Byzantine Greeks

Byzantine culture
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The Byzantine Greeks or Byzantines were the medieval Greek or Hellenised citizens of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), centered mainly in Constantinople, the southern Balkans, the Greek islands, Asia Minor (modern Turkey), Cyprus and the large urban centres of the Levant and northern Egypt. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Greeks self-identified as Rhōmaîoi (Greek: Ῥωμαῖοι, "Romans") and Graikoí (Γραικοί, "Greeks"), but are referred to as "Byzantines" and "Byzantine Greeks" in modern historiography. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Byzantine Greeks" were first coined in the English language by British historian George Finlay.^[1]

The social structure of the Byzantine Greeks was primarily supported by a rural, agrarian base that consisted of the peasantry, and a small fraction of the poor. These peasants lived within three kinds of settlements: the chorion or village, the agridion or hamlet, and the proasteion or estate. Many civil disturbances that occurred during the time of the Byzantine Empire were attributed to political factions within the Empire rather than to this large popular base. Soldiers among the Byzantine Greeks were at first conscripted amongst the rural peasants and trained on an annual basis. As the Byzantine Empire entered the 11th century, more of the soldiers within the army were either professional men-at-arms or mercenaries.

Until the twelfth century, education within the Byzantine Greek population was more advanced than in the West, particularly at primary school level, resulting in high literacy rates. Success came easily to Byzantine Greek merchants, who enjoyed a very strong position in international trade. Despite the challenges posed by rival Italian merchants, they held their own throughout the latter half of the Byzantine Empire's existence. The clergy also held a special place, not only having more freedom than their Western counterparts, but also maintaining a patriarch in Constantinople who was considered the equal of the pope. This position of strength had built up over time, for at the beginning of the Byzantine Empire, under Emperor Constantine the Great (reigned 306–337), only a small part, about 10%, of the population was Christian.

The language of the Byzantine Greeks since the age of Constantine had been Greek, although Latin was the language of the administration. From the reign of Emperor Heraclius (reigned 610–641), Greek was the predominant language amongst the populace and also replaced Latin in administration. At first the Byzantine Empire had a multi-ethnic character, but following the loss of the non-Greek speaking provinces it came to be dominated by the Byzantine Greeks. Over time, the relationship between them and the West, particularly with Latin Europe, deteriorated.

Relations were further damaged by a schism between the Catholic West and Orthodox East that led to the Byzantine Greeks being labeled as heretics in the West. Throughout the later centuries of the Byzantine Empire and particularly following the coronation of Charlemagne (reigned as king of the Franks 768–814) in Rome in 800, the Byzantine Greeks were not considered by Western Europeans as heirs of the Roman Empire, but rather as part of an Eastern kingdom made up of Greek peoples. However the Byzantine Empire could claim to be the Roman Empire, continuing the unbroken line of succession of the Roman emperors.

Terminology

During most of the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Greeks identified themselves as Rhōmaîoi (Ῥωμαῖοι, "Romans", meaning citizens of the Roman Empire), a term which in the Greek language had become synonymous with Christian Greeks.^[2][3] They also identified themselves as Graikoí (Γραικοί, "Greeks");^[4] the ethnonym was used habitually for self-referential purposes except in official Byzantine political correspondence prior to the Fourth Crusade of 1204.^[5] The ancient name Hellene was in popular use synonymous to "pagan" and was revived as an ethnonym in the Middle Byzantine period (11th century).^[6]

While in the West the term "Roman" acquired a new meaning in connection with the Catholic Church and the Bishop of Rome, the Greek form "Romaioi" remained attached to the Greeks of the Eastern Roman Empire.^[7] These people called themselves Romaioi (Romans) in their language, and the term "Byzantines" or "Byzantine Greeks" is an exonym applied by later historians like Hieronymus Wolf.^[8] However, the use of the term "Byzantine Greeks" for the Romaioi is not entirely uncontroversial.^[9]

Most historians agree that the defining features of their civilization were: 1) Greek language, culture, literature, and science, 2) Roman law and tradition, 3) Christian faith.^[10] The term "Byzantine" has been adopted by Western scholarship on the assumption that anything Roman is essentially "Western", and also by modern Greek scholarship for nationalistic reasons of identification with ancient Greece.^[9] In modern times, the Greek people still use the ethnonyms "Romaioi" (or rather "Romioi") and "Graikoi" to refer to themselves.^[11] In addition, the Eastern Roman Empire was in language and civilization a Greek society.^[12]

Byzantinist August Heisenberg (1869–1930) defined the Byzantine Empire as "the Christianised Roman empire of the Greek nation".^[13] Byzantium was primarily known as the Empire of the Greeks by foreigners due to the predominance of Greek linguistic, cultural, and demographic elements.^[14]

Historic perspective

Byzantine Greeks, forming the majority of the Byzantine Empire proper at the height of its power, gradually came under the dominance of foreign powers with the decline of the Empire during the Middle Ages. Mostly coming under Arab Muslim rule, Byzantine Greeks either fled their former lands or subdued to the new Muslim rulers, receiving the status of Dhimmi. Over the centuries surviving Christian societies of former Byzantine Greeks evolved into Antiochian Greeks, Melchites or merged into the societies of Arab Christians, existing to this day.

