"History of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire The history of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire has been well-recorded and preserved. After the decline of the Greek-speaking Hellenistic Judaism in ancient times, the use of the Greek language and the integration of the Greek culture into Judaism continued to be an integral part of the life in Jewish communities in the Byzantine Empire. The legal standing of the Jews of the Byzantine Empire was unique during the entire history of the Empire; they did not belong to the Christian Eastern Orthodox faith, which was the state religion, nor were"
"Greek continued as the language of the Byzantine Empire, but never replaced certain Afroasiatic languages with which it had long coexisted—primarily Coptic in Egypt, and Aramaic in Syria and Mesopotamia. Languages of the Roman Empire Latin and Greek were the official languages of the Roman Empire, but other languages were important regionally. Latin was the original language of the Romans and remained the language of imperial administration, legislation, and the military throughout the classical period. In the West it became the lingua franca and came to be used for even local administration of the cities including the law courts. After"
"official language of the Empire, historians refer to the empire as ""Byzantine"". Westerners would gradually begin to refer to it as ""Greek"" rather than ""Roman"". The inhabitants, however, always called themselves ""Romaioi"", or Romans. The Eastern Roman Empire aimed to retain control of the trade routes between Europe and the Orient, which made the Empire the richest polity in Europe. Making use of their sophisticated warfare and superior diplomacy, the Byzantines managed to fend off assaults by the migrating barbarians. Their dreams of subduing the Western potentates briefly materialized during the reign of Justinian I in 527–565. Not only did"
"pope. This position of strength had built up over time, for at the beginning of the Byzantine Empire, under Emperor Constantine the Great (), only a small part, about 10%, of the population was Christian. Use of the Greek language was already widespread in the eastern parts of the Roman empire when Constantine moved its capital to Constantinople, although Latin was the language of the imperial administration. From the reign of Emperor Heraclius (), Greek was the predominant language amongst the populace and also replaced Latin in administration. At first, the Byzantine Empire had a multi-ethnic character, but following the"
"Byzantine battle tactics The Byzantine army evolved from that of the late Roman Empire. The language of the army was still Latin (though later and especially after the 6th century Greek dominates, as Greek became the official language of the entire empire) but it became considerably more sophisticated in terms of strategy, tactics and organization. Unlike the Roman legions, its strength was in its armoured cavalry Cataphracts, which evolved from the ""Clibanarii"" of the late empire. Infantry were still used but mainly in support roles and as a base of maneuver for the cavalry. Most of the foot-soldiers of the"
"consists almost entirely of Classical Latin, an artificial and highly stylized and polished literary language from the 1st century BC, the spoken language of the Roman Empire was Vulgar Latin, which significantly differed from Classical Latin in grammar and vocabulary, and eventually in pronunciation. While Latin remained the main written language of the Roman Empire, Greek came to be the language spoken by the well-educated elite, as most of the literature studied by Romans was written in Greek. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which later became the Byzantine Empire, Latin was never able to replace Greek, and"
"Heraclius changed the empire's official language from Latin to Greek in around 620, the ""solidus"" (plural: ""solidi"") would thereafter be known by its Greek name, the ""nomisma"" (plural: ""nomismata""). The Byzantine-Arab Wars reduced the territory of the Empire to a third in the 7th century and the economy slumped; in 780 the Byzantine Empire's revenues were reduced to only ""nomismata"". From the 8th century onward the Empire's economy improved dramatically. This was a blessing for Byzantium in more than one way; the economy, the administration of gold coinage and the farming of the Anatolian peninsula served to meet the military's"
"Languages of the Roman Empire Latin and Greek were the official languages of the Roman Empire, but other languages were important regionally. Latin was the original language of the Romans and remained the language of imperial administration, legislation, and the military throughout the classical period. In the West it became the lingua franca and came to be used for even local administration of the cities including the law courts. After all freeborn inhabitants of the Empire were universally enfranchised in 212 AD, a great number of Roman citizens would have lacked Latin, though they were expected to acquire at least"
