Byzantium and its Greek identity

[I] [I]“Byzantium is the chistianised roman state of the Greek nation.” [/I]-[B]Aug. Heisenberg[/B], historian.
Staat und Gesellschaft des byzantinischen Reiches, Die Kultur der Gegenwart, s. 364)

[I]“Byzantion must be studied as a chapter of the long standing history of the Greek civilization and thinking” [/I][B], Talbot Rice,[/B] historian-“Byzantines”,26

[I]“In the 5th century the empire continued to be in name roman, but in reality it has became Greek and it remained Greek”[/I]. [I]Arnold Toynbee[/I], historian- Greeks and their legacy(Oi Hellenes kai oi kleronomies tous), pag.187.

[I]“I don’t think that modern Greeks are more Greeks than the Byzantines.”[/I]
[B]St.Runciman[/B]

“[I]The Byzantine state is the organic evolution of the Roman Empire, but became Greek and Christian and we find in it united all three basic elements of the European civilization: Hellenism, Roman Laws and Christianity”[/I]. [B]L/Brehier, [/B]historian,Le developement des etudes d’ historie Byzantine, Revue d’ Auvergne, v. 18, p. 34


For [B]Ch.Dieh[/B]l, a famous byzantinist, Byzantines are simply Greeks, and talks about the hellenization of the Empire especially during the reign of Heraklios.(History of the Byzantine Empire, p.69 etc)

One of the leading byzantinists, [B]Ostrogorksy[/B], writing about the 7th century : [I]“Byzantium, even if it remains strictly to its roman political ideas and traditions, is transformed to a medieval Greek state[/I]”(History of the Byzantine State, v.I, p.217)

For [B]Alexander Kazhdan[/B], historian, the Empire is Greek, even if it included minorities like Armenians, Italians, Slavs etc. (Alexander Kazhdan and Antony Cutler, "Continuity and Discontinuity in Byzantine History", Byzantion v. 32 (1982), p. 465)

“[I]By the creation of Constantinoupolis the existence of the future of the Greek nation was secured and through it the treasures of humanity survived. Indeed, without Constantinoupolis Hellas, and Peloponnesos would have been conquered and inhabited by foreign barbarian nations”[/I] (History of Athens, v.I, p.89)
[B]F. Gregorovius[/B], historian.


[B]Bowerstock Glen[/B] W.,historian
“[I]Its truly pleasant to notice that Frank Clover and Stephen Humphreys, in their introduction notes in a recent collection of important letters for late antiquity are appeared to presuppose that opinion when they write: “Under the protection of Constantinoupolis, the Impeial Hellenism, clearly Greek in shape and opinion, replaced the old grecoroman culture which prevailed in the life of the Roman Empire”. [/I](Tradition and Innovation in Late Antiquity, Madison, Wis. 1989, p. 10)


[I]“In the Byzantine State Hellenism took once again state shape” and “ the crucial characteristics of the Greek race are becoming more and more rousing in the Byzantine state, and despite the eastern influences it remained a Greek state”[/I] .
[B]Karl Roth,[/B] historian, History of the Byzantine Culture, p.5,99.

[I] “Byzatnion is the Christianised and Hellenized Roman Eastern Empire with Constantinoupolis as capital”[/I]
[B]E.Arwehler[/B], byzantinist., The political ideology of the Byzantine Empire, p.19


For [B]Karl Marx[/B], the Byzantine emperors are simply Greeks, with Nicaean Empire clearly showing [B]“Greek patriotism”[/B].
Article in New York Daily Tribune 12/8/1853.

[I]“Byzantines always had conscience of their Hellenic past”[/I]
[B]Sture Linner[/B], History of the Byzantine Culture, p.124.


For [B]Jac.Ph.Fallmerayer[/B], historian the Empire is of course Greek, and Constantinoupolis in 1204 is the “capital of the Greek people” and [B]“capital of the Hellenic world”[/B].
(History of the Empire of Trapezous)"


Information collected by Psellos.
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