El Greco was a painter of Greek origin from Crete, who lived and worked in Spain. That's where he got his nickname from. Dominikos Theotokopoulos was his real name.
It was because of the fall of the Constantinople in 1453 is the reason why the European nations went to colonize the Americas,Southern Africa and Australia. But he forgot to mention that during in the Dark Ages because of the Islamic conquest in the 8th century AD,the people in the Iberian Peninsula had knowledge as well as the Byzantine Empire.
@98bigbutt The Muslims also played an important role in preserving and reintroducing Greco-Roman knowledge back to Western Europe. They translated Greek texts into Arabic and distributed them to libraries throughout Islamic lands. Then Western European scholars traveled to Muslim ruled Iberian Peninsula to study, translated books into Latin and brough them back to Western Europe.
Romaioi being a hellenised greek version of the word Roman. So yes the Byzantine empire was in part a roman empire but not wholly, only partly. It was a greek empire almost entirely. And the Latin West called them Emperium Graecorum or empire of the greeks. So taking into account all this it is o wonder why many historians call the byzantine empire the 'Byzantine Empire' or 'Byzantine Greek Empire'. It should stay that way. Sure call it Eastern Roman Empire if you wish since correct as well.
@PatrickHanibal it's entirely roman, sorry but just because it spoke greek and its population was mostly greek speaking, that doesn't mean it's a greek empire, it's roman, the legacy, customs and evolving army, everything can be traced back to the classical roman republic, it was just an evolution, not a change from "roman" to "greek" and the latin west despised the byzantine empire, so that's why they labeled it greek, but its neighbors, enemies and allies called it roman empire!
@Justinian43 I vehemently disagree. Most of the inhabitants were of greek origon. Thats hy they had been speaking Greek in Byzantine areas since before Roman times right back to greek times. That is the reason they spoke greek. People dont speak a foreign language unless they grew up in a foreign nation founded by a people speaking that other language. And then the official language was changed from latin to greek on top of that. And by a greek emperor with a greek name. "Heraclios".
@Justinian43 And the Byzantine army had nothing in common with the roman army. The romans throughout their history, from c. 700 to late 400's and romes fall along with the western empire, had an infantry based army with legionaries as the main troop type. The Byzantines on the other hand, and remember I acknowledge Justinians reign or a little later then that as the beginning of the Byzantine empire, they had a combined arms army. Cataphractos cavalry, heavy pikemen and well trained archers.
@Justinian43 Around 40% heavy pikemen, 30% cataphractos cavalry and 30% archers. The pikemen would form the main battleline from where the archers would fire at the anemy from and from whos flanks the cataphractos' would make repeated charges and retreats at the enemy line. This was far closer in relation and in type of warfare to a hellenistic era greek army then a republican roman army, of which you said the byzantine army could be traced to. Also the Byzantine navy played a much more cetral
@Justinian43 central role in the defense of the empire than did the Roman emperial or republican navy during the vast majority of its history. Even in wars such as the Punic wars when the roman navy was key to many victories, most of the ships and sailors were supplied by Greek, (from southern Italian coastlines), or Phoenician, (From western sicily), allies of Rome and not by Rome itself. Also this all can be supported by looking at a map of the most populated areas of the Byzantine empire.
@Justinian43 These are Greece, Italy and Anatolia(Asia Minor). These were also always key greek homelands so you can guess why they spoke greek. They also did not call their emperors Ceasar Augustus anymore but Basilios Augustus. One greek title and one roman title. There is an obvious reason why they did that. If you still want to debate against what i am saying then i suggest you come to a debating site that i am a member of. There is a debate there about what we are talking about.
@Justinian43 So what do you think? Do you want to reply. And by the way. At the beginning of this video it says Christos Anesti, which means bless Jesus in greek. They still say that at my church.
@Justinian43 Lol. About whether or not the Byzantine empire was greek or not. Go through this page and the previous page. And if you dont want to debate on youtube because there isn't enough space for words then you can come to a debate website im a part of that has this particular debate. It is called the world debating.
@PatrickHanibal i love debating more than anything but just like poor old heraclius, too exhausted from work to make any extra effort, work has exhausted me. Sorry im brain-fried right now lol
They called their emperors Basileus Augustus by 610 and the reign of Emperor Heraclios who was also a greek. Basileus meant king or emperor in dark age greek. And when i said upwards of 70% of its people were greek by race and blood that was 610 and only got higher as outer non greek territories were lost. And they called themselves Roman more as a term for their citizenship and out of acknowledge-meant of the empires roman past. Their term for Roman was not 'Roman' as in Latin but 'Romaio'
Lets get one thing straight. Yes the citizens of the eastern roman empire called themselves Romans. Yes they reffered to their land as the Roman empire or simply 'The Empire'. Yes some of them were actually descendants of romans who had been living in the east. And yes they called their emperors augustus. BUT. The empire was composed upwards of 70% of its people as greeks by blood/DNA/genes whatever. They spoke greek as common language throughout roman times and officially by 610.
