The beginning of the Byzantine Empire signaled the decline of the Roman Era and the founding of the famed city Constantinople in 324 B.C. by Constantine the Great, who relocated the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to the city of Byzantium, which he later renamed after himself.  As the continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire, the residents of Byzantium called themselves Greeks (Rom-ee-ee), from which comes the term Hellenism, which is still synonymous with the word Greek.