ABSTRACT
Byzantium has occupied an ambiguous position in the national history and collective memory of the Greeks. The roots of the current Greek understanding of the historical past can be traced to the mid-eighteenth century, when a distinctly modern Greek identity began to emerge. At the core of this identity, as it took shape over the following decades, was the glorious ancient past; Byzantium was either missing or was its antithesis. In the emerging historical narrative, Byzantium stood for oppression, corruption and decadence, foreign rule and the abuse of the people by the dominant class of emperors, church hierarchs and wealthy notables. This historical discourse was well suited to the dramatic social changes unfolding, which climaxed with the Greek War of Independence in 1821 and the foundation of the modern Greek state. The national name used by the Greeks also underwent transformation: “Romaioi,” with its evocation of Byzantium as the eastern Roman empire, was abandoned and supplanted by “Hellenes.” The ancient race was thus deemed to have been reborn after millennia of foreign rule and oppression, including that of the Byzantine “Romans.”
