The Greeks ( el, Έλληνες) have been identified by many
ethnonyms. The most common native ethnonym is ''Hellen'' ( grc, Ἕλλην), pl. ''
Hellenes'' (); the name ''Greeks'' ( la, Graeci) was used by the
ancient Romans and gradually entered the
European languages
Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Ro ...
through its use in Latin. The mythological patriarch ''
Hellen'' is the named progenitor of the
Greek peoples; his descendants the
Aeolians,
Dorians,
Achaeans and
Ionians correspond to the main Greek tribes and to the main dialects spoken in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...
and
Asia Minor (Anatolia).
The first
Greek-speaking people, called
Myceneans or Mycenean-Achaeans by historians, entered present-day Greece sometime in the Neolithic era or the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
.
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the '' Iliad'' and the '' Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of ...
refers to "
Achaeans" as the dominant
tribe during the
Trojan War period usually dated to the 12th–11th centuries BC, using ''Hellenes'' to describe a relatively small tribe in
Thessaly
Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...
. The
Dorians, an important Greek-speaking group, appeared roughly at that time. According to the Greek tradition, the ''Graeci'' (Latin; grc, Γραικοί, link=no, ''Graikoi'', "Greeks") were renamed ''Hellenes'' probably with the establishment of the
Great Amphictyonic League after the Trojan War.
When the Romans first encountered Greek colonists in southern
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, they used the name Graeci for the colonists and then for all Greeks; this became the root of all relevant terms in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
an languages. The
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkme ...
ns used the name ''
Yaunas'' (''Yunans'') after the
Ionians, a Greek tribe who colonized part of the coasts of western Asia Minor. The term was used later in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
(''Yevanim'', ),
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
, and also by the
Turks. The word entered the languages of the Indian subcontinent as the ''
Yona''. A unique form is used in
Georgian, where the Greeks are called ''
Berdzeni'' (ბერძენი).
By
Late Antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English has ...
(c. 3rd–7th century), the Greeks referred to themselves as ''Graikoi'' (, "Greeks") and ''
Rhomaioi''/''Romioi'' (//, "Romans") the latter of which was used since virtually all
Greeks were Roman citizens after 212 AD. The term ''Hellene'' became applied to the followers of the
polytheistic ("
pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. In ...
") religion after the establishment of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesu ...
by
Theodosius I.
General names of Greece
Most European languages, as well as other languages that have borrowed the name from one of them, use names for Greece that come from the Latin ''Graecia'' and ''Graecus'', the name the Romans used for the Greeks, itself from the Greek :
* af, Griekeland
* sq, Greqia
* rup, Gãrtsia
* be, Грэцыя (Hrecyja)
* bg, Гърция (Gǎrcija); the alternative historical name Елада (Elada) for
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
is also used sometimes.
* bs, Grčka
* ca, Grècia
* ce, Греци (Gretsi)
* chr, ᎪᎢᎯ (Goihi)
* cs, Řecko
* cy, Groeg
* da, Grækenland
* nl, Griekenland
* eo, Grekujo
*german: Griechenland
* el, Γραικία (rare or obsolete use)
* en, Greece
* es, Grecia
* et, Kreeka
* eu, Grezia
* fi, Kreikka
* fil, Gresiya
*french: Grèce
* fy, Grikelân
* ga, An Ghréig
* hr, Grčka
* hu, Görögország
* is, Grikkland
* it, Grecia
* ja, ギリシャ (Girisha)
* km, ក្រិច (Krech)
* ko, 그리스 (Geuriseu)
* kw, Pow Grek
* lt, Graikija
* lv, Grieķija
* mk, Грција (Grcija)
* mt, Greċja
* nah, Grecia
* pl, Grecja
* pt, Grécia
* ro, Grecia
*russian: Греция (Grecija)
* sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Grčka, Грчка
* si, ග්රීසිය (Grisiya)
* sk, Grécko
* sl, Grčija
* so, Giriiga
* sr-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Грчка, Grčka
* sv, Grekland
* th, กรีซ (Krīt)
* uk, Греція (Hrecija)
In languages of Middle East and South and Central Asia, the common root is "yun" or "ywn". It is borrowed from the Greek name ''
Ionia'', a once Greek region of Asia Minor, and the
Ionians:
* ar, يونان (Yūnān)
* arc, ܝܘܢ or (Yawān, Yawon)
* hy,
Հունաստան (Hunastan)
* xcl,
Յունաստան (Yunastan)
* az, Yunanıstan
* hi, यूनान (Yūnān)
* hbo, יָוָן (Yāwān)
* he, יוון (Yavan)
* id, Yunani
* ms, Yunani
* ku, Yewnanistan
* ne, यूनान (Yūnān)
* ur, یونانی (Yūnān)
* fa, یونان (Yūnān)
** peo, 𐎹𐎢𐎴 (Yauna)
* sa, यवन (Yavana)
* tg, Юнон (Yunon)
* tr, Yunanistan
The third form is "Hellas", used by a few languages around the world, including Greek:
*Greek: or
**
Polytonic: or
**
Monotonic: or
* rup, Elladhã
* no, Hellas
* vi, Hy Lạp
* it, Ellade (rare usage)
* sq, Elladhë (used for Ancient Greece)
* zh, 希臘/希腊 (
Hanyu Pinyin: Xīlà;
Jyutping: hei1 laap6)
* es, Hélade (rare usage)
* haw, Helene
Other forms:
* pal, 𐭧𐭫𐭥𐭬𐭠𐭣𐭩𐭪𐭩 (Hrōmāyīg)
*
Laz: Xorumona (ხორუმონა)
* ka, საბერძნეთი (''
Saberdzneti'')
The First "Greeks"
The first people speaking an ancient
Proto-Greek language
The Proto-Greek language (also known as Proto-Hellenic) is the Indo-European language which was the last common ancestor of all varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean Greek, the subsequent ancient Greek dialects
Ancient Greek in classi ...
entered mainland Greece during the Neolithic period or the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
. From the
Ancient Greek dialects as they presented themselves centuries later, it appears that at least two migrations of Greeks occurred overall: the first in the 19th century BC resulting in
Mycenean Greek and the second in the 13th century BC resulting in
Doric Greek.
