Byzantine Romanness in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries: A Situational Approach

Abstract

This dissertation tackles the question of what it meant to be Roman in ninth and tenth-century Byzantium. Previous answers to the issue have suggested that Byzantine Romanness was based upon possessing some specific trackers such as belonging to the Roman state, practicing orthodox Christianity, and speaking Greek. For each element, however, one may find instances in which its link with Roman identity is blurred, if almost entirely absent. That is, Romans can leave their state and serve another authority, neighbouring peoples can convert to Christianity without necessarily becoming Roman, and foreigners may learn Greek while still being considered strangers. One may therefore wonder: can these social features really form part of the answer to the question of what it meant to be Roman? My study suggests that they can, but with the important caveat that one needs to take into the account the importance of the context or, more specifically, the setting and the situation of the social encounter. While political allegiance, Christianity, and Greek language do constitute social features on their own, and can be referred to without evoking identity at all, authors do circumstantially cross-relate these with Byzantine Romanness. In these instances, I suggest, they may be considered as playing their role as indicia of Roman identity. The main question is therefore: how, and to what extent, can political institutions, religion, and language be turned into trackers of ethnicity? In other words, when do they contribute to nurturing the significance of Byzantine Roman identity, and what are their limits in doing so? The answer to these questions, I hope, may shed further light on the importance of Romanness in Byzantium while taking into the account the other possible ways through which Byzantine individuals may have fulfilled identity needs in circumstances that required, justified, or necessitated it.