[Pedigree Ann]

'Byzantine' was a word thought up by 16th Century historians to describe the Roman Empire that remained after the 4th Century loss of the western provinces. The capitol of the empire had been moved by Constantine the Great to a new city named in his honor near the site of an earlier Greek city of Byzantium, which is where the historians got the idea.

Most people have the idea that the Empire was 'Greek' in nature, because it eventually became Greek-speaking (Latin was the official language up until the 7th Century) but in fact many people of influence and in the bureaucracy moved to Constantinople from Rome when the government moved. Greek was the language of the Church at Constantine's time (the New Testament books were originally written in Greek) and it was the 'lingua franca' of the Eastern Mediterranean, so it eventually took over.

As the centuries went on, the bureaucracy of the Empire became more and more complex and inpenetrable, while court etiquette became more and more intricate. To the simple barbarians from the western tradition, the whole thing was baffling in the extreme. Hence the term 'Byzantine' to describe anything full of needless complexity, as well as suggesting a certain amount of intrigue - those unmanly Eastern Romans preferred diplomacy to heroic, manly combat to settle disputes!

Your history lesson for the day.