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发帖数: 7039 | 1 The Reason and the Whole Story of the Fictitious Name “Byzantium”
by Western Historiography
【How did the fictitious Byzantium come into existence?】
In 1557, about one hundred years after the Constantinople-based Roman Empire
completely perished (1453), the German historian Hieronymus Wolf faked a
name “Imperium Byzantium” for the Constantinople Roman Empire—the
historical Eastern Roman Empire, during his sorting out and compiling
historical data about the Eastern Roman Empire.
Byzantium, referring to a regime title or name, did not actually exist in
previous history. No one had ever heard of it, nor was it once used by
Constantinople or Eastern Roman Empire. It is a faked name out of pure
imagination. To support this fictitious name, Wolf purposely made up a story
purportedly originating from Greek mythology. He wrote that before the 7th
century BC the Greek from Athens once established their colonies in Asia
Minor which was originally called Byzantium. Thereafter, Wolf renamed all
the historical data about Eastern Roman Empire in hand with the new name
Corpus Historiae Byzantine. This is why subsequent European and American
historians called Constantinople-based Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire
“Imperium Byzantium”.
[Notes：Byzantium is an artificially produced name by Wolf. He alleged there
was a Greek mythology which recorded a deity person (an integration of
deity and human) living in Greek Megara (near Athens) crossed Aegean Sea and
landed in Asia Minor where he built the Byzantium city. He also argued that
the word “Byzan” originally meant king, and Byzas built his city in the
highland beside Chalcedon and named it Byzantium after his own name. This
city was the precursor of Constantinople. In other words, it was the king
city of the Greek. Just like majorities of Greek historical myths like Troy,
this myth is completely based on assumption of Western Europeans, without
any historical evidence.]
Wolf is a historian of the Holy Roman Empire, which was founded as a
pinchbeck Roman Empire by the Germanic people, called barbarians by the
Romans, after the 10th century. Gaul-descendent Voltaire once commented: “
It was neither holy nor Roman, nor an empire.” However, since its
establishment, the false Germanic Roman Empire had kept declaring that only
the western Germanic Roman Empire was the legitimate successor of the
Ancient Roman Empire—rather than the Constantinople-based Eastern Empire.
This can well explain the reason for Westerners’ systematic forging of the
history of ancient Greece and Rome and is also the very reason for Wolf’s
renaming Eastern Roman Empire—to fake an empire name and use it for Eastern
Roman Empire.
After the 17th century, the preach and repeated use by western scholars
during the Age of Enlightenment had made the faked “Imperium Byzantium “
acceptable to western European historians and was widely used in western
historiography. Thus it gradually replaced the traditional name of
Constantinople and Eastern Roman Empire.
The real intention of western academic circle’s consistent use of the
coined empire name is to cut off and deny the inherent relationship between
Eastern Roman Empire and Ancient Roman Empire with the newly-coined name.
【After the 4th century, the authentic name of the Roman Empire capital was
“Nava Roma”—“ Constantinople”】
Constantinople (Kōnstantinoupolis) originated from the name of the Roman
Empire emperor that built this city, Constantine I.
In 324 AD, The Roman emperor Constantine the Great ordered to build a new
town near Chalcedon, the ancient Persian town in Asia Minor, as the new
capital of Roman Empire. After five years of elaborate construction, a huge,
luxurious and grand new capital city, Constantine castle, stood up at the
Bosphorus bank, where European and Asian continents meet.
On May 11, 330 AD (Monday), Constantine the Great declared the new capital
town of Roman Empire had been officially established and named it Nova Roma,
to distinguish it from the old Rome in the Italian Peninsula. With the
establishment of this new capital town, the main body of Roman Empire had
been moved to the east from the Italian Peninsula.
The subsequent historical time witnessed Roman Empire’s major territory
shift from Europe (it had been occupied by the south-advancing barbaric
Germanic people) to Asia, namely Asia Minor, West Asia and Egypt. Although
the empire had moved to the east, the official empire name Rōmanía, or
Imperium Romanorum (Latin), remained unchanged.
Nova Roma adopted a series of preferential policies, in an effort to build a
functionally prosperous Constantinople to completely replace the position
of the previous Italian Peninsula-based Rome. Constantine the Great ordered
the Rome nobles living in the old town to settle in the noble residential
community built in the new capital town, free of charge. The senate in
Constantinople was also equal to that of Rome in legal status. To reconcile
the religious conflicts between the Romans and the easterners, Constantine
the Great accepted the Christianity (Eastern Orthodox) emerging in Asia
Minor. The series of new policies launched by Constantine the Great had
contributed to the rapid development of Constantinople and the Eastern Roman
Empire.
The Mosaic picture in Sophia Cathedral of Constantinople: Constantine the
Great presented Constantinople to Jesus
The establishment of Constantinople led to a sharp growth in population.
Within just several decades, the number of population in Constantinople rose
from the previous 100,000 to more than 500,000, making itself one of the
largest cities in the world. In terms of urban size, it is only the Chinese
city Chang’an in the Hang Dynasty that is on a par with it.
【The Eastern Roman Empire is a super-stable imperial system—united and
lasting for about one thousand years.】
Some people mentioned that the ancient Chinese imperial system was a super-
stable system; however, ancient China was not qualified for the authentic
super-stable system. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, not a single kingdom
managed to extend its imperium for more than 500 years. However, the
imperium established by Constantine the Great of the Eastern Roman Empire
had been passed down to 11 emperors, lasting for one thousand years.
Although there were inevitably many ups and downs, its super-stable system
still came as an absolute shock.
Around 370-395 AD the Roman Empire split into Western Roman Empire and
Eastern Roman Empire.
Western Roman Empire successively founded its capital in Milan and Ravenna (
the current Ravenna), while