Byzantine empire was Greek?

[Tigranes]

Captain, we have a problem here.

[itilvolga]

They spoke Greek, long before the Romans. Few could understand Latin. Speaking of Romans the early Romans included Trojan Greeks and Corinthians colonists. Julius Caesar last words he said while they were killing him was in Greek.

Historians and other authors use the terms Romhellenes and Graecoromans for Greeks, aiming to indicate descent and citizenship simultaneously. The term "Greek, Graikos" was used during the whole Byzantine period to describe the ethnicity of the Greek people in the Byzantine Empire Empire.

When the Christianization of Hellenes was complete around the 9th century, the term "Hellene" returns, gradually of course, and starts describing the Romans-Romioi.

For example, in the 9th century Peloponnesian Arethas of Caesarea , one of the most important figures Byzantion produced in his Scholia he describes the inhabitants of his native Peloponnesos, as "eggene hellenika gene"(indigenous(or noble) Greek race) "forgetting" the other meaning of the word "Hellene" (idololater), even if he was an Archbishop and one of the three four greatest Byzantine theologians

The three ethnonyms (Graikos, Hellene and Romioi) remain until the foudation of the modernGreek state, when "Hellene" becomes official.

That notion of Greekness ethnically within the Roman political identity, was strong throughout the Roman period, as expressed in Panhellenion institution, the Second Sophistic and till the end and after the fall of the Empire in 15 century Mystras. That’s why emperor Julian praises empress Eusebia coming from “a pure Greek race, from the purest Greek, from the metropolis of Makedonia(Thessalonike)”.

In the same spirit the 4th century emperor boast because:

“Esmen gar tes Hellados oi peri ten Thraken kai ten Ionian oikountes eggonoi, kai ostis emon me liana gnomon, pothei proeipein tous pateras kai ten choran auten aspasasthai.”
“We the inhabitants of Thrace and Ionia are sons of Greece, and whoever from us isn’t ungrateful, desire to salute their fathers and kiss her ground(Greece’s)”.

You have campaigns in Polis in order to liberate Cretans from Saracens since “prepon estin yper ton christianon kai homophylon agonisasthai”- “ its an obligation to fight for those with we share the same religion and race” (Theophan.Continuat., p.475.7-8)

Prokopios,in his Yper ton polemon logoi, 4.27.32, here, in the 6th century describes the Greeks of the Empire as "Graikoi-Greeks".

"πολλοὺς μὲν οὖν ἐς ἡμέραν ἑκάστην ἀνῄρει, ἐς οὓς ὑποψίᾳ τινὶ καὶ λόγον οὐκ ἐχούσῃ ἐχρῆτο. τῷ δὲ Πασιφίλῳ ἐπέστελλεν, ὃν δὴ καταστήσεσθαι ἐπὶ Καρχηδόνος φυλακῇ ἔμελλε, τοὺς Γραικοὺς ἅπαντας οὐδὲν ὑπολογισαμένῳ κτεῖναι."

"Each day, therefore, he was destroying many men toward whom he felt any suspicion, even though groundless. And he gave orders to Pasiphilus, whom he was intending to appoint in charge of the garrison of Carthage, to kill all the Greeks without any consideration."

Julius Ceasar’s last words were “Et tu, Brute?” which is a Latin phrase. Someone claims that Shakespeare’s quote was a Latin translation but i have never seen any proof about it yet. Also, Latin was the language of Law and the military, these are the most important parts of a state. “Byzantine” is just a convention to promote an idea that the Frankish Empire was the real Roman Empire. During the classical period, the Emperors of Byzantine Empire were speaking Latin but still all of them knew Greek as a second language. During the period of Heraclius, the Latin-speaking population became very tiny day by day.

The Elite, well educated class knew Greek and used it more than Latin to differ themselves from low class population. It doesn’t make all the Byzantines originally Greek-speaking people, though. I am talking about the period until 641 as i said before by the way, the rest of it continued as Hellenized but still Byzantine Empire had Roman roots with a Latin-speaking population since from the beginning.

[Thracian]

Yes, it was.