Quote · Lex Fridman Podcast
#498 – Anthony Kaldellis: Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Rise & Fall of Empires
Where this was said
The Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire
At 9:21 · chapter starts 8:45
The conversation begins with its most provocative claim. Kaldellis insists that calling the Eastern Roman Empire 'Byzantine' is almost a form of cognitive dissonance — 'when you know something is the case, but you carry on as if it's not' [1] — Anthony Kaldellis "The burden of proof is on those who would assert that what we've been calling the Byzantine Empire is something other than the Roman Empire…" 09:21 . The empire never stopped calling itself Rome. Its subjects called themselves Romans. Its legal identity was Roman. The 'Byzantine' label, he explains, was a label applied by Western Europeans who wanted to exclude the Greek-speaking, Orthodox-Christian East from their cultural genealogy — first calling it the 'Empire of the Greeks,' then switching to 'Byzantine' for explicitly political reasons. Now, he argues, the field is moving toward recognizing the long Roman Empire as a single, continuous political entity stretching from antiquity to the 15th century. Lex frames this as a correction long overdue, setting up the chronological overview to follow.
The Eastern Roman Empire called itself Rome, its subjects called themselves Romans, and its laws were Roman law. The term 'Byzantine' was a political invention by Western Europeans who didn't want to include the Greek-speaking East in their cultural genealogy. Calling it Byzantine is cognitive dissonance on a civilizational scale.
The Roman state lasted from its legendary founding in 753 BC to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD, making it one of the longest-lived political entities in history.
From the kings of 753 BC through the Republic, the Principate, the Crisis of the Third Century, Constantine, and the Arab conquests, Rome never stopped being Rome. The three main crises — Arab conquests in the 630s, Seljuk Turk conquest of Asia Minor in the 1070s, and the Fourth Crusade of 1204 — were each swift and devastating, but most of the empire's history was slow, steady economic and territorial growth.
