The Eastern Roman Empire was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the eastern provinces from 395 to 476 AD, with Constantinople serving as its capital. The empire was created when Emperor Theodosius I divided the Roman Empire between the Western Roman Empire (with Rome as its capital) and the Eastern Roman Empire, whose capital of Constantinople had been the site of the Roman court since the reign of Constantine the Great in the early 4th century AD. The Eastern and Western Empires both had Christianity as their state religions, but, following the First Council of Nicaea, the church was divided between the Catholic Church in the West and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the East, with the Eastern Romans recognizing the Patriarch of Constantinople and their Emperor as the de facto heads of their church. In addition, the culture of the Eastern Empire was more Greek than Latin, and the Greek language became the lingua franca of the Eastern Empire. After the fall of the Western Empire in 476 AD, the Eastern Roman Empire became the sole continuation of the Roman Empire, and they would come to be known as the "Byzantine Empire" due to their capital of Constantinople being located on the site of the former Greek city-state of Byzantium.
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