The Eastern Roman Empire and the Aztec Empire overlapped.

The Roman timeline did not end with the city of Rome. The Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire lasted until 1453. The Aztec Empire began under Itzcoatl in 1428. That gives the two empires about 25 years of overlap. Julius Caesar was long gone, of course, but a Roman imperial state still existed while the Aztec Empire was rising in central Mexico. The surprise is not contact between them. It is that two civilizations most people place in separate mental boxes briefly shared the same century. History is less neatly sorted than it feels.

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