I usually call the "Byzantine" Empire, the "Eastern Roman" Empire. The use of the term "Byzantine" is a primitive historiographic term used by Enlightenment Western Europeans because they didn't particularly like the Eastern Roman polity and history, completely overlooking the bigger picture. This is the 21st century, and we now have information given to us in neutral tone in secondary sources, let's abandon this silly "Byzantine" business and call it what it was, Roman.
Basically the entire history of the Byzantine Empire can and should be looked upon as the decline and fall of the Roman empire, and in order to view history in a clearer manner, it is in the interest of the viewer to understand the history as that of the Roman empire.
The fact is that people often use this as a basis for their argument against the romanity of "byzantium": that its capital was not rome. I find this funny because the capital of the "former" roman empire was nicomedia before constantinople. say it stayed that way, and the empire still survived outside of western europe, would that make it a.... nicomedian empire? surely it would have retained the same eastern influences and seeing as how it is further east AND in asia would it not be MORE greek?
@sherkbite3839 if the capital would be nicomedia, the empire would have fallen much faster, constantinople's site make it almost impregnable to any enemies! until the cannon came along... =(
@Sirchud68 i really recommend this book, and in school they overlook this empire, at first i got the feeling that it was a false empire and had nothing to do with the roman empire, until i started reading books that spanned from the decline of the west to the rise of the EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE! lol
Actually Byzantines had a pretty clear view of themselves. They were Roman citizens living in the eastern part of the Roman Empire governed by the Roman Emperor and led by a number christian patriarchs (one of them was also pope before asking to have the first place). They were happy to have Konstantinople as their capital thinking the occupation of Rome as not necessary to hold the title of the Empire as the lineage of Emperors verified it (Roman Empire had changed capitals repeatedly already
The Byzantine term is a term invented by French writers of the 18th century who did not want to permit the utilisation of the term "Roman" by Greeks. Lets not forget that Greeks of the 18th century were aready under a huge revolution and huge games were played between France, England, Austria and the... 3rd Rome, Moscow. A revival of the Roman Empire was meant to be a negative. Hence, "Romans" (i.e. Greeks) had to re-become Greeks.
For the whole of its history, this was the Roman Empire
Unless there is other information, El Greco's name was Dominikos Theotokopoulos, a Greek born in Crete, then under Venecian rule, but then he was an orthodox indicating a Greek ancestry rather than Italian. He was was called El Greco because ... he was the Greek! He was rather a Greek painter with western influences rather than a Spanish painter with orthodox influences. He came to Spain already a professional painter.
the anglo-saxon history is more objective !! to all liars, the byzantine empire was ubroken continuance of the roman empire as he said! no hellas empire, or other absurdities
@80smusicfanNO1 Doesn't matter. It was the eastern half of the Roman Empire and was known as the Roman Empire to it's neighbors, allies, and enemies alike. When Mehmed II conquered it in 1453, he took the title Caesar of Rome, recognizing it as the Roman Empire.
El Greco was a painter of Greek origin from Crete, who lived and worked in Spain. That's where he got his nickname from. Dominikos Theotokopoulos was his real name.
JHMichaels 1 week ago
It was because of the fall of the Constantinople in 1453 is the reason why the European nations went to colonize the Americas,Southern Africa and Australia. But he forgot to mention that during in the Dark Ages because of the Islamic conquest in the 8th century AD,the people in the Iberian Peninsula had knowledge as well as the Byzantine Empire.
98bigbutt 5 months ago
@98bigbutt The Muslims also played an important role in preserving and reintroducing Greco-Roman knowledge back to Western Europe. They translated Greek texts into Arabic and distributed them to libraries throughout Islamic lands. Then Western European scholars traveled to Muslim ruled Iberian Peninsula to study, translated books into Latin and brough them back to Western Europe.
MrLantean 3 months ago
The downfall of the Byzantine Empire was sadder than the downfall of the ancient Roman Empire.
98bigbutt 6 months ago
Like I wrote before,the ancient Roman Empire were the voltron lions. The Byzantine Empire were the voltron cars.
98bigbutt 6 months ago
But dont deny the hellenizing factor. So Byzantine Empire it is. Anyone care to debate all that I said.