On the other hand, other Byzantines converted to Islam and underwent Turkification over time, mainly those in Anatolia.^[15]

Society

While social mobility was not unknown in Byzantium the order of society was thought of as more enduring, with the average man regarding the court of Heaven to be the archetype of the imperial court in Constantinople.^[16] This society included various classes of people that were neither exclusive nor immutable. The most characteristic were the poor, the peasants, the soldiers, the teachers, entrepreneurs, and clergy.^[16]

The poor

According to a text dated to AD 533, a man was termed "poor" if he did not have 50 gold coins (aurei), which was a modest though not negligible sum.^[17] The Byzantines were heirs to the Greek concepts of charity for the sake of the polis; nevertheless it was the Christian concepts attested in the Bible that animated their giving habits,^[18] and specifically the examples of Basil of Caesarea (who is the Greek equivalent of Santa Claus), Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom.^[18] The number of the poor fluctuated in the many centuries of Byzantium's existence, but they provided a constant supply of muscle power for the building projects and rural work. Their numbers apparently increased in the late fourth and early fifth centuries as barbarian raids and a desire to avoid taxation pushed rural populations into cities.^[19]

Since Homeric times, there were several categories of poverty: the ptochos (Greek: πτωχός, "passive poor") was lower than the penes (Greek: πένης, "active poor").^[20] They formed the majority of the infamous Constantinopolitan mob whose function was similar to the mob of the First Rome. However, while there are instances of riots attributed to the poor, the majority of civil disturbances were specifically attributable to the various factions of the Hippodrome like the Greens and Blues.^[21] The poor made up a non-negligible percentage of the population, but they influenced the Christian society of Byzantium to create a large network of hospitals (Greek: ιατρεία, iatreia) and almshouses, and a religious and social model largely justified by the existence of the poor and born out of the Christian transformation of classical society.^[22]

Peasantry

There are no reliable figures as to the numbers of the peasantry, yet it is widely assumed that the vast majority of Byzantines lived in rural and agrarian areas.^[23] In the Taktika of Emperor Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912), the two professions defined as the backbone of the state are the peasantry (Greek: γεωργική, geōrgikē) and the soldiers (Greek: στρατιωτική, stratiōtikē).^[23] The reason for this was that besides producing most of the Empire's food the peasants also produced most of its taxes.^[23]

Peasants lived mostly in villages, whose name changed slowly from the classical kome (Greek: κώμη) to the modern chorio (Greek: χωριό).^[24] While agriculture and herding were the dominant occupations of villagers they were not the only ones.^[24] There are records for the small town of Lampsakos, situated on the eastern shore of the Hellespont, which out of 173 households classifies 113 as peasant and 60 as urban, which indicate other kinds of ancillary activities.^[24]

The Treatise on Taxation, preserved in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, distinguishes between three types of rural settlements, the chorion (Greek: χωρίον) or village, the agridion (Greek: αγρίδιον) or hamlet, and the proasteion (Greek: προάστειον) or estate.^[24] According to a 14th-century survey of the village of Aphetos, donated to the monastery of Chilandar, the average size of a landholding is only 3.5 modioi (0.08 ha).^[25] Taxes placed on rural populations included the kapnikon (Greek: καπνικόν) or hearth tax, the synone (Greek: συνονή) or cash payment frequently affiliated with the kapnikon, the ennomion (Greek: εννόμιον) or pasture tax, and the aerikon (Greek: αέρικον, meaning "of the air") which depended on the village's population and ranged between 4 and 20 gold coins annually.^[26]

Their diet consisted of mainly grains and beans and in fishing communities fish was usually substituted for meat.^[27] Bread, wine, and olives were important staples of Byzantine diet with soldiers on campaign eating double-baked and dried bread called paximadion (Greek: παξιμάδιον).^[28] As in antiquity and modern times, the most common cultivations in the choraphia (Greek: χωράφια) were olive groves and vineyards. While Liutprand of Cremona, a visitor from Italy, found Greek wine irritating as it was often flavoured with resin (retsina) most other Westerners admired Greek wines, Cretan in particular being famous.^[29]

