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====Byzantium and the Arabs: Balance of Power====
[[File: Siege of Con three.jpg|200px350px|thumb|left|A manuscript showing Greek Fire being used against Arab ships]]
The siege was a complete victory for Leo III and the Christian Empire. Moreover, he had saved the Byzantine Empire. He had displayed extraordinary leadership and had inspired the defenders to resist the repeated assaults on the walls of the city. He and his navy and army were heavily outnumbered by the Arabs, but Leo's tactics kept the Muslims at bay for two years. If the Umayyad forces had been able to capture the city known as the New Rome the Byzantine Empire would have almost certainly collapsed. Constantinople was the focal point of the Empire. The bureaucracy in the city helped to keep the very diverse Empire together. While the metropolis was at a centre of the extensive trade network that bound the Empire together. Moreover, the city was the military and naval stronghold of the sprawling Byzantine realms, if Constantinople had fallen the Empire would have been left defenceless.
The defeat of the Arabs outside the walls of ‘New Rome’ saved the Empire, from almost certain destruction. Indeed, such was the enormity of the defeat suffered by the Muslims that they never again attempted to conquer Constantinople.<ref> Treadwell, p. 167</ref> The heirs of Umar II and the later Abbasid dynasty never seriously considered another siege of the great Christian metropolis. The Arabs continued to raid Christian territory but no longer posed an existential to Byzantium. These raids concentrated on securing booty rather than territory. The Umayyad army was weakened in the aftermath of the siege and Leo III began to retake territories that had been lost to the Muslims. The Muslim fleet had been destroyed at Constantinople and it never recovered and the Byzantine regained their old supremacy at sea. The defeat of the Arabs in 718 A.D can be seen as the beginning of a new era for the Christian Empire which saw it expand its territory, economy and cultural and religious influence.<ref> Treadwell, p. 145</ref>
====The future of Europe====
