Names for the Greeks

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Since the 8th century BC Numerous Greek cities arose in Magna Graecia . Through the contact of the Italians with these settlers, presumably Hellenes from Graia , the Graeci , the term Greeks established itself in the west .

The Greeks have been given different names throughout history . To date, many of these names can be considered interchangeable, making the Greeks one of the polyonymous peoples.

The earliest proper names can be found in the Iliad and refer to the men whom the Argive king Agamemnon led against Troy ( Achaeans , Danaer , Argiver ). A very old foreign name - starting from the Greek tribal association of the Ionians ( Greek Ἴωνες , Íōnes , older Ἰάωνες, Iáōnes ) - has been preserved in numerous languages ​​of the Middle East and beyond and was first shown in the ancient Persian Jauna and the Hebrew Javan (יָוָן).

The 480 BC In contrast, soldiers who fell at Thermopylae already called themselves Hellenes (Έλληνες, Héllēnes ). The Greeks of modern times also adopted this popular name after it had become a synonym for “ pagans , polytheists” in the first centuries of Christianity . In late antiquity , the Greeks therefore usually called Rhomäer (Ῥωμαῖοι, Romaíoi "Romans", until today altertümelnd used in slurring Ρωμιός, Romios ). Most European languages ​​use the term Greek (from Latin Graeci ), inherited from Latin , in various variations . Today, the common names of the Greeks in the different languages can be mainly due to these three Etyma  - Ίων ( ION ), Ἕλλην ( bright ) and Γραικός ( Graikos ) - attributed, originally each smaller groups should have called.

Achaeans (Ἀχαιοί), Argives (Ἀργεῖοι), Danaer (Δαναοί): The oldest self-names

In Homer's Iliad , the allied forces of the Greeks are referred to by three different names, which are often used alternatively: Argiver (Greek Ἀργεῖοι, Argeîoi , 29 times), Danaer (Δαναοί, Danaoí , 138 times) and Achaians (Ἀχαιοί, Achaioí , 598 Times). Argiver is a political name that can be traced back to Argos , the capital of the Achaeans. The name Danaer (after the mythical Danaos , the progenitor of the Argive ruling dynasty) refers to the first Greek tribe to dominate the Peloponnese , as well as a region near Argos. Achaians is the name of the Greek tribe that was pushed back to part of the Peloponnese ( Achaia ) in the course of the Doric migration and was formative here. Homer did not use the term Hellenes as a collective term for the Greek tribes.

Ionians (Ἴωνες), Jauna and Javan (יָוָן)

Another name for the Greeks, however, developed in the countries in eastern Greece. In the ancient Persian empire the Greeks were called Jauna , in India Javana , Jonaka or Jona . The origin of all these names is the self-designation of the Asian Minor Ionians (Greek Ίωνες, Íōnes , cf. the older predecessor Ἰᾱ́ωνες, Iāṓnes ), which appeared in the 6th century BC Were subjugated by the Persians and their name, probably similar to the name of the Graikoí in the west, was transferred to the entirety of the Hellenes. The ancient Persian name of the Greeks subsequently spread throughout the Persian Empire and its wider cultural zone of influence. From the Old Persian therefore also derives Sanskrit designation Javana first time - her, which in ancient Sanskrit sources Panini has survived - grammar. Later, Jonaka (or Jonah in Pali ) established itself as the name for the Indo-Greeks . The term Yunan and its modifications are used to this day in Fārsi , Arabic (in the names اَلْيُونَان, al-Yūnān "Greece", and يُونَانِيّ, Yūnāni "Greek"), Turkish , Hindi (as und) and the Malay Indonesian.

The related Hebrew common name Javan (יָוָן) was used in early biblical times as a name for the Greeks of the eastern Mediterranean . Correspondingly, the figure of Jawan , son of Jafet , is mentioned as the forefather of the Greeks in Genesis 10: 2.

Derivatives of Ίων ( Íōn )

In most of the languages ​​of the Middle East and some other Asian languages, the name of the Greeks is derived from the tribal name of the Ionians , i.e. those Greeks who populated the western coasts of Anatolia in ancient times :

  • Arabic : يُونَانِيّ ( Yūnānī , m.), يُونَانِيَّة ( Yūnāniyya , f.), اَلْيُونَان ( al-Yūnān "Greece")
  • Armenian : հույն ( huyn ), Հունաստան ( Hunastan "Greece")
  • Hebrew : יווני ( Jevani , m.), יווניה ( Jevania , f.), יוון ( Javan "Greece")
  • Hindi : यूनानी ( Jūnānī ), यूनान ( Jūnān "Greece")
  • Indonesian : orang yunani, Yunani
  • Syriac : ܝܘܢܢ ( Junan "Greece")
  • Turkish : Yunan, Yunanistan

Hellenes (Ἕλληνες, Έλληνες)

In Homer's account of the time of the Trojan War , the term Hellenes referred to a relatively small but powerful tribe from the area of ​​the Thessalian Phthia , which probably had its roots in today's Epirus , in the northwest. Important settlements of this tribe were Alos , Alope, Trachis and Argos . Although there have been numerous attempts at an etymological derivation for the word Hellene , none is considered sufficiently accepted. So some look for the origin of the word in the parts of the word Sal (to pray ), ell (mountainous) , or sel (enlightened) . A more recent study traces the name back to the city of Hellas near the river (Arabic "el-oued") Spercheus, which still bears this name today. It is certain that the term Hellenes is connected with the word Selloi ( Greek Σελλοί), the priests of the Epirotian Dodona . According to Homer , Achilles worshiped the Dodonian Zeus as the god of his ancestors:

Zeus, Pelasgian lord of Dodona living far away
Where the winters are so rough. There the Selloi,
your seers, lie down on the ground around you with their feet never washed.