While both hunting and fishing were common, the peasants mostly hunted to protect their herds and crops.^[30] Apiculture, the keeping of bees, was as highly developed in Byzantium as it had been in Ancient Greece.^[31] Aside from agriculture, the peasants also laboured in the crafts, fiscal inventories mentioning smiths (Greek: χαλκεύς, chalkeus), tailors (Greek: ράπτης, rhaptes), and cobblers (Greek: τζαγγάριος, tzangarios).^[31]

Soldiers

During the Byzantine millennium, hardly a year passed without a military campaign. Soldiers were a normal part of everyday life, much more so than in modern Western societies.^[32] While it is difficult to draw a distinction between Roman and Byzantine soldiers from an organizational aspect, it is easier to do so in terms of their social profile.^[32] The military handbooks known as the Taktika continued a Hellenistic and Roman tradition, and contain a wealth of information about the appearance, customs, habits, and life of the soldiers.^[33]

As with the peasantry, many soldiers performed ancillary activities, like medics and technicians.^[34] Selection for military duty was annual with yearly call-ups and great stock was placed on military exercises, during the winter months, which formed a large part of a soldier's life.^[35]

Until the 11th century, the majority of the conscripts were from rural areas, while the conscription of craftsmen and merchants is still an open question.^[36] From then on, professional recruiting replaced conscription, and the increasing use of mercenaries in the army was ruinous for the treasury.^[36] From the 10th century onwards, there were laws connecting land ownership and military service. While the state never allotted land for obligatory service, soldiers could and did use their pay to buy landed estates, and taxes would be decreased or waived in some cases.^[37] What the state did allocate to soldiers, however, from the 12th century onwards, were the tax revenues from some estates called pronoiai (Greek: πρόνοιαι). As in antiquity, the basic food of the soldier remained the dried biscuit bread, though its name had changed from boukelaton (Greek: βουκελάτον) to paximadion.

Teachers

Byzantine education was the product of an ancient Greek educational tradition that stretched back to the 5th century BC.^[38] It comprised a tripartite system of education that, taking shape during the Hellenistic era, was maintained, with inevitable changes, up until the fall of Constantinople.^[38] The stages of education were the elementary school, where pupils ranged from six to ten years, secondary school, where pupils ranged from ten to sixteen, and higher education.^[39]

Elementary education was widely available throughout most of the Byzantine Empire's existence, in the countryside, as well as in towns. This, in turn, ensured that literacy was much more widespread than in Western Europe, at least until the twelfth century.^[39] Secondary education was confined to the larger cities while higher education was the exclusive provenance of Constantinople.^[39]

The elementary school teacher occupied a low social position and taught mainly from simple fairy tale books (Aesop's Fables were often used).^[40] However, the grammarian and rhetorician, teachers responsible for the following two phases of education, were more respected.^[40] These used classical Greek texts like Homer's Iliad or Odyssey and much of their time was taken with detailed word-for-word explication.^[40] Books were rare and very expensive and likely only possessed by teachers who dictated passages to students.^[41]

Women

Women have tended to be overlooked in Byzantine studies as Byzantine society left few records about them.^[42] Women were disadvantaged in some aspects of their legal status and in their access to education, and limited in their freedom of movement.^[43] The life of a Byzantine Greek woman could be divided into three phases: girlhood, motherhood, and widowhood.^[44]

Childhood was brief and perilous, even more so for girls than boys.^[44] Parents would celebrate the birth of a boy twice as much and there is some evidence of female infanticide (i.e. roadside abandonment and suffocation), though it was contrary to both civil and canon law.^[44] Educational opportunities for girls were few: they did not attend regular schools but were taught in groups at home by tutors.^[45] With few exceptions, education was limited to literacy and the Bible; a famous exception is the Princess Anna Comnena, whose Alexiad displays a great depth of erudition.^[46] The majority of a young girl's daily life would be spent in household and agrarian chores, preparing herself for marriage.^[46]

For most girls, childhood came to an end with the onset of puberty, which was followed shortly after by betrothal and marriage.^[47] Although marriage arranged by the family was the norm, romantic love was not unknown.^[47] Most women bore many children but few survived infancy, and grief for the loss of a loved one was an inalienable part of life.^[48] The main form of birth control was abstinence, and while there is evidence of contraception it seems to have been mainly used by prostitutes.^[49]

