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 Scenes of agricultural life in a Byzantine Gospel of the 11th century. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
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| Byzantine Empire (esp.Asia Minor,Balkans) | |
| Languages | |
| Medieval Greek | |
| Religion | |
| Eastern Orthodox Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Ottoman Greeks,Greeks |
| Byzantine culture |
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TheByzantine Greeks were theGreek-speakingEastern Romans throughoutLate Antiquity and theMiddle Ages.[citation needed] They were the main inhabitants of the lands of theByzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), ofConstantinople andAsia Minor (modern Turkey), theGreek islands,Cyprus, and portions of the southernBalkans, and formed large minorities, or pluralities, in the coastal urban centres of theLevant and northernEgypt. Throughout their history, they self-identified asRomans (Greek:Ῥωμαῖοι,romanized: Rhōmaîoi). Latin speakers identified them simply asGreeks or with the termRomaei.
Use ofGreek was already widespread in the eastern Roman Empire whenConstantine I (r. 306–337) moved its capital toConstantinople, while Anatolia had also beenhellenized by early Byzantine times.[1] The empire lost its diversity following the loss of non-Greek speaking provinces with the 7th centuryMuslim conquests and its population was overwhelmingly Greek-speaking by the 8th century.[2] Unlike the early medieval West, the Greek education of the East was more advanced, resulting in widespread basic literacy. Success came easily to Greek-speaking merchants, who enjoyed a strong position in international trade.
Social structure was primarily supported by a rural, agrarian base that consisted of thepeasantry, and a small fraction of the poor. These peasants lived within three kinds of settlements: thechorion or village, theagridion orhamlet, and theproasteion orestate. Many civil disturbances 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. By the 11th century, more of the soldiers within thearmy were either professional men-at-arms ormercenaries.
The clergy held a special place in the empire, having more freedom than their Western counterparts, and maintaining a patriarch in Constantinople who was considered the equivalent of thepope. Following the imperial coronation ofCharlemagne (r. 768–814) in Rome in 800, the Byzantines were not considered by Western Europeans as heirs of the Roman Empire, but rather as part of an Eastern Greek kingdom. Their relations were further damaged by theEast–West Schism of 1054.
After thefall of the empire, theOttomans used the term "Rum millet" ("Roman nation") for their Greek and Eastern Orthodox populations.[3] It increasingly transformed into an ethnic identity, marked by Greek language and Orthodoxy, shaping modernGreek identity.[4][5] Although the term 'Hellen' was briefly revived by theNicaenean elite and in intellectual circles byGemistos Plethon andJohn Argyropoulos,[6] the Roman self-identification persisted until theGreek Revolution, when 'Hellen' came to replace it. Greeks still sometimes use "Romioi" ("Romans") in addition to "Hellenes", and "Romaic" ("Roman") for theModern Greek language.[7][8]
During most of the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Greeks self-identified asRhōmaîoi (Ῥωμαῖοι, "Romans", meaningcitizens of theRoman Empire), a term which in theGreek language had become synonymous with Christian Greeks.[9][10] The Latinizing termGraikoí (Γραικοί, "Greeks") was also used,[11] though its use was less common, and nonexistent in official Byzantine political correspondence, prior to the Fourth Crusade of 1204.[12] While this Latin term for the ancientHellenes could be used neutrally, its use by Westerners from the 9th century onwards in order to challenge Byzantine claims toancient Roman heritage rendered it a derogatoryexonym for the Byzantines who barely used it, mostly in contexts relating to the West, such as texts relating to theCouncil of Florence, to present the Western viewpoint.[13][14] The ancient nameHellenes was synonymous to "pagan" in popular use, but was revived as an ethnonym in the Middle Byzantine period (11th century).[15]