Ptolemy calls Epirus the “original Hellas”, and Aristotle reports that a natural disaster (equivalent to the Deucalionic Flood) “was in ancient Hellas, between Dodona and the Acheloos river , the land inhabited by Selloi and Graikoí , later known as the Hellenes were “, the worst that raged. From this it is concluded that the tribe of the Hellenes had its origin in Epirus and only later moved to the south, in the area of ​​the Thessalian Phthia. The spread of the Dodonian Zeus cult (the Greeks tended to form ever larger communities and Amphictyonia ) and the increasing popularity of the Delphic cult ultimately led to the term Hellene being used across the entire peninsula, and later across the Aegean Sea also in Asia Minor . as well as westward, into what is now southern Italy and Sicily , a region also known as Magna Graecia .

The concept of the Hellenes in this extended sense was first handed down in writing in a description of the 48th  Olympic Games by Echembrotos (584 BC). Presumably the term was introduced with the Olympic Games in the 8th century BC. Introduced in this supra-regional form and was permanently established until the 5th century. An inscription in Delphi from the time after the Persian Wars praises the Spartan Pausanias as the victorious leader of the Hellenes . The awareness of a Panhellenic unity was promoted in particular by regular religious festivals, such as the Mysteries of Eleusis , whose participants had to be Greek-speaking. The four Panhellenic games (including the Olympics), where the tribe of participation was crucial, promoted the sense of belonging of the various Greek tribes under the name of the Hellenes . Women and non-Greeks were not allowed to take part in the games. This regulation was later relaxed under the Roman rule of Emperor Nero .

The mythical ancestry stories developed long after the southern migration of the four main Greek tribes , in the context of which well-known founding figures were used, illustrates the sense of identity of these tribes. According to legend, Hellen ( Ἕλλην ), son of Deucalion and Pyrrha , was the progenitor of the Hellenes. His sons Aiolos , Doros and Xuthos , born with the nymph Orseis , were in turn founding fathers of the Greek tribes of the Aeolians , Dorians , Achaeans and Ionians . The latter go back to the sons of Xuthos: Achaios and Ion .

Epiroten, Molossians and Macedonians were not counted among the Hellenes at the time of the Trojan War , because at that time this designation was only related to the aforementioned Thessalian tribe around Phthia , of which Achilles belonged. Even after the name was extended to all tribes south of Mount Olympus , these three tribes were not counted among the Hellenes. One reason for this was probably their refusal to take part in the Persian Wars, which at that time had been declared to be the vital task of Hellenism; however, these tribes already took part in the Olympic Games before the Persian Wars , where they could compete with other Hellenes (only Hellenes were allowed to participate). Thucydides calls the Akarnans, Aetolians, Epirot and Macedonians barbarians , but does so in a strictly linguistic sense.

In his Philippikai, the Athenian speaker Demosthenes even characterizes the Macedonians as worse than barbarians. However, taking into account the then current political events, his speeches represent a single call for resistance against the Macedonian King Philip II , who at that time was gaining power and territory to a dangerous extent for the city-state of Athens. The statesman from democratic Athens did not accept the pan-Hellenic claim to leadership of the undemocratic kingdom of Macedonia, but continued to support Athens' claim to leadership, which he saw as the ideal form of Hellenism. Not least because of this, his characterization of the Macedonian king reads very polemical in extracts: "Neither Hellenes, nor relatives of the Hellenes, not even a barbarian from some honorable place, but a hideous fellow from Macedonia, where up to now one has never been able to buy a decent slave." In his Filipino speeches, he does not claim that the Macedonians have a foreign origin, nor does he attempt to prove it. Rather, he regards their political system as barbaric, but above all the open questioning of Athens' supremacy in the Hellenic region.

Polybius, on the other hand, regards the tribes of western Hellas, the Epiroten and the Macedonians, as Hellenes in every respect. Even Strabo describes Macedonia as part of Hellas.

Hellenes and Barbarians

In the centuries that followed, the term Hellenic gained a broader meaning and, as a contrast to the barbarian , was generally applied to civilized peoples. Initially, however , the word barbarian had a different meaning. Originally the Greek tribes called their non-Greek-speaking neighbors βάρβαροι ("barbarians"), meaning "speakers of a foreign language". The term barbarian , it is assumed, has its origin in the onomatopoeic bar-bar , which is supposed to describe the stammering of foreign speakers whose language sounded like this in the ears of the Greeks. According to Herodotus , the Egyptians also called anyone who spoke a language other than themselves a barbarian .

Only later did the Greeks switch to using the term barbaric as a generalizing, derogatory description of foreign ways of life. Ultimately, the word was given the meaning "uneducated" or "uncivilized" due to the increasing negative use. According to this, "an uneducated man is also a barbarian". According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus , a Hellene differed from a barbarian by four characteristics: language, education, religion and the rule of law . Paul of Tarsus, on the other hand, preached that "Hellenes and barbarians, both wise and foolish".

