Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was an empire that was also a conspiracy to take over the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was really big, so some people in the east gave the Emperor the idea to split the Empire into two, and then get some Germanic tribes to attack the west. Then the eastern half would take over the western half again.

The plan went fairly smoothly. The Roman Empire was split, the Visigoths attacked the right half (but not if you're looking at a map where north is up), and then Justinian took over the core Western Roman territory. But over the next few centuries, they lost much of that territory. They were eventually defeated by some people from even further east.

They made pixel art before computers even existed.