Due to prevailing norms of modesty, women would wear clothing that covered the whole of their body except their hands.^[50] While women among the poor sometimes wore sleeveless tunics, most women were obliged to cover even their hair with the long maphorion (Greek: μαφόριον) veil. Women of means, however, spared no expense in adorning their clothes with exquisite jewelry and fine silk fabrics.^[50] Divorces were hard to obtain even though there were laws permitting them.^[51] Husbands would often beat their wives, though the reverse was not unknown, as in Theodore Prodromos's description of a battered husband in the Ptochoprodromos poems.^[51]

Although female life expectancy in Byzantium was lower than that of men, due to death in childbirth, wars and the fact that men married younger, female widowhood was still fairly common.^[51] Still, some women were able to circumvent societal strictures and work as traders, artisans, abbots, entertainers, and scholars.^[52]

Entrepreneurs

The traditional image of Byzantine Greek merchants as unenterprising benefactors of state aid is beginning to change for that of mobile, pro-active agents.^[54] The merchant class, particularly that of Constantinople, became a force of its own that could, at times, even threaten the Emperor as it did in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.^[55] This was achieved through efficient use of credit and other monetary innovations. Merchants invested surplus funds in financial products called chreokoinonia (Greek: χρεοκοινωνία), the equivalent and perhaps ancestor of the later Italian commenda.^[55]

Eventually, the purchasing power of Byzantine merchants became such that it could influence prices in markets as far afield as Cairo and Alexandria.^[54] In reflection of their success, emperors gave merchants the right to become members of the Senate, that is to integrate themselves with the ruling elite.^[56] This had an end by the end of the eleventh century when political machinations allowed the landed aristocracy to secure the throne for a century and more.^[56] Following that phase, however, the enterprising merchants bounced back and wielded real clout during the time of the Third Crusade.^[57]

The reason Byzantine Greek merchants have often been neglected in historiography is not that they were any less able than their ancient or modern Greek colleagues in matters of trade. It rather originated with the way history was written in Byzantium, which was often under the patronage of their competitors, the court, and land aristocracy.^[57] The fact that they were eventually surpassed by their Italian rivals is attributable to the privileges sought and acquired by the Crusader States within the Levant and the dominant maritime violence of the Italians.^[57]

Clergy

Unlike in Western Europe where priests were clearly demarcated from the laymen, the clergy of the Eastern Roman Empire remained in close contact with the rest of society.^[58] Readers and subdeacons were drawn from the laity and expected to be at least twenty years of age while priests and bishops had to be at least 30.^[58] Unlike the Latin church, the Byzantine church allowed married priests and deacons, as long as they were married before ordination. Bishops, however, were required to be unmarried.^[58]

While the religious hierarchy mirrored the Empire's administrative divisions, the clergy were more ubiquitous than the emperor's servants.^[59] The issue of caesaropapism, while usually associated with the Byzantine Empire, is now understood to be an oversimplification of actual conditions in the Empire.^[60] By the fifth century, the Patriarch of Constantinople was recognized as first among equals of the four eastern Patriarchs and as of equal status with the Pope in Rome.^[58]

The ecclesiastical provinces were called eparchies and were headed by archbishops or metropolitans who supervised their subordinate bishops or episkopoi. For most people, however, it was their parish priest or papas (from the Greek word for "father") that was the most recognizable face of the clergy.^[58][61]

Culture

Language

Linguistically, Byzantine or medieval Greek is situated between the Hellenistic (Koine) and modern phases of the language.^[62] Since as early as the Hellenistic era, Greek had been the lingua franca of the educated elites of the Eastern Mediterranean, spoken natively in the southern Balkans, the Greek islands, Asia Minor, and the ancient and Hellenistic Greek colonies of Southern Italy, the Black Sea, western Asia and north Africa.^[63] At the beginning of the Byzantine millennium, the koine (Greek: κοινή) remained the basis for spoken Greek and Christian writings, while Attic Greek was the language of the philosophers and orators.^[64]

As Christianity became the dominant religion, Attic began to be used in Christian writings in addition to and often interspersed with koine Greek.^[64] Nonetheless, from the 6th at least until the 12th century, Attic remained entrenched in the educational system; while further changes to the spoken language can be postulated for the early and middle Byzantine periods.^[64]

The population of the Byzantine Empire, at least in its early stages, had a variety of mother tongues including Greek.^[64] These included Latin, Aramaic, Coptic, and Caucasian languages, while Cyril Mango also cites evidence for bilingualism in the south and southeast.^[65] These influences, as well as an influx of people of Arabic, Celtic, Germanic, Turkic, and Slavic backgrounds, supplied medieval Greek with many loanwords that have survived in the modern Greek language.^[65] From the 11th century onward, there was also a steady rise in the literary use of the vernacular.^[65]