The demarcation between Hellenes and barbarians lasted until the 4th century BC. BC Euripides found it natural that Hellenes should rule over barbarians, since in his opinion the former were meant for freedom and the latter for slavery . Aristotle came to the conclusion that "the nature of the barbarian and the slave are one and the same". Ethnic demarcation only began to fade with the teachings of the Stoics , who differentiated between nature and convention and taught that all human beings were equal before God and consequently could not be inherently unequal.

The conquering expeditions of Alexander the Great consolidated the Greek influence in the East by bringing Greek culture to Asia , which permanently changed education and society there. Isocrates explained in his panegyric that the students of Athens had now become teachers of the world, through whom the name Hellas no longer denotes a race , but the intellect and the term Hellene no longer stands for common origins, but for common education and values. Hellenism, for example, signified the development from classical Greek culture to a civilization with global dimensions that was now open to everyone. Accordingly, the term "Hellenes" developed from the meaning of the ethnic Greek to a cultural term that included those who subjected their lives to Greek values.

Change of meaning of the term Hellene under the sign of Christianity

In the course of the first Christian centuries, the term Hellene was given the meaning “pagan, follower of polytheism” and retained this meaning until the end of the first Christian millennium. In this first millennium the early Christian Church played a major role in the change in the meaning of the word. The contact with the Jews was crucial, as it led to the Christian use of the term Hellene as a means of religious distinction: The Jews, like the Greeks, differentiated between themselves and foreigners, but unlike the Greeks, they differed solely on the basis of religious and less because of other cultural characteristics. In the same way that the Greeks called all uncivilized people barbarians , the Jews viewed all non-Jews as goyim , which literally means “nations”. The early Christians, who themselves emerged from Judaism, adopted this form of religious distinction, as a result of which the previously culturally occupied term of the Hellenes in Christian language usage was reduced to its religious content, which ultimately completely supplanted the original meaning. As a result, all non-Christians were Hellenes in the eyes of Christians .

In his letters, the apostle Paul almost always used the term Hellene in conjunction with Hebrew , presumably to distinguish the two religious communities from one another. The term Hellene appears for the first time in the New Testament with a new, purely religious meaning . According to the Gospel according to Mark 7:26, a woman kneels before Jesus and asks for the healing of her daughter.

In the Hellenistic original it says:

[…] Ἡ δὲ γυνὴ ἦν ῾Ελληνίς , Συροφοινίκισσα τῷ γένει · καὶ ἠρώτα αὐτὸν ἵνα τὸ δαιμόνιον ἐκθαλῃ ὸυ ττῆς αγατς ἐυκ τῆς.

The updated version of the Luther Bible from 2017 formulates:

[...] but the woman was a Greek from Syrophoenicia - and asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

The German standard translation from 2016 gives the information about the original wording ("literally: Greek") in a footnote and reads:

The woman, Syrophoenician by birth, was a pagan . She asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

Since the woman was a Syrophoenician from birth, which determines her ethnic affiliation, the term ῾Ἑλληνίς ("Hellenine") must stand for her religion in this context. Although it was translated as Greek in the Luther Bible , in Wulfila's Gothic translation of the Bible it was much earlier than haiþno (" heathen "). In the Wycliff translation, as in today's German translation, the terms gentile or heathen are used in a similar way .

The development of the term Hellene to its new, purely religious meaning took place slowly and was probably not completed until the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Aelius Aristides chose Hellenes, Chaldeans, and Egyptians as representative of all pagan peoples. Clement of Alexandria later reported of an unknown Christian writer who summarized the mentioned peoples as Hellenes and spoke of two old and one new nation: the Christian nation.

Numerous writings from this time document the semantic change of the term. The first of these is the Oratio ad Graecos Tatians , which was completed in 170 AD. In this, Tatian refutes the pagan religions in favor of Christianity. The most important of the later works was Against the Hellenes by Athanasius , according to other sources originally Against the Gentiles . The name was changed by a future author at a time when Hellene had completely lost its ancient meaning. From then on Hellene no longer had the meaning of the ethnic Greek or of those who had adopted the Greek culture, but became a collective term for the pagans, regardless of their origin. The failed attempt emperor Julian the Dodekatheon to revive him brought by the Church the nickname the Apostate ( Greek a "renegade"), while Gregory Nazianzen stated that "things in favor of Christianity went and the location of the Hellenes very got worse ”. Half a century later, Christians rose up against the Eparchen of Alexandria , whom they accused of Hellenism . Although it was Theodosius I who initiated the first laws against paganism, the mass persecutions of pagans were ultimately made possible by the reforms of Justinian : The Corpus Iuris Civilis contained laws that decreed the complete annihilation of Hellenism, which was in public life for men was eagerly advanced in high positions. The official persecution of paganism made non-Christians a common threat, which only undermined the importance of Hellene . Paradoxically, Tribonian , Justinian's head of the commission for the revision of previous legal traditions, was according to Suda himself a Hellene (Heide).

Revival of the Hellene's ethnic significance

Eugène Delacroix : The capture of Constantinople by the crusaders , 1840. The sack of their capital by the crusaders in 1204 called, as u. a. the Chronicles of Nicetas Choniates shows a bitter reaction and the contempt of the Byzantine Greeks for the Latins.

