Draft:Periodisation of Roman civilisation
The historiography of Rome is concerned with the historical interpretations of the state of Rome that underlie Roman civilization, which includes the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic, Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire.
Differing opinions exist on the continuity of the state across the entire 2206 year period and even between just two periods of Rome's history or when they start. Although Rome the state started in the City of Rome, over time it would be expand outside of the city and eventually the city was not part of the state. Control of the city of Rome underlined some of the contemporary disputes of those who claimed to be true citizens of Rome (Romans), and which continues now in disputes over modern historiography. A view of the history beyond the elites and Roman citizens (who were mostly free men) has also been a focus.
Summary of issues
Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire "began the modern study of Roman history in the English-speaking world".[1]
Periodisation of Ancient Rome
Formation
Archaeological evidence does not align with Roman tradition.
Conclusion
The fall of the western Roman Empire versus the fall of the Republic and ending of the principate.
Periodisation and terminology of the Byzantine Empire
Use of the term
It replaced the term "Empire of the Greeks" as convention in the 19th century. According to Anthony Kaldellis [2]
The Crimean War had a profound—and unrecognized—impact by forging a new distinction between "Byzantine/Byzantium" and "Greek/Greece," in a context in which the "Empire of the Greeks" had become a politically toxic concept to the Great Powers of Europe. In response, European intellectuals increasingly began to lean on the conceptually adjacent and neutral term Byzantium in order to create a semantic bulwark between the acceptable national aspirations of the new Greek state, on the one hand, and its dangerous imperial fantasies and its (perceived) Russian patrons, on the other.
Empire of the Greeks
Starting with Charlemagne's Libri Carolini in the 790s, the Franks used the term "Empire of the Greeks" (Latin: Imperium Graecorum) in order to undercut the Byzantine claim to be the continuation of the Roman Empire.[3]
Start date
It varies according to differing interpretations. Some use the Diocletian reforms, the foundation of Constantinople, the fall of the western Roman Empire, or the proclamation of Charlemagne. The traditional view by Gibbon (end of the western empire) and the Late Antiquity view (8th century) is very different. Some, such as Anthony Kaldellis, reject the term all together and that there was no start date as it was a continuation.
- ^ Beard, Mary (2015-10-20). SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. Profile. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-1-84765-441-0.
- ^ Kaldellis, Anthony (2022). "From "Empire of the Greeks" to "Byzantium"". In Ransohoff, Jake; Aschenbrenner, Nathanael (eds.). The Invention of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe. Harvard University Press. pp. 366–367. ISBN 978-0-88402-484-2.
- ^ O'Brien, Conor (June 2018). "Empire, Ethnic Election and Exegesis in the Opus Caroli (Libri Carolini)". Studies in Church History. 54: 96–108. doi:10.1017/stc.2017.6. ISSN 0424-2084. S2CID 204470696.