Late Bronze Age
Hittite texts mention a nation called ''Ahhiya'' and subsequently ''Ahhiyawa'' which have been identified in scholarship as part of the Mycenaean world. Egyptian records mention peoples known as ''Ekwesh'',
Denyen and ''Tanaju'' that have been also linked to the Mycenaean world.
Some five hundred years later, these Greeks were identified in
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the '' Iliad'' and the '' Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of ...
's ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...
'' by three different
names
A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A persona ...
:
Achaeans (Ἀχαιοί, ''Akhaioí'', used 598 times),
Danaans (Δαναοί, ''Danaoí'', used 138 times) and
Argives (Ἀργεῖοι, ''Argeîoi'', used 29 times).
[ Paul Cartledge. ''Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 23: "The late Bronze Age in Greece is also called conventionally 'Mycenaean', as we saw in the last chapter. But it might in principle have been called 'Argive', 'Achaean', or 'Danaan', since the three names that Homer does in fact apply to Greeks collectively were 'Argives', 'Achaeans', and 'Danaans'." Counted, excluding his Catalogue of Ships.] All of the aforementioned terms were used synonymously to denote a common Greek identity.
[ While there is no consensus as to their origins, the ]syllabary
In the linguistic study of written languages, a syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) moras which make up words.
A symbol in a syllabary, called a syllabogram, typically represents an (optio ...
corresponds to the place-names of three known regions of the pre-Greek world.
Akhaioí is formed from the ''Ἀχ-α'' syllabary which may be the cognate of an older form found in the names of Akkad, Ach’ara and the Achaemenids and posits Homer's Achaeans as settlers from Ach’ara, predecessor to the Colchis
In Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia.
Its population, the Colchians are generally though ...
of later Greek myth. They were members of what archaeologists call the Colchian culture, known for highly developed bronze production and artistic craftsmanship as well as copper-mining. It is likely they formed the foundation of a trading network with tribal polities of the eastern Black Sea region during the middle Bronze Age.
One of the members of that network appears to have been the Danaoí, whose name contains the ''dā-nu'' syllabary
In the linguistic study of written languages, a syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) moras which make up words.
A symbol in a syllabary, called a syllabogram, typically represents an (optio ...
meaning “river” in both Proto-Indo-European language
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...
and the Proto-Indo-Iranian language
Proto-Indo-Iranian, also Proto-Indo-Iranic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Iranian/Indo-Iranic branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd millennium B ...
, and which is found in the names of the Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , ...
, Don, Donets and many other rivers. It is most likely they emigrated from the modern-day Donbas, with an inland population centered at Donetsk and a major port at Mariupol.
Another member of that network appears to have been the ''Argeîoi'', an Ionic Greek rendering of the words arya and the Proto-Indo-European language word ''gei''. The latter word means "turn" or "bend" and its cognates are preserved in the Proto-Celtic language as ''genwā'' and in Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
as Genava, where it is associated with the bend of the river Rhône. The Argeîoi likely inhabited the region where the Dniester
The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and ...
river "bends" or "turns" from west-to-east to north-to-south at modern-day Dnipro
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper R ...
, granting access to the western Black Sea and ultimately the coastline of what would later become Dacia.
A fourth term - "Panhellenes" - ( "All of the Greeks") and "Hellenes'" (; ) - both appear only once; implying it was not a central concept in Homer's work.
According to Rene Olivier, in the French language the word ''grec'' ("Greek") is sometimes also used as an ethnic slur meaning "fraudster" (in contrast with ''hellénique'' which has no negative connotations).
Spread of the use of the term "Hellenes"
''Hellenes'' in the wider meaning of the word appears in writing for the first time in an inscription by Echembrotus Echembrotus ( el, Ἐχέμβροτος) was an ancient Arcadian Greek lyricist and poet. According to Pausanias, Echembrotus offered a bronze tripod to Heracles when the latter won at the Amphictyonic Games.Pausanias. ''Description of Greece
Pa ...
, dedicated to Heracles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adopt ...
for his victory in the Amphictyonic Games, and refers to the 48th Olympiad (584 BC). Simonides of Ceos in his epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
on the tomb of the Athenians who were killed in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) wrote "Ἑλλήνων προμαχοῦντες Ἀθηναῖοι Μαραθῶνι "Fighting at the forefront of the Hellenes, the Athenians at Marathon
and after the Greco-Persian Wars, an inscription was written in Delphi celebrating victory over the Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkme ...
ns and calling Pausanias the leading general of the Hellenes. Awareness of a Pan-Hellenic unity was promoted by religious festivals, most significantly in the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which prospective initiates had to speak Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, and almost as importantly through participation in the four Panhellenic Games
Panhellenic Games is the collective term for four separate sports festivals held in ancient Greece. The four Games were:
Description
The Olympiad was one of the ways the Greeks measured time. The Olympic Games were used as a starting point, year ...
, including the Olympic Games, in which participants were exclusively Greek and recognized by tribal affiliation.