"the Eastern Aegean Islands (Treaty of Bucharest (1913)), Western Thrace (Treaty of Neuilly, 1920) and the Dodecanese (Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947), making them Greek territory. The Byzantine Empire was Roman in origin and was called the ""Roman Empire"" by its inhabitants and the entire world, until some 120 years after its fall, when Hieronymus Wolf coined the usage of ""Byzantium"". It became Hellenistic with time to the point where Greek replaced Latin as the official language in AD 610, owing to several factors: Its religion, being Christian, with the New Testament written in Greek; its location in the"
"spoken language's pronunciation and structure. Medieval Greek is the link between this vernacular, known as Koine Greek, and the Modern Greek language. Though Byzantine Greek literature was still strongly influenced by Ancient Greek, it was also influenced by vernacular Koine Greek, which is the language of the New Testament and the liturgical language of the Greek Orthodox Church. Constantine (the Great) moved to Byzantium (renamed Constantinople) in 330. The city, though a major imperial residence like other cities such as Trier, Milan, and Sirmium, was not officially a capital until 359. Nonetheless the imperial court resided there and the city"
"the lingua franca. The Roman Empire was Christianized in the fourth century AD, and during the late Byzantine period the Greek Orthodox form of Christianity became a hallmark of Greek identity. In the seventh century, Emperor Heraclius adopted Medieval Greek as the official language of the Byzantine Empire. Greeks continued to live around the Levant, Mediterranean and Black Sea, maintaining their identity among local populations as traders, officials, and settlers. Soon afterwards, the Arab-Islamic Caliphate seized the Levant, Egypt, North Africa and Sicily from the Byzantine Greeks during the Byzantine–Arab Wars. The Greek populations generally remained in these areas of"
"half and the aptly named Theodosius the Great died, the east was so strong that it could now be considered an equal. ""See the main article Byzantine Empire, Justinian I."" The Byzantine Empire was the predominantly Greek-speaking continuation of the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), originally known as Byzantium. Initially the eastern half of the Roman Empire (often called the Eastern Roman Empire in this context), it survived the 5th century fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until"
"Byzantine Greeks The Byzantine Greeks or Byzantines were the Greek-speaking Christian Romans of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. They were the main inhabitants of the lands of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), of Constantinople and Asia Minor (modern Turkey), the Greek islands, Cyprus, and portions of the southern Balkans, and formed large minorities, or pluralities, in the coastal urban centres of the Levant and northern Egypt. Throughout their history, the Byzantine Greeks self-identified as ""Romans"" (), but are referred to as ""Byzantines"" and ""Byzantine Greeks"" in modern historiography. The social structure of the Byzantine Greeks was primarily supported"
"from the Greek alphabet. The Latin alphabet is still used today to write most European and many other languages. Most of the surviving Latin literature consists almost entirely of Classical Latin. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which became the Byzantine Empire; Greek was the main lingua franca as it had been since the time of Alexander the Great, while Latin was mostly used by the Roman administration and its soldiers. Eventually Greek would supplant Latin as both the official written and spoken language of the Eastern Roman Empire, while the various dialects of Vulgar Latin used in"
"Byzantine Empire; that is, the Greek-speaking world as it was under the eastern Roman Empire. The crusaders broke the power of its capital city, Constantinople, leaving it helpless before the saracens, in this case the Turkish-language speakers from the plains of Central Asia, who became the Ottoman Turks. They soon colonized Anatolia, occupying the urban centers there and replacing the Greek-speakers, who escaped to Greece. As they were not much interested in copying Greek MSS, the task of transmitting them to posterity passed to Europe. (The Turkish people today have an abiding interest in antiquities). The Arabic-speaking saracens to the"
"the military. Heraclius formally changed the official language to Greek from Latin in 620. Titles inspired by their Greek tradition, often only rough approximation of Latin concepts, became common (i.e. ""basileus"" [βασιλεύς] instead of ""caesar"" or ""augustus"" for the title of the emperor himself). Other titles changed meaning (for example, ""Patriarch"") or were devalued with time (such as ""consul""). Among important qualities of the Empire was also the caesaropapism, the subjugation of church to the state. The Byzantine Empire acquired a negative reputation in the Western world as early as the Middle Ages. The creation of the Holy Roman Empire"
