Effeminate Greeks or Sophisticated Romans? The Western View of Byzantium

Article excerpt

Medieval Western Europeans dismissed Byzantium as effeminate and decadent, preferring to call them Greeks rather than Romans, a rhetorical move that masked deep prejudice against a rival power. Michael Goodyear explores how these stereotypes obscured the reality: Byzantium was among the Middle Ages' most sophisticated civilizations, one that preserved classical knowledge, accumulated vast wealth, and served as Europe's eastern bulwark for centuries. The article examines how Western bias distorted perceptions of a neighbor whose actual achievements contradicted every slur leveled against it.