The catch-all term 'Anglo-Saxon' comes from two several tribes who invaded the British Isles; the Angles and the Saxons. The Jutes joined in the party as did the Romans and later Vikings and the Normans. Except for the Romans, none of the invaders were imperial. Its wasn't until the Colonial period that Britain became an empire in its own right.
Byzantium was a trading empire with enough money to finance a good army. They did quite well, assisted by the Roman Imperial legacy in terms of government and infrastructure. Their art, on the other hand, wins the same gaudy prize as Elvis in his later years. For the Byzantines, if it moves - embroider it, if it doesn't move - gild it.
Artistically, their legacy lived on in the excesses of the Baroque, which thankfully came to a partial end with the Protestant Reformation. I don't have a lot in common with rabid god-botherers but when faced with a church interior that is carved, guilded, painted, tiled, frescoed, draped and bejeweled, I am bang onside with rabid god-botherers with whitewash.
Nihil est ab omni partum beatum.
(Nothing is an unmixed blessing)