Editing Greeks (section)

==History==
{{further|History of Greece}}
[[File:Proto.Greek.Area.220.1900.svg|upright=1.2|thumb|Proto-Greek area of settlement (2200/2100–1900 BC) suggested by Katona (2000), Sakelariou (2016, 1980, 1975) and Phylaktopoulos (1975)]]

[[File:Gold death-mask, known as the 'mask of Agamemnon', from Mycenae, grave Circle A, 16th century BC, Athens Archaeological Museum, Greece (22669073522).jpg|thumb|[[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] [[Death mask|funeral mask]] known as "[[Mask of Agamemnon]]", 16th century BC]]

The Greeks speak the [[Greek language]], which forms its own unique branch within the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] family of languages, the [[Hellenic languages|Hellenic]].<ref name=Sutton/> They are part of a group of classical ethnicities, described by [[Anthony D. Smith]] as an "archetypal diaspora people".<ref>{{harvnb|Guibernau|Hutchinson|2004|p=23: "Indeed, Smith emphasizes that the myth of divine election sustains the continuity of cultural identity, and, in that regard, has enabled certain pre-modern communities such as the Jews, Armenians, and Greeks to survive and persist over centuries and millennia (Smith 1993: 15–20)."}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Smith|1999|p=21: "It emphasizes the role of myths, memories and symbols of ethnic chosenness, trauma, and the 'golden age' of saints, sages, and heroes in the rise of modern nationalism among the Jews, Armenians, and Greeks—the archetypal diaspora peoples."}}</ref>

===Origins===
{{further|Proto-Greek language|List of Ancient Greek tribes|Ancient Greek religion}}
The Proto-Greeks probably arrived at the area now called Greece, in the southern tip of the [[Balkans|Balkan peninsula]], at the end of the 3rd millennium BC between 2200 and 1900 BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Bryce|2006|p=91}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Cadogan|1986|p=125}}</ref>{{efn|There is a range of interpretations: [[Carl Blegen]] dates the arrival of the Greeks around 1900 BC, John Caskey believes that there were two waves of immigrants and [[Robert Drews]] places the event as late as 1600 BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Bryce|2006|p=92}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Drews|1994|p=21}}</ref> Numerous other theories have also been supported,<ref>{{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=243}}</ref> but there is a general consensus that the Greek tribes arrived around 2100 BC.}} The sequence of migrations into the Greek mainland during the [[2nd millennium BC]] has to be reconstructed on the basis of the [[ancient Greek dialects]], as they presented themselves centuries later and are therefore subject to some uncertainties. There were at least two migrations, the first being the [[Ionians]] and [[Achaeans (tribe)|Achaeans]], which resulted in [[Mycenaean Greece]] by the 16th century BC,<ref name=Brit1>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title = The Greeks |encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. |location=US |id=Online Edition }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Chadwick|1976|p=2}}</ref> and the second, the [[Dorian invasion]], around the 11th century BC, displacing the [[Arcadocypriot Greek|Arcadocypriot dialects]], which descended from the Mycenaean period. Both migrations occur at incisive periods, the Mycenaean at the transition to the [[Bronze Age|Late Bronze Age]] and the Doric at the [[Bronze Age collapse]].

===Mycenaean===
{{Main|Mycenaean Greece}}
In {{circa}} 1600 BC, the Mycenaean Greeks borrowed from the [[Minoan civilization]] its syllabic writing system ([[Linear A]]) and developed their own [[syllabic script]] known as [[Linear B]],<ref name=Britannica>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Linear A and Linear B|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.|access-date=3 March 2016|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Linear-A|archive-date=6 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406094711/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Linear-A|url-status=live}}</ref> providing the first and oldest written evidence of [[Greek language|Greek]].<ref name=Britannica/><ref>{{harvnb|Castleden|2005|p=228}}.</ref> The Mycenaeans quickly penetrated the [[Aegean Sea]] and, by the 15th century BC, had reached [[Rhodes]], [[Crete]], [[Cyprus]] and the shores of [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]].<ref name=Sutton/><ref>{{harvnb|Tartaron|2013|p=28}}; {{harvnb|Schofield|2006|pp=71–72}}; {{harvnb|Panayotou|2007|pp=417–426}}.</ref>

Around 1200 BC, the [[Dorians]], another Greek-speaking people, followed from [[Epirus]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hall|2014|p=43}}.</ref> Older historical research often proposed [[Dorian invasion]] caused the collapse of the [[Mycenaean civilization]], but this narrative has been abandoned in all contemporary research. It is likely that one of the factors which contributed to the Mycenaean palatial collapse was linked to raids by groups known in historiography as the "[[Sea Peoples]]" who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean around 1180 BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Chadwick|1976|p=176}}.</ref> The [[Dorian invasion]] was followed by a poorly attested period of migrations, appropriately called the [[Greek Dark Ages]], but by 800 BC the landscape of [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] and [[Classical Greece]] was discernible.<ref name=Castleden2>{{harvnb|Castleden|2005|p=2}}.</ref>

