Just How 'Greek' Was The Byzantine Empire???

[Carlin]

"Many other Ragusans studied elsewhere in Italy and even in Paris, and their contribution to Dubrovnik’s culture was certainly quite substantial.

Some of these people became prominent not only in Dubrovnik but in the Western world as well. Three among them deserve special mention: Ivan Stojković, Ivan Gazul, and Benko Kotruljević. All were born about 1400. Ivan Stojković (Johannes de Staiis), son of a poor shoemaker, became a Dominican friar and was sent on a government scholarship to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. His performance was excellent, and he managed to ascend rapidly in the ecclesiastical ranks. Having become first an important figure at the papal court at Rome, he later played one of the leading roles in the Basle Council and also greatly helped the Ragusans in obtaining the concession for navigation to Egypt and Syria (see Chapter II).

As envoy of the Basle Council, Stojković traveled to Constantinople to seek the union of the Eastern and the Western churches. He was certainly picked for this job because of his knowledge of the Slavic language and of the Balkan situation. Stojković profited by his two-year stay in Constantinople by having theological and classical Greek works copied for him which he carried back to Basle. In Constantinople, Stojković had discussions with Patriarch Joseph II, a Bulgarian by origin, with whom he spoke Slavic. The Ragusan government profited by Stojković’s stay in the Byzantine capital and asked him to intervene with Emperor John VIII to obtain commercial privileges for Dubrovnik."

- Dubrovnik in the 14th and 15th centuries: A City Between East and West, By Bariša Krekić

[tchaiku]

Modern Greek legends about ancient Greeks.

Here’s what the villagers near Delphi thought, for instance (“page 39”):

"The Mylords (= English aristocrats on the Grand Tour) are no Christians: nobody has ever seen them make the sign of the cross. They are descended from the old pagans, the Adelphians, who kept their treasure in a fortress called Adelphi “Brothers”, named after the two brother princes who had built it. When the Virgin Mary and Christ came to this land and all the people around became Christians, the Adelphians thought it best if they left; and they left for the West and took all their riches with them. The Mylords are their descendants, and that’s why they come now on pilgrimage to these stones."

FOKIDA (Delphi), 19th c.
Source: HN Ulrichs, Reisen und Forschungen, p. 123 et seq.

-----

The name of the Greeks still lives on the shepherds around the temple of Apollo in Vassa. With this name they characterize everything that is believed to be heroic and gigantic. For themselves, they are anything but brave enough to be the heirs of the glory of the old inhabitants. The simplistic thinking of these shepherds considers the Greek ancestors of the Franks, foreign craftsmen who once held this place. This explains why Europeans travel to these places and pay so much attention to what is left of them.


ARKADIA, 19th c.
Source: O.M. von Stackelberg, Der Apollotempel zu Bassae in Arkadien, 1826, p. 14.

[Carlin]

- The very first Roman coin was minted in bronze in 326 BCE, and had a single inscription in Greek rather than Latin - PΩMAIΩN (ROMAION).

- Nova Roma (Νέα Ῥώμη) was the alternative name for Constantinople since the city became the capital of the Roman Empire. After the Council of Chalcedon the name became a part of the Patriarchal title (Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch). Medieval Roman capital was also the City of many names. The Vikings called it Miklagarđr (Big City), in Arabic it was called Rūmiyyat al-Kubra (Great City of the Romans), in Persian it was Takht-e Rum (Throne of the Romans), and the Slavs called it Tsargrad (City of the Caesar).

- Both capitals of the Roman state, the ancient & the medieval one, were known as the City on the seven hills. The significance of 7 comes from the Septimontium, an ancient pre-urban festival celebrated by montani, residents of the 7 (sept-) hill communities that would became Rome.

[Carlin]

Ethnic Roman Bucellarii on an Egyptian papyrus of 612 AD

This is an interesting papyrus from 612 AD from Egypt containing a list of payment receipts for Roman army Bucellarii.

Some Bucellarii gave a plain name, most gave their name and patronymic ("I am X the son of Y"), some gave their name and place of origin ("I am X from the place Y" ) and, finally, some were identified ethnically ("I am X from the Y ethnicity"). Among those Bucellarii who were identified ethnically: "the Persian", "the Goth" two people, "the Saracen", "the Slav", "the Armenian"; there are five Bucellarii who self-identified as the Roman.

