Caucasus VS Balkan which culture is more ME influenced?

**~~katniss~~** · 09-23-2016, 11:55 PM

Originally Posted by user_

Oh, and i forgot Greece, also Anatolian influenced.
Greek songs for my ears seems oriental.

Serbian singer Miki Jevremović perform music inspired by Greek music. His songs sound Greek more than that stuff you posted.

**wvwvw** · 09-24-2016, 12:08 AM

Originally Posted by catgeorge

Are you sure, because in the 11th century coinage, literature and language was Greek.

We were Roman citizens because the Empire was Roman. It was the west that started calling us Greeks instead of Romans a little earlier than 11th century. But Albanians did not exist in Europe in that time.

The word Romaios, and Romiosyni was SYNONYMOUS with the GREEK Orthodox relgion and the Greek national identity. The Ecumenica, Patriarch of Constantinople had to always be elected from Greek stock because he was the Enthnarch of all Greeks. "Romiosini" considered by all to describe absolute Greekness.

**wvwvw** · 09-24-2016, 12:34 AM

The medieval Greco-Roman Empire was NOT a multiethnic state. It was the state of _one_ people, the Romans (aka Greeks). This is clearly denoted by the name "Imperium Grecorium". It was admnistrated exclusively by Greeks. There were of course several inherent minorities and invaders did settle within the Empire, but this does not change its unitary nature.

No-one doubts that the Greco-Roman Empire formed part of the cultural foundation for many nations, just as Ancient Greece did for even more. However this does not mean that these nations are the continuation of the medieval Greco-Roman nation. The modern Greek nation is. Period. However, this does not mean that we do not feel close to those peoples who share our heritage.

As for peoples considering themselves part of the Greco-Roman legacy -religiously probably, culturally perhaps, ethnically certainly not. I.e. no peoples considered themselves "Romans" except the modern Greeks.

The Greco-Roman Empire is consistently being confused with Orthodox Christianity. They are not the same, or even inextricably related. Don't forget that in the 8th century the Empire was officially Iconoclastic, for example. And obviously, there were also other Orthodox Christian nations apart from the Empire. For example, for centuries the Greco-Roman Empire was locked in a life and death struggle with Orthodox Bulgaria.

I will give another example to make the distinction perfectly clear. Islam was the religion of the Arabs. They passed it on to many other peoples, with much of their culture and language. However, these peoples are not the continuation of the Arab chaliphate, nor Arabs themselves. Likewise, the Orthodox peoples of the Balkans are not Romans, nor continuators of the Byzantine empire.

**wvwvw** · 09-24-2016, 12:53 AM

Greece was NEVER colonized in its existance and all the people that invaded Greece were kicked out and were never assimilated. There was nothing like the Saxon invasions and the Viking invasions and the Norman Conquests in Greece where the foreigners became part of the Greek population. Every Greek knew he was Greek because of his religion and only married other Greeks. Every Greek knew he was Greek because he was a GREEK Orthodox Christian, spoke Greek as his native language, and shared common memories with other Greeks, Bulgarians were Bulgarians Orthodox, Serbs Serbian Orthodox,  Armenians, Armenian Orthodox, Turks, Muslims. Bulgarians were not part of the Byzantine Empire because they were part of the Bulgarian Empire, Serbia was part of Serbian kingdom.

The Greeks were the only ethnic group in the region to refer to any part of the territory of Macedonia as Macedonia and to call themselves Macedonians while Bulgarians never called themselves that. The name Macedonia continued to be used to refer to northern Greece by the Greeks and the Greeks alone. The Encyclopaedia Britannica is referring to the old Roman province just like every time it refers to Italy before 1848 when the Kingdom of Italy was created out of a collection of independent states it is referring to the old Roman province and just like when it refers to Magna Graecia and includes Sicily and Anatolia it is referring to the old Roman province which no longer existed even though the name is used
during the Greco-Turkish war.

**wvwvw** · 09-24-2016, 01:20 AM

Originally Posted by catgeorge

Are you sure, because in the 11th century coinage, literature and language was Greek.

We were Roman citizens because the Empire was Roman. It was the west that started calling us Greeks instead of Romans a little earlier than 11th century. But Albanians did not exist in Europe in that time.

Justinian was the emperor who wrote hes laws in Greek instead of Latin and he consecrate the Greek as the official language because only the people around the pallace could understand Latin. The language of the people was the Greek, as well as many people's around the palace which they were Greeks.

What has Laberia to say about the fact that Justinian was the emperor who established the Greek as the language of the empire?