The Empire That Never Existed

What It Covers

The Byzantine Empire never called itself Byzantine—it was the Eastern Roman Empire continuing for a thousand years until 1453, maintaining Roman identity throughout.

Key Questions Answered

• •Historical terminology: German historian Hieronymus Wolf coined "Byzantine" in 1557 to distinguish the medieval Eastern Roman Empire from ancient Rome, but inhabitants always called themselves Romans (Romae).
• •Imperial continuity: Emperor Diocletian split Rome into East and West in 286 AD, creating a tetrarchy system. After 476 AD, when Western Rome fell, the Eastern Empire continued uninterrupted for 977 more years.
• •Cultural identity persistence: Ottoman records labeled Orthodox Christians as "Rum Millet" (Roman community), and early twentieth-century Greeks in Crete and Aegean islands still identified as Romans, not Greeks, showing millennium-long identity continuity.