Greece's Medieval period (4th century 1453) Main articles: Byzantine Greece and Frankokratia See also: Byzantine

Empire The Byzantine Empire at its greatest extent under Justinian I, in 555 AD. The Roman Empire in the east, following the fall of the Empire in the west in th e 5th century, is conventionally known as the Byzantine Empire (but was simply c alled "Roman Empire" in its own time) and lasted until 1453. With its capital i n Constantinople, its language and literary culture was Greek and its religion w as predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christian.[54] From the 4th century, the Empire's Balkan territories, including Greece, suffere d from the dislocation of the Barbarian Invasions. The raids and devastation of the Goths and Huns in the 4th and 5th centuries and the Slavic invasion of Gree ce in the 7th century resulted in a dramatic collapse in imperial authority in t he Greek peninsula.[55] Following the Slavic invasion, the imperial government retained control of only the islands and coastal areas, particularly cities such as Athens, Corinth and Thessalonica, while some mountainous areas in the interi or held out on their own and continued to recognize imperial authority.[55] Out side of these areas, a limited amount of Slavic settlement is generally thought to have occurred, although on a much smaller scale than previously thought.[56][ 57] Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, remain of the Knights perio d of the island. Mystras Palace, remain of the Despotate of the Morea. The Byzantine recovery of lost provinces began toward the end of the 8th century and most of the Greek peninsula came under imperial control again, in stages, d uring the 9th century.[58][59] This process was facilitated by a large influx o f Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor to the Greek peninsula, while at the same ti me many Slavs were captured and re-settled in Asia Minor and those that remained were assimilated.[56] During the 11th and 12th centuries the return of stabili much str ty resulted in the Greek peninsula benefiting from strong economic growth onger than that of the Anatolian territories of the Empire.[58] Following the Fourth Crusade and the fall of Constantinople to the "Latins" in 1 204 most of Greece quickly came under Frankish rule [60] (initiating the period known as the Frankokratia) or Venetian rule in the case of some of the islands.[ 61] The re-establishment of the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople in 1261 was accompanied by the recovery of much of the Greek peninsula, although the Frankis h Principality of Achaea in the Peloponnese remained an important regional power into the 14th century, while the islands remained largely under Genoese and Ven etian control.[60] In the 14th century much of the Greek peninsula was lost by the Empire as first the Serbs and then the Ottomans seized imperial territory.[62] By the beginning of the 15th century, the Ottoman advance meant that Byzantine territory in Gree ce was limited mainly to the Despotate of the Morea in the Peloponnese.[62] Aft er the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the Morea was the last re mnant of the Byzantine Empire to hold out against the Ottomans. However, this, too, fell to the Ottomans in 1460, completing the Ottoman conquest of mainland G reece.[63] With the Turkish conquest, many Byzantine Greek scholars, who up unt il then were largely responsible for preserving Classical Greek knowledge, fled to the West, taking with them a large body of literature and thereby significant ly contributing to the Renaissance.[64]