Editing Greeks (section)

===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>