Following the Fourth Crusade, there was increased contact with the West; and the lingua franca of commerce became Italian. In the areas of the Crusader kingdoms a classical education (Greek: παιδεία, paideia) ceased to be a sine qua non of social status, leading to the rise of the vernacular.^[65] From this era many beautiful works in the vernacular, often written by people deeply steeped in classical education, are attested.^[65] A famous example is the four Ptochoprodromic poems attributed to Theodoros Prodromos.^[65] From the 13th to the 15th centuries, the last centuries of the Empire, there arose several works, including laments, fables, romances, and chronicles, written outside Constantinople, which until then had been the seat of most literature, in an idiom termed by scholars as "Byzantine Koine".^[65]

However, the diglossia of the Greek-speaking world, which had already started in ancient Greece, continued under Ottoman rule and persisted in the modern Greek state until 1976, although Koine Greek remains the official language of the Greek Orthodox Church. As shown in the poems of Ptochoprodromos, an early stage of modern Greek had already been shaped by the 12th century and possibly earlier. Vernacular Greek continued to be known as "Romaic" until the 20th century.^[66]

Religion

At the time of Constantine the Great (r. 306–337), barely 10% of the Roman Empire's population were Christians, with most of them being urban population and generally found in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. The majority of people still honoured the old gods in the public Roman way of religio.^[67] As Christianity became a complete philosophical system, whose theory and apologetics were heavily indebted to the Classic word, this changed.^[68] In addition, Constantine as Pontifex Maximus was responsible for the correct cultus or veneratio of the deity which was in accordance with former Roman practice.^[69] The move from the old religion to the new entailed some elements of continuity as well as break with the past, though the artistic heritage of paganism was literally broken by Christian zeal.^[70]

Christianity led to the development of a few phenomena characteristic of Byzantium. Namely, the intimate connection between Church and State, a legacy of Roman cultus.^[70] Also, the creation of a Christian philosophy that guided Byzantine Greeks in their everyday lives.^[70] And finally, the dichotomy between the Christian ideals of the Bible and classical Greek paideia which could not be left out, however, since so much of Christian scholarship and philosophy depended on it.^[68][70] These shaped Byzantine Greek character and the perceptions of themselves and others.

Christians at the time of Constantine's conversion made up only 10% of the population.^[67] This would rise to 50% by the end of the fourth century and 90% by the end of the fifth century.^[70] Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) then brutally mopped up the rest of the pagans, highly literate academics on one end of the scale and illiterate peasants on the other.^[70] A conversion so rapid seems to have been rather the result of expediency than of conviction.^[70]

The survival of the Empire in the East assured an active role of the emperor in the affairs of the Church. The Byzantine state inherited from pagan times the administrative and financial routine of organising religious affairs, and this routine was applied to the Christian Church. Following the pattern set by Eusebius of Caesarea, the Byzantines viewed the emperor as a representative or messenger of Christ, responsible particularly for the propagation of Christianity among pagans, and for the "externals" of the religion, such as administration and finances. The imperial role in the affairs of the Church never developed into a fixed, legally defined system, however.^[71]

With the decline of Rome, and internal dissension in the other Eastern patriarchates, the church of Constantinople became, between the 6th and 11th centuries, the richest and most influential centre of Christendom.^[72] Even when the Byzantine Empire was reduced to only a shadow of its former self, the Church, as an institution, exercised so much influence both inside and outside the imperial frontiers as never before. As George Ostrogorsky points out:^[73]

"The Patriarchate of Constantinople remained the center of the Orthodox world, with subordinate metropolitan sees and archbishoprics in the territory of Asia Minor and the Balkans, now lost to Byzantium, as well as in Caucasus, Russia and Lithuania. The Church remained the most stable element in the Byzantine Empire."

In terms of religion, Byzantine Greek Macedonia is also significant as being the home of Saints Cyril and Methodius, two Greek brothers from Thessaloniki (Salonika) who were sent on state-sponsored missions to proselytize among the Slavs of the Balkans and east-central Europe. This involved Cyril and Methodius having to translate the Christian Bible into the Slavs' own language, for which they invented an alphabet that became known as Old Church Slavonic. In the process, this cemented the Greek brothers' status as the pioneers of Slavic literature and those who first introduced Byzantine civilization and Orthodox Christianity to the hitherto illiterate and pagan Slavs.