While in the West the term "Roman" acquired a new meaning in connection with theCatholic Church and theBishop of Rome, the Greek form "Romaioi" remained attached to the Greeks of the Eastern Roman Empire.[16] The term "Byzantine Greeks" is anexonym applied by later historians likeHieronymus Wolf; "Byzantine" citizens continued to call themselvesRomaioi (Romans) in their language.[17] Despite the shift in terminology in the West, the Byzantines Empire's eastern neighbors, such as the Arabs, continued to refer to the Byzantines as "Romans", as for instance in the 30thSurah of the Quran (Ar-Rum).[18] The signifier "Roman" (Rum millet, "Roman nation") was also used by the Byzantines' laterOttoman rivals, and its Turkish equivalentRûm, "Roman", continues to be used officially by the government ofTurkey to denote the Greek Orthodox natives (Rumlar) ofIstanbul, as well as theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Turkish:Rum Ortodoks Patrikhanesi, "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate"[19]).[20]
Among Slavic populations of southeast Europe, such as Bulgarians and Serbs the name "Rhomaioi" (Romans) in their languages was most commonly translated as "Greki" (Greeks). Some Slavonic texts during the early medieval era also used the termsRimljani orRomei.[21] At least one 11th-century Bulgarian source is attested which refers to "Ellini rimski" (Roman Hellenes).[22] In most medieval Bulgarian sources the Byzantine Emperors were the "Tsars of the Greeks" and the Byzantine Empire was known as "Tsardom of the Greeks". Both rulers of theDespotate of Epirus and theEmpire of Nicaea were also "Greek tsars ruling over Greek people".[23]
Equally, amongNordic people such asIcelanders,Varangians (Vikings) and other Scandinavian people, "Rhomaioi" were called "Grikkr" (Greeks). There are various runic inscriptions left in Norway, Sweden and even inAthens by travellers and members of theVarangian Guard likeGreece runestones and thePiraeus Lion which we meet the termsGrikkland (Greece) andGrikkr referring to their ventures in Byzantine Empire and their interaction with the Byzantines.[24]
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 inConstantinople.[25] 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.[25]
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.[26] The Byzantines were heirs to the Greek concepts of charity for the sake of thepolis; nevertheless it was the Christian concepts attested in the Bible that animated their giving habits,[27] and specifically the examples ofBasil of Caesarea (who is the Greek equivalent ofSanta Claus),Gregory of Nyssa, andJohn Chrysostom.[27] The number of the poor fluctuated in the many centuries ofByzantium'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 asbarbarian raids and a desire to avoid taxation pushed rural populations into cities.[28]
Since Homeric times, there were several categories of poverty: theptochos (πτωχός, "passive poor") was lower than thepenes (πένης, "active poor").[29] They formed the majority of the infamous Constantinopolitan mob whose function was similar to the mob of theFirst 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 theHippodrome like the Greens and Blues.[30] The poor made up a non-negligible percentage of the population, but they influenced the Christian society of Byzantium to create a large network ofhospitals (iatreia,ιατρεία) 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.[31]
Byzantine state and society relied on theHellenistic system of joint tax liability due to the easy handling, fast and simple revenue for the state from the different towns and villageschorio,komai mostly made up of peasants, who were the main income.[32] There are no reliable figures as to the numbers of the peasantry, yet it is widely assumed that the vast majority of Byzantine Greeks lived in rural and agrarian areas.[33] In theTaktika of EmperorLeo VI the Wise (r. 886–912), the two professions defined as the backbone of the state are the peasantry (geōrgikē,γεωργική, "farmers") and the soldiers (stratiōtikē,στρατιωτική).[33]
Peasants lived mostly in villages, whose name changed slowly from the classicalkome (κώμη) to the modernchorio (χωριό).[34] While agriculture and herding were the dominant occupations of villagers they were not the only ones.[34] There are records for the small town ofLampsakos, situated on the eastern shore of theHellespont, which out of 173 households classifies 113 aspeasant and 60 asurban, which indicate other kinds of ancillary activities.[34]
TheTreatise on Taxation, preserved in theBiblioteca Marciana in Venice, distinguishes between three types of rural settlements, thechorion (Greek: χωρίον) or village, theagridion (Greek: αγρίδιον) or hamlet, and theproasteion (Greek: προάστειον) or estate.[34] According to a 14th-century survey of the village of Aphetos, donated to the monastery ofChilandar, the average size of a landholding is only 3.5 modioi (0.08 ha).[35] Taxes placed on rural populations included thekapnikon (Greek: καπνικόν) or hearth tax, thesynone (Greek: συνονή) or cash payment frequently affiliated with thekapnikon, theennomion (Greek: εννόμιον) orpasture tax, and theaerikon (Greek: αέρικον, meaning "of the air") which depended on the village's population and ranged between 4 and 20 gold coins annually.[36]