The Greeks of classical antiquity idealized their Mycenaean ancestors and the Mycenaean period as a glorious era of heroes, closeness of the gods and material wealth.<ref>{{harvnb|Hansen|2004|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Podzuweit|1982|pp=65–88}}.</ref> The [[Homer|Homeric Epics]] (i.e. ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'') were especially and generally accepted as part of the Greek past and it was not until the time of [[Euhemerism]] that scholars began to question Homer's historicity.<ref name=Castleden2/> As part of the Mycenaean heritage that survived, the names of the gods and goddesses of Mycenaean Greece (e.g. [[Zeus]], [[Poseidon]] and [[Hades]]) became major figures of the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian Pantheon]] of later antiquity.<ref>{{harvnb|Castleden|2005|p=235}}; {{harvnb|Dietrich|1974|p=156}}.</ref>

===Classical===
{{Main|Classical Greece}}
{{multiple image
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The [[ethnogenesis]] of the Greek nation is linked to the development of Pan-Hellenism in the 8th century BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Burckhardt|1999|loc=p. 168: "The establishment of these Panhellenic sites, which yet remained exclusively Hellenic, was a very important element in the growth and self-consciousness of Hellenic nationalism; it was uniquely decisive in breaking down enmity between tribes, and remained the most powerful obstacle to fragmentation into mutually hostile ''poleis''."}}</ref> According to some scholars, the foundational event was the [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympic Games]] in 776 BC, when the idea of a common Hellenism among the Greek tribes was first translated into a shared cultural experience and Hellenism was primarily a matter of common culture.<ref name=Roberts1/> The works of [[Homer]] (i.e. ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'') and [[Hesiod]] (i.e. ''[[Theogony]]'') were written in the 8th century BC, becoming the basis of the national religion, ethos, history and mythology.<ref>{{harvnb|Zuwiyya|2011|pp=142–143}}; {{harvnb|Budin|2009|pp=66–67}}.</ref> The [[Pythia|Oracle of Apollo at Delphi]] was established in this period.<ref>{{harvnb|Morgan|1990|pp=1–25, 148–190}}.</ref>

The [[Classical antiquity|classical period]] of Greek civilization covers a time spanning from the early 5th century BC to the [[death of Alexander the Great]], in 323 BC (some authors prefer to split this period into "Classical", from the end of the [[Greco-Persian Wars]] to the end of the Peloponnesian War, and "Fourth Century", up to the death of Alexander). It is so named because it set the standards by which Greek civilization would be judged in later eras.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Ancient Greek Civilization|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=18 February 2016|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.|location=United States|id=Online Edition|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Greece|access-date=21 June 2022|archive-date=17 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117213744/https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Greece|url-status=live}}</ref> The Classical period is also described as the "Golden Age" of Greek civilization, and its art, philosophy, architecture and literature would be instrumental in the formation and development of Western culture.

While the Greeks of the classical era understood themselves to belong to a common Hellenic [[genos]],<ref>{{harvnb|Konstan|2001|pp=29–50}}.</ref> their first loyalty was to their city and they saw nothing incongruous about warring, often brutally, with other Greek [[Polis|city-states]].<ref>{{harvnb|Steinberger|2000|p=17}}; {{harvnb|Burger|2008|pp=57–58}}.</ref> The [[Peloponnesian War]], the large scale civil war between the two most powerful Greek city-states [[Classical Athens|Athens]] and [[Sparta]] and [[Delian League|their]] [[Peloponnesian League|allies]], left both greatly weakened.<ref>{{harvnb|Burger|2008|pp=57–58: "''Poleis'' continued to go to war with each other. The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) made this painfully clear. The war (really two wars punctuated by a peace) was a duel between Greece's two leading cities, Athens and Sparta. Most other ''poleis'', however, got sucked into the conflict as allies of one side or the other&nbsp;... The fact that Greeks were willing to fight for their cities against other Greeks in conflicts like the Peloponnesian War showed the limits of the pull of Hellas compared with that of the polis."}}</ref>
[[File:Alexander the Great mosaic.jpg|thumb|[[Alexander the Great]], whose conquests led to the [[Hellenistic Age]]|alt=]]

