Originally posted by gramberto
1. Did people who lived under the Byzantine emporer culturally identify with the state? For example when Rome conquered an area people eventually started taking on Roman customs and culture. |
There was a certain period of time where the newly conquered peoples were actively "Byzantinized" by the imperial government. Missionaries were sent from the Orthodox church and Hellenized populations were transferred from elsewhere.
Population transfer was a key Byzantine policy all the way to the end of the Empire. It enabled the government to pacify "barbarian" peoples by detaching them from their former homes and from the borderlands. They were given jobs (often non-specialized military ones like rowers), or they were enlisted as official imperial mercenaries, not just supplemental mercenaries.
Originally posted by gramberto
2. Was there a distinct byzantine culture other than eastern orthodox Christianity? |
What do you mean by "other than Eastern Orthodox Christianity"?
The Byzantines considered themselves first Orthodox Christians, and second Romans. Often the two were synonymous. To be Orthodox was to be Roman, and vice versa. So Orthodox, Roman, and Greek-speaking was there culture pretty much.
Originally posted by gramberto
3. How culturally 'greek' was Byzantium other than the language? |
I agree with Herschel's answer. Byzantium inherited the Roman institution of government and military, the Hellenistic cultural and linguistic characteristics, and the Christian religion. After steadily losing its territory, Byzantium also lost much of the Armenian and Syrian influences it had in the early and middle periods. It became a "Balkan Commonwealth," to use Obolensky's term, intensely Greek in culture, but still retaining some of its Roman provincial form of government. We can, however, see some outside influence from the Western Europeans and the Turks in the late period, especially in the Byzantine army.