Perceptions

Self-perception

Within the Byzantine Empire, a Greek or Hellenised citizen was generally called a Rhōmaîos (Ῥωμαῖος), which was first of all defined in opposition to a foreigner, ethnikós (Greek: ἐθνικός).^[74] The Byzantine Greeks were, and perceived themselves as, the descendants of their classical Greek forebears,^[75][76][77] the political heirs of imperial Rome,^[78][79] and followers of the Apostles.^[75] Thus, their sense of "Romanity" was different from that of their contemporaries in the West. "Romaic" was the name of the vulgar Greek language, as opposed to "Hellenic" which was its literary or doctrinal form.^[80] "Greek" (Γραικός) had become synonymous with "Roman" (Ῥωμαῖος) and "Christian" (Χριστιανός) to mean a Christian Greek citizen of the [Eastern] Roman Empire.^[2] There was always an element of indifference or neglect of everything non-Greek, which was therefore "barbarian".^[81]

Official discourse

In official discourse, "all inhabitants of the empire were subjects of the emperor, and therefore Romans." Thus the primary definition of Rhōmaios was "political or statist."^[82] In order to succeed in being a full-blown and unquestioned "Roman" it was best to be a Greek Orthodox Christian and a Greek-speaker, at least in one's public persona.^[82] Yet, the cultural uniformity which the Byzantine church and the state pursued through Orthodoxy and the Greek language was not sufficient to erase distinct identities, nor did it aim to.^[81][82] The highest compliment that could be paid to a foreigner was to call him andreîos Rhōmaióphrōn (ἀνδρεῖος Ῥωμαιόφρων, roughly "a Roman-minded fellow").^[74]

Regional identity

Often one's local (geographic) identity could outweigh one's identity as a Rhōmaios. The terms xénos (Greek: ξένος) and exōtikós (Greek: ἐξωτικός) denoted "people foreign to the local population," regardless of whether they were from abroad or from elsewhere within the Byzantine Empire.^[74] "When a person was away from home he was a stranger and was often treated with suspicion. A monk from western Asia Minor who joined a monastery in Pontus was 'disparaged and mistreated by everyone as a stranger'. The corollary to regional solidarity was regional hostility."^[83]

Revival of Hellenism

From an evolutionary standpoint, Byzantium was a multi-ethnic empire that emerged as a Christian empire, soon comprised the Hellenised empire of the East, and ended its thousand-year history, in 1453, as a Greek Orthodox state: an empire that became a nation, almost by the modern meaning of the word.^[84] The presence of a distinctive and historically rich literary culture was also very important in the division between "Greek" East and "Latin" West and thus the formation of both.^[85] It was a multi-ethnic empire where the Hellenic element was predominant, especially in the later period.^[82]

Spoken language and state, the markers of identity that were to become a fundamental tenet of nineteenth-century nationalism throughout Europe became, by accident, a reality during a formative period of medieval Greek history.^[86] Beginning in the twelfth century, certain Byzantine Greek intellectuals began to use the ancient Greek ethnonym Héllēn (Greek: Ἕλλην) in order to describe Byzantine civilisation.^[87]

During the later period of the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Theodore I Laskaris (r. 1205–1222) tried to revive Hellenic tradition by fostering the study of philosophy, for in his opinion there was a danger that philosophy "might abandon the Greeks and seek refuge among the Latins". In a letter to Pope Gregory IX, the Byzantine emperor John Vatatzes (r. 1221–1254) claimed to have received the gift of royalty from Constantine the Great, and put emphasis on his "Hellenic" descent, exalting the wisdom of the Greek people. He was presenting Hellenic culture as an integral part of the Byzantine polity in defiance of Latin claims.^[88]

Byzantine Greeks had always felt superior for being the inheritors of a more ancient civilisation, but such ethnic identifications had not been politically popular up until then.^[88] Hence, in the context of increasing Venetian and Genoese power in the eastern Mediterranean, association with Hellenism took deeper root among the Byzantine elite, on account of a desire to distinguish themselves from the Latin West and to lay legitimate claims to Greek-speaking lands.^[89]

Claims of association with Hellenism continued and increased throughout the Palaiologan dynasty. The scholar, teacher, and translator, John Argyropoulos, addressed Emperor John VIII Palaiologos (r. 1425–1448) as "Sun King of Hellas" and urged the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos (r. 1449–1453), to proclaim himself "King of the Hellenes". During the same period, the neo-platonic philosopher George Gemistos Plethon boasted "We are Hellenes by race and culture," and proposed a reborn Byzantine Empire following a utopian Hellenic system of government centered in Mystras.^[90] According to the historian George Sphrantzes, on the eve of the Fall of Constantinople, the last Byzantine emperor urged his soldiers to remember that they were the descendants of Greeks and Romans.^[91]

