About this Project

This homepage is intended to outline the history and culture of "Romiosini", a word signifying "Hellenism in the Middle ages". We will cover the history of Romiosini from its foundations to the fall of Constantinople, touching also on the effect of the Greek East on the European renaissance. The motivation for this project stems from the observation that history of Romiosini, while intriguing, is insufficiently represented and more often than not, it is overlooked. What follows, however, is by no means an exhaustive study of this period. This homepage is designed simply as a small, clear and concise survey of the major aspects of this era, and, we hope, as a directional tool that will better assist the interested student and scholar of history in his/her investigation of the Greek Middle Ages. Areas of interest include: Culture, Language, Politics, Art, Science, Law, the Church, etc. Also included in this projects are links to other sources relevent to the history of Hellenism during the Middle Ages, some of them indeed much more exhaustive than this.

A word about the name "Romiosini". The modern term by which many historians refer to Hellenism in the Middle ages is "Byzantine Civilization". Strictly speaking this expression is wrong since the citizens of the Greek Roman East did not generally refer to themselves as Byzantines, but rather as "Romans". For the sake of historical accuracy it would be desirable to avoid as much as possible the term "byzantine", in favour of the term "Roman" or "Romios". On the other hand, the term "byzantine" has become so entrenched within the phraseology of Medieval studies, that to do so entirely would be impossible.

Participation in the ongoing construction of this project is welcomed. We apologize in advance for any oversights, omissions and errors that may occur, and we strongly encourage anyone who is interested to help fill the gaps with any suggestions, material, and photographs which can assist us in our endevours. The ultimate aim of this project is to reach as wide an audience as possible, and we sincerely hope that in time, this project can become an community effort.

Material for this project is organized as follows: each section begins with one or two figures highlighting the main theme of that chapter, followed by any relevant text. Most often, any further figures that accompany text will be accessed by clicking over highlighted text, although this need not always be the case. All contributed text and/or figures will be clearly acknowledged at the bottom of the chapter page in which they appear. As this project aims to attract a wide range of audience, we suggest that any commentary or writing intended for this homepage be concise, clear and simple. Also, all all submitted text must be accompanied by a list of sources used, which will be added to the bibliography. In order to maintain consistency in historical facts, dates and figures etc., all material will undergo an editorial process prior to being posted. For this purpose we have selected as the chief editor of this page Dr. Dionysios Hatzopoulos, Professor of Classical and Byzantine Studies at the Hellenic Studies Center at Dawson College in Montreal, and Lecturer at the Department of History at Universite de Montreal. All contributed material should be forwarded to Nikolaos Provatas or Yiannis Papadimas (e-mails below).

We would like to thank the Hellenic Electronic Center for providing us with the resources needed to house this project. For any comments or questions concerning Romiosini, please do not hesitate to write Nikolaos Provatas or Yiannis Papadimas