PatrickHanibal 10 months ago
Romaioi being a hellenised greek version of the word Roman. So yes the Byzantine empire was in part a roman empire but not wholly, only partly. It was a greek empire almost entirely. And the Latin West called them Emperium Graecorum or empire of the greeks. So taking into account all this it is o wonder why many historians call the byzantine empire the 'Byzantine Empire' or 'Byzantine Greek Empire'. It should stay that way. Sure call it Eastern Roman Empire if you wish since correct as well.
PatrickHanibal 10 months ago
@PatrickHanibal it's entirely roman, sorry but just because it spoke greek and its population was mostly greek speaking, that doesn't mean it's a greek empire, it's roman, the legacy, customs and evolving army, everything can be traced back to the classical roman republic, it was just an evolution, not a change from "roman" to "greek" and the latin west despised the byzantine empire, so that's why they labeled it greek, but its neighbors, enemies and allies called it roman empire!
Justinian43 7 months ago
@Justinian43 I vehemently disagree. Most of the inhabitants were of greek origon. Thats hy they had been speaking Greek in Byzantine areas since before Roman times right back to greek times. That is the reason they spoke greek. People dont speak a foreign language unless they grew up in a foreign nation founded by a people speaking that other language. And then the official language was changed from latin to greek on top of that. And by a greek emperor with a greek name. "Heraclios".
PatrickHanibal 6 months ago
@Justinian43 And the Byzantine army had nothing in common with the roman army. The romans throughout their history, from c. 700 to late 400's and romes fall along with the western empire, had an infantry based army with legionaries as the main troop type. The Byzantines on the other hand, and remember I acknowledge Justinians reign or a little later then that as the beginning of the Byzantine empire, they had a combined arms army. Cataphractos cavalry, heavy pikemen and well trained archers.
PatrickHanibal 6 months ago
@Justinian43 Around 40% heavy pikemen, 30% cataphractos cavalry and 30% archers. The pikemen would form the main battleline from where the archers would fire at the anemy from and from whos flanks the cataphractos' would make repeated charges and retreats at the enemy line. This was far closer in relation and in type of warfare to a hellenistic era greek army then a republican roman army, of which you said the byzantine army could be traced to. Also the Byzantine navy played a much more cetral
PatrickHanibal 6 months ago
@Justinian43 central role in the defense of the empire than did the Roman emperial or republican navy during the vast majority of its history. Even in wars such as the Punic wars when the roman navy was key to many victories, most of the ships and sailors were supplied by Greek, (from southern Italian coastlines), or Phoenician, (From western sicily), allies of Rome and not by Rome itself. Also this all can be supported by looking at a map of the most populated areas of the Byzantine empire.
PatrickHanibal 6 months ago
@Justinian43 These are Greece, Italy and Anatolia(Asia Minor). These were also always key greek homelands so you can guess why they spoke greek. They also did not call their emperors Ceasar Augustus anymore but Basilios Augustus. One greek title and one roman title. There is an obvious reason why they did that. If you still want to debate against what i am saying then i suggest you come to a debating site that i am a member of. There is a debate there about what we are talking about.
PatrickHanibal 6 months ago
@Justinian43 the world debating look it up in google
PatrickHanibal 6 months ago
@Justinian43 So what do you think? Do you want to reply. And by the way. At the beginning of this video it says Christos Anesti, which means bless Jesus in greek. They still say that at my church.
PatrickHanibal 6 months ago
@PatrickHanibal i'm lost haha what was my comment about?
Justinian43 6 months ago
@Justinian43 Lol. About whether or not the Byzantine empire was greek or not. Go through this page and the previous page. And if you dont want to debate on youtube because there isn't enough space for words then you can come to a debate website im a part of that has this particular debate. It is called the world debating.
PatrickHanibal 6 months ago
@PatrickHanibal i love debating more than anything but just like poor old heraclius, too exhausted from work to make any extra effort, work has exhausted me. Sorry im brain-fried right now lol
Justinian43 6 months ago
@Justinian43 No problem. If you ever feel stronger then just send a message back or join the debating website. Okay ttyl.
PatrickHanibal 6 months ago
@PatrickHanibal alrighty! =)
Justinian43 6 months ago
They called their emperors Basileus Augustus by 610 and the reign of Emperor Heraclios who was also a greek. Basileus meant king or emperor in dark age greek. And when i said upwards of 70% of its people were greek by race and blood that was 610 and only got higher as outer non greek territories were lost. And they called themselves Roman more as a term for their citizenship and out of acknowledge-meant of the empires roman past. Their term for Roman was not 'Roman' as in Latin but 'Romaio'
PatrickHanibal 10 months ago
Lets get one thing straight. Yes the citizens of the eastern roman empire called themselves Romans. Yes they reffered to their land as the Roman empire or simply 'The Empire'. Yes some of them were actually descendants of romans who had been living in the east. And yes they called their emperors augustus. BUT. The empire was composed upwards of 70% of its people as greeks by blood/DNA/genes whatever. They spoke greek as common language throughout roman times and officially by 610.