The tribal societies of the north
The development of mythological genealogies of descent from eponym
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
ous founder-figures, long after the actual southward migration of the four tribal groups recognized by the Greeks, affected how the identity of northern tribes was perceived. According to the most prevailing legend, Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, received from the nymph Orseis three sons, Aeolus, Dorus, and Xuthus, each of whom founded a primary tribe of Hellas–the Aeolians, Dorians, Achaeans and Ionians.
At the time of the Trojan War, the Epirotes ( Molossians, Thesprotians and Chaonians) were not considered Hellenes, for the people so named were then limited to a small tribe in Thessaly of which Achilles was a member. After the name was extended to all peoples south of Mount Olympus, however, it still left out those of common origin living in the north. One factor contributing to this was their non-participation in the Persian Wars, which were considered a vital affair for all Hellenes; subsequent to the Persian Wars, representatives of these tribes were accepted in the Olympic Games and competed alongside other Hellenes. The fact that each of these northern peoples at this time continued to live as an ''ethnos
Ethnos (from el, ἔθνος, link=no, lit=nation) may refer to:
*Ethnic group
* ''Ethnos'' (newspaper), Greek weekly
*''Ethnos'', fantasy strategy board game by CMON Limited
CMON Limited, formerly known as CoolMiniOrNot is a publicly listed mini ...
'', or collection of tribes, under an archaic monarchial political system – as opposed to the democratic
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
or oligarchic '' polis'' (city state) of the south–also contributed to this view of them as "barbaric".
Thucydides calls the Acarnanians, Aetolians, Epirotes and Upper Macedonians barbarians, but does so in a strictly linguistic sense – these peoples were considered ''barbarophone'' to the extent that their dialects of Greek were sufficiently different and archaic so as to sound crude and barely understandable to a southern Attic speaker such as Thucydides. Similarly, when the Athenian orator Demosthenes called Philip II of Macedon
Philip II of Macedon ( grc-gre, Φίλιππος ; 382 – 21 October 336 BC) was the king ('' basileus'') of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the a ...
worse than a barbarian in his '' Third Philippic'', he did so with respect to the culture they demonstrated as foreigners not adhering to proper Hellenic standards, and did not raise the issue of their origin: "''not only no Greek, nor related to the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with honors, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet possible to buy a decent slave''." Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known for ...
, Polybius
Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail.
Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...
, Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...
and a large number of other Greek and Roman writers regard the tribes of western Hellas, Epirus, and Macedonia as Hellenic in every respect. Both Thucydides and Demosthenes were themselves of partial non-Attic origins and for Demosthenes it seems of non-Greek origins altogether while notably both of them held strong opposing political positions against Macedonians.
Hellenes and barbarians
In the following centuries, ''Hellene'' typically contrasted with '' barbarian'', representing the uncivilized.
The Greek tribes quickly noticed that they did not speak the same tongue as their neighbors, and used the term "βάρβαρος" ("barbarian") for them, with the meanings "uncultured", "uncivilized" or "speaker of a foreign language". The term βάρβαρος is thought to be onomatopoeic
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
in origin: "bar-bar"—i.e. stammering
Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the ...
—may have been how the speech of foreign peoples sounded to Greek-speakers. This was also the case for the Egyptians, who, according to Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known for ...
, "named barbarians all those who spoke a different tongue", and in later years for the Slavs
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic language, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout ...
, who gave the Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
the name ''němec'', which means "mute", while calling themselves ''slověnski'' or "people of the word". In his play '' The Birds'', Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his fo ...
calls the illiterate supervisor a "barbarian" who nevertheless taught the birds how to talk. The term eventually picked up a derogatory use and was extended to indicate the entire lifestyle of foreigners, and finally coming to mean "illiterate" or "uncivilized" in general. Thus "an illiterate man is also a barbarian". According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Hellene differed from a barbarian in four ways: refined language, education, religion, and the rule of law. Greek education became identified with noble upbringing. Paul of Tarsus
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
considered it his obligation to preach the Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
to all men, "Hellenes and barbarians, both wise and foolish".
Discrimination between Hellenes and barbarians lasted until the 4th century BC. Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...
thought it plausible that Hellenes should rule over barbarians, because the first were destined for freedom and the other for slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
. Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...
came to the conclusion that "the nature of a barbarian and a slave is one and the same".
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
's conquests consolidated Greek influence in the East by exporting Greek culture into Asia and permanently transformed education and society in the region. Isocrates declared in his speech ''Panegyricus'', speaking about Athens and Greece: "And so far has our city distanced the rest of mankind in thought and in speech that her pupils have become the teachers of the rest of the world; and she has brought it about that the name Hellenes suggests no longer a race but an intelligence, and that the title Hellenes is applied rather to those who share our culture than to those who share a common blood". With a small reformation, the Hellenistic civilization is the evolution of classical Greek civilization into a civilization with global proportions, this time open to everybody. Similarly, ''Hellene'' evolved from a national name signifying an ethnic Greek to a cultural term signifying anybody who conducted his life according to Greek mores.
Ionians (Ἴωνες), Yunani, and Yavan (יָוָן)
A wholly different term came to establish itself in the East. The ancient people of the Middle East referred to the Hellenes as ''Yunan'', deriving from Persian ''Yauna'', itself a loan of Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
Ιωνία ( Ionia), the western coast of Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
. It is by affiliation with the Ionian tribe the Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkme ...
ns conquered in the late 6th century BC that their name extended to all Hellenes. All peoples under Persian influence adopted the term, and it is from this root that Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...
'' Yavana'' derives, which one encounters in ancient Sanskrit sources, first attested in Pāṇini's grammar, and later referring, together with Pali '' Yona'', ''Yonaka'' to the Indo-Greeks. The term ''Yunan'' is used in current Persian, Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
(), Azeri, Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
, Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
(यूनान), Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesia ...
and Malay.