The non-religious use of Hellene was revived in the 9th century after paganism was effectively stamped out and no longer posed a threat to Christian dominance. Gradually, the same path was followed in reverse order that the term had previously taken in its change of meaning. In the ancient times originally an ethnic term, was Hellene cultural, in the Hellenistic period a Christianity eventually become a religious term. With the disappearance of paganism and the rediscovery of the sciences, the term first regained its cultural meaning and finally, in the 11th century, its ancient ethnic meaning. Hellene was from then on, apart from the already common Rhomäer (Ῥωμιός, Romios ) for the ethnic Greeks.

Evidence from the time between the 11th and 15th centuries and the following period ( Anna Komnena , Michael Psellos , Johannes III. Vatatzes , Georgios Gemistos Plethon and many others) prove the revival of the term Hellene as a potential replacement for ethnic names such as Graikós or Romiós . In the 12th century, Anna Komnena referred to her compatriots as Hellenes , but did not use the term in the sense of “heather”. She also boasted of her classical Hellenic education, as she was a native Greek speaker and did not have to learn Greek as a foreign language.

The re-establishment of the University of Constantinople encouraged an interest particularly in Greek studies. Patriarch Photios I reacted irritably to the preference given to Greek studies over other intellectual work. Michael Psellos found it a compliment when Emperor Romanos III. He praised his Hellenic education, while he felt it was a weakness that his successor, Michael IV. , did not have such a thing in the least. Anna Komnena claimed that she had pursued the Hellenic studies to the highest possible extent. In addition, she reports in relation to the orphanage founded by her father that there “a Scythian learns Hellenic, a Roman works on Hellenic texts and an uneducated Hellene speaks correctly Hellenic”. These cases illustrate that a point has been reached where the Greek-speaking Byzantines see themselves as Rhomeans on a political level , but increasingly define themselves as Hellenic based on their origins . Eustathius of Thessalonica differentiates between these meanings in his report of the fall of Constantinople in 1204 by calling the invaders in the sign of the cross as Latins , and thus summarizing all those who belonged to the Roman Catholic Church , while with Hellenes the predominant Greek population of the Eastern Roman Empire meant.

The conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade strengthened the Greek national feeling in the empire. Niketas Choniates insisted on the use of the term Hellenes and emphasized the crimes of the Latins against the Hellenes in the Peloponnese . Nikephoros Blemmydes referred to the Byzantine emperors as Hellenes and Theodor Alanias wrote in a letter to his brother that “the homeland may have been conquered, but Hellas still lives on in every wise man”. Emperor John III wrote from exile in a letter to Pope Gregory IX. about the wisdom that "rains down on the Hellenic nation". He claimed that the transfer of imperial power from Rome to Constantinople was a national process, not just a geographical one, and that the Latins were not entitled to occupy Constantinople: the legacy of Constantine, he argued, had been passed on to the Hellenes and consequently they alone are its heirs and successors. His son, Theodor II. Laskaris, offers further evidence of the germinated Hellenic national feeling when he writes that the Hellenic language is above all else. He also writes that “every form of philosophy and knowledge goes back to discoveries by the Hellenes [...]. What do you have to show, O Italians? ”Statements like these clearly illustrate the increase in Greek nationalism as a result of the Fourth Crusade. They also document the semantic return of the term Hellene to a concept of ethnicity.

The development of this name took place slowly, but never completely replaced the self- name Romiós (Ῥωμιός). Nikephoros Gregoras called his work Roman History accordingly . Emperor John VI , a great proponent of Hellenic education, referred to the Byzantines as Rhomeans in his memoirs . Nevertheless, he was addressed in a letter from the Sultan of Egypt , Nasser Hassan Bin Mohammed , as "Emperor of the Hellenes, Bulgarians , Asans, Wallachians , Russians , Alans ", but not the Romans or Rhomeans . In the 15th century, Georgios Gemistos Plethon emphasized to Emperor Constantine Palaiologos that the people he led were Hellenic , as evidenced by their "race, language and education", while Laonikos Chalcocondyles advocated completely replacing the term Rhomeans with that of the Hellenes . Emperor Konstantin Palaiologos himself called Constantinople a "refuge for Christians , joy and hope of all Hellenes".

Derivations of Ἕλλην ( Héllēn ) or Ἑλλάς ( Hellás )

The third root is used in only a few languages ​​worldwide and goes back to the ancient and modern self-designation of the Greeks as Ἕλληνες ( Héllēnes ) or the country name Ἑλλάς ( Hellás ) derived from it:

  • Chinese : 希臘人 ( Xīlàrén ), 希腊 ( Xila "Greece")
  • Greek : Έλληνας ( Éllinas ), Ελληνίδα ( Ellinída ), Eλλάς ( Ellás )
  • Korean : 希腊 or 희랍 ( Huirap "Greece"), but also 그리스 ( Geuriseu "Greece") and 그리스 의 ( Geuriseu-ui "Greek")
  • Norwegian : Hellas , but also Grekenland
  • Vietnamese : Hy Lạp (both "Greek" and "Greece")

Greeks (Γραικοί)

The Greek term commonly used in German comes from the Latin Graecus , which in turn has its origin in the Greek Γραικός ( Graikós ), the name of a Boeotian tribe that developed in the 8th century BC. In Italy and by whose name the Hellenes became known in the west. In the Iliad, Homer mentions the Boeotic city of Graia (Γραῖα), which Pausanias claims to have been identical to the later Tanagra , while Aristotle recognized it in the Attic Oropos . Pausanias explains the name as "the old woman" (understood as a variant of Greek γραῦς, graûs "old woman"). The west of Naples located Cuma or the ancient Neapolis itself is of Greeks from the cities Chalkis have been founded and Graia. Through their contact with the Romans , the term Graeci could have emerged as a collective term for all Hellenes.

