Damn straight I'd help; though I only got an Upper Second Class, and not the First Class I'd wanted in this subject...
Byzantium was the colony founded by Megara in 667 BC and its inhabitants were called Byzantine. Outside of this area use the terms Byzantium and the Byzantine Empire to designate another city and another people is absolutely wrong and inappropriate, and often with genuine derogatory intention. At a time when the Emperor St. Constantine the Great founded the city in 330 AD, he called Constantinople - New Rome (Konstantinoupolis - Nea Rome) and never made reference to Byzantium. In fact, since the empire was divided by Diocletian, the inhabitants of territories under the jurisdiction of the city of Constantinople continued to call themselves 'Romans' (rhomaioi), as well as when they were under the authority of Rome, and the State in which they lived was called the Eastern Roman Empire, and in no other way. This is because at the time the term 'Hellenes' was a derogatory term used to define the pagans, as opposed to the Christians who called themselves 'Romans' (Rhomaioi). So they would never have called themselves a term used in a negative sense. The definition of 'Byzantine Empire' was coined and made popular by French intellectuals such as Montesquieu, authoritative figure of the intellectual life of the eighteenth century. Like other intellectuals of his time, Montesquieu had deep regard for the ancient Greeks and the Romans trying to emulate them on with enthusiasm because he saw in them the masters of politics and culture. Following a tradition of Western European Enlightenment who despised the Middle Ages, Montesquieu considered corrupt and decadent the empire of Constantinople. Although he has written a long history over the empire of Constantinople, Montesquieu could not give to the Empire of Constantinople the noble names of greek or roman. Montesquieu has taken by the obsolete name Byzantium, the word "byzantine". This word has marked the Empire by giving it characteristics of dishonesty, dissimulation and decadence. The English intellectual Edward Gibbon in the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" described the Empire after the sixth century in an epic poem in which it is a symbol of endless degradation and corruption. The people who lived in the Empire have never known or even used the term Byzantine because they were recognized only as Romans. In 212 AD, Emperor Caracalla declared roman citizen every free person in the Empire, then calling it 'Roman', no longer 'subject to the Romans'. Some decades later, the entire Empire was increasingly defined by the expression Imperium Romanorum (Empire of the Romans) because, in his place, always prevailed over the term Romŕnia (Land of the Romans). The Empire of Charlemagne was a Germanic empire, the "Roman" term of course was considered absurd as the term "Empire", primarily because it was neither a State of roman people, andr secondly the True Roman Empire had never disappeared, and consequently they do not could claim to the legacy of a State still alive and in perfect health. Also in the eyes of the Orthodox people they could not even claim the title of "Holy", as the only legitimate and universal Emperor in the name of God, his vicar on Earth and a Defender of Christianity, was the Basileus of Constantinople. In fact, in the Eastern Roman Empire was referred to the 'Holy Roman Emperor' with the word 'King', as it was referred to any sovereign, Barbarian or Christian, because only the Basileus of Constantinople had the right to bear the title of Emperor.
I DEFINATELY support the term Roman, not "Byzantine". The term "Byzantine" was created around 18-19 century. If you were a stranger on Achaea and ask someone "where i am ?", they would say :You are in the Roman Empire. I don't even know why this term "Byzantine" is used in History books...
actually it was made earlier...Centruies earlier. it just become famous during the 19th/18th century thanks to a certain German author....