The related Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
name, ''Yavan'' or ''Javan'' (), was used to refer to the Greek nation in the Eastern Mediterranean in early Biblical times. There was an eponymous character Javan mentioned in ''Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book o ...
'' 10:2. In later times it was used for all Hellenistic kingdoms (for example, the Maccabean
The Maccabees (), also spelled Machabees ( he, מַכַּבִּים, or , ; la, Machabaei or ; grc, Μακκαβαῖοι, ), were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire ...
s applied it to their Seleucid foes). "Yavan" is still the name used for modern Greece in contemporary Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
.
Although the contemporary Chinese term for Greece (希臘 ''Xīlà'') is based on ''Hellas'', Chinese previously used what was likely a version of the ''Yunan'' or ''Yona'' root when referring to the Dàyuān (大宛). The Dàyuān were probably the descendants of the Greek colonies that were established by Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
and prospered within the Hellenistic realm of the Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians, until they were isolated by the migrations of the Yueh-Chih
The Yuezhi (;) were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat a ...
around 160 BC. It has been suggested that the name ''Yuan'' was simply a transliteration of the words ''Yunan'', ''Yona'', or Ionians, so that Dàyuān (literally "Great Yuan") would mean "Great Yunans" or "Great Ionians."
Hellene comes to mean "pagan"
The name ''Hellene'' was given the meaning "pagan" by the early Christian church, and retained that meaning until the end of the millennium. It is believed that contact with Christian Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
led some Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
to use ''Hellene'' as a means of religious differentiation. Jews, like Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, Albania, Greeks in Italy, ...
, distinguished themselves from foreigners, but unlike Greeks, did so according to religious rather than cultural standards.
Roman domination of the Greek world enhanced the prestige of the religious institutions that remained intact. Early Christians differentiated people according to religion, so the sense of the word ''Hellene'' as a cultural attribute became marginalized and then supplanted by its religious element. Eventually, Christians came to refer to all pagans as ''Hellenes''.
St. Paul in his Epistles uses ''Hellene'' almost always juxtaposed to ''Hebrew'', and in disregard of all other ethnicities (Romans, Syrians, Egyptians, etc.) living in the area at the time. A possible exception to this being Colossians 3:11 ("Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." King James Version). The aim was probably to represent the aggregate of the polytheistic and the monotheistic
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford ...
religious communities, who respectively believed in many gods or one god. ''Hellene'' is used in a religious sense for the first time in the New Testament. In the '' Gospel of Mark'' 7:26, a woman arrives before Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
kneeling before Him: "The woman was a Hellene, a Syrophœnician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter." Since the nationality or ethnicity of the woman is stated to be Syrophœnician, "Greek" (translated as such into the English of the King James Version, but as ''haiþno'' "" in Ulfilas's Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
; Wycliffe Wycliffe (and other similar spellings) may refer to:
People
*John Wycliffe (and other spellings) (c.1320s – 1384), English theologian and Bible translator
* Wycliffe (name), includes a list of other people with the name
Places
* Wycliffe, Count ...
and Coverdale likewise have ''heathen'') must therefore signify her polytheistic religion. Nevertheless, it is important to mention that phrases in koine Greek similar to the one in Mark 7:26 ("ἡ δὲ γυνὴ ἦν Ἑλληνίς, Συροφοινίκισσα τῷ γένει·") can be found in the new testament being applied to Jewish people (Acts 18:2 "καὶ εὑρών τινα Ἰουδαῖον ὀνόματι Ἀκύλαν, Ποντικὸν τῷ γένει,")(Acts 18:24 "Ἰουδαῖος δέ τις Ἀπολλὼς ὀνόματι, Ἀλεξανδρεὺς τῷ γένει,") and the Levite Barnabas (Acts 4:36, "Λευΐτης, Κύπριος τῷ γένει"). In all those cases the terms Hellene/Jew/Levite are mentioned, eventually followed by a comma, a designation such as Syrophoenician/Pontic/Alexandrian/Cypriot and after that the words "τῷ γένει", with the last words tending to have differing translations. A broadly similar terminology is found in John 12:20–23: "And there were certain Hellenes among them that came up to worship at the feast ... Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified". This could have one of two interpretations: either that Jesus meant that the time had come for his religion to spread to the ''pagans'' (in which case the term "Hellenes" is religious), or that it would spread by using the ''Greek language
Greek ( el, label= Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southe ...
'' (in which case the term "Hellenes" is meant to be linguistic). The development towards a purely religious meaning was slow, and complete by approximately the 2nd or 3rd century AD: Athenian statesman Aristeides, in his written Apology to the Emperor Hadrian, picked out the ''Hellenes'' as one of the representative pagan peoples of the world along with the Egyptians and the Chaldæans. Later, Clement of Alexandria reports an unknown Christian writer who named all of the above ''Hellenes'' and spoke of two old nations and one new: the Christian nation.
Several books written at this time demonstrate clearly the semantic
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
shift. For example, Athanasius' ''Against Hellenes'' was originally titled ''Against the Gentiles'' (Greek: ''ethnikoi'') according to older manuscripts. From then on, ''Hellene'' no longer meant an ethnic Greek or an adherent to Greek culture, but pagans in general, regardless of race. Emperor Julian
Julian may refer to:
People
* Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363
* Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots
* Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints
* Julian (give ...
's attempt to restore paganism failed, and according to Pope Gregory I, "matters moved in favor of Christianity and the position of the Hellenes was severely aggravated". Half a century later Christians protested against the Eparch of Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandr ...