Most of the feuding Greek city-states were, in some scholars' opinions, united by force under the banner of [[Philip II of Macedon|Philip]]'s and [[Alexander the Great]]'s Pan-Hellenic ideals, though others might generally opt, rather, for an explanation of "[[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonian]] conquest for the sake of conquest" or at least conquest for the sake of riches, glory and power and view the "ideal" as useful propaganda directed towards the city-states.<ref>{{cite web|last=Fox|first=Robin Lane|title=Riding with Alexander|year=2004|work=Archaeology|publisher=The Archaeological Institute of America|url=http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/fox.html|quote=Alexander inherited the idea of an invasion of the Persian Empire from his father Philip whose advance-force was already out in Asia in 336 BC. Philips campaign had the slogan of "freeing the Greeks" in Asia and "punishing the Persians" for their past sacrileges during their own invasion (a century and a half earlier) of Greece. No doubt, Philip wanted glory and plunder.|access-date=27 December 2008|archive-date=2 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102011552/http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/fox.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In any case, Alexander's toppling of the [[Achaemenid Empire]], after his victories at the battles of the [[Battle of the Granicus|Granicus]], [[Battle of Issus|Issus]] and [[Battle of Gaugamela|Gaugamela]], and his advance as far as modern-day [[Pakistan]] and [[Tajikistan]],<ref>{{harvnb|Brice|2012|pp=281–286}}.</ref> provided an important outlet for Greek culture, via the creation of colonies and trade routes along the way.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title = Alexander the Great |encyclopedia= Columbia Encyclopedia|publisher= Columbia University Press |location=United States |id=Online Edition }}</ref> While the Alexandrian empire did not survive its creator's death intact, the cultural implications of the spread of Hellenism across much of the [[Middle East]] and [[Asia]] were to prove long lived as Greek became the ''[[lingua franca]]'', a position it retained even in [[Roman era|Roman times]].<ref>{{harvnb|Green|2008|p=xiii}}.</ref> Many Greeks settled in [[Hellenistic Greece|Hellenistic]] cities like [[Alexandria]], [[Antioch]] and [[Seleucia]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Morris|first=Ian|title=Growth of the Greek Colonies in the First Millennium BC|date=December 2005|work=Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics|publisher=Princeton/Stanford University|url=http://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/morris/120509.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/morris/120509.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Hellenistic===
{{Main|Hellenistic period|Hellenistic Greece}}
[[File:Diadochen1.png|thumb|upright=1.25|The Hellenistic realms c. 300 BC as divided by the [[Diadochi]]; the Μacedonian Kingdom of [[Cassander]] (green), the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]] (dark blue), the [[Seleucid Empire]] (yellow), the areas controlled by [[Lysimachus]] (orange) and [[Epirus]] (red)]]
[[File:Bust of Cleopatra VII - Altes Museum - Berlin - Germany 2017 (3).jpg|alt=|thumb|upright=0.8|Bust of [[Cleopatra VII]] ([[Altes Museum]], [[Berlin]]), the last ruler of a Hellenistic kingdom (apart from the [[Indo-Greek Kingdom]])]]
The [[Hellenistic civilization]] was the next period of Greek civilization, the beginnings of which are usually placed at Alexander's death.<ref name=Boardman364>{{harvnb|Boardman|Griffin|Murray|1991|p=364}}</ref> This [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic age]], so called because it saw the partial [[Hellenization]] of many non-Greek cultures, extending all the way into India and [[Bactria]], both of which maintained Greek cultures and governments for centuries.<ref>{{cite news|last=Arun|first=Neil|title=Alexander's Gulf outpost uncovered|work=BBC News|date=7 August 2007|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6930285.stm|access-date=15 June 2009|archive-date=2 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102000605/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6930285.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> The end is often placed around conquest of [[Ptolemaic Egypt|Egypt]] by Rome in 30 BC,<ref name=Boardman364/> although the Indo-Greek kingdoms lasted for a few more decades.

This age saw the Greeks move towards larger cities and a reduction in the importance of the city-state. These larger cities were parts of the still larger [[Diadochi|Kingdoms of the Diadochi]].<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|1990|loc=Introduction}}.</ref><ref name=BritHel>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Hellenistic age|date=27 May 2015|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.|location=United States|id=Online Edition|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Hellenistic-Age|access-date=21 June 2022|archive-date=14 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414153342/https://www.britannica.com/event/Hellenistic-Age|url-status=live}}</ref> Greeks, however, remained aware of their past, chiefly through the study of the works of Homer and the classical authors.<ref name=Harris>{{harvnb|Harris|1991|pp=137–138}}.</ref> An important factor in maintaining Greek identity was contact with ''[[barbarian]]'' (non-Greek) peoples, which was deepened in the new cosmopolitan environment of the multi-ethnic Hellenistic kingdoms.<ref name=Harris/> This led to a strong desire among Greeks to organize the transmission of the Hellenic ''[[paideia]]'' to the next generation.<ref name=Harris/> Greek science, technology and mathematics are generally considered to have reached their peak during the Hellenistic period.<ref>{{harvnb|Lucore|2009|p=51: "The Hellenistic period is commonly portrayed as the great age of Greek scientific discovery, above all in mathematics and astronomy."}}</ref>