"Heraclius Heraclius (, , ""Flavios Iraklios""; c. 575 – February 11, 641) was the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 610 to 641. He was responsible for introducing Greek as the Byzantine Empire's official language. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas. Heraclius's reign was marked by several military campaigns. The year Heraclius came to power, the empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius immediately took charge of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. The first battles of the campaign ended"
"Medieval Greek Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the end of Classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. From the 7th century onwards, Greek was the only language of administration and government in the Byzantine Empire. This stage of language is thus described as Byzantine Greek. The study of the Medieval Greek language and literature is a branch of Byzantine Studies, or Byzantinology, the study of the history and culture of the Byzantine Empire. The"
"Although the Byzantine Empire had a multi-ethnic character during most of its history and preserved Romano-Hellenistic traditions, it became identified by its western and northern contemporaries with its increasingly predominant Greek element. The occasional use of the term ""Empire of the Greeks"" (Latin: ""Imperium Graecorum"") in the West to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire and of the Byzantine Emperor as ""Imperator Graecorum"" (Emperor of the Greeks) were also used to separate it from the prestige of the Roman Empire within the new kingdoms of the West. Due to the heartland of the Byzantine Empire being in Greek-speaking areas, Greek"
"the emperor Justinian engaged in a quixotic effort to reassert the status of Latin as the language of law, even though in his time Latin no longer held any currency as a living language in the East. The dominance of Latin and Greek among the literate elite may obscure the continuity of spoken languages, since all cultures within the Roman Empire were predominantly oral. In areas where Syriac, Coptic, Hebrew and Aramaic were spoken, they coexisted with Greek. Aramaic was the primary language of Syria and Mesopotamia, with several dialects. Syriac was in use around Antioch, one of the three"
"the spread of the Hellenistic civilization in the 3rd century BC, Greek became the lingua franca of Asia Minor, and by the fifth century AD, when the last of the Indo-European native languages of Anatolia ceased to be spoken, Greek became the sole spoken language of the natives of Asia Minor. After the founding of Constantinople by the first Christian Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 330, Asia Minor, the major part of the Greek East, became the most important region of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. For the centuries to follow, the area was the main manpower and wheat"
"As an international language of learning and literature, Latin itself continued as an active medium of expression for diplomacy and for intellectual developments identified with Renaissance humanism up to the 17th century, and for law and the Roman Catholic Church to the present. Although Greek continued as the language of the Byzantine Empire, linguistic distribution in the East was more complex. A Greek-speaking majority lived in the Greek peninsula and islands, western Anatolia, major cities, and some coastal areas. Like Greek and Latin, the Thracian language was of Indo-European origin, as were several now-extinct languages in Anatolia attested by Imperial-era"
"taking place between Heraclius Constantine and Martina, who was trying to position her son Heraklonas in line for the throne. When Heraclius died, he devised the empire to both Heraclius Constantine and Heraklonas to rule jointly with Martina as Empress. Heraclius Heraclius (, , ""Flavios Iraklios""; c. 575 – February 11, 641) was the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 610 to 641. He was responsible for introducing Greek as the Byzantine Empire's official language. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular"
"in the East, modernly referred to as the Byzantine Empire. Because communication in ancient society was predominantly oral, it can be difficult to determine the extent to which regional or local languages continued to be spoken or used for other purposes under Roman rule. Some evidence exists in inscriptions, or in references in Greek and Roman texts to other languages and the need for interpreters. For Punic, Coptic, and Aramaic or Syriac, a significant amount of epigraphy or literature survives. The Celtic languages were widespread throughout much of western Europe, and while the orality of Celtic education left scant written"
"one of the soldiers asked. ‘‘At Hellenes,’’ the children replied. ‘‘Are you not Hellenes yourselves?’’ the soldier retorted. ‘‘No, we are Romans,’’ the children replied. Byzantine Greeks The Byzantine Greeks or Byzantines were the Greek-speaking Christian Romans of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. They were the main inhabitants of the lands of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), of Constantinople and Asia Minor (modern Turkey), the Greek islands, Cyprus, and portions of the southern Balkans, and formed large minorities, or pluralities, in the coastal urban centres of the Levant and northern Egypt. Throughout their history, the Byzantine Greeks self-identified"
