The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

Up till 600, there was for a fleeting moment that the Roman Empire could be reconstituted on Greek auspices. And then they petered out coincidentally with the rise of this strange religion under Islam. The West had never seen anything like it because where Christianity was ecumenical and transcended class, Islam emulated that. All of the Byzantine conquest in North Africa were wiped away within 100 years. But at the same time, there was a series of invasions of the Eastern Empire,. not just what was left of the West, but the Eastern and Arab navies twice in the 8th century.