Were the Byzantines Actually Romans?

[The Lawspeaker]

A common debate among historians - Were the Byzantines really Romans, or were they a Hellenic civilization? Both?

In this video, we explain why the Byzantine Empire spoke Greek instead of Latin, despite being Romans.

[pulstar]

Romans

[itilvolga]

Byzantine Empire = Hellenized Eastern Roman Empire.

[Kamal900]

Yes and no. Yes, they were Romans, but they weren't ethnically Romans since the empire was very multi-ethnic even during the glory days of the Roman empire under Augustus and etc. We've seen many Punic speaking Berbers in the senate and even Roman emperor who had Berber and other non-Latin origins, especially true in the Byzantine empire. Overall, being a Roman during the Byzantine empire is more of a civic national identity than anything which is a far cry for what they used to be during the republic era of Rome.

[pulstar]

Yes and no. Yes, they were Romans, but they weren't ethnically Romans since the empire was very multi-ethnic even during the glory days of the Roman empire under Augustus and etc. We've seen many Punic speaking Berbers in the senate and even Roman emperor who had Berber and other non-Latin origins, especially true in the Byzantine empire. Overall, being a Roman during the Byzantine empire is more of a civic national identity than anything which is a far cry for what they used to be during the republic era of Rome.

They were still more Roman than anyone else, under Roman authority for centuries and embraced culture. Heck, like the guy in first video said part of the Eastern Roman Christians considered themselves Romans until 20th century (some probably even today).

[Kamal900]

They were still more Roman than anyone else, under Roman authority for centuries and embraced culture. Heck, like the guy in first video said part of the Eastern Roman Christians considered themselves Romans until 20th century (some probably even today).

Yeah. Just saying that being a Roman isn't necessarily based on ethnicity. In fact, most of the Christians in the Levant are Greek Orthodox Christians since the time of the Byzantine era.

[pulstar]

Yeah. Just saying that being a Roman isn't necessarily based on ethnicity. In fact, most of the Christians in the Levant are Greek Orthodox Christians since the time of the Byzantine era.

Whats ethnic Roman? Citizen of Rome (the city of)? They probably died out before Rome became Empire. Ancient Roman civilization was successor of ancient Greek civilization and those people living in the Balkans, Mediterranean islands or some other former Greek colonies were all interconnected in every possible way with the Romans. So yup, they were pretty Roman I'd say.

[Crn Volk]

Byzantine Empire = Hellenized Eastern Roman Empire.

This. But, today they're ancient Greeks again

[Satem]

We need Bosniensis to know the answer

[War Chef]

Greeks + Anatolians.
Quite a lot of Armenians and even a few Syrians too.