By Stylianos Kavazis, Researcher
Translated into English and republished with the author's permission
There are historical falsehoods repeated so often that some begin to mistake them for truths. One of the most persistent is the claim that the Eastern Roman Empire — the so‑called “Byzantine Empire” — supposedly acted as the gravedigger of ancient Greek heritage.
Nothing could be further from reality.
Translated into English and republished with the author's permission
There are historical falsehoods repeated so often that some begin to mistake them for truths. One of the most persistent is the claim that the Eastern Roman Empire — the so‑called “Byzantine Empire” — supposedly acted as the gravedigger of ancient Greek heritage.
Nothing could be further from reality.
The famous 10th‑century manuscript of the Iliad, filledwith numerous notes by Byzantine scholars, which is
today preserved in Venice, Italy.
If the Byzantine Empire had truly waged war against Greek antiquity, then how were Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Pindar, Theocritus, Lucian, Euclid, Ptolemy, Archimedes, and countless other creators of the Greek intellectual tradition preserved?
Who copied their manuscripts generation after generation?
Who taught their works in the schools of Constantinople?
Who commented on them, interpreted them, corrected them, and ultimately delivered them intact to fuel the Western Renaissance?
The answer is clear and unequivocal: The Byzantine Empire.
It's the uninformed and fringe critics who always invoke the same few isolated incidents [to prove their position that the Byzantines waged war against Greek antiquity]. Yet they deliberately ignore the larger picture. They overlook the thousands of monks who, in the quiet scriptoria of monasteries, devoted their lives to copying the works of the ancient Greeks. They overlook Saint Basil the Great, who urged young people to study Greek literature. They overlook John Chrysostom, the Cappadocian Fathers, Maximus the Confessor, and so many others who possessed a deep knowledge of Greek philosophy and used its language and concepts to articulate Christian theology.
They also overlook the fact that in the schools of Constantinople, students were taught Homer, the tragic poets, Aristophanes, Hesiod, rhetoric, dialectic, philosophy, astronomy, history, and geography.
They also overlook that Arethas of Caesarea preserved invaluable codices of Plato, Euclid, Aristotle, and many others. They overlook Eustathius of Thessaloniki, John Tzetzes, Maximus Planudes, Demetrios Triklinios, Thomas Magistros, and so many scholars who dedicated their lives to studying and safeguarding the ancient authors. In medicine, the works of Hippocrates and Galen were maintained. In mathematics, the studies of Archimedes and Euclid were revived. In philosophy, Plato and Aristotle never ceased to be subjects of rigorous study. In rhetoric, literature, art, architecture, and the sciences, the Greek tradition did not vanish — it continued to breathe.
The Byzantine Empire was not a museum of antiquities. It was a living civilization that did not preserve Greek heritage as a dead exhibit, but transformed it into the foundation of its own intellectual creativity. And for that reason, it succeeded in transmitting it to the generations that followed.
It is no coincidence that when Constantinople fell in 1453, its scholars carried hundreds of Greek manuscripts to Italy, playing a decisive role in the Renaissance. Europe rediscovered ancient Greece through the very books that the Byzantine Empire had safeguarded. The true destruction of our cultural heritage did not come from the Byzantine Empire, but from those who plundered Constantinople in 1204. The Crusaders burned libraries, destroyed monuments, and seized countless treasures — many of which still adorn Western museums and churches today.
History is not written with slogans or ideological fixations. It is written with sources, evidence, and facts. The Byzantine Empire was not the executioner of Greece; it was the brilliant and indisputable bridge that connected the classical Greek world with modern Hellenism. It was the Ark in which ancient Greek wisdom was preserved while the rest of the world sank into darkness. Those who insist on portraying the Byzantine Empire as an enemy of Greek antiquity are not merely opposing a historical period — they are opposing historical truth itself.
_____
A note about the image of the famous 10th century manuscript of the Iliad which is currently preserved in Venice, Italy:
It stands as one of the most irrefutable proofs that the Byzantine Empire did not destroy ancient Greek literature, but copied it, studied it, commented on it, and passed it on alive to future generations — and through them, to all humanity.
A characteristic example: the commentaries of Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, on the Iliad are enormous, occupying nearly 4,000 oversized pages in a modern printed edition of the twenty‑first century, while his commentaries on the Odyssey approach 2,000 pages.
Who copied their manuscripts generation after generation?
Who taught their works in the schools of Constantinople?
Who commented on them, interpreted them, corrected them, and ultimately delivered them intact to fuel the Western Renaissance?
The answer is clear and unequivocal: The Byzantine Empire.
It's the uninformed and fringe critics who always invoke the same few isolated incidents [to prove their position that the Byzantines waged war against Greek antiquity]. Yet they deliberately ignore the larger picture. They overlook the thousands of monks who, in the quiet scriptoria of monasteries, devoted their lives to copying the works of the ancient Greeks. They overlook Saint Basil the Great, who urged young people to study Greek literature. They overlook John Chrysostom, the Cappadocian Fathers, Maximus the Confessor, and so many others who possessed a deep knowledge of Greek philosophy and used its language and concepts to articulate Christian theology.
They also overlook the fact that in the schools of Constantinople, students were taught Homer, the tragic poets, Aristophanes, Hesiod, rhetoric, dialectic, philosophy, astronomy, history, and geography.
They also overlook that Arethas of Caesarea preserved invaluable codices of Plato, Euclid, Aristotle, and many others. They overlook Eustathius of Thessaloniki, John Tzetzes, Maximus Planudes, Demetrios Triklinios, Thomas Magistros, and so many scholars who dedicated their lives to studying and safeguarding the ancient authors. In medicine, the works of Hippocrates and Galen were maintained. In mathematics, the studies of Archimedes and Euclid were revived. In philosophy, Plato and Aristotle never ceased to be subjects of rigorous study. In rhetoric, literature, art, architecture, and the sciences, the Greek tradition did not vanish — it continued to breathe.
The Byzantine Empire was not a museum of antiquities. It was a living civilization that did not preserve Greek heritage as a dead exhibit, but transformed it into the foundation of its own intellectual creativity. And for that reason, it succeeded in transmitting it to the generations that followed.
It is no coincidence that when Constantinople fell in 1453, its scholars carried hundreds of Greek manuscripts to Italy, playing a decisive role in the Renaissance. Europe rediscovered ancient Greece through the very books that the Byzantine Empire had safeguarded. The true destruction of our cultural heritage did not come from the Byzantine Empire, but from those who plundered Constantinople in 1204. The Crusaders burned libraries, destroyed monuments, and seized countless treasures — many of which still adorn Western museums and churches today.
History is not written with slogans or ideological fixations. It is written with sources, evidence, and facts. The Byzantine Empire was not the executioner of Greece; it was the brilliant and indisputable bridge that connected the classical Greek world with modern Hellenism. It was the Ark in which ancient Greek wisdom was preserved while the rest of the world sank into darkness. Those who insist on portraying the Byzantine Empire as an enemy of Greek antiquity are not merely opposing a historical period — they are opposing historical truth itself.
_____
A note about the image of the famous 10th century manuscript of the Iliad which is currently preserved in Venice, Italy:
It stands as one of the most irrefutable proofs that the Byzantine Empire did not destroy ancient Greek literature, but copied it, studied it, commented on it, and passed it on alive to future generations — and through them, to all humanity.
A characteristic example: the commentaries of Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, on the Iliad are enormous, occupying nearly 4,000 oversized pages in a modern printed edition of the twenty‑first century, while his commentaries on the Odyssey approach 2,000 pages.
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