In the [[Indo-Greeks|Indo-Greek]] and [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom|Greco-Bactrian]] kingdoms, [[Greco-Buddhism]] was spreading and Greek missionaries would play an important role in propagating it to [[China]].<ref>{{harvnb|Foltz|2010|pp=43–46}}.</ref> Further east, the Greeks of [[Alexandria Eschate]] became known to the [[Chinese people]] as the [[Dayuan]].<ref>{{harvnb|Burton|1993|pp=244–245}}.</ref>

===Roman Empire===
{{further|Roman Greece|Greco-Roman world}}
Between 168 BC and 30 BC, the entire Greek world was conquered by Rome, and almost all of the world's Greek speakers lived as citizens or subjects of the Roman Empire. Despite their military superiority, the Romans admired and became [[Greco-Roman world|heavily influenced]] by the achievements of Greek culture, hence [[Horace]]'s famous statement: ''Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit'' ("Greece, although captured, took its wild conqueror captive").<ref>{{harvnb|Zoch|2000|p=136}}.</ref> In the centuries following the Roman conquest of the Greek world, the Greek and Roman cultures merged into a single [[Greco-Roman]] culture.

In the religious sphere, this was a period of profound change. The spiritual revolution that took place, saw a waning of the old Greek religion, whose decline beginning in the 3rd century BC continued with the introduction of new religious movements from the East.<ref name=Roberts1/> The cults of deities like [[Isis]] and [[Mithra]] were introduced into the Greek world.<ref name=BritHel/><ref name=BritHelRel>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Hellenistic religion|date=13 May 2015|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.|location=United States|id=Online Edition|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hellenistic-religion|access-date=21 June 2022|archive-date=27 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627004110/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hellenistic-religion|url-status=live}}</ref> Greek-speaking communities of the Hellenized East were instrumental in the spread of early Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,<ref>{{harvnb|Ferguson|2003|pp=617–618}}.</ref> and Christianity's early leaders and writers (notably [[Saint Paul]]) were generally Greek-speaking,<ref>{{harvnb|Dunstan|2011|p=500}}.</ref> though none were from Greece proper. However, Greece itself had a tendency to cling to paganism and was not one of the influential centers of early Christianity: in fact, some ancient Greek religious practices remained in vogue until the end of the 4th century,<ref>{{harvnb|Milburn|1988|p=158}}.</ref> with some areas such as the southeastern Peloponnese remaining pagan until well into the mid-Byzantine 10th century AD.<ref>{{harvnb|Makrides|2009|p=206}}.</ref> The region of [[Tsakonia]] remained pagan until the ninth century and as such its inhabitants were referred to as ''Hellenes'', in the sense of being pagan, by their Christianized Greek brethren in mainstream Byzantine society.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Nicholas, Nick.|title=A critical lexicostatistical examination of Ancient and Modern Greek and Tsakonian.|journal=Journal of Applied Linguistics and Lexicography|volume=1|issue=1|year=2019|page=19|doi=10.33910/2687-0215-2019-1-1-18-68|doi-access=free}}</ref>

While ethnic distinctions still existed in the [[Roman Empire]], they became secondary to religious considerations, and the renewed empire used Christianity as a tool to support its cohesion and promote a robust Roman national identity.<ref>{{harvnb|Kaldellis|2007|pp=35–40}}.</ref> From the early centuries of the [[Common Era]], the Greeks self-identified as Romans ([[Medieval Greek|Greek]]: {{lang|grc|Ῥωμαῖοι}} ''Rhōmaîoi'').<ref>{{harvnb|Howatson|1989|p=264: "From the fourth century AD onwards the Greeks of the eastern Roman empire called themselves Rhomaioi ('Romans')&nbsp;..."}}</ref> By that time, the name ''Hellenes'' denoted pagans but was revived as an ethnonym in the 11th century.<ref name=Cameron>{{harvnb|Cameron|2009|p=7}}.</ref>

===Middle Ages===
{{See also|Byzantine Empire|Byzantine Greece|Byzantine Greeks|Fourth Crusade|Frankokratia}}
[[File:Family marriage.jpg|thumb|right|Scenes of marriage and family life in [[Constantinople]]]]
[[File:Basilios II.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|Emperor [[Basil II]] (11th century) is credited with reviving the [[Byzantine Empire]].]]
[[File:Benozzo Gozzoli, Pletone, Cappella dei Magi.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|[[Gemistos Plethon]], one of the most renowned philosophers of the late Byzantine era, a chief pioneer of the revival of Greek scholarship in Western Europe]]