In addition to the priestly Selloi , Aristotle also settled a tribe that was once known as the Γραικοί ( Graikoí ) and later called the Hellenes (Ἕλληνες) in the area around Dodona and the Acheloos river . In addition to Hellen , Graikos was also named as the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha , and therefore counted among the ancestors of the Greeks.

Derivations of Γραικός ( Graikós )

In most European languages ​​and some languages ​​that have adopted their names, the name of the Greeks and the name for Greece are derived from the Latin term Graecus , which became binding for all languages ​​on the soil and in the sphere of influence of the Roman Empire and, in turn, on the Greek tribal name of Γραικοί ( Graikoí ):

Soleto is one of the nine Greek-speaking towns of Apulia in Italy . The inhabitants are descendants of Greek settlers who have lived since the 8th century BC. Founded colonies in Italy and Sicily . They speak Griko , a dialect that emerged from Doric Greek , which developed independently from Hellenistic Greek . The inhabitants of the city call themselves Grekos , derived from the Latin Graecus , and consider themselves Hellenes .
  • Albanian : grek, Greqia
  • Bulgarian : грък ( grǎk , m.), Гъркиня ( gǎrkinja , f.), Гърция ( Grtsia )
  • Danish : græker, Grækenland
  • German : Greek, Greek, Greece
  • English : Greek, Greece
  • Estonian : kreeklane, Kreeka
  • Finnish : kreikkalainen, Kreikka
  • French : Grec (m.), Grecque (f.), Grèce
  • Irish : Gréagach, An Ghréig
  • Italian : greco, greca, Grecia
  • Japanese : ギ リ シ ア 人 ( Girishia-jin ), ギ リ シ ア ( Girishia )
  • Catalan : grec, grega, Grècia
  • Croatian : Grčk, Grčkinja, Grčka
  • Latvian : grieķis, grieķiete, Grieķija
  • Maltese : Grieg, Griega, Greċja
  • Macedonian : Грк ( Grk ), Гркинка ( Grkinka ), Грција ( Grcija )
  • Dutch : Griek, Griekenland
  • Polish : Grek, Grecja
  • Portuguese : grego, grega, Grécia
  • Romanian : grec (m.), Grecoaică or greacă (f.), Grecia
  • Russian : грек ( grek ), греча́нка ( grečánka ), Греция ( Gretsia )
  • Swedish : grek (m.), Grekinna or grekiska (f.), Grekland
  • Serbian : Гр̏к ( Grčk ), Гр̏киња ( Grčkinja ), Грчка ( Grčka )
  • Slovak : Grék, Grékyňa, Grécko
  • Slovenian : Gŕk, Gŕkinja, Grčija
  • Spanish : griego, griega, Grecia
  • Czech : Řek, Řekyně, Řecko
  • Ukrainian : грек ( grek ), греча́нка ( grečánka ), Греція ( Gretsia )
  • Hungarian : görög, Görögország
  • Welsh : Groeg, Groeg

Other names

Romans, Rhomeans (Ῥωμαῖοι) and Romioí (Ῥωμιοί)

Romans or Rhomeans (Ῥωμαῖοι, Rōmaîoi , from it the new Greek Ῥωμιοί, Romií , and Turkish rum , cf. Rumelia ) is the name that was established for the Greeks of late antiquity and the Middle Ages . This name originally referred to the inhabitants of the city of Rome in Italy , but gradually lost the exclusive reference to the Latins with the inclusion of other peoples, including the Greeks, into the Roman Empire . In 212 AD, the Constitutio Antoniniana Emperor Caracallas granted all free citizens of the empire Roman citizenship. The new name represented the religious affiliation of the Greeks to Christianity . Due to the semantic negative assignment of the term Hellene (which now meant heather ), which was driven by Christianity , it was impossible to fall back on this designation at that time. The word Romiós became the general name for the Greeks of the Eastern Roman Empire. This term is still used in Greece today and is, after Hellene , the most common self-name of the Greeks.

This foreign-language term was initially of purely political and not ethnic meaning, as it was based on the Roman claim to unite all the peoples of the world under one, true God . Until the early 7th century, when the empire still extended over large areas and many peoples, the designation Romans or Rhomeans was an indication of nationality , not of origin. In order to differentiate between nationality and descent, the different peoples could also use their own ethnonyms or toponyms . This is the reason why the historian Procopius of Caesarea , the Byzantines "Hellenized Romans" called while other writers names such Romhellenen or Graecoromanen used. The aim of such designations was to express nationality and origin at the same time.

The Lombards and Arabs invasions in the same century resulted in the loss of most of the provinces, including the Italian and Asian, with the exception of Anatolia . The remaining areas were predominantly Greek, as a result of which the population of the empire now saw itself as a more cohesive unit, ultimately developing a conscious identity. In contrast to written sources from centuries before, Byzantine documents towards the end of the first millennium showed clear nationalism .