PatrickHanibal 10 months ago
I usually call the "Byzantine" Empire, the "Eastern Roman" Empire. The use of the term "Byzantine" is a primitive historiographic term used by Enlightenment Western Europeans because they didn't particularly like the Eastern Roman polity and history, completely overlooking the bigger picture. This is the 21st century, and we now have information given to us in neutral tone in secondary sources, let's abandon this silly "Byzantine" business and call it what it was, Roman.
HistoryLubber 10 months ago
el-greco was spanish ? xaaxxaxaxaxaxaxaxax
ThracianRhodope 1 year ago
Basically the entire history of the Byzantine Empire can and should be looked upon as the decline and fall of the Roman empire, and in order to view history in a clearer manner, it is in the interest of the viewer to understand the history as that of the Roman empire.
sherkbite3839 1 year ago
The fact is that people often use this as a basis for their argument against the romanity of "byzantium": that its capital was not rome. I find this funny because the capital of the "former" roman empire was nicomedia before constantinople. say it stayed that way, and the empire still survived outside of western europe, would that make it a.... nicomedian empire? surely it would have retained the same eastern influences and seeing as how it is further east AND in asia would it not be MORE greek?
sherkbite3839 1 year ago
@sherkbite3839 if the capital would be nicomedia, the empire would have fallen much faster, constantinople's site make it almost impregnable to any enemies! until the cannon came along... =(
Justinian43 7 months ago
I'm reading Sailing from Byzantium right now and plan on this book next. Such a shame I never learned squat about this Empire in school....
Sirchud68 1 year ago
@Sirchud68 i really recommend this book, and in school they overlook this empire, at first i got the feeling that it was a false empire and had nothing to do with the roman empire, until i started reading books that spanned from the decline of the west to the rise of the EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE! lol
Justinian43 7 months ago
Есть хороший фильм "Гибель Империи. Византийский урок" и книга Аркадия Малера "Духовная миссия Третьего Рима", рекомендую.
V1ENYA 1 year ago 2
Actually Byzantines had a pretty clear view of themselves. They were Roman citizens living in the eastern part of the Roman Empire governed by the Roman Emperor and led by a number christian patriarchs (one of them was also pope before asking to have the first place). They were happy to have Konstantinople as their capital thinking the occupation of Rome as not necessary to hold the title of the Empire as the lineage of Emperors verified it (Roman Empire had changed capitals repeatedly already
papagamias 2 years ago
The Byzantine term is a term invented by French writers of the 18th century who did not want to permit the utilisation of the term "Roman" by Greeks. Lets not forget that Greeks of the 18th century were aready under a huge revolution and huge games were played between France, England, Austria and the... 3rd Rome, Moscow. A revival of the Roman Empire was meant to be a negative. Hence, "Romans" (i.e. Greeks) had to re-become Greeks.
For the whole of its history, this was the Roman Empire
papagamias 2 years ago 6
A friendly correction to dear Lars :
Unless there is other information, El Greco's name was Dominikos Theotokopoulos, a Greek born in Crete, then under Venecian rule, but then he was an orthodox indicating a Greek ancestry rather than Italian. He was was called El Greco because ... he was the Greek! He was rather a Greek painter with western influences rather than a Spanish painter with orthodox influences. He came to Spain already a professional painter.
papagamias 2 years ago 2
the anglo-saxon history is more objective !! to all liars, the byzantine empire was ubroken continuance of the roman empire as he said! no hellas empire, or other absurdities
kyroz3 2 years ago
The empire was not an unbroken continuance of the Roman Empire as we knew it surely. It was so greeky.
80smusicfanNO1 2 years ago
@80smusicfanNO1 Doesn't matter. It was the eastern half of the Roman Empire and was known as the Roman Empire to it's neighbors, allies, and enemies alike. When Mehmed II conquered it in 1453, he took the title Caesar of Rome, recognizing it as the Roman Empire.
OllieRamone 2 years ago
it is the Roman empire with Roman laws. But, the offical language of the empire is Greek and the culture of the empire was Greek.
nickpafras 2 years ago
Lars' podcasts on the Byzantine Empire are fantastic. I highly recommend you listen to them FOR FREE off iTunes.
ace11rothstein 2 years ago 11