(In an earlier similar document from 561 AD, two Bucellarii are ethnically identified as "Bessi", indicating that the Bessian-Thracian ethnic identity still survived in the 6th century.)

A description of this interesting papyrus can be found in the following recent article by Antonis Kaldellis which you can read online here, starting on p. 21:

https://www.academia.edu/44506116/Proceedings_of_the_7th_International_Symposium_Days_of_Justinian_I_ed_Mitko_B_Panov_Skopje_INI_2020_keynote_lecture_Anthony_Kaldellis

Anthony Kaldellis, ‘Byzantine Identity Interrogated, Declared, Activated,’ in M. Panov, ed., Identities: Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium “Days of Justinian I,” Skopje, 15-16 November, 2019 (Skopje 2020) 21-36.





Bucellarii:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucellarii

[Carlin]

1) "The presence of Christians in Tripolitania is attested until the early eleventh century: in the necropolis of En-Gila to the south of Tripoli, a dozen Latin texts dating between 945 and 1003 were discovered."

URL - "Byzantine Churches Converted to Islam?":

https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_RHR_2293_0325--byzantine-churches-converted-to-islam.htm#re66no66

2) i) "Thus, on the capture of Carthage in 698, there was a huge exodus to Sicily, Spain and elsewhere in the Mediterranean. This exodus especially affected the educated elite, including churchmen, many of whom were not of native Berber origin, but were descendants of the Latin-speaking settlers of Roman times. This emigration continued in the eighth century. Some were even to settle as far north as Germany, as is mentioned in a letter of Pope Gregory II (715-731) to St Boniface."

ii) "The old Orthodox culture of North-West Africa was disappearing. True, even after the eleventh century, isolated survivals continued. Thus a Christian community is recorded in 1114 in Qal'a in central Algeria. In the mid-twelfth century an Africanized Latin was still being spoken by Orthodox in Gafsa in the south of Tunisia - at a time when Latin was nowhere spoken in Western Europe. And in 1194 a church and community dedicated to the Mother of God is recorded in Nefta, in the south of Tunisia."

URL - "THE LAST CHRISTIANS OF NORTH-WEST AFRICA: SOME LESSONS FOR ORTHODOX TODAY":

http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/maghreb.htm

[Carlin]

Constantinople received its final boost on native Latin speakers around 554 CE, when the Emperor Justinian resettled the final batch of old senatorial families from Rome, in recognition of their suffering due to the three sieges of Rome that occurred during the Gothic War.

[Carlin]

Procopius of Caesarea (cca 500-570) noted that the Scholarii, the palace guards of the Emperor, were selected from amongst the bravest Armenians. Armenians were regarded as the main constituent of the medieval Roman infantry since the mid-5th century CE.

[Carlin]

Greek fire 🔥 another lie/misrepresentation. The so-called "Byzantines" never used the term. ROMAN FIRE was one of many terms that was used in original sources.


"Although usage of the term "Greek fire" has been general in English and most other languages since the Crusades, original Byzantine sources called the substance a variety of names, such as "sea fire" (Medieval Greek: πῦρ θαλάσσιον pŷr thalássion), "Roman fire" (πῦρ ῥωμαϊκόν pŷr rhōmaďkón), "war fire" (πολεμικὸν πῦρ polemikňn pŷr), "liquid fire" (ὑγρὸν πῦρ hygrňn pŷr), "sticky fire" (πῦρ κολλητικόν pŷr kollētikón), or "manufactured fire" (πῦρ σκευαστόν pŷr skeuastón)."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire

[Carlin]

"I am shocked at the passionate response to my tweets about the Byzantine Empire being the Roman Empire. So today, a related issue: not recognizing the #Roman identity of the #Byzantine Empire creates problems for our understanding of the early Middle Ages."

https://twitter.com/byzantineprof/status/1580182407088459776?cxt=HHwWgMCi7d3h9-0rAAAA

[Carlin]

Languages gone extinct around the Mediterranean [from Hattic (1800 BC) to Sabir (1800 AD)]

https://twitter.com/SonerCagaptay/status/1581685964216602624

https://twitter.com/byzantineprof/status/1582001118367739904?cxt=HHwWgMCj6dTosvQrAAAA