I'm currently in the research stage of a future timeline, and I was wondering: What exactly is it about the remnant Eastern Roman Empire that draws so much interest from so many people? And, more importantly to me, what is it that's so over-done about the whole thing that people groan and roll their eyes at even the mention?
I did a few searches and found surprisingly few timelines covering Byzantium and many of those that did only included Byzantium as part of a wider PoD (Prince of Peace, for example). Mine will be something of an economic timeline (with a political PoD, though), so Byzantium as a state is just a convenient vehicle for such (as the only large state-actor of the period in Europe with anything resembling a functional state system and bureaucracy), but I'm wondering, what is it about the whole concept that people seem to find so...over-done?