Even the name is a calumny (drawn from the name of the original Greek city of Byzantium that later became the empire’s capital, Constantinople), which was applied by scholars of the Enlightenment who preferred to root themselves in ancient Rome and Greece rather than in the much more recent and “oriental” empire of the east.
Unlike its western counterpart, what is usually called the Roman Empire, it has received little respect over the years. This post is about, of all things, the Byzantine Empire.
