Defender of Europe (Civ3)/Civilopedia

The Byzantine Empire came to think of itself as the Defender of Europe after the rise of Islam; with Constantinople 
astride the Straits of Marmara, separating the European continent from the Islamic world, Byzantium considered itself the 
last bulwark against the infidel Muslim hordes. To this end the Byzantines tried to exert their naval influence all over the 
eastern Mediterranean, to disrupt Islamic trade and forestall any seaborne invasion, and extended their agents and mercenaries 
throughout the Arabian peninsula. They were moderately successful for centuries, although they suffered a huge setback in 1071 when 
the Emperor Romanus Diogenes was decisively defeated by a Seljuk Turk army at Manzikert in 1071. This led to Turkish conquest of almost 
all of modern Turkey, and the wane of Byzantine power in the east.