One of the major POD's of Greece is that there never was a Byzantine Empire. Instead in 330 CE, Greece split from East Rome, Constantinople never became the capital, and a new era of "re-Hellenization" began. So what we would know as the "Byzantine Empire" never truly existed. However, these true Greeks were much more diplomatic and when Venice came to take Greek possessions, its allies of the Holy Roman Empire and Russian city-states beat them back. Due to that & this empire being less into beautifying old ruins and cracking down on corruption, the Ottoman Empire did not go into Europe, and to this day The Second Empire of Greece still owns Cyprus, European Turkey, Albania, Macedonia and the Greek islands. However, in what would be Greece's Independence, the old ancient style culture was