During most of the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Greeks self-identified as ''Rhōmaîoi'' ({{lang|grc|Ῥωμαῖοι}}, "Romans", meaning [[Roman citizenship|citizens]] of the [[Roman Empire]]), a term which in the [[Greek language]] had become synonymous with Christian Greeks.<ref name="Harrison268">{{harvnb|Harrison|2002|p=268}}: "Roman, Greek (if not used in its sense of 'pagan') and Christian became synonymous terms, counterposed to 'foreigner', 'barbarian', 'infidel'. The citizens of the Empire, now predominantly of Greek ethnicity and language, were often called simply ό χριστώνυμος λαός ['the people who bear Christ's name']."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Earl|1968|p=148}}.</ref> The Latinizing term ''Graikoí'' (Γραικοί, "Greeks") was also used,<ref>[[Paul the Silentiary]]. ''Descriptio S. Sophiae et Ambonis'', 425, Line 12 ("χῶρος ὅδε Γραικοῖσι"); [[Theodore the Studite]]. ''Epistulae'', 419, Line 30 ("ἐν Γραικοῖς").</ref> though its use was less common, and nonexistent in official Byzantine political correspondence, prior to the Fourth Crusade of 1204.<ref>{{harvnb|Angelov|2007|p=96}}; {{harvnb|Makrides|2009|loc=Chapter 2: "Christian Monotheism, Orthodox Christianity, Greek Orthodoxy", p. 74}}; {{harvnb|Magdalino|1991|loc=Chapter XIV: "Hellenism and Nationalism in Byzantium", p. 10}}.</ref> The [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern Roman Empire]] (today conventionally named the ''Byzantine Empire'', a name not used during its own time<ref name=BritByz>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Byzantine Empire|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=23 December 2015|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc|location=United States|id=Online Edition|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Byzantine-Empire|access-date=21 June 2022|archive-date=4 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904022422/https://www.britannica.com/place/Byzantine-Empire|url-status=live}}</ref>) became increasingly influenced by Greek culture after the 7th century when Emperor [[Heraclius]] ({{reign}} 610–641 AD) decided to make Greek the empire's official language.<ref name=Haldon50>{{harvnb|Haldon|1997|p=50}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Shahid|1972|pp=295–296, 305}}.</ref> Although the [[Catholic Church]] recognized the Eastern Empire's claim to the Roman legacy for several centuries, after [[Pope Leo III]] crowned [[Charlemagne]], king of the [[Franks]], as the "[[Holy Roman Emperor|Roman Emperor]]" on 25 December 800, an act which eventually led to the formation of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], the Latin West started to favour the Franks and began to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire largely as the ''Empire of the Greeks'' (''Imperium Graecorum'').<ref>{{harvnb|Klein|2004|p=290 (Note #39)}}; ''[[Annales Fuldenses]]'', 389: "Mense lanuario c. epiphaniam Basilii, Graecorum imperatoris, legati cum muneribus et epistolis ad Hludowicum regem Radasbonam venerunt&nbsp;...".</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Fouracre|Gerberding|1996|p=345}}: "The Frankish court no longer regarded the Byzantine Empire as holding valid claims of universality; instead it was now termed the 'Empire of the Greeks'."</ref> While this Latin term for the ancient ''[[ancient Greeks|Hellenes]]'' could be used neutrally, its use by Westerners from the 9th century onwards in order to challenge Byzantine claims to [[ancient Rome|ancient Roman]] heritage rendered it a derogatory [[exonym]] for the Byzantines who barely used it, mostly in contexts relating to the West, such as texts relating to the [[Council of Florence]], to present the Western viewpoint.<ref>{{harvnb|Page|2008|pp=66, 87, 256}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Kaplanis|2014|pp=86–7}}</ref> Additionally, among the Germanic and the Slavic peoples, the ''Rhōmaîoi'' were just called Greeks.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Jakobsson | first=Sverrir | title=The Varangian legend: testimony from the Old Norse sources | website=Academia.edu | date=2016-01-01 | url=https://www.academia.edu/26529047 | access-date=2021-12-01 | archive-date=11 April 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411125846/https://www.academia.edu/26529047 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Herrin |first1=Judith |last2=Saint-Guillain |first2=Guillaume |title=Identities and Allegiances in the Eastern Mediterranean After 1204 |date=2011 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=9781409410980 |page=111 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p_mazcfdpVIC&pg=PA118 |language=en |access-date=1 December 2021 |archive-date=27 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927205507/https://books.google.com/books?id=p_mazcfdpVIC&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

