BYZANTIUM

HISTORICAL  REFERENCES

References provided by:

Peter Yiannos
Corporate Executive(Ret.)
Wilmington, DE

 (12/14/10)

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A. From the Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing 2 vols (Chicago, IL: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1999) Vol. 1, pp.--159-164

BYZANTIUM   159

Cambridge, 1928-79: master, 1955-68; professor of modern history, Cambridge University, 1944-63: vice-chancellor, 1959-61, Regius professor, 1963-68 (emeritus, 1968-79). Editor, Cambridge Historical journal, 15138-51. Knighted 1968. Married Edith Joyce [Pamela] Crawshaw, 1919 (3 sons). Died Sawston, Cambridge, zo July 1979.

Byzantium

Byzantium (Greek Byzantion), a small _G reek city-state by the straits of "Bosporos founded  c.657 BCE. by Byzas of Megara, and recolonized in the 5th century by the Spartans, like ancient Babyfern and Rome lent its name to an empire (330-1453 CE). The citizens of the city were called Byzantines, but in the 16^th  century the Frenchman Jerome Wolf applied the term to innclude all the people of the empire ruled from Byzantium, now renamed Constantinople. Its inhabitants however called it BasiJeionJon Komaion, Kingdom of the Romans, and themselves Rhomaioi (Romans). Since 212 CE, when all of he free people of the Roman empire were enfranchised and became Roman citizens, the "Byzantines" viewed themselves as Romans and their state as a continuation of the Roman empire. But Western European (Latin, Germanic, Frankish),Russian, Khazarian Hebrew arid other non-Greek sources speak of the "Byzantines as Greeks, and of their state as Graecia, or  land of the_ Greeks. Near Eastern people, Armenians, Georgians, and Semites of several nations called the Byzantines Yoyn, Yavani or Yunani (lonians) and their empire as Yuhastan,Yavan,Yawan(Ionia)……

During the proto-Byzantine period, Christianity became the dominant religion and contributed to the formation of the empire's new ethos. During the first three centuries, the empire retained much of the past inheritance and remained a multi­ethnic, multi-religious, and multilingual empire. Beginning with the 7th century, when several less Hellenized provinces were lost to the Arabs and to the Slavic tribes in the Balkans, ethnologically, linguistically, and religiously the empire became more homogeneous.  The dominant Greek and Hellenized population’s unity was strengthened through a common language and a common religion. ……

….But after the sack of Constantinople in 12.04, even  though Constantinople was recovered by the Greeks and Greek king­doms and principalities were reunited in 1261, the empire declined…..

….Through eleven centuries, the Byzantine empire remained in a constant state of alarm to defend itself against old and new formidable enemies - Persians and Arabs, Huns, Goths, Slavs, Bulgarians, Russians, Petchenegs, Magyars, Franks, and Venetians, Turks, and other lesser known tribes. The Byzantine empire included most of the territories that had been under Roman rule before Constantine the Great's reign. But over eleven centuries, the empire expanded and condensed, and was at its largest under Justinian in the 6th century. From the 7th to the 12th centuries the empire included the Balkan penin­sula, from the Danube river in the north to the island of Crete in the south, parts of the Italian peninsula, and Asia Minor in the east……

With the invasion of Turkish nomadic tribes in the east and the Normans in the west, the empire began shrinking again. After its dismemberment by the Fourth Crusade the empire fragmented into principalities and kingdoms never to be united again. The restoration of the empire in 1261 was ephemeral and did not prevent its final collapse…..

The scholarship of the last 75 years has demonstrated that the Byzantine empire was great in several respects: political, military, economic, intellectual. It produced great statesmen, diplomats, generals, law givers, renowned scholars, and reformers. Its highly developed system of law and an admirable administrative machinery enabled it not only to maintain order and stability, but also helped it to endure for more than a millennium, although it was subject to changes and reforms, renewals and continuities. The noted historian F.M. Powicke summarized the modern View as: "Far from being'a moribund society ... it was the greatest, most active and most enduring political organism that the world has yet seen, giving for centuries that opportunity for living which we associate with the spacious but transitory peace of Augustus or Hadrian." Among the scholars of the Byzantine empire, historians occu­pied a prominent position…..

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B. Here some relevant facts to the discussion, that is  excerpts from the numerous publications of  Distinguished Professor at The Stockton College of New Jersey Dr. Demetrios Constantelos.

Incidentally, Stockton College boasts an Interdisciplinary Center of Hellenic Studies with five Hellenic professorships ! 

“….Historically speaking, there are four ethnic names by which we have been known for nearly four millennia Greek  (or Grekos), Hellene, Roman (or Romios)_, and Yavan (or Yavanites, Yunan). And our heritage is unique m the sense that the Greek language is one of the very few on the face of the earth with an unbroken oral continuity of more than four thousand years and a continuous written tradition of more than two thousand eight hundred years. It is one of the greatest and most neglected assets that we have inherited from our immigrant forefathers…... 

“…The ancient Greeks were known first by the name of their city, second by the name of their tribe, and last by their ethnic name. A citizen of

Athens   was   an   Athenian   first,   an   lonian   second, and a Hellene last. Likewise, the inhabitants of Sparta were Spartans first, Dorians second, and Hellenes  last "The residents of Thebes were Thebaioi first, Aeolians second and Hellenes last. Hellenes, of course, were the descendants of Hellene, the son of Deukalion, the father of the race. It was Hesiod in the 8^th century, and later Archilochos, early 7^th century, who described all Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians, and members of other Greek tribes (Phocians, Magnesians, Boeotians, etc.) as Hellenes or Panhellenes…...

Not until after the 7^th century BC.,   did the inhabitants of Hellas, Asia Minor, Italy, and other geographical areas develop a national consciousness which found support in their common language and common religion. Commerce and trade with foreign nations, the Persian threat, the Olympic games, the Delphic oracle, and other Panhellenic centers or events contributed to the emergence of a national consciousness….. 

Even though the name Hellenes  prevailed, the ethnic name Grekoi never ceased to be used. It was the seventh century lyric poet Alkman who first used Grekoi as a synonym for Hellenes. According to Alkman, the mother of Hellene was named Graeca, and her descendants became known as Greeks. Later, in the fourth century, Aristotle relates that the early prophets of Dodona in Epiros, the Selloi and Helloi, were wise, elderly people (Geroi), and their descendants became known as Grekoi. He identified ancient Greece with the area of Dodona and wrote that "here dwelt the Selloi and the people then called Greeks and now called Hellenes''  (emphasis mine). The third-century chronicle of Paros confirms that the Hellenes were formerly called Grekoi. The second century writer Apollodoros attributes the change of the name (from Grekoi to Hellenes) to Hellene himself, who distributed the land among his sons. Therefore, it is a serious historical error to say that the "use of the word Greek began with the conquest of Hellas in 146 B.C. by the Romans, who in a derogatory fashion dubbed the enslaved people Graecoli." The fact is, however, that the conquest of the Greeks by the Romans contributed to the change of their ethnic name.” …..etc., etc.

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The opinions expressed are those of the author(s)and not necessarily those of HEC.
Hellenic Electronic Center (HEC) www.greece.org

Expansion of Western Civilization: from Constantine the Great to Constantinople and Byzantium and onward to America

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