Age of Empires

[Cyclops]

It's worth remembering that the Eastern Roman Empire collapsed because of the First capture of the City by the Crusaders in 1204.

Its worth remembering the East Romans threw away military supremacy established by Basil II in favour of a corrupt bigoted court marked by an unworthy disdain for people outside their narrow close minded imaginary world. The short sightedness of the Komnenoi in granting Venice trade supremacy in the East Roman sowed the seeds for that debacle: the Latin Empire was a self-inflicted wound, as was the rise of the house of Osman.

The Ottomans just struck the death blow in an Empire that had lived for 1000 years (the longest known lifespan of any political entity), and even that, with HUGE difficulty.

That was a Roman Empire old chap, not an Hellenic one although Hellenic culture came to dominate (to the the detriment of the Empire's health) at the latter stages. The Ottomans did not just strike the death blow, they then went on to expand the old Roman state (which they explicitly claimed inheritance of) to an extent not seen since the time of Justinian.

The siege of Konstantinople was not conducted with huge difficulty, it was a forgone conclusion: the Rhomaioi had systematically thrown away every advantage, alienated almost every ally and pissed away the patrimony left them by more vigorous and tolerant ancestors. The Turks were only in Europe because they were invited there by short sighted Roman rulers more intent on windy rhetoric and political self-aggrandisement in the empty world of the court than actually getting their hands dirty on the battlefield.

As for being "the oldest continuous polity", that's such a specious claim. The Roman state began on the Tiber c. 500 BC (traditionally c.700 BC) not in Thrace in 330 AD (so about 1953 years). If we can discount interruptions like the Latin Empire and complete transformations like the establishment of the Principate then we must allow that the Pharaohs ruled a state for longer with only two serious interregnums(so c. 2300 years), and there's allegedly been one family on the throne of Japan for longer than either of them (c.2660 years). Likewise China has a state system with continuity reaching back to the Shang if not earlier (over 3600 years).

Shrill narrowly defined claims like this demonstrate biased thinking, not grand antiquity. In many ways the Osmanli state continues the tradition of Rome, at least as much as other contemporary claimants (like the various Tsars and Frankish imitators) and definitely more so than a republic founded in the early 19th century.