There are three schools of thought regarding this Byzantine Roman identity in contemporary [[Byzantine studies|Byzantine scholarship]]: The first considers "Romanity" the mode of self-identification of the subjects of a multi-ethnic empire at least up to the 12th century, where the average subject identified as Roman; a perennialist approach, which views Romanity as the medieval expression of a continuously existing Greek nation; while a third view considers the eastern Roman identity as a pre-modern national identity.<ref>{{harvnb|Stouraitis|2014|pp=176, 177}}.</ref> The Byzantine Greeks' essential values were drawn from both Christianity and the Homeric tradition of ancient Greece.<ref>{{harvnb|Finkelberg|2012|p=20}}.</ref><ref name=Burstein>{{harvnb|Burstein|1988|pp=47–49}}.</ref>

A distinct Greek identity re-emerged in the 11th century in educated circles and became more forceful after the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders of the [[Fourth Crusade]] in 1204.<ref name=BritIdent/> In the [[Empire of Nicaea]], a small circle of the elite used the term "Hellene" as a term of self-identification.<ref>{{harvnb|Angold|1975|p=65}}, {{harvnb|Page|2008|p=127}}.</ref> For example, in a letter to [[Pope Gregory IX]], the Nicaean emperor [[John III Doukas Vatatzes]] (r. 1221–1254) claimed to have received the gift of royalty from Constantine the Great, and put emphasis on his "Hellenic" descent, exalting the wisdom of the Greek people.<ref>{{cite web | title=Byzantium 1220 To 1330 - PDF - Byzantine Empire - Constantinople | website=Scribd | date=2021-08-05 | url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/30421469/Byzantium-1220-to-1330 | ref={{sfnref | Scribd | 2021}} | access-date=2021-12-01 | archive-date=11 August 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811152526/https://www.scribd.com/doc/30421469/Byzantium-1220-to-1330 | url-status=live }}</ref> After the Byzantines recaptured Constantinople, however, in 1261, ''Rhomaioi'' became again dominant as a term for self-description and there are few traces of ''Hellene'' (Έλληνας), such as in the writings of [[George Gemistos Plethon]],<ref>{{harvnb|Kaplanis|2014|p=92}}.</ref> who abandoned Christianity and in whose writings culminated the secular tendency in the interest in the classical past.<ref name=BritIdent/> However, it was the combination of [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]] with a specifically Greek identity that shaped the Greeks' notion of themselves in the empire's twilight years.<ref name=BritIdent>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title =Greece during the Byzantine period (c. AD 300–c. 1453), Population and languages, Emerging Greek identity |encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. |location=United States |id=Online Edition}}</ref> In the twilight years of the Byzantine Empire, prominent Byzantine personalities proposed referring to the Byzantine Emperor as the "Emperor of the Hellenes".<ref name=Vasiliev>{{cite book |last1=Vasiliev |first1=Alexander A. |title=History of the Byzantine Empire, 324–1453 |date=1964 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=9780299809256 |page=582 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RtM0qClcIX4C |language=en}}</ref><ref name="CareyCarey1968">{{cite book|author1=Jane Perry Clark Carey|author2=Andrew Galbraith Carey|title=The Web of Modern Greek Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ltw7AAAAMAAJ|year=1968|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=33|isbn=9780231031707|quote=By the end of the fourteenth century the Byzantine emperor was often called "Emperor of the Hellenes"|access-date=11 September 2018|archive-date=27 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927205509/https://books.google.com/books?id=ltw7AAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> These largely rhetorical expressions of Hellenic identity were confined within intellectual circles, but were continued by [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance|Byzantine intellectuals who participated]] in the [[Italian Renaissance]].<ref>{{harvnb|Mango|1965|p=33}}.</ref>

The interest in the Classical Greek heritage was complemented by a renewed emphasis on [[Greek Orthodox]] identity, which was reinforced in the late Medieval and Ottoman Greeks' links with their fellow Orthodox Christians in the [[Russian Empire]]. These were further strengthened following the fall of the [[Empire of Trebizond]] in 1461, after which and until the second [[Russo-Turkish War (1828–29)|Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29]] hundreds of thousands of [[Pontic Greeks]] fled or migrated from the [[Pontic Alps]] and [[Armenian Highlands]] to southern Russia and the Russian [[South Caucasus]] (see also [[Greeks in Russia]], [[Greeks in Armenia]], [[Greeks in Georgia]], and [[Caucasian Greeks]]).<ref>See for example Anthony Bryer, 'The Empire of Trebizond and the Pontus' (Variourum, 1980), and his 'Migration and Settlement in the Caucasus and Anatolia' (Variourum, 1988), and other works listed in [[Caucasian Greeks]] and [[Pontic Greeks]].</ref>