Theirdiet consisted of mainlygrains andbeans and in fishing communitiesfish was usually substituted formeat.[37]Bread,wine, andolives were important staples of Byzantine diet with soldiers on campaign eating double-baked and dried bread calledpaximadion (Greek: παξιμάδιον).[38] As in antiquity and modern times, the most common cultivations in thechoraphia (Greek: χωράφια) wereolive groves andvineyards. WhileLiutprand of Cremona, a visitor fromItaly, found Greek wine irritating as it was often flavoured with resin (retsina) most other Westerners admired Greek wines, Cretan in particular being famous.[39]
While bothhunting andfishing were common, the peasants mostly hunted to protect their herds and crops.[40]Apiculture, the keeping ofbees, was as highly developed in Byzantium as it had been inAncient Greece.[41] Aside from agriculture, the peasants also laboured in the crafts, fiscal inventories mentioningsmiths (Greek: χαλκεύς,chalkeus),tailors (Greek: ράπτης,rhaptes), andcobblers (Greek: τζαγγάριος,tzangarios).[41]
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.[42] While it is difficult to draw a distinction betweenRoman andByzantine soldiers from an organizational aspect, it is easier to do so in terms of their social profile.[42] The military handbooks known as theTaktika continued aHellenistic and Roman tradition, and contain a wealth of information about the appearance, customs, habits, and life of the soldiers.[43]
As with the peasantry, many soldiers performed ancillary activities, likemedics andtechnicians.[44] 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.[45]
Until the 11th century, the majority of theconscripts were from rural areas, while the conscription ofcraftsmen andmerchants is still an open question.[46] From then on, professional recruiting replaced conscription, and the increasing use of mercenaries in the army was ruinous for the treasury.[46] 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.[47] What the state did allocate to soldiers, however, from the 12th century onwards, were the tax revenues from some estates calledpronoiai (πρόνοιαι). As in antiquity, the basic food of the soldier remained the dried biscuit bread, though its name had changed fromboukelaton (βουκελάτον) topaximadion.
Byzantine education was the product of an ancient Greek educational tradition that stretched back to the 5th century BC.[48] It comprised a tripartite system of education that, taking shape during theHellenistic era, was maintained, with inevitable changes, up until thefall of Constantinople.[48] 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.[49]
Elementary education was widely available throughout most of the Byzantine Empire's existence, in towns and occasionally in the countryside.[49] This, in turn, ensured thatliteracy was much more widespread than in Western Europe, at least until the twelfth century.[49][50]Secondary education was confined to the larger cities whilehigher education was the exclusive provenance ofConstantinople.[49]
Though not a society of mass literacy likemodern societies, Byzantine society was a profoundly literate one.[51] Based on information from an extensive array of Byzantine documents from different periods (i.e. homilies,Ecloga, etc.),Robert Browning concluded that, while books were luxury items and functional literacy (reading and writing) was widespread, but largely confined to cities and monasteries, access to elementary education was provided in most cities for much of the time and sometimes in villages.[52]Nikolaos Oikonomides, focusing on 13th-century Byzantine literacy in Western Asia Minor, states that Byzantine society had "a completely literate church, an almost completely literate aristocracy, some literate horsemen, rare literate peasants and almost completely illiterate women."[53] Ioannis Stouraitis estimates that the percentage of the Empire's population with some degree of literacy was at most 15–20% based primarily on the mention of illiterate Byzantinetourmarchai in theTactica of EmperorLeo VI the Wise (r. 886–912).[54]
In Byzantium, the elementary school teacher occupied a low social position and taught mainly from simple fairy tale books (Aesop's Fables were often used).[55] However, thegrammarian andrhetorician, teachers responsible for the following two phases of education, were more respected.[55] These used classical Greek texts like Homer'sIliad orOdyssey and much of their time was taken with detailed word-for-word explication.[55] Books were rare and very expensive and likely only possessed by teachers who dictated passages to students.[56]
