Question

Which groups had the most influence on the government, culture, and beliefs of the Byzantine Empire? A. Romans, Greeks, and Christians B. Jews and the Visigoths C. Muslims and Persians D. Arians, Huns, and Vandals

Answer 1

The correct answer is A) Romans, Greeks and Christians.

The Byzantines called themselves “Romans” and their emperor “Emperor of the Romans” and their capital of “New Rome”. This happened because Constantine, a Roman Emperor relocated the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium, because of that they changed the city’s name to “New Rome”. Their common language was not Latin but it was Greek and in cultural terms, they had a big influence of Greeks.

Christianity was the defining feature of the Byzantine culture, the church was lead by the bishop of Constantinople because the Roman Empire was divided at that time.

Answer 2

The correct answer is the letter A)Romans, Greeks, and Christians.

The Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the Roman Empire of the East, which lasted until the fifteenth century, when the capital Constantinople was conquered by the Turks-Ottoman in 1453. The legacy left by the Byzantine Empire is broad ranging from commercial routes between West and East to contemporary civil codes. The Constantinople city, an ancient village of Greek fishermen, was urbanized around 330 A.C. by guidance of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Originally known as New Rome, Constantinople became the capital of the Roman Empire of the East and a large commercial center due to its privileged geographical location on the Bosphorus, a point of convergence between the western and eastern world. In addition, Constantinople was considered the greatest cultural center of the Christian world during the Middle Ages, mainly for the preservation of a great quantity of artists and thinkers works, of the antiquity, especially of the Greeks and the Romans. The activities of the copyist monks provided that the Renaissance thinkers could get in touch with the classics of antiquity. Even the Greek influence on the Byzantine Empire was enormous, to the point of replacing the use of Latin by the Greek in religious ceremonies and official documents.