These [[Byzantine Greeks]] were largely responsible for the preservation of the literature of the classical era.<ref name=Burstein/><ref name=Norwich>{{harvnb|Norwich|1998|p=xxi}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Harris|1999|loc=Part II Medieval Libraries: Chapter 6 Byzantine and Moslem Libraries, pp. 71–88}}</ref> [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance|Byzantine grammarians]] were those principally responsible for carrying, in person and in writing, ancient Greek grammatical and literary studies to the West during the 15th century, giving the [[Italian Renaissance]] a major boost.<ref name=BritRen>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Renaissance|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=30 March 2016|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.|location=United States|id=Online Edition|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Renaissance|access-date=21 June 2022|archive-date=16 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150616023601/https://www.britannica.com/event/Renaissance|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Robins|1993|p=8}}.</ref> The [[Aristotle|Aristotelian]] philosophical tradition was nearly unbroken in the Greek world for almost two thousand years, until the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Aristotelianism|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|year=2016|location=United States|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.|id=Online Edition|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aristotelianism|access-date=21 June 2022|archive-date=21 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021030829/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aristotelianism|url-status=live}}</ref>

To the [[Slavic people|Slavic]] world, the Byzantine Greeks contributed by the dissemination of literacy and Christianity. The most notable example of the later was the work of the two Byzantine Greek brothers, the monks [[Saints Cyril and Methodius]] from the port city of [[Thessalonica]], capital of the [[theme of Thessalonica]], who are credited today with formalizing the [[Glagolitic alphabet|first Slavic alphabet]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Cyril and Methodius, Saints|encyclopedia=The Columbia Encyclopedia|year=2016|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=United States|id=Online Edition|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Saints_Cyril_and_Methodius.aspx#2|access-date=10 May 2016|archive-date=5 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605024051/http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Saints_Cyril_and_Methodius.aspx#2|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Ottoman Empire===
{{Main|Ottoman Greeks|Phanariotes}}
[[File:Basilius Bessarion - Imagines philologorum.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|The Byzantine scholar and cardinal [[Basilios Bessarion]] (1395/1403–1472) played a key role in transmitting classical knowledge to Western Europe, contributing to the Renaissance.]]
Following the [[Fall of Constantinople]] on 29 May 1453, many Greeks sought better employment and education opportunities by leaving for the [[Western world|West]], particularly [[Italy]], [[Central Europe]], [[Germany]] and [[Russia]].<ref name=BritRen/> Greeks are greatly credited for the European cultural revolution, later called the Renaissance. In Greek-inhabited territory itself, Greeks came to play a leading role in the [[Ottoman Empire]], due in part to the fact that the central hub of the empire, politically, culturally, and socially, was based on [[Western Thrace]] and [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]], both in [[Northern Greece]], and of course was centred on the mainly Greek-populated, former Byzantine capital, [[Constantinople]]. As a direct consequence of this situation, Greek-speakers came to play a hugely important role in the Ottoman trading and diplomatic establishment, as well as in the church. Added to this, in the first half of the Ottoman period men of Greek origin made up a significant proportion of the Ottoman army, navy, and state bureaucracy, having been levied as adolescents (along with especially [[Albanians]] and [[Serbs]]) into Ottoman service through the [[devshirme]]. Many Ottomans of Greek (or Albanian or Serb) origin were therefore to be found within the Ottoman forces which governed the provinces, from Ottoman Egypt, to Ottomans occupied [[Yemen]] and [[Algeria]], frequently as provincial governors.