Women have tended to be overlooked inByzantine studies as Byzantine society left few records about them.[57] Women were disadvantaged in some aspects of their legal status and in their access to education, and limited in their freedom of movement.[58] The life of a Byzantine Greek woman could be divided into three phases:girlhood,motherhood, andwidowhood.[59]
Childhood was brief and perilous, even more so for girls than boys.[59] 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.[59] Educational opportunities for girls were few: they did not attend regular schools but were taught in groups at home by tutors.[60] With few exceptions, education was limited to literacy and theBible; a famous exception is the princessAnna Komnene (1083–1153), whoseAlexiad displays a great depth of erudition, and the renowned 9th century Byzantine poet and composerKassiani.[61] The majority of a young girl's daily life would be spent in household and agrarian chores, preparing herself for marriage.[61]
For most girls,childhood came to an end with the onset ofpuberty, which was followed shortly after by betrothal and marriage.[62] Although marriage arranged by the family was the norm, romantic love was not unknown.[62] Most women bore many children but few survived infancy, and grief for the loss of a loved one was an inalienable part of life.[63] The main form of birth control was abstinence, and while there is evidence of contraception it seems to have been mainly used by prostitutes.[64]
Due to prevailing norms of modesty, women would wear clothing that covered the whole of their body except their hands.[65] While women among the poor sometimes wore sleevelesstunics, most women were obliged to cover even their hair with the longmaphorion (μαφόριον) veil. Women of means, however, spared no expense in adorning their clothes with exquisite jewelry and fine silk fabrics.[65] Divorces were hard to obtain even though there were laws permitting them.[66] 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.[66]
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.[66] Still, some women were able to circumvent societal strictures and work as traders, artisans, abbots, entertainers, and scholars.[67]
The traditional image of Byzantine Greek merchants as unenterprising benefactors of state aid is beginning to change for that of mobile, pro-active agents.[69] The merchant class, particularly that ofConstantinople, became a force of its own that could, at times, even threaten the Emperor as it did in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.[70] This was achieved through efficient use of credit and other monetary innovations. Merchants invested surplus funds in financial products calledchreokoinonia (χρεοκοινωνία), the equivalent and perhaps ancestor of the later Italiancommenda.[70]
Eventually, the purchasing power of Byzantine merchants became such that it could influence prices in markets as far afield asCairo andAlexandria.[69] In reflection of their success, emperors gave merchants the right to become members of theSenate, that is to integrate themselves with the ruling elite.[71] 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.[71] Following that phase, however, the enterprising merchants bounced back and wielded real clout during the time of theThird Crusade.[72]
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.[72] The fact that they were eventually surpassed by their Italian rivals is attributable to the privileges sought and acquired by theCrusader States within theLevant and the dominant maritime violence of the Italians.[72]
Unlike in Western Europe wherepriests were clearly demarcated from thelaymen, the clergy of the Eastern Roman Empire remained in close contact with the rest of society.[73] Readers andsubdeacons were drawn from the laity and expected to be at least twenty years of age while priests andbishops had to be at least 30.[73]Unlike the Latin church, the Byzantine church allowed married priests and deacons, as long as they were married beforeordination. Bishops, however, were required to be unmarried.[73]
While the religious hierarchy mirrored the Empire's administrative divisions, the clergy were more ubiquitous than the emperor's servants.[74] The issue ofcaesaropapism, while usually associated with the Byzantine Empire, is now understood to be an oversimplification of actual conditions in the Empire.[75] By the fifth century, thePatriarch of Constantinople was recognized as first among equals of the four eastern Patriarchs and as of equal status with thePope inRome.[73]
The ecclesiastical provinces were calledeparchies and were headed byarchbishops ormetropolitans who supervised their subordinate bishops orepiskopoi. For most people, however, it was their parish priest orpapas (from theGreek word for "father") that was the most recognizable face of the clergy.[73][76]
