Sublime

Fourteen centuries later, Cleopatra was not so lucky. After three years of joint rule with her brother, she was deposed and sent into exile. Instead of taking this tamely, she assembled an army and turned to the most accessible powerful Roman for help.

Nathaniel Courthope,

In both Byzantium and the Frankish West, it was the fusion of secular with religious influences that created societies cohesive enough to withstand the aftershocks of imperial breakdown, barbarian invasion and Islamic expansion.