, whom they accused of being a Hellene. Theodosius I initiated the first ''legal'' steps against paganism, but it was Justinian's legal reforms that triggered pagan persecutions on a massive scale. The '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' contained two statutes which decreed the total destruction of ''Hellenism'', even in civic life, and were zealously enforced even against men in high position. The official suppression of paganism made non-Christians a public threat, which further derogated the meaning of ''Hellene''. Paradoxically, Tribonian, Justinian's own legal commissioner, according to the ''Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...
'' dictionary, was a ''Hellene'' (pagan).
The usage of Hellene as a religious term was initially part of an exclusively Christian nomenclature, but some Pagans began to defiantly call themselves Hellenes. Other pagans even preferred the narrow meaning of the word from a broad cultural sphere to a more specific religious grouping. However, there were many Christians and pagans alike who strongly objected to the evolution of the terminology. The influential Archbishop of Constantinople Gregory of Nazianzus, for example, took offence at imperial efforts to suppress Hellenic culture (especially concerning spoken and written Greek) and he openly criticized the emperor.
The name Hellene meaning "pagan" has persisted into modern times. Many groups advocating a revival or reconstruction of the worship of the Olympian Gods call themselves Hellenic Polytheists and the religion Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism or Hellenismos
Hellenism (Ἑλληνισμός) in a religious context refers to the modern pluralistic religion practiced in Greece and around the world by several communities derived from the beliefs, mythology and rituals from antiquity through and u ...
. Such groups outside of Greece are careful not to imply that, by calling themselves ''Hellenes'', they consider themselves Greek nationals.
Macedonians (Μακεδόνες)
The name "Macedonians", in order to colloquially mean the Greek soldiers (etc) that Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
was first the hegemon of, is being used by – at least – contemporary sources when referring to the Hellenistic period
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
, as the ancient Macedonian army, including the famous somatophylakes (e. g. Lysimachus
Lysimachus (; Greek: Λυσίμαχος, ''Lysimachos''; c. 360 BC – 281 BC) was a Thessalian officer and successor of Alexander the Great, who in 306 BC, became King of Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon.
Early life and career
Lysimachus was b ...
) and, later, the diadochi of Alexander, consisted of warriors from numerous and diverse Greek tribes. Thus, as the Spartans (Lacedaemonians) did not take part in Alexander's campaign, Alexander once ordered for an inscription to be sent, along with some war spoils, to Athens saying "Alexander, son of Philip, and all the Greeks except the Lacedaemonians ... Likewise, the term "Macedonian", while referring here to Greek dialects, also ended up meaning the Koine Greek in classical sources, whereas diverse major Ancient Greek dialects were natively spoken in the later/expanded Macedonian Kingdom
Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by ...
, and even though the Koine dialect was mostly based on Attic Greek that was natively spoken around Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...
. Notably, during the reign of Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterran ...
, who is regarded as the first Byzantine Emperor
This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as l ...
, the Diocese of Macedonia
The Diocese of Macedonia ( la, Dioecesis Macedoniae; el, Διοίκησις Μακεδονίας) was a diocese of the later Roman Empire, forming part of the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum. Its administrative centre was Thessaloniki.
Histo ...
was established, comprising principally the area that is modern Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...
, with Thessalonica as its capital.
Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι)
Romans or ''Rhomaioi'' (Ῥωμαῖοι; sg. Ῥωμαῖος ''Rhomaios'') and ''Romioi'' (Ρωμιοί; sg. Ρωμιός ''Romios''), is the name by which the Greeks were known in the Middle Ages and during Ottoman rule. The name in antiquity originally signified the inhabitants of the city of Rome in Italy, but with the increasing grants of Roman citizenship to the Greeks and other nations of the Roman Empire, it soon lost its connection with the Latins
The Latins were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Latin culture during the Roman Republic.
Latins culturally "Romanized" or "Latinized" the rest of Italy, and the word Latin ...
. This process culminated in 212 AD, when Emperor Caracalla's '' Constitutio Antoniniana'' granted the citizenship to all free-born men of the Empire. Later Byzantine authors such as Nikephoros Basilakes, Michael Attaleiates, Theodore Prodromos, Patriarch
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in ce ...
Germanus II, Niketas Choniates
Niketas or Nicetas Choniates ( el, Νικήτας Χωνιάτης; c. 1155 – 1217), whose actual surname was Akominatos (Ἀκομινάτος), was a Byzantine Greek government official and historian – like his brother Michael Akominatos, wh ...
and Nicaean Emperor Theodore II Laskaris also used the classicizing term Ausones
"Ausones" (; ), the original Greek form for the Latin "Aurunci", was a name applied by Greek writers to describe various Italic peoples inhabiting the southern and central regions of Italy. The term was used, specifically, to denote the partic ...
to refer to the people of the Eastern Roman Empire, although, as John Tzetzes points out (in his ''Scholia to Lycophron
Lycophron (; grc-gre, Λυκόφρων ὁ Χαλκιδεύς; born about 330–325 BC) was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, sophist, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem ''Alexandra'' is attributed (perhaps falsely).
Life and ...
's "Alexandra"'', attributed to himself and his brother Isaac), that should be understood in its proper context as a literary device. Overall, the word ''Rhomaios'' came to represent the Hellenized inhabitants of the East Roman Empire.
Overall, the foreign borrowed name (Romans) initially had a more political than national meaning, which went hand in hand with the universalizing ideology of Rome that aspired to encompass all nations of the world under one true God. Up until the early 7th century, when the Empire still extended over large areas and many peoples, the use of the name "Roman" always indicated citizenship
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
and never descent. Various ethnicities could apply their own ethnonyms or toponyms to disambiguate citizenship from genealogy, which is why the historian Procopius prefers to call the Byzantines as ''Hellenized Romans'', while other authors use ''Romhellenes'' and ''Graecoromans'', aiming to indicate descent and citizenship simultaneously. The Lombard and Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
invasions in the same century resulted in the loss of most of the provinces including Italy and all of the Middle East, save for Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The r ...
