Let's go to the Thought Bubble. There was a lot of continuity between the old Western Roman Empire and the new Eastern one. Politically, each was ruled by a single man, sometimes there were two and once there were four, but let's forget about that for now, who wielded absolute military power. War was pretty much constant as the Byzantines fought the Persian-Sasanian Empire and then various Islamic empires. Trade in valuable agricultural land that yielded high taxes meant that the Byzantine Empire was, like the Western Roman Empire, exceptionally rich, and it was slightly more compact as a territory than its predecessor and much more urban, containing, as it did, all of those once-independent Greek city-states, which made it easier to administer. Also, like their Western counterparts, the Byzantines enjoyed spectacle and sport. Chariot races in Constantinople were huge, with thousands turning out at the hippodrome to cheer on their favorites.