{"product_id":"romanland-ethnicity-and-empire-in-byzantium-9780674986510","title":"Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA leading historian argues that in the empire we know as Byzantium, the Greek-speaking population was actually Roman, and scholars have deliberately mislabeled their ethnicity for the past two centuries for political reasons.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWas there ever such a thing as Byzantium? Certainly no emperor ever called himself \"Byzantine.\" And while the identities of minorities in the eastern empire are clear--contemporaries speak of Slavs, Bulgarians, Armenians, Jews, and Muslims--that of the ruling majority remains obscured behind a name made up by later generations. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHistorical evidence tells us unequivocally that Byzantium's ethnic majority, no less than the ruler of Constantinople, would have identified as Roman. It was an identity so strong in the eastern empire that even the conquering Ottomans would eventually adopt it. But Western scholarship has a long tradition of denying the Romanness of Byzantium. In \u003ci\u003eRomanland\u003c\/i\u003e, Anthony Kaldellis investigates why and argues that it is time for the Romanness of these so-called Byzantines to be taken seriously. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the Middle Ages, he explains, people of the eastern empire were labeled \"Greeks,\" and by the nineteenth century they were shorn of their distorted Greekness and became \"Byzantine.\" Only when we understand that the Greek-speaking population of Byzantium was actually Roman will we fully appreciate the nature of Roman ethnic identity. We will also better understand the processes of assimilation that led to the absorption of foreign and minority groups into the dominant ethnic group, the Romans who presided over the vast multiethnic empire of the east.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKaldellis, Anthony:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Anthony Kaldellis is Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics at The Ohio State University. He is the author of many books, including \u003ci\u003eThe Christian Parthenon\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHellenism in Byzantium\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Byzantine Republic\u003c\/i\u003e, which have been translated into French, Greek, and Russian.","brand":"Belknap Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50844901081362,"sku":"9780674986510","price":43.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_869c7cff-3988-4fee-affe-ecec9c63c5f0.jpg?v=1737336085","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/romanland-ethnicity-and-empire-in-byzantium-9780674986510","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}