. The areas that did remain were mostly Greek-speaking, thereby turning the empire into a much more cohesive unit that eventually developed a fairly self-conscious Greek identity.
The Byzantines' failure to protect the Pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
from the Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the '' History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
forced the Pope to search for help elsewhere. The man who answered his call was Pepin II of Aquitaine, whom he had named "Patrician", a title that caused a serious conflict. In 772, Rome ceased commemorating the emperor that first ruled from Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth ( Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
, and in 800 Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Em ...
was crowned Roman Emperor by the Pope himself, officially rejecting the Eastern Roman Empire as true Romans. According to the Frankish interpretation of events, the papacy
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
appropriately "transferred Roman imperial authority from the Greeks to the Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
, in the name of His Greatness, Charles". From then on, a war of names about the New Rome revolved around Roman imperial rights. Unable to deny that an emperor did exist in Constantinople, they sufficed in renouncing him as a successor of Roman heritage on the grounds that Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, Albania, Greeks in Italy, ...
have nothing to do with the Roman legacy. In 865, Pope Nicholas I
Pope Nicholas I ( la, Nicolaus I; c. 800 – 13 November 867), called Nicholas the Great, was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 858 until his death. He is remembered as a consolidator of papal authority, exerting dec ...
wrote to the Emperor Michael III
Michael III ( grc-gre, Μιχαήλ; 9 January 840 – 24 September 867), also known as Michael the Drunkard, was Byzantine Emperor from 842 to 867. Michael III was the third and traditionally last member of the Amorian (or Phrygian) dynasty. ...
: "You ceased to be called 'Emperor of the Romans' since the Romans, of whom you claim to be Emperor, are in fact according to you barbarians."
Henceforth, the emperor in the East was known and referred to in the West as ''Emperor of the Greeks'' and their land as ''Greek Empire'', reserving both "Roman" titles for the Frankish king. The interests of both sides were nominal rather than actual. No land areas were ever claimed, but the insult the Byzantines took on the accusation demonstrates how close at heart the Roman name (Ῥωμαῖος) had become to them. In fact, Bishop Liutprand of Cremona, a delegate of the Frankish court, was briefly imprisoned in Constantinople for not referring to the Roman emperor, Nikephoros II Phokas, by his appropriate title, and in reprisal for his king, Otto I, claiming the "Roman" title by styling himself as '' Holy Roman Emperor''.
Revival in the meaning of "Hellene"
The secular use of ''Hellene'' revived in the 9th century, after paganism had been eclipsed and was no longer a threat to Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesu ...
's dominance. The revival followed the same track as its disappearance. The name had originally declined from a national term in antiquity
Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to:
Historical objects or periods Artifacts
*Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures
Eras
Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...
, to a cultural term in the Hellenistic years, to a religious term in the early Christian years. With the demise of paganism and the revival of learning in the Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...
it had regained its cultural meaning, and finally, by the 11th century it had returned to its ancient national form of an "ethnic Greek", synonymous at the time to "Roman".
Accounts from the 11th century onward (from Anna Komnene, Michael Psellos
Michael Psellos or Psellus ( grc-gre, Μιχαὴλ Ψελλός, Michaḗl Psellós, ) was a Byzantine Greek monk, savant, writer, philosopher, imperial courtier, historian and music theorist. He was born in 1017 or 1018, and is believed to hav ...
, John III Vatatzes, George Gemistos Plethon and several others) prove that the revival of the term Hellene (as a potential replacement for ethnic terms like Graikos and Romaios) did occur. For example, Anna Komnene writes of her contemporaries as Hellenes, but does not use the word as a synonym for a pagan worshiper. Moreover, Anna boasts about her Hellenic classical education, and she speaks as a native Greek and not as an outsider/foreigner who learned Greek.
The refounding of the University of Constantinople in the palaces of Magnaura promoted an interest in learning, particularly in Greek studies. Patriarch Photius was irritated because "Hellenic studies are preferred over spiritual works". Michael Psellos thought it a compliment when Emperor Romanos III praised him for being raised "in the Hellenic way" and a weakness for Emperor Michael IV for being completely devoid of a Hellenic education, while Anna Komnene claimed that she had "carried the study of Hellenic to the highest pitch". Also, commenting on the orphanage her father founded, she stated that "there could be seen a Latin being trained, and a Scythian studying Hellenic, and a Roman handling Hellenic texts and an illiterate Hellene speaking Hellenic correctly". In this case we reach a point where the Byzantines are Romans on the political level but Hellenic by descent. Eustathius of Thessalonica disambiguates the distinction in his account of the sack of Thessaloniki in 1185 by referring to the invaders with the generic term "Latins", encompassing all adherents to the Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, and the "Hellenes" as the dominant population of the empire.
After the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...