The failure of the Byzantines to guarantee the Pope protection from the Lombards forced him to seek help elsewhere. The man who followed his call was Pippin the Middle , to whom he bestowed the title of patrician , which sparked a momentous conflict. In 772, the memory of Emperor Constantine, who had moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople , ended in Rome . In the year 800 Pope Leo III crowned . Charlemagne as Roman Emperor, with which he no longer officially recognized the Eastern Roman Emperor as Roman Emperor. According to the Franks, the papacy legitimately transferred Roman imperial authority from the Greeks to the Germans . This sparked a name war between the already existing Eastern Roman Empire and the newly founded Roman Empire in the west by the Franks. Since an emperor already existed in Constantinople, from now on he was recognized in the west as the Roman successor simply on the grounds that the Greeks supposedly had nothing in common with the Roman legacy. This is what it says in a message from Pope Nicholas I to the Eastern Roman Emperor Michael III. that he was no longer called "Emperor of the Romans" because the Romans, whose emperor he wanted to be, were in fact barbarians for him.

From then on the Franks called the emperor in the east Emperor of the Greeks and his country the Greek Empire , in order to reserve both Roman titles for the Frankish king . The opposing parties in this name dispute pursued only nominal interests, however, no mutual territorial claims were made. Nevertheless, the insult that this dispute meant for the Greek Eastern Romans illustrates how important the Roman name (ρωμαίος) had become to them in the meantime. The Frankish delegate, Bishop Liutprand, was imprisoned in Constantinople for a short time because he did not address the Roman emperor with the correct title. His incarceration also provided a reprisal for the formation of the Holy Roman Empire under the Emperor Otto I represent.

Byzantines (Βυζαντινοί)

Hieronymus Wolf was a 16th century German historian. He founded Byzantine historiography to distinguish between medieval Greek and ancient Roman history.

The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 strengthened the ties among the peoples of the Eastern Roman Empire to Christianity and, more than ever before, to Rhomeanism. Although they now no longer liked their government than before, it was no longer viewed as alien by the Greeks among them, since it was definitely no longer in the hands of the Italian Latins . The term Hellene , however, had already been given a new meaning (that of the “ heathen ”) in the course of the Christianization of the Roman Empire and therefore no longer readily usable. Instead, the name Romioí (Ρωμιοί) gradually established itself as a name for the Greeks, which they used for themselves in the way that the term Byzantines, created later in the West, is applied to them today.

The term Byzantine Empire was created by the German historian Hieronymus Wolf in 1557, a century after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire . In his Corpus Historiae Byzantinae, he established a Byzantine historiography to distinguish between ancient Roman and medieval Greek history, without taking into account the ancient ancestors of the Greeks. Many contemporary writers adopted his terminology, but remained largely unknown, which means that the term Byzantine Empire did not attain the historiographical dominance that it enjoys today.

Later, as historical interest in this part of history grew, various terms were initially used for the Greek-influenced Eastern Roman Empire: English historians preferred the term Roman Empire ( Edward Gibbon used this term in a rather disparaging way) while French historians called it Greek . The concept of the Byzantine Empire did not reappear until the middle of the 19th century and has dominated all historiography ever since. The name was even adopted in Greece, despite the objections of Konstantinos Paparregopoulos (Gibbon's influential Greek counterpart) that it should be called the Greek Empire . Some Greek scholars followed Paparregopoulos, but this only led to the short-term popularity of the term in Greece in the 20th century. However, the term Byzantine Empire is also established there in historical studies, as it is popularly.

Berdzeni ("the wise")

The Georgians use an interesting and unique name : in ancient times the Greeks were called ბერძენი ( berdzeni ) by the Kolchians . This name can be traced back to ბრძენი ( georg. Brdzeni " weise "). According to Georgian historians, this name refers to the development of philosophy in ancient Greece. The Georgians of modern times also call the Greeks ბერძენი ( berdzeni ) and Greece საბერძნეთი ( saberdznet'i ), literally “land of the wise”.

Hellenic continuity and Byzantine consciousness

Indeed, the overwhelming majority of the “ Byzantines ” were very much aware of their uninterrupted continuity with antiquity . Despite the fact that the ancient Greeks were not Christians , the "Byzantines" still considered them their ancestors. Another name for Romiós was next to Hellene the term Graikós (Γραικός). This term was also often used by the “Byzantines” (in connection with Romiós ) for ethnic self-designation (e.g. Graecoromaniac by Prokop ). Evidence for the use of the term Graikós by the “Byzantines” goes back to the work of Priskos , one of them 5th century historian. In it he reports that during a banquet at the court of Attila he met someone who was dressed like a Scythian but spoke Greek. When Priskos asked him where he had learned the language, the latter replied that he was born Graikós .

Other "Byzantine" writers also refer to the state people as Greeks ( Graikoí ) or Hellenes, such as Konstantinos Porphyrogennitos in the 10th century. This reports, among other things, of a Slavic revolt near Patras in the Peloponnese, in the course of which houses were looted by Greeks ("tōn Graikṓn").

Overall, the continuity of Hellenic antiquity can be demonstrated over the entire period of the Eastern Roman Empire, up to the 15th century. The Greek "Byzantines" proved to be able to maintain their identity while adapting to the necessary changes that history brought with them.

