800 AD is a good date.
Around that time were the Muslim conquests, the Carolingian Empire, and the consolidation of Roman Catholicism in the West.
Then Catholicism replaced classical Romanism and syncretized with Christian and pagan traditions; Arianism also declined, and Europe began to take shape and become organized.
In 800 AD Charlemagne was crowned Western Roman Emperor; this would be a slap in the face to the Byzantine Empress.
The Byzantines longed to reconquer the old Western Roman Empire.