, Greek nationalism accentuated. Niketas Choniates
Niketas or Nicetas Choniates ( el, Νικήτας Χωνιάτης; c. 1155 – 1217), whose actual surname was Akominatos (Ἀκομινάτος), was a Byzantine Greek government official and historian – like his brother Michael Akominatos, wh ...
insisted on using the name "Hellenes", stressing the outrages of the "Latins" against the "Hellenes" in the Peloponnese
The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...
and how the Alfeios River might carry the news to the barbarians in Sicily, the Normans. Nikephoros Blemmydes referred to the Byzantine emperor
This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as l ...
s as Hellenes, and Theodore Alanias
Theodore may refer to:
Places
* Theodore, Alabama, United States
* Theodore, Australian Capital Territory
* Theodore, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Banana, Australia
* Theodore, Saskatchewan, Canada
* Theodore Reservoir, a lake in Saskatche ...
wrote in a letter to his brother that "the homeland may have been captured, but Hellas still exists within every wise man". The second Emperor of Nicaea, John III Doukas Vatatzes, wrote in a letter to Pope Gregory IX about the wisdom that "rains upon the Hellenic nation". He maintained that the transfer of the imperial authority from Rome to Constantinople was national and not geographic, and therefore did not belong to the Latins
The Latins were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Latin culture during the Roman Republic.
Latins culturally "Romanized" or "Latinized" the rest of Italy, and the word Latin ...
occupying Constantinople: Constantine's heritage was passed on to the Hellenes, so he argued, and they alone were its inheritors and successors. His son, Theodore II Laskaris, was eager to project the name of the Greeks with true nationalistic zeal. He made it a point that "the Hellenic race looms over all other languages" and that "every kind of philosophy and form of knowledge is a discovery of Hellenes What do you, O Italian, have to display?"
The evolution of the name was slow and did not replace the "Roman" name completely. Nikephoros Gregoras named his historical work ''Roman History''. Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, a great supporter of Greek education, in his own memoirs always refers to the Byzantines as "Romans", yet, in a letter sent by the Mamluk sultan, An-Nasir Hasan, referred to him as "Emperor of the Hellenes, Bulgars, Sassanians, Vlachs, Russians
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, Alanians" but not of the "Romans". Over the next century, George Gemistos Plethon pointed out to Constantine XI Palaiologos that the people he leads are "Hellenes, as their race and language and education testifies", while Laonicus Chalcondyles was a proponent of completely substituting "Roman" terminology for "Greek" terminology. Constantine Palaiologos himself in the end proclaimed Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth ( Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
the "refuge for Christians, hope and delight of all Hellenes". On the other hand, the same Emperor in his final speech before the Empire's demise called upon his audience to rally to the defenses by characteristically referring to them as "descendants of Hellenes and Romans", most possibly as an attempt to combine Greek national sentiment with the Roman tradition of the Byzantine crown and Empire, both highly respected elements in his subjects' psyche at that moment.
Byzantines (Βυζαντινοί)
By the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire most easterners had come to think of themselves as Christians and, more than ever before, as Romans. Although they may not have liked their government any more than they had previously, the Greeks among them could no longer consider it foreign, run by Latins from Italy. The word ''Hellene'' itself had already begun to mean a pagan rather than a person of Greek race or culture. Instead eastern Greeks overwhelmingly used the self-identifying term ''Rhomaios'', "Roman".
The term "Byzantine Empire" is commonly understood to have been introduced in 1557, about a century after the Fall of Constantinople, by German historian Hieronymus Wolf, who introduced a system of Byzantine historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...
in his work ''Corpus Historiae Byzantinae'' in order to distinguish ancient Roman from medieval Greek history without drawing attention to their ancient predecessors. According to Anthony Kaldellis, an Athenian Laonikos Chalkokondyles in the mid 15th century who advocated a neo-Hellenic identity of the Romans, was the first to use the term in this way. Several authors adopted his terminology, but it remained relatively unknown. English historians preferred to use Roman terminology ( Edward Gibbon used it in a particularly belittling manner), while French historians preferred to call it Greek. The term reappeared in the mid-19th century and has since dominated completely in historiography, even in Greece, despite objections from Constantine Paparregopoulos, Gibbon's influential Greek counterpart, that the empire should be called Greek. Few Greek scholars adopted the terminology at that time, but it became popular in the second half of the 20th century.
Hellenic continuity and Byzantine consciousness
The "Byzantines" referred to themselves as ''Rhomaioi'' to retain both their Roman citizenship and their ancient Hellenic heritage. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the "Byzantines" themselves were also very conscious of their uninterrupted continuity with the ancient Greeks. Even though the ancient Greeks were not Christians, the "Byzantines" still regarded them as their ancestors. A common substitute for the term ''Hellene'', other than ''Rhomaios'', was the term ''Graikos'' (Γραικός), a term that was used often by the "Byzantines" (along with ''Rhomaios'') for ethnic self-identification. Evidence of the use of the term ''Graikos'' can be found in the works of Priscus, a historian of the 5th century AD. He stated in one of his accounts that on an unofficial embassy to Attila the Hun, he had met at Attila's court someone who dressed like a Scythian but spoke Greek. When Priskos asked the person where he had learned the language, the man smiled and said that he was a Graekos by birth. Many other "Byzantine" authors speak of the Empire's natives as Greeks 'Graikoi''or Hellenes such as Constantine Porphyrogennitos of the 10th century. His accounts discuss about the revolt of a Slavic tribe in the district of Patras in the Peloponnese. Constantine states that the Slavs who revolted first proceeded to sack the dwellings of their neighbors, the Greeks (''ton Graikon'') and then moved against the inhabitants of the city of Patras. Overall, ancient Hellenic continuity was evident throughout the history of the Eastern Roman Empire. The "Byzantines" were not merely a general Orthodox Christian populace that referred to themselves as merely "Romans". They used the term for legal and administrative purposes, but other terms were used to distinguish themselves ethnically. In short, the Greek inhabitants of the Eastern Roman Empire were very conscious of their ancient Hellenic heritage and could preserve their identity while they adapted to the changes that the world was undergoing.