Competition between the names Hellenes, Rhomeans and Greeks

After the fall of the Byzantine Empire and during the Ottoman occupation , a fierce ideological dispute arose over the three rival national names of the Greeks. The violence of this name dispute diminished after the end of the Greek War of Independence , but the question was only finally resolved with the loss of the coast of Asia Minor to the Turks in the 20th century.

This dispute reflects the divergent views on the history of classicists on the one hand and medievalists on the other, who tried to define Greek nationality without the existence of a Byzantine state. The concept of the Hellenes in the sense of a person of Greek origin had been established since its rebirth in the Middle Ages , but the self-designation Rhomeans ( Romioí ) still dominated in large parts of the population, especially the rural population , which was supposed to signal the origin from the Byzantine Empire. Correspondingly, the Greek scholar Rigas Feraios called for " Bulgarians , Arvanites , Armenians and Romans" to take up arms against the Ottomans in the late 18th century . In his memoirs, Ioannis Makrygiannis , General of the Greek Revolutionaries , also used the term Rhomean when he spoke of his countrymen.

Portrait of the Greek language scholar Adamantios Korais

Greek (Γραικός) was the least popular of the three names, but enjoyed far greater respect for it among scholars. Adamantios Korais , a well-known Greek classicist, justified this designation in his dialogue between two Greeks :

“Our ancestors called themselves 'Greeks', but later took the name 'Hellenes' after a Greek who called himself Hellen . One of these two terms is therefore our correct name. I am in favor of 'Greece' because that's what all the enlightened nations of Europe call us . "

Since after 1453 there was no longer a Byzantine state with the capital Constantinople , the Rhomeans gradually lost importance, which enabled Hellenes to reassert themselves as an ethnic name. Dionysios Pyrros calls for the exclusive use of Hellenes in Cheiragogy , since it was the ancient Italian Romans who subjugated and destroyed Hellas . In a pamphlet published in 1806 in Pavia , Italy , it says: “The time has come, O Hellenes, to liberate our homeland.” The leader of the Greek struggle for independence began his declaration with a similar sentence: “The time has come, O men, Hellenes. “After this designation was accepted by both spiritual and secular leadership of the Greeks, it also caught on in the population.

With the outbreak of the struggle for independence in 1821, another semantic change became apparent. The mostly uneducated Greek rebels established an obscure differentiation between "inactive Rhomeans" and "rebellious Greeks". At that time , the term Romanism increasingly took over the meaning of the subaltern Greeks who had been arrested under Ottoman subjugation. The Greek general Theodoros Kolokotronis attached particular importance to the fact that his troops were called Hellenes . His helmet was modeled on an ancient Greek helmet. General Makrygiannis reports in his memoirs of a priest who did his duty in front of the Rhomeans (i.e. the subaltern civilians) but secretly spied on the Hellenes ( i.e. the fighters in the struggle for independence). Rhomeans were associated with passivity and enslavement, while Hellene stood for the memory of the glorious ancient times and for the struggle for freedom.

The inhabitants of the newly created, independent state called themselves Hellenes , which illustrates the connection with ancient Greece . This in turn encouraged the fixation on antiquity and the neglect of other periods of history, especially the Byzantine millennium, which was the testator of various and in many cases more significant legacies.

This classicist attitude was weakened at the beginning of the 20th century with the prospect of the liberation of the Greek-populated parts of the coast of Asia Minor and Constantinople and replaced by the vision of the restoration of the Byzantine Empire of all Greeks (see the so-called Great Idea ). The ambivalent attitude of the Greeks to these two important epochs in their history is expressed in a speech given by the Greek Foreign Minister to Parliament in 1844 : “The Kingdom of Greece is not Greece; it is only a small, weak part of Greece […]. There are two centers of Hellenism . Athens is the capital of the kingdom. Constantinople is the great capital, the city, dream and hope of all Greeks. "