The Eastern Roman Empire was in language and civilization a Greek society.[77] Linguistically, Byzantine or medieval Greek is situated between the Hellenistic (Koine) and modern phases of the language.[78] Since as early as theHellenistic era,Greek had been thelingua franca of the educated elites of the EasternMediterranean, spoken natively in the southernBalkans, the Greek islands, Asia Minor, and the ancient and HellenisticGreek colonies ofSouthern Italy, theBlack Sea, Western Asia andNorth Africa.[79] At the beginning of the Byzantine millennium, thekoine (Greek: κοινή) remained the basis for spoken Greek and Christian writings, whileAttic Greek was the language of the philosophers and orators.[80]
As Christianity became the dominant religion, Attic began to be used in Christian writings in addition to and often interspersed withkoine Greek.[80] 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.[80]
The population of the Byzantine Empire, at least in its early stages, had a variety of mother tongues including Greek.[80] These included Latin,Aramaic,Coptic, andCaucasian languages, whileCyril Mango also cites evidence for bilingualism in the south and southeast.[81] These influences, as well as an influx of people of Arabic, Celtic, Germanic, Turkic, and Slavic backgrounds, supplied medieval Greek with manyloanwords that have survived in the modern Greek language.[81] From the 11th century onward, there was also a steady rise in the literary use of the vernacular.[81]
Following theFourth Crusade, there was increased contact with the West; and thelingua franca of commerce became Italian. In the areas of the Crusader kingdoms a classical education (Greek: παιδεία,paideia) ceased to be asine qua non of social status, leading to the rise of the vernacular.[81] From this era many beautiful works in the vernacular, often written by people deeply steeped in classical education, are attested.[81] A famous example is the four Ptochoprodromic poems attributed to Theodoros Prodromos.[81] 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".[81]
However, thediglossia of the Greek-speaking world, which had already started in ancient Greece, continued underOttoman rule and persisted in the modern Greek state until 1976, although Koine Greek remains the official language of theGreek 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" ("Roman") until the 20th century.[82]
At the time of Constantine the Great (r. 306–337), barely 10% of the Roman Empire's population wereChristians, 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 ofreligio.[83] As Christianity became a complete philosophical system, whose theory and apologetics were heavily indebted to the Classic word, this changed.[84] In addition, Constantine, asPontifex Maximus, was responsible for the correctcultus orveneratio of the deity which was in accordance with former Roman practice.[85] 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.[86]
Christianity led to the development of a few phenomena characteristic of Byzantium. Namely, the intimate connection between Church and State, a legacy of Romancultus.[86] Also, the creation of a Christian philosophy that guided Byzantine Greeks in their everyday lives.[86] And finally, the dichotomy between the Christian ideals of theBible and classical Greekpaideia which could not be left out, however, since so much of Christian scholarship and philosophy depended on it.[84][86] 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.[83] This would rise to 50% by the end of the fourth century and 90% by the end of the fifth century.[86] EmperorJustinian 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.[86] A conversion so rapid seems to have been rather the result of expediency than of conviction.[86]
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 theChristian Church. Following the pattern set byEusebius of Caesarea, the Byzantines viewed the emperor as a representative or messenger ofChrist, 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.[87]
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 ofChristendom.[88] 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. AsGeorge Ostrogorsky points out:[89]
"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, ByzantineGreek Macedonia is also significant as being the home ofSaints Cyril and Methodius, two Greek brothers fromThessaloniki (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 asOld Church Slavonic. In the process, this cemented the Greek brothers' status as the pioneers of Slavic literature and those who first introduced Byzantine civilization andOrthodox Christianity to the hitherto illiterate and pagan Slavs.
