So, Iām readingĀ Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium by Anthony Kadellis. Itās well-known, of course, that the Byzantine Empire was the uninterrupted continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire, and many history enthusiasts are also aware that we call it theĀ āByzantineā Empire because historically, western European scholars viewed it negatively and did not think it reallyĀ ācountedā as Roman, giving it other labels like theĀ āGreek Empireā or the Byzantine Empire.
But Kadellis says that even among professional historians, theĀ āRoman-nessā of Byzantium is still not taken seriously or simply denied. Much of the literature treats the Byzantinesā Roman identity as anĀ āimperial ideologyā or a āelite constructā, a distant abstraction used for propagandistic ends that had nothing to do with how most Byzantine people actually viewed themselves. Or it is simply glossed over or ignored.
However, Kadellis provides an enormous wealth of evidence from 1000 years of Roman and Byzantine history, drawing on all kinds of sources by writers of all social classes, showing that this could not be further than the truth. Byzantines of all social classes called themselves Romans, and this was not merely a hollow label, or some political category - it was an ethnicity or nation. The Romans of Byzantium viewed themselves as a distinct people distinguished from their neighbors by a combination of language, customs, dress, religion, biological descent, ties of kinship, and political institutions. One could become a Roman through assimilation, as with ethnic groups throughout history and as with many prominentĀ ānationsā today. The Byzantine Empire was thus the nation-state of the Roman people, who called itĀ RomanĆa (Ī”ĻĪ¼Ī±Ī½ĪÆĪ±), andĀ RomanĆa was an object of patriotic devotion by Romans of all social classes everywhere in the empire.
I wonāt try to summarize the entire book, but Kadellis also traces the origins of this Roman identity: It ultimately dates from Caracallaās extension of Roman citizenship to all subjects of the Roman Empire in 212 CE, after which Roman citizens began to view themselves as part of a single nation, a metaphorical extended kinship group, rather than mere subjects of a distinct imperial authority. It is after this date that written sources in both Latin and Greek begin to refer to the Roman Empire asĀ RomanĆa.
Some additional illustrative facts that Kadellis brings to light:
The Romans of Byzantium vehemently rejected the labelĀ āGreekā (Hellene į¼Ī»Ī»Ī·Ī½ or Graikos ĪĻĪ±Ī¹ĪŗĻĻ). They did not think of themselves as Greeks who merelyĀ ācalled themselvesā Romans
The Romans of Byzantium viewed the Greeks, or Hellenes, as an ancient, extinct people, though they were obviously aware they could trace their ancestry to them, at least in part - much in the same way that the Britons are a vanished people distantly ancestral to the English, or the Babylonians are a vanished people distantly ancestral to Iraqi Arabs
The Romans of Byzantium were of course aware that they spoke Greek, but this was no more a problem for their identity as Romans than it is a problem for the modern-day Irish to speak English. They considered Latin to be their ancestral language, and Latin still maintained a prominent place along Greek, especially in legal and military contexts, to the point that Latin and Greek were often considered the two languages of Rome (this idea actually dates back even to the pre-Christian period).
Eventually, by around 1100 CE, the nameĀ āRomaicā (įæ¬ĻĪ¼Ī±Ī¹ĪŗĻĻ) completely replacedĀ āGreekā (į¼Ī»Ī»Ī·Ī½Ī¹ĪŗĪ®) as the name for the Greek language. The Byzantine Romans thus had two languages: Latin, the language of their ancestors, and Romaic, their modern-day language
The Romans of Byzantium viewed the ancient Romans as their ancestors, in both a literal and figurative sense - they were well-aware that many foreigners had assimilated into the Roman nation, but this in no way lessened their ties to their ancient Roman ancestors
The Romans of Byzantium traced their history to ancient Rome, viewing Constantine the Great as a bridge between their more distant Roman ancestors and Christian Rome. Pre-Christian Rome was still a part of Byzantine Roman national identity.
Some nobles and emperors traced their ancestry to ancient Roman figures such as Pompey the Great, even down to the Palaiologan period in the 1300s and 1400s.
In the 500s CE, Roman writer Cosmas Indicopleustes said that Rome was the most blessed of all nations, and would last eternally, because its kingship - i.e. that of Augustus - was born at the same time as Christ, and would partake in all the same honors
