Byzantine Rome or Romania

Last updated: May 23rd, 2025 at 12:16 pm · Est. Reading Time: < 1 minute

Byzantine Empire is a well known state which developed in antiquity, and continued to exist throughout medieval ages.  Its ultimate fall was the beginning of Renaissance.

Heironymus Wolf, writing in 1557, named it the Byzantine Empire, and since then, this name has become a standard among historians.¹

The citizens of this empire, anyhow, used to call their country Romania or simply Rome.²

The name Byzantine Empire derives from its capital city Byzantium, whose name was later changed to Constantinople (قسطنطنيه , Qustuntunia of early Arabic sources, present day Istanbul) by Emperor Constantine in 330 CE.

Further Reading

Anthony Kaldellis, Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019.

https://historyofislam.org/pre-islamic-arab-politics

Endnotes

1. Hieronymus Wolf, Corpus Historiae Byzantinae, Frankfort: Unknown publisher, 1557.
2. Theophylact Simocatta, The History of Theophylact Simocatta: An English Translation with Introduction and Notes, ed. and trans. Michael and Mary Whitby, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 185.