ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Hellenization in the Byzantine Empire

So, imagine you are playing with different colored blocks. Now let's say you have a bunch of blue blocks and someone comes along and gives you some red blocks. Now you have blue and red blocks mixed together. This is kind of what happened when the Byzantine Empire, which was originally made up of Greek-speaking people, started to mix with people who spoke other languages, like Latin or other languages from the places they conquered.

This mixing of different languages and cultures is called "hellenization". It means that the Greek way of doing things, like the language, art, architecture, and religion, started to spread to other places and mix with the ways of the people who lived there. So, in the Byzantine Empire, the Greek language and culture became the main way of doing things, but there were still other cultural influences as well.

For example, when the Byzantine Empire conquered Rome, they mixed the Greek way of doing things with the Roman way. They even called themselves "Roman" because they saw themselves as continuing the traditions of the old Roman Empire, but with a new Greek influence. They also spread their religion, which was Orthodox Christianity, to the places they conquered, which helped spread the Greek language and culture even more.

Overall, "hellenization" in the Byzantine Empire means that the Greek way of doing things spread to other places and mixed with other cultures, making the Byzantine Empire a diverse and influential center of art, language, and religion.