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According to Stouraitis (2014), there have been three main approaches regarding the medieval eastern Roman identity inByzantine scholarship.[90]
Throughout their history, the Byzantines identified as Romans (Romaioi).[92] The defining traits of being considered one of theRhomaioi were being anEastern Orthodox Christian and more importantly speakingGreek, characteristics which had to be acquired by birth if one was not to be considered anallogenes or even a barbarian.[93] The term mostly used to describe someone who was a foreigner to both the Byzantines and their state wasethnikós (Greek:ἐθνικός), a term which originally describednon-Jews or non-Christians, but had lost its religious meaning.[94] In a classicizing vein usually applied to other peoples, Byzantine authors regularly referred to their people as "Ausones", an ancient name for the original inhabitants ofItaly.[95] 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.[96] The Byzantine Greeks were, and perceived themselves as, heirs to theculture of ancient Greece,[97] the political heirs ofimperial Rome,[98][99] and followers of theApostles.[100] 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.[101] Being a Roman was mostly a matter of culture and religion rather than speaking Greek or living within Byzantine territory, and had nothing to do with race.[102] Some Byzantines began to use the nameGreek (Hellen) with its ancient meaning of someone living in the territory of Greece rather than its usually Christian meaning of "pagan".[102] Realizing that the restored empire held lands of ancient Greeks and had a population largely descended from them, some scholars such asGeorge Gemistos Plethon andJohn Argyropoulos[103][104][105] put emphasized pagan Greek and Christian Roman past, mostly during a time of Byzantine political decline.[102] However such views were part of a few learned people, and the majority of Byzantine Christians would see them as nonsensical or dangerous.[102] After 1204 the Byzantine successor entities were mostly Greek-speaking but not nation-states like France and England of that time.[102] The risk or reality of foreign rule, not some sort of Greek national consciousness was the primary element that drew contemporary Byzantines together.[102] Byzantine elites and common people nurtured a high self-esteem based on their perceived cultural superiority towards foreigners, whom they viewed with contempt, despite the frequent occurrence of compliments to an individual foreigner as anandreîos Rhōmaióphrōn (ἀνδρεῖος Ῥωμαιόφρων, roughly "a brave Roman-minded fellow").[94] There was always an element of indifference or neglect of everything non-Greek, which was therefore "barbarian".[106]
In official discourse, "all inhabitants of the empire were subjects of the emperor, and therefore Romans." Thus the primary definition ofRhōmaios was "political or statist."[107] In order to succeed in being a full-blown and unquestioned "Roman" it was best to be aGreek Orthodox Christian and a Greek-speaker, at least in one's public persona.[107] 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.[106][107]
Often one's local (geographic) identity could outweigh one's identity as aRhōmaios. The termsxénos (Greek:ξένος) andexōtikós (Greek:ἐξωτικός) denoted "people foreign to the local population," regardless of whether they were from abroad or from elsewhere within the Byzantine Empire.[94] "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 inPontus was 'disparaged and mistreated by everyone as a stranger'. The corollary to regional solidarity was regional hostility."[108]
Provincial identities, referred to asethnē (έθνη) orgenē (γένη), were fully imbricated in the imperial system, as the Roman habit of referring to the population with their provincial labels (εθνικά,ethnika[109]) persisted in the Byzantine society.[110] In the middle Byzantine period, new administrative districts, known asthemata, were superimposed on the ancient provinces, giving rise to new or reviving old provincial labels; such as the "genos ofOpsikion" and "Anatolikon" respectively.[111] Scholarship typically views these labels to have functioned as Byzantine "ethnicities",[109] or according toAnthony Kaldellis, as "pseudo-ethnicities", as those groups were not distinguished in culture or their shared Eastern Roman identity.[112]
From an evolutionary standpoint, Byzantium was the multi-ethnic Roman state that conquered theGreek East, turned into aChristian empire, and ended in 1453, as aGreek Orthodox state; it had become anation, almost by the modern meaning of the word.[113] 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.[114] It was a multi-ethnic empire where theHellenic element was predominant, especially in the later period.[107]
