Thought about Byzantine Empire nomenclature

[bitparity]

Been reading through John Julius Norwich's fabulous history of Venice, and was noticing the connotational difference in his history when he simplify referred to the leaders of the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire as simply the "Western Emperor" vs. the "Eastern Emperor." It immediately gave me a sense of the competition as well as the continuity from the original empire that each side claimed during that period in history.

 

Which got me thinking. Byzantine Empire is so unwieldy. The first time I heard of them I had no clue they were a continuation of the Roman Empire. In my mind, with that name, it's still difficult to reconcile that fact. I mean even the more unwieldy Constantinoplan Empire would probably be preferable, as it indicates the new locus of that empire.

 

Now we know that the west referred to the Byzantines as the "Empire of the Greeks," to reflect their belief that the byzantines were not the true inheritors of rome, but maybe that can be a useful guideline?

 

Why not, post-heraclius we go with Greek Roman Empire? Obviously post-diocletian we'd keep calling it the eastern roman empire, but with Greek Roman Empire, it could simultaneously imply continuity with the old roman empire, as well as an acknowledgement the overwhelming greek nature of the empire post arab conquests.

 

Are there any other cultural pitfalls I'm missing here?

 

tl;dr - Call it the Greek Roman Empire instead of the Byzantine Empire?

[Northern Neil]

 

Now we know that the west referred to the Byzantines as the "Empire of the Greeks," to reflect their belief that the byzantines were not the true inheritors of rome, but maybe that can be a useful guideline?

 

 

The west at the time acknowledged the name the greeks had for their empire, which was 'Romania' or the Roman Empire, although they called its inhabitants Greeks. Aparently, the extinction of the Western Empire officially re-united the Empire. There has recently been a move away from the term 'Byzantine Empire' in some quarters, and historical atlases have started to call the Empire 'The Eastern Roman Empire' right up to 1453. Which is, as I believe, the way it ought to be. The name 'Eastern Roman Empire' is retained - as Colin McEvedy (Penguin atlas of Mediaeval History) says, to acknowledge '...the many differences between the Classical Empire of Rome and the Roman Empire of Constantinople'.

Edited September 8, 2011 by Northern Neil

[Zevi]

As a native speaker of Hungarian, I've seen the phrase "Greek-Roman Empire" used quite a few times (G

[Kosmo]

Byzantine Empire is a very wrong and derogatory name, but is well known. The only correct name is Roman Empire and it looks like slowly it is winning some ground. Eastern Roman Empire makes sense only for the 5th Century but it can be used for later periods. The roman german empire is usually named in English as the Holy Empire. Greek Roman Empire is weird especially because the greeks within the empire did not spoke of themselves as greeks but as romans.