Therborn describes the Roman-Byzantine Empire as a "post-Judaic sect of West Asia" which "assume[d] the mantle as the depository of and the legitimate heir to the cultural splendour of Greece and Rome, bringing about the peculiar European civilization of bringing 'pagan' and secular culture under the lordship of a salvationist monotheism" (40)
Wikipedia notes: "Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453."
Nearly 1000 additional years? Fascinating
"The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'."