For those that remained under the [[Ottoman Empire]]'s [[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|millet system]], religion was the defining characteristic of national groups (''milletler''), so the [[exonym]] "Greeks" (''Rumlar'' from the name Rhomaioi) was applied by the Ottomans to all members of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Church]], regardless of their language or ethnic origin.<ref name=Mazower/> The [[Greek language|Greek]] speakers were the only ethnic group to actually call themselves ''Romioi'',<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title = History of Europe, The Romans |encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. |location=United States |id=Online Edition }}</ref> (as opposed to being so named by others) and, at least those educated, considered their ethnicity (''genos'') to be Hellenic.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mavrocordatos|first=Nicholaos|year=1800|title=Philotheou Parerga|publisher=Grēgorios Kōnstantas (Original from Harvard University Library)|quote=Γένος μεν ημίν των άγαν Ελλήνων}}</ref> There were, however, many Greeks who escaped the second-class status of Christians inherent in the Ottoman [[millet]] system, according to which Muslims were explicitly awarded senior status and preferential treatment. These Greeks either emigrated, particularly to their fellow Orthodox Christian protector, the [[Russian Empire]], or simply converted to Islam, often only very superficially and whilst remaining [[crypto-Christian]]. The most notable examples of large-scale conversion to Turkish Islam among those today defined as [[Greek Muslims]]—excluding those who had to convert as a matter of course on being recruited through the [[devshirme]]—were to be found in [[Crete]] ([[Cretan Turks]]), [[Greek Macedonia]] (for example among the [[Vallahades]] of western [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]]), and among [[Pontic Greeks]] in the [[Pontic Alps]] and [[Armenian Highlands]]. Several Ottoman sultans and princes were also of part Greek origin, with mothers who were either Greek concubines or princesses from Byzantine noble families, one famous example being sultan [[Selim I|Selim the Grim]] ({{reign}} 1517–1520), whose mother [[Gülbahar Hatun (mother of Selim I)|Gülbahar Hatun]] was a [[Pontic Greek]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Manastırlar|url=http://www.macka.gov.tr/manastirlar|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-24|website=www.macka.gov.tr|language=tr|archive-date=9 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230609203125/http://macka.gov.tr/manastirlar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bahadıroğlu |first=Yavuz |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/235010971 |title=Resimli Osmanlı tarihi |date=2007 |publisher=Nesil yayınları |isbn=978-975-269-299-2 |edition=[10.baskı : Eylül 2007] |location=İstanbul |pages=157 |oclc=235010971}}</ref>

[[File:Adamantios Korais.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Adamantios Korais]], leading figure of the [[Modern Greek Enlightenment]]]]
The roots of Greek success in the Ottoman Empire can be traced to the Greek tradition of education and commerce exemplified in the [[Phanariotes]].<ref name=BritB>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Phanariote|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|year=2016|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.|location=United States|id=Online Edition|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Phanariote|access-date=21 June 2022|archive-date=23 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023110209/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Phanariote|url-status=live}}</ref> It was the wealth of the extensive merchant class that provided the material basis for the intellectual revival that was the prominent feature of Greek life in the half century and more leading to the outbreak of the [[Greek War of Independence]] in 1821.<ref name=BritMerchant/> Not coincidentally, on the eve of 1821, the three most important centres of Greek learning were situated in [[Chios]], [[Smyrna]] and [[Ayvalık|Aivali]], all three major centres of Greek commerce.<ref name=BritMerchant/> Greek success was also favoured by Greek domination in the leadership of the [[Eastern Orthodox]] church.

===Modern===
{{See also|Modern Greek Enlightenment|Greek War of Independence}}
The movement of the Greek enlightenment, the Greek expression of the [[Age of Enlightenment]], contributed not only in the promotion of education, culture and printing among the Greeks, but also in the case of independence from the [[Ottoman empire|Ottomans]], and the restoration of the term "Hellene". [[Adamantios Korais]], probably the most important intellectual of the movement, advocated the use of the term "Hellene" (Έλληνας) or "Graikos" (Γραικός) in the place of ''Romiós'', that was seen negatively by him.

The relationship between ethnic Greek identity and [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] religion continued after the creation of the modern Greek nation-state in 1830. According to the second article of the first [[Constitution of Greece|Greek constitution]] of 1822, a Greek was defined as any native Christian resident of the [[Kingdom of Greece (Wittelsbach)|Kingdom of Greece]], a clause removed by 1840.<ref>{{cite web|title=Greek Constitution of 1822 (Epidaurus)|year=1822|language=el|url=http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/UserFiles/f3c70a23-7696-49db-9148-f24dce6a27c8/syn06.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/UserFiles/f3c70a23-7696-49db-9148-f24dce6a27c8/syn06.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref> A century later, when the [[Treaty of Lausanne]] was signed between Greece and Turkey in 1923, the two countries agreed to use religion as the determinant for ethnic identity for the purposes of population exchange, although most of the Greeks displaced (over a million of the total 1.5 million) had already been driven out by the time the agreement was signed.{{efn|While Greek authorities signed the agreement legalizing the population exchange this was done on the insistence of [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] and after a million Greeks had already been expelled from [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]] ({{harvnb|Gilbar|1997|p=8}}).}}<ref>{{harvnb|Barutciski|2003|p=28}}; {{harvnb|Clark|2006|pp=xi–xv}}; {{harvnb|Hershlag|1980|p=177}}; {{harvnb|Özkırımlı|Sofos|2008|pp=116–117}}.</ref> The [[Greek genocide]], in particular the harsh removal of Pontian Greeks from the southern shore area of the Black Sea, contemporaneous with and following the failed Greek [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)|Asia Minor Campaign]], was part of this process of [[Turkification]] of the Ottoman Empire and the placement of its economy and trade, then largely in Greek hands under ethnic Turkish control.<ref>{{harvnb|Üngör|2008|pp=15–39}}.</ref>