Western perception

In the eyes of the West, after the coronation of Charlemagne, the Byzantines were not acknowledged as the inheritors of the Roman Empire. Byzantium was rather perceived to be a corrupted continuation of ancient Greece, and was often derided as the "Empire of the Greeks" or "Kingdom of Greece". Such denials of Byzantium's Roman heritage and ecumenical rights would instigate the first resentments between Greeks and "Latins" (for the Latin liturgical rite) or "Franks" (for Charlemegne's ethnicity), as they were called by the Greeks.^[81][92][93]

Popular Western opinion is reflected in the Translatio militiae, whose anonymous Latin author states that the Greeks had lost their courage and their learning, and therefore did not join in the war against the infidels. In another passage, the ancient Greeks are praised for their military skill and their learning, by which means the author draws a contrast with contemporary Byzantine Greeks, who were generally viewed as a non-warlike and schismatic people.^[81][92][93] While this reputation seems strange to modern eyes given the unceasing military operations of the Byzantines and their eight century struggle against Islam and Islamic states, it reflects the realpolitik sophistication of the Byzantines, who employed diplomacy and trade as well as armed force in foreign policy, and the high-level of their culture in contrast to the zeal of the Crusaders and the ignorance and superstition of the medieval West. As historian Steven Runciman has put it:^[94]

"Ever since our rough crusading forefathers first saw Constantinople and met, to their contemptuous disgust, a society where everyone read and wrote, ate food with forks and preferred diplomacy to war, it has been fashionable to pass the Byzantines by with scorn and to use their name as synonymous with decadence".

A turning point in how both sides viewed each other is probably the massacre of Latins in Constantinople in 1182. The massacre followed the deposition of Maria of Antioch, a Norman-Frankish (therefore "Latin") princess who was ruling as regent to her infant son Emperor Alexios II Komnenos. Maria was deeply unpopular due to the heavy-handed favoritism that had been shown the Italian merchants during the regency and popular celebrations of her downfall by the citizenry of Constantinople quickly turned to rioting and massacre. The event and the horrific reports of survivors inflamed religious tensions in the West, leading to the retaliatory sacking of Thessalonica, the empire's second largest city, by William II of Sicily. An example of Western opinion at the time is the writings of William of Tyre, who described the "Greek nation" as "a brood of vipers, like a serpent in the bosom or a mouse in the wardrobe evilly requite their guests".^[95]

See also

Ethnic, religious and political formations

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading

Byzantine Greece People Byzantine Greeks Justinian I Justinian II Irene of Athens Staurakios Nikephoros I Basil I Nikon the Metanoeite Luke of Steiris Basil II Eustathius of Thessalonica Michael Choniates Leo Sgouros Leo Gabalas Michael I Komnenos Doukas Theodore Komnenos Doukas Demetrios Chomatenos John Apokaukos Michael II Komnenos Doukas Michael VIII Palaiologos John I Doukas of Thessaly Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas Thomas I Komnenos Doukas Nicholas Orsini Andronikos Asen John II Orsini Andronikos III Palaiologos Michael Monomachos John Angelos Stephen Gabrielopoulos Nikephoros II Orsini Manuel Kantakouzenos Simeon Uroš Thomas Preljubović Esau de' Buondelmonti Alexios Angelos Philanthropenos Theodore II Palaiologos Gemistus Pletho Constantine XI Palaiologos Demetrios Palaiologos Thomas Palaiologos Byzantine scholars in Renaissance Major centres Thessaloniki Athens Corinth Mystras Patras Thebes Arta Ioannina Provinces and regions Theme of the Aegean Crete Theme of Hellas Theme of Samos Theme of Macedonia Theme of Strymon Theme of Thessalonica Theme of the Peloponnese Theme of Cephallenia Theme of Nicopolis Sclaviniae Melingoi and Ezeritai Tsakonia Great Vlachia Greek states after 1204 Despotate of Epirus Empire of Nicaea Empire of Thessalonica Despotate of the Morea Thessaly History Byzantine Iconoclasm Arab–Byzantine wars Muslim conquest of Crete Byzantine reconquest of Crete Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria Siege of Patras (805 or 807) Seljuq campaigns in the Aegean Byzantine–Norman wars Sack of Thessalonica (1185) Fourth Crusade Battle of the Olive Grove of Kountouras Under the Palaiologos dynasty Battle of Prinitza Battle of Makryplagi Battle of Neopatras Battle of Pharsalus (1277) Battle of Demetrias Byzantine civil war of 1321–28 Byzantine–Genoese War (1348–49) Zealots of Thessalonica Byzantine civil war of 1341–47 Byzantine–Ottoman Wars Siege of Thessalonica (1422–30) Battle of the Echinades (1427) Morea revolt of 1453–54 Culture Byzantine art Byzantine music Byzantine lyra Byzantine dance Byzantine literature Greek Anthology Acritic songs Alexander romance Byzantine architecture Byzantine dress Byzantine cuisine Greek Orthodox Church Byzantine law Hexabiblos Monuments Acrocorinth Agios Eleftherios Church, Athens Angelokastro (Corfu) Church of the Holy Apostles, Athens Daphni Monastery Gardiki Castle Hexamilion wall Hosios Loukas Kassiopi Castle Meteora Mount Athos Monastery of Saint John the Theologian Monemvasia Mystras Nea Moni of Chios Panagia Episkopi Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki Panagia Ekatontapiliani Patras Castle

