Explanation: After finishing off the Byzantine Empire, the successor state to the Roman Empire of old, the Ottoman Sultans adopted the title 'Kayser-i-Rum' - the Caesar of Rome, just like the Byzantines before them. The Ottoman claim was based on the fact that the imperial title had been transferred via military victory several times before in Byzantine/Roman history.
This is technically true, but if it rang a little hollow when the Christian Byzantines who spoke Greek and no longer owned any of Italy called themselves Romans, it really rang hollow when Turkish royalty who'd never owned a scrap of Italy or seen the Eternal City called themselves 'of Rome'.
Thanks for all of the memes and interesting contexts.
I have a few disagreements here.
Why do you consider the "Byzantine Empire" a successor state to the Roman Empire? My understanding is that what we nowadays call the "Byzantine Empire" was THE Roman Empire. We have just chosen to give the medieval Roman Empire a different name for convenience as it's territory, ambitions, realities, and culture differed much from that of the ancient Roman Empire. So in my view, the Byzantine Empire isn't a successor state to the Roman Empire, it's THE Roman Empire.
This is just subjective, but I don't perceive this as hollow. I think it's normal that terms and identities evolve with time, especially when speaking of centuries. People are not always thinking of the past, they didn't have Internet and most weren't spending time reading books about events that had happened centuries before. They were concerned, as of now, with the present, and Romans (of the Roman Empire, not inhabitants of the Roman city) in the Middle-Ages spoke Greek and were Christians. When the Turks conquered them, they effectively ruled the Romans, and as always, new rulers try to give themselves legitimacy (perhaps the only hollow part). And from the perspective of Turks, who as you say had never visited Rome and weren't concerned with it, the territory of the Romans should naturally be called.... Rum.
We have just chosen to give the medieval Roman Empire a different name for convenience as it’s territory, ambitions, realities, and culture differed much from that of the ancient Roman Empire.
So what remains of the Roman Empire, in that view?
People are not always thinking of the past, they didn’t have Internet and most weren’t spending time reading books about events that had happened centuries before.
The title was taken precisely because of its antiquity and prestige, though. It was very much rooted in an understanding of the past.
Explanation: After finishing off the Byzantine Empire, the successor state to the Roman Empire of old, the Ottoman Sultans adopted the title 'Kayser-i-Rum' - the Caesar of Rome, just like the Byzantines before them. The Ottoman claim was based on the fact that the imperial title had been transferred via military victory several times before in Byzantine/Roman history.
This is technically true, but if it rang a little hollow when the Christian Byzantines who spoke Greek and no longer owned any of Italy called themselves Romans, it really rang hollow when Turkish royalty who'd never owned a scrap of Italy or seen the Eternal City called themselves 'of Rome'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt6Ss5r7-qo
Thanks for all of the memes and interesting contexts.
I have a few disagreements here.
So what remains of the Roman Empire, in that view?
The title was taken precisely because of its antiquity and prestige, though. It was very much rooted in an understanding of the past.