"postulated for the early and middle Byzantine periods. The population of the Byzantine Empire, at least in its early stages, had a variety of mother tongues including Greek. These included Latin, Aramaic, Coptic, and Caucasian languages, while Cyril Mango also cites evidence for bilingualism in the south and southeast. These influences, as well as an influx of people of Arabic, Celtic, Germanic, Turkic, and Slavic backgrounds, supplied medieval Greek with many loanwords that have survived in the modern Greek language. From the 11th century onward, there was also a steady rise in the literary use of the vernacular. Following the"
"latest with the division of the Roman Empire into a Western Roman Empire and an Eastern Roman Empire (395). This ""Early Byzantine"" period lasts until approximately 641 AD. Emperor Justinian I (527–65) reconquered Italy, north Africa, and southern Spain, but after the expansion of Islam (634/98) a reorganized Byzantium, now based on administration by Themes, was limited to the Greek-speaking regions of the Balkan peninsula, Asia Minor, and southern Italy; Latin was abandoned as the language of officialdom. This may be perceived as the ""end of antiquity,"" and the beginning of the ""Middle Byzantine"" era. This was also the era"
"single political and economic unit. This unity facilitated the spread of Christianity, and by the 5th century the whole region was Christian. After the empire became divided into its western and eastern parts the Emperors of the East ruled from Constantinople over the lands of the Middle East as far east as the Euphrates and over the Balkans. This empire was a Greek-speaking, Christian empire, and became known to historians as the Byzantine Empire (from the earlier name of its capital city). The Parthians ruled Persia parallel to the Han Dynasty and around this time the Roman Empire reached the"
"to the praetorian prefects (singular in Greek: , ""eparch of the praetorium"") in charge of the Empire's praetorian prefectures, and to the Eparch of Constantinople, the city's urban prefect. The Dominate-period administrative system was retained In the Byzantine period of the Empire until the 7th century. As Greek became the Empire's main administrative language, replacing Latin, in the latter 6th century even the provinces of the Exarchate of Ravenna, in reconquered Italy, were termed ""eparchiae"" in Greek as well as in Latin. In the latter half of the 7th century, the old provincial administration was replaced by the thematic system."
"after the death of Justinian, Greek became the official language of the Byzantine government. The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and Vulgar Latin evolved into dialects in different locations, gradually shifting into many distinct Romance languages. Archaic Roman religion, at least concerning the gods, was made up not of written narratives, but rather of complex interrelations between gods and humans. Unlike in Greek mythology, the gods were not personified, but were vaguely defined sacred spirits called ""numina"". Romans also believed that every person, place or thing had its own ""genius"", or divine soul. During the Roman"
"severed as the Empire split into East and West, with the Middle East tied to the new Roman capital of Constantinople. The subsequent Fall of the Western Roman Empire therefore, had minimal direct impact on the region. The Eastern Roman Empire, today commonly known as the Byzantine Empire, ruling from the Balkans to the Euphrates, became increasingly defined by and dogmatic about Christianity, gradually creating religious rifts between the doctrines dictated by the establishment in Constantinople and believers in many parts of the Middle East. By this time, Greek had become the 'lingua franca' of the region, although ethnicities such"
"remained strong in the predominantly Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Emperor Justinian I presided over Constantinople's first golden age: he established a legal code that forms the basis of many modern legal systems, funded the construction of the Hagia Sophia, and brought the Christian church under state control. From the 7th century onwards, as the Byzantines and neighbouring Sasanid Persians were severely weakened due the protracted, centuries-lasting and frequent Byzantine–Sasanian wars, the Muslim Arabs began to"
"379–395), Christianity became the Empire's official state religion and others such as Roman polytheism were proscribed. And finally, under the reign of Heraclius (r. 610–641), the Empire's military and administration were restructured and adopted Greek for official use instead of Latin. Thus, although it continued the Roman state and maintained Roman state traditions, modern historians distinguish Byzantium from ancient Rome insofar as it was oriented towards Greek rather than Latin culture, and characterised by Orthodox Christianity rather than Roman polytheism. The borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery."