Nomenclature and self-identification

Summary

The Byzantine Empire’s inhabitants generally identified themselves as Romans. In Greek they were called Ῥωμαῖοι (Romaioi), and their Islamic contemporaries referred to their realm as “land of the Romans” (Bilād al-Rūm). This self-identification reflected the empire’s continuity with Roman political identity, even as cultural and linguistic practices in the East increasingly differed from those in the Latin West. The label “Byzantine” was not used by the empire’s citizens for the state itself. Instead, it derived from Byzantion (the settlement that became Constantinople) and was originally used mainly as an adjective for the city’s inhabitants. Citizens called their polity Rhomanía (Romanland). After the empire’s fall, early modern scholars adopted multiple names (such as “Eastern Empire” and “Empire of Constantinople”), but the growing use of “Byzantine” and “Byzantine Empire” became the standard term; some modern historians argue it is misleading or prejudicial because it was not the people’s own designation.

Key Points

• 1

  Byzantine citizens commonly called themselves Romans (Romaioi), and the state was understood as Roman identity rather than a separate “Byzantine” entity.

• 2

  “Byzantine” was a later scholarly term; it originally referred to inhabitants of Byzantion/Constantinople and did not match how citizens named their empire (Rhomanía).

• 3

  After the empire’s fall, historians used various labels (e.g., “Eastern Empire,” “Late Empire”), but “Byzantine” became the dominant modern term despite criticism that it may be inaccurate or prejudicial.