Contest between the names ''Hellene'', ''Roman'', and ''Greek''
Following the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and during Ottoman Greece a fierce ideological battle ensued regarding the three rival national names of the Greeks. This struggle may have settled down after the Greek War of Independence but was permanently resolved only recently in the 20th century after the loss of Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
to the Turks.
The struggle reflected the diverging view of history between classicists and medievalists ( katharevousa and demotic) in their attempt to define Greek nationality
Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is th ...
at a time without a Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...
state to foster the movement. The concept of ''Hellene'' for a person of Greek origin was already well established from the late Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
. However, for the majority of the population, especially those in rural areas away from urban centers, the dominant self-perception was still that of ''Romaioi'' and ''Graikoi''. Scholar Rigas Feraios called "Bulgars and Arvanites, Armenians
Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...
and Romans" to rise in arms against the Ottomans. General Makrygiannis
Yannis Makriyannis ( el, Γιάννης Μακρυγιάννης, ''Giánnēs Makrygiánnīs''; 1797–1864), born Ioannis Triantaphyllou (, ''Iōánnēs Triantafýllou''), was a Greek merchant, military officer, politician and author, best ...
recalled a friend asking him: "What say you, is the Roman State far away from coming? Are we to sleep with the Turks and awaken with the Romans?"
Preference for the term ''Greek'' (Γραικός) was exhibited by scholars such as Adamantios Korais, a renowned Greek classicist, who justified his selection in ''A Dialogue between Two Greeks'': "Our ancestors used to call themselves Greeks but adopted afterwards the name Hellenes by a Greek who called himself Hellen. One of the above two, therefore, is our true name. I approved 'Greece' because that is what all the enlightened nations of Europe call us." ''Hellenes'' for Korais are the pre-Christian inhabitants of Greece.
The absence of a Byzantine state gradually led to the marginalization of the Roman name and allowed ''Hellene'' (Ἕλλην) to resurface as the primary national name. requests the exclusive use of Hellene in his ''Cheiragogy'': "Never desire to call yourselves Romans, but Hellenes, for the Romans from ancient Rome enslaved and destroyed Hellas". The anonymous author of ''The Hellenic Realm of Law'', published in 1806 in Pavia, Italy, speaks of Hellenes: "The time has come, O Hellenes, to liberate our home". The leader of the Greek War of Independence began his ''Declaration'' with a phrase similar to the above: "The time has come, O men, Hellenes". After the name was accepted by the spiritual and political leadership of the land, it rapidly spread to the population, especially with the onset of the Greek War of Independence where many naïve leaders and war figures distinguished between idle Romans and rebellious Hellenes. General Theodoros Kolokotronis in particular made a point of always addressing his revolutionary troops as Hellenes and invariably wore a helmet of ancient Greek style.
General Makrygiannis
Yannis Makriyannis ( el, Γιάννης Μακρυγιάννης, ''Giánnēs Makrygiánnīs''; 1797–1864), born Ioannis Triantaphyllou (, ''Iōánnēs Triantafýllou''), was a Greek merchant, military officer, politician and author, best ...
tells of a priest who performed his duty in front of the "Romans" (civilians) but secretly spied on the "Hellenes" (fighters). "Roman" almost came to be associated with passiveness and enslavement, and "Hellene" brought back the memory of ancient glories and the fight for freedom. Eyewitness historian writes that while the Turkish authorities and colonists in Niokastro had surrendered to the advancing Greek army, reportedly, shouts of defiance were made that led to their massacre by the mob: "They spoke to the petty and small Hellenes as 'Romans'. It was as if they called them 'slaves'! The Hellenes not bearing to hear the word, for it reminded of their situation and the outcome of tyranny
The citizens of the newly independent state were called "Hellenes" making the connection with ancient Greece all the more clear. That in turn also fostered a fixation on antiquity and negligence for the other periods of history, especially the Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...
, for an age that bore different names and was a devisor to different and in many ways more important legacies. The classicist trend was soon balanced by the Greek Great Idea that sought to recover Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth ( Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
and reestablish the Byzantine Empire for all Greeks. As the Prime Minister, Ioannis Kolettis, proclaimed in front of Parliament in 1844, "The Kingdom of Greece is not Greece; it is only part of it, a small and poor part of Greece There are two great centers of Hellenism. Athens is the capital of the Kingdom. Constantinople is the great capital, the City, dream and hope of all Greeks."
See also
* Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, Albania, Greeks in Italy, ...
* Gringo, a Spanish derivation of ''griego'' that came to mean "Anglophone North American" and related concepts
* Hellen
* Adjectival and demonymic forms of place names in Greco-Roman antiquity
References
Sources
*
Bibliography
In English
*John Romanides, ''"Romanity, Romania, Rum", Thessalonike, 1974''
*Steven Runciman, ''"Byzantine and Hellene in the 14th century"''
In other languages
*Panagiotis Christou, ''"The Adventures of the National Names of the Greeks", Thessalonike, 1964''
*Antonios Hatzis, ''"Elle, Hellas, Hellene", Athens, 1935–1936''
*J. Juthner, ''"Hellenen und Barbaren", Leipzig, 1923''
*Basso Mustakidou, ''"The words Hellene, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, Turk", Tybigge, 1920''
*Ioannis Kakrides, ''"Ancient Greeks and Greeks of 1821", Athens, 1956''
*A. Rambeau, ''"L'empire Grecque au X' siecle"''
External links
Clifton R. Fox, ''"What, if anything, is a Byzantine?"''
* ttp://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.16.en.romanity_romania_roumeli.01.htm John S. Romanides, ''"Introduction to Romanity, Romania, Roumeli."''br>John S. Romanides, "''Kostis Palamas and Romiosini''"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Names Of The Greeks
History of Greece
Greek culture
Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, Albania, Greeks in Italy, ...