Byzantine Empire topics   History Preceding Roman Empire Dominate (330–717) Early Constantinian dynasty Valentinian dynasty Theodosian dynasty Leonid dynasty Justinian dynasty Heraclian dynasty Twenty Years' Anarchy (717–1204) Middle Isaurian dynasty Nikephorian dynasty Amorian dynasty Macedonian dynasty Doukid dynasty Komnenian dynasty Angelid dynasty (1204–1453) Late Fourth Crusade Latin Empire / Nicaea / Epirus / Trebizond / others Palaiologan dynasty Fall of Constantinople   Governance Central Emperors Basileus Autokrator Senate Imperial bureaucracy Eparch Early Praetorian prefects Magister officiorum Comes sacrarum largitionum Comes rerum privatarum Quaestor sacri palatii Middle Logothetes tou dromou Sakellarios Logothetes tou genikou Logothetes tou stratiotikou Chartoularios tou sakelliou Chartoularios tou vestiariou Epi tou eidikou Protasekretis Epi ton deeseon Late Megas logothetes Mesazon Provincial Early Praetorian prefectures Dioceses Provinces Quaestura exercitus Exarchate of Ravenna Exarchate of Africa Middle Themata Kleisourai Bandon Catepanates Late Kephale Despotates Diplomacy Treaties Diplomats   Military Army Battle tactics Military manuals Wars Battles Revolts Siege warfare Generals Mercenaries Early Late Roman army East Roman army Foederati Bucellarii Scholae Palatinae Excubitors Middle Themata Kleisourai Tourma Droungos Bandon Tagmata Domestic of the Schools Hetaireia Akritai Varangian Guard Late Komnenian army Pronoia Vestiaritai Palaiologan army Allagion Paramonai Grand Domestic Navy Karabisianoi Maritime themata Cibyrrhaeot Aegean Sea Samos Dromon Greek fire Droungarios of the Fleet Megas doux Admirals Naval battles   Religion and law Religion Eastern Orthodox Church Byzantine Rite Ecumenical councils Saints Patriarchate of Constantinople Arianism Monophysitism Paulicianism Iconoclasm Great Schism Bogomilism Hesychasm Mount Athos Missionary activity Bulgaria Moravia Serbs Kievan Rus' Jews Muslims Law Codex Theodosianus Corpus Juris Civilis Ecloga Basilika Hexabiblos Mutilation   Culture and society Architecture Secular Sacred Cross-in-square Domes Constantinople Great Palace of Constantinople Blachernae Palace Hagia Sophia Hagia Irene Chora Church Pammakaristos Church City Walls Thessalonica Arch of Galerius and Rotunda Hagios Demetrios Hagia Sophia Panagia Chalkeon Ravenna San Vitale Sant'Apollinare in Classe Sant'Apollinare Nuovo Other locations Daphni Monastery Hosios Loukas Nea Moni of Chios Saint Catherine's Monastery Mystras Art Icons Mosaics Painters Macedonian period art Komnenian renaissance Economy Agriculture Coinage Mints Trade silk Silk Road Varangians Dynatoi Literature Novel Acritic songs Digenes Akritas Alexander romance Historians Everyday life Calendar Cuisine Dance Dress Flags and insignia Hippodrome Music Octoechos People Byzantine Greeks Slavery Units of measurement Science Learning Encyclopaedism Inventions Medicine Philosophy Neoplatonism Scholars Renaissance University   Impact Byzantine commonwealth Byzantine studies Museums Byzantinism Cyrillic script Neo-Byzantine architecture Third Rome Megali Idea Byzantine Empire portal