literature

  • Antonios Chatzis: Elle, Hellas, Hellene . Athens 1935-1936.
  • Panagiotis Christou : The Adventures of the National Names of the Greeks . Thessaloniki 1964.
  • Julius Jüthner : Hellenes and barbarians. From the history of national consciousness . Dieterich, Leipzig 1923.
  • Ioannis Kakridis : Ancient Greeks and Greeks of 1821 . Athens 1956.
  • Basso Moustakidou: The words Hellene, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, Turk . Tybigge 1920.
  • Alfred Rambeau: L'empire Grecque au dixième siècle. Constantin VII Porphyrogénète . A. Franck, Paris 1870 ( digitized ).
  • John Romanides: Romanity, Romania, Rum. Thessaloniki 1974.
  • Steven Runciman : Byzantine and Hellene in the Fourteenth Century. Panepistēmion Thessalonikēs, Thessaloniki 1951.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Homer, Iliad , Book 2, v. 494-760 (with the exception of νέων κατάλογος ).
  2. ↑ Hilmar Klinkott : Yauna - The Greeks from a Persian perspective? In: Hilmar Klinkott (Ed.): Anatolia in the light of cultural interactions . Attempo, Tübingen 2001, pp. 107–148. ISBN 3-89308-333-2 .
  3. ↑ Homer: Iliad 2, 681-685.
  4. ^ Antonis Hatzis: Helle, Hellas, Hellene . Athens 1935, pp. 128-161.
  5. ↑ Homer: Iliad 16, 233ff.
  6. ↑ Ptolemy: Geographia 3, 15.
  7. ^ A b Aristotle: Meteorologika 1, 352b ( English translation ).
  8. ↑ Pausanias: Periégesis tes Hellados ( Description of Greece ) 10, 7, 3.
  9. ↑ Thucydides: Historiai 1, 132.
  10. ↑ For example, King Alkon and King Tharypas of Mollosus, King Alexander I and Archelaos of Macedon and Theagenes of Thassos.
  11. ↑ Thucydides: Historiai 2, 68, 5; 3, 97, 5.
  12. ↑ Thucydides: Historiai 2, 68, 9; 2, 80, 5; 1, 47, 3.
  13. ↑ Thucydides: Historiai 2, 80, 5.
  14. ↑ J. Juthner: Hellenes and barbarians. Leipzig 1928, p. 4.
  15. ^ Strabo: Geographika 7, 9, 11.
  16. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd Edition, 1989, sv "barbarous".
  17. ↑ Polybios : Historiai 9, 38, 5.
    Strabo , Geographika 7, 7, 4.
    Herodotus , Historiai 1, 56; 2, 158 <4, 127; 8, 43.
  18. ↑ Aristophanes: The Clouds , p. 492.
  19. ↑ Dionysius of Halicarnassus: Ῥωμαική ἀρχαιολογία ( Rhōmaikḗē archaiología ) 1, 89, 4.
  20. ↑ Paul of Tarsus: Letter of Paul to the Romans 1:14.
  21. ↑ Euripides: Iphigenia in Aulis , 1400.
  22. ^ Aristotle: Republic 1, 5.
  23. ↑ Isokrates: Panegyrika p. 50.
  24. ↑ Paul of Tarsus: Acts 13, 48; 15, 3; 7, 12.
  25. ↑ Gospel according to Mark 7:26.
  26. ↑ Aristides: Apology .
  27. ↑ Clement of Alexandria : Miscellania 6, 5, 41.
  28. ^ Gregor von Nazianz: Against Julian 1, 88.
  29. ↑ Socrates: Church History 7, 14.
  30. ↑ Ρωμαίος ("Romans") continued to be a widely used self-designation, even after the founding of modern Greece in 1829. Anastasius Eftaliotes published his multi-volume history of Greece from 1901 under the title "History of Ρωμιοσύνη [literally: of Rhomerism]" and documented thus the continuity of the medieval national concept into the 19th and 20th centuries.
  31. ^ Romanos III: Towards the son of Romanus himself , p. 49.
  32. ↑ Anna Komnena: Alexiade , Foreword, 1.
  33. ^ Anna Komnena: Alexiade 15, 7.
  34. ↑ Niketas Choniates: Espugnazione di Thessalonica . Palermo 1961, p. 32.
  35. ↑ Niketas Choniates: The Sack of Constantinople 9, Bonn, p. 806.
  36. ↑ Nikephoros Blemmydes: Pertial narration 1, 4.
  37. ↑ Theodor Alanias: PG 140, 414 .
  38. ↑ Johannes Vatatzes: Unpublished Letters of Emperor John Vatatzes Volume 1, Athens 1872, pp. 369-378.
  39. ↑ Theodor Laskaris: Christian Theology 7,7 and 8.
  40. ^ Nikephoros Gregoras: Roman history
  41. ↑ John VI. Kantakuzenos : Story 4, 14.
  42. ↑ Georgios Gemistos Plethon: Palaiologeia and Peloponnesiaka , p. 247.
  43. ^ Laonikos Chalkondyles: History I 6
  44. ↑ Homer, Iliad 2:498.
  45. ^ Pausanias 9, 20, 1f.
  46. ↑ Stephanos of Byzantium , sv "Τάναγρα" and "Ὠρωπός".
  47. ^ Robert SP Beekes: Etymological Dictionary of Greek , sv "γραῦς", first published online in October 2010.
  48. ↑ Suda Lexicon: Entry τ (t).
  49. ↑ a b Prokopios of Caesarea : Gotenkrieg 3, 1; as well as: vandal war , 1, 21.
  50. ^ Lambru: Palaiologeia and Peloponnesiaka 3, 152.
  51. ↑ Pope Innocent: Decretalium : "Romanorum imperium in persona magnifici Caroli a Grecis transtuli in Germanos."
  52. ↑ Epistola 86, from the year 865, PL 119, 926.
  53. ^ Warren Treadgold: History of the Byzantine State and Society Stanford 1997, p. 136.
  54. ↑ Edward Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire .
    Alexandre Rambeau, L'empire Grecque au dixième siècle .
  55. ↑ Rigas Feraios: Thurios , line 45.
  56. ↑ General Makrygiannis: Memoirs . Book 1, Athens 1849, p. 117.
  57. ^ Adamantios Korais: Dialogue between two Greeks Venice 1805, p. 37
  58. ↑ Dionysius Pyrrhus: Χειραγωγία ( Cheiragogía ). Venice 1810.
  59. ^ Hellenic Prefecture: Athens 1948, p. 191.
  60. ^ Ioannou Philemonus: Essay , Book 2, p. 79.
  61. ↑ Ioannis Kakrides: Ancient Greeks and Greeks of 1821 . Thessalonike 1956.