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.[115] After the Empire lost non-Greek speaking territories in the 7th and 8th centuries, "Greek" (Ἕλλην), when not used to signify "pagan", became synonymous with "Roman" (Ῥωμαῖος) and "Christian" (Χριστιανός) to mean a Christian Greek citizen of the Eastern Roman Empire.[9]
In the context of increasingVenetian andGenoese 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.[116] From the 12th century onwards, Byzantine Roman writers started to disassociate themselves from the Empire'spre-Constantinian Latin past, regarding henceforth the transfer of the Roman capital to Constantinople byConstantine as their founding moment and reappraised the normative value of the paganHellenes, even though the latter were still viewed as a group distinct from the Byzantines.[117] The first time the term "Hellene" was used to mean "Byzantine" in official correspondence was in a letter to EmperorManuel I Komnenus (1118–1180).[118] Beginning in the twelfth century and especially after 1204, certain Byzantine Greek intellectuals began to use the ancient Greek ethnonymHéllēn (Greek:Ἕλλην) in order to describe Byzantine civilisation.[119] After thefall of Constantinople to the Crusaders in 1204, a small circle of the elite of theEmpire of Nicaea used the termHellene as a term of self-identification.[120] For example, in a letter toPope Gregory IX, the Nicaean emperorJohn III Doukas 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. EmperorTheodore II Laskaris (r. 1254–1258), the only one during this period to systematically employ the termHellene as a term of self-identification, 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".[121][122] For historians of the court of Nikaia, however, such asGeorge Akropolites andGeorge Pachymeres,Rhomaios remained the only significant term of self-identification, despite traces of influence of the policy of the Emperors of Nikaia in their writings.[123]
During thePalaiologan dynasty, after the Byzantines recaptured Constantinople,Rhomaioi became again dominant as a term for self-description and there are few traces ofHellene, such as in the writings ofGeorge Gemistos Plethon;[103] theneo-platonic philosopher boasted "We are Hellenes by race and culture," and proposed a reborn Byzantine Empire following a utopian Hellenic system of government centered inMystras.[104] Under the influence of Plethon,John Argyropoulos, addressed EmperorJohn VIII Palaiologos (r. 1425–1448) as "Sun King of Hellas"[105] and urged the last Byzantine emperor,Constantine XI Palaiologos (r. 1449–1453), to proclaim himself "King of the Hellenes".[124] These largely rhetorical expressions of Hellenic identity were confined in a very small circle and had no impact on the people. They were however continued byByzantine intellectuals who participated in theItalian Renaissance.[119]
In the eyes of the West, after the coronation ofCharlemagne, 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.[106][125][126]
Popular Western opinion is reflected in theTranslatio 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.[106][125][126] 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:[127]
A turning point in how both sides viewed each other is probably themassacre of Latins in Constantinople in 1182. The massacre followed the deposition ofMaria of Antioch, a Norman-Frankish (therefore "Latin") princess who was ruling as regent to her infant son EmperorAlexios 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 retaliatorysacking ofThessalonica, the empire's second largest city, byWilliam II of Sicily. An example of Western opinion at the time is the writings ofWilliam 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".[128]
In the East, the Persians and Arabs continued to regard the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Greeks as "Romans" (Arabic: ar-Rūm) after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, for instance, the 30thsurah of the Quran (Ar-Rum) refers to the defeat of the Byzantines ("Rum" or "Romans") underHeraclius by the Persians at theBattle of Antioch (613), and promises an eventual Byzantine ("Roman") victory.[129] This traditional designation of the Byzantines as [Eastern] Romans in the Muslim world continued through the Middle Ages, leading to names such as theSultanate of Rum ("Sultanate over the Romans") in conquered Anatolia and personal names such asRumi, the mystical Persian poet who lived in formerly ByzantineKonya in the 1200s.[130] Late medieval Arab geographers still saw the Byzantines as Rum (Romans) not as Greeks, for instanceIbn Battuta saw the, then collapsing, Rum as "pale continuators and successors of the ancient Greeks (Yunani) in matters of culture."[131]
