pliot5334 (October 10, 2008 at 3:17 pm)

Actualy the name byzantine existed in ancient greece as constainoble was once known as byzantium an ancient greek city hence the name constainoble.

Palaiologos (October 1, 2008 at 8:41 pm)

Nice post erevos111

erevos111 (October 1, 2008 at 6:04 pm)

Also Arabs were calling them Romans, Turks were calling them Romans. When Seljuk Turks established a kingdom in Minor Asia in the 11th century they called it the SULTANATE OF RUM, meaning the kingdom of ROme. The Westerners, Franks Italians, Germans were calling them Greeks. The Greeks still are calling themselves ROMIOI even today. In final analysis you cannot understand Byzantine culture if you seperate Roman or Greek tradition from it.

erevos111 (October 1, 2008 at 5:55 pm)

Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire.The name Byzantine did not come into existence untill the 18th century from English Historians. At the time of its existence, the Byzantines were calling themselves Romans and were fully aware of their Roman tradition. At the same time they were also aware of their Greek tradition and culture. It was a fusion of GrecoRoman civilization with the Greek element becoming more dominant in the later years.

Palaiologos (October 1, 2008 at 1:11 pm)

And once again ( know i said this quite a few times) we should not confuse the way we define modern ethnic states with medieval times. Thanks for commenting.

Palaiologos (October 1, 2008 at 1:08 pm)

Roman was more like a political term underlining the position held by the Byzantine state among other Christian states as lawful heirs of the Roman Empire. The Byzantines never named themselves Latins .. on the contrary they even despised this term especially after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. The so called Latin Empire of Constantinople existed only between 1204 and 1261 until Michael Paleologos recaptured the City from the Latins. The Empire was Greek from every other aspect.

nomust (September 29, 2008 at 2:41 am)

@jihadmycrusadeThe empire was hellenised very early and before the arrival of Christ. Rome was speaking Greek, that's why Saint Paul wrote to Romans in Greek. Romans adopted the Greek culture form the beginning. It was a Greco-Roman Empire from day one.

PedroAFC (September 28, 2008 at 10:50 pm)

Not Romans??And the therm "ROMANIOI"???And latin dinasty?

nomust (September 22, 2008 at 6:56 pm)

Why do you give away the name Roman to the heretics and to the Germans who conquered and enslaved the Romans? The Roman Empire never changed its name into Byzantium. Roman came to mean Orthodox. Greeks were Romans. The leadership of the Roman Empire passed to the Greeks. The western historians named the Empire Byzantium in order to support the lie that the Roman Empire was the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne. The Greeks are Romans but not all the Romans are Greeks.

Quentin0000000000 (September 19, 2008 at 10:31 pm)

plainly you've not read many books