As a Greek I get annoyed when a Greek calls the eastern Roman empire “Byzantine” and its people “Byzantines”.. a name they never used nor did anyone else use during the existence of a self-described Roman state. The clueless leftist author of this book has obviously never considered the political and even racist reasons why it is called “Byzantine” today rather than Roman or Greek. It’s a sly attempt to rob Greeks of our history much like many bigots do by ridiculously referencing the obvious frauds from the former Yugoslavia as “Macedonians”.
During the lifetime of the eastern Roman empire it self-identified as Roman and was originally part of the a greater Roman empire. After the political split of east and west divisions by Latin Emperor Diocletian in 286 CE inch-by-inch divisions between the two self-described Roman empires increased. The official state language in the east was changed from Latin to match what most average people already spoke… Greek. Ethnically the eastern Roman state was a mix of Greeks, Hellenized peoples, Latin Romans, and others but everyone was pressured to assimilate into a Christian Roman identity. Depending where one lived and circumstance “Roman” could mean different ethnic origins despite the common identity. This was similar to what the original, asiatic looking, Turks later did under the Ottomans when they assimilated various peoples into Muslim Turks.
The capital was originally call Byzantium. it was changed to Constantinople. This where the name “Byzantium” actually comes from. Despite the differences the eastern Roman empire was called Roman be everyone until the 800 CE when the Latin Pope crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Roman empire snubbing Irene the Athenian as it’s leader. After this date the western Roman empire, which eventually became known as Holy Roman empire, refused to call other Roman empire Roman. The western Roman empire insisted they were the “real” Roman empire and called the eastern Roman empire Imperium Grecorium… Empire of the Greeks. For nearly seven centuries this nomenclature conflict existed between the two self-described Roman empires one mostly German speaking and other mostly Greek speaking..
The term “Byzantium” to describe the eastern Roman empire started by Hieronymus Wolf who coined the term because even after the fall of the eastern Roman empire to the Ottomans the western Roman empire still refused to call the other one Roman. To also insult what they called Greeks prior to that date, the German speakers of the Holy Roman empire invented a fake ethnic group they called “Byzantines”. No such people has ever existed. Even today many historians inappropriately and incompetently use this term. The only reason to use this term is to harass Greeks.