The MuslimOttomans also referred to their Byzantine Greek rivals asRûm, "Romans", and that term is still in official use inTurkey for the Greek-speaking natives (Rumlar) ofIstanbulcf.Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Turkish:Rum Ortodoks Patrikhanesi, "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate"[132]).[20] Many place-names in Anatolia derive from this Turkish word (Rûm, "Romans") for the Byzantines:Erzurum ("Arzan of the Romans"),Rumelia ("Land of the Romans"), and Rumiye-i Suğra ("Little Rome", the region of Amasya andSivas).[133]
Forming the majority of the Byzantine Empire proper at the height of its power, the Byzantine Greeks gradually came under the dominance of foreign powers with the decline of the Empire during the Middle Ages. The majority of Byzantine Greeks lived in the Ionian islands, the southern Balkans, and Aegean islands, Crete and Asia Minor. Following theend of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, there were many migration waves of Byzantine Greek scholars and emigres to the west, which is considered by many scholars key to the revival ofGreek studies that led to the development of theRenaissance humanism andscience. These emigres brought to Western Europe the relatively well-preserved remnants and accumulated knowledge of their own (Greek) civilization, which had mostly not survived the Early Middle Ages in the West. By 1500, theGreek community of Venice numbered about 5,000 members. The community was very active inVenice with the notable members such asAnna Notaras (the daughter ofLoukas Notaras, the lastmegas doux of theByzantine Empire),Thomas Flanginis (the founder of theFlanginian School) and many others. Additionally, the community founded the confraternityScuola dei Greci in 1493. The Venetians also ruledCrete, theIonian Islands and scattered islands and port cities of the former empire, the populations of which were augmented by refugees from other Byzantine provinces who preferred Venetian to Ottoman governance. Crete was especially notable for theCretan School oficon-painting, whereEl Greco came from and which after 1453 became the most important in the Greek world.[136]
Nearly all of these Byzantine Greeks fell under Turkish Muslim rule by the 16th century. A notable group were thePhanariots, they emerged as a class of wealthy Greek merchants (of mostly noble Byzantine descent) during the second half of the 16th century, and were influential in the administration of the Ottoman Empire's Balkan domains and theDanubian Principalities in the 18th century.[137] The Phanariots usually built their houses in thePhanar quarter to be near the court of thePatriarch.
Many retained their identities, eventually comprising the modern Greek and Cypriot states, as well as theCappadocian Greek andPontic Greek minorities of the new Turkish state. These latter groups, the legacy Byzantine groups of Anatolia, were forced to emigrate from Turkey to Greece in 1923 by thePopulation exchange between Greece and Turkey. Other Byzantine Greeks, particularly in Anatolia, converted toIslam and underwentTurkification over time.[138] Additionally, those who came under Arab Muslim rule, either fled their former lands or submitted to the new Muslim rulers, receiving the status ofDhimmi. Over the centuries these surviving Christian societies of former Byzantine Greeks in Arab realms evolved intoAntiochian Greeks (Melkites) or merged into the societies ofArab Christians, existing to this day.
Many Greek Orthodox populations, particularly those outside the newly independentmodern Greek state, continued to refer to themselves asRomioi (i.e. Romans, Byzantines) well into the 20th century.Peter Charanis, who was born on the island ofLemnos in 1908 and later became a professor ofByzantine history atRutgers University, recounts that when the island was taken from the Ottomans by Greece in 1912, Greek soldiers were sent to each village and stationed themselves in the public squares. Some of the island children ran to see what Greek soldiers looked like. ‘'What are you looking at?’’ one of the soldiers asked. ‘'At Hellenes,’’ the children replied. ‘'Are you not Hellenes yourselves?’’ the soldier retorted. ‘'No, we are Romans,’’ the children replied.[139] The Roman identity also survives prominently in some Greek populations outside of Greece itself. For instance,Greeks in Ukraine, settled there as part ofCatherine the Great'sGreek Plan in the 18th century, maintain Roman identity, designating themselves asRumaioi.[140]
It is said that more than four thousand Latins of various age, sex, and condition were delivered thus to barbarous nations for a price. In such fashion did the perfidious Greek nation, a brood of vipers, like a serpent in the bosom or a mouse in the wardrobe evilly requite their guests—those who had not deserved such treatment and were far from anticipating anything of the kind; those to whom they had given their daughters, nieces, and sisters as wives and who, by long living together, had become their friends.
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