when they were finally overthrown by a new breed of Cappadocian and Armenian officers.

Join Gregory Conte for this myth-destroying lecture, as we examine the real meaning of Rome's last centuries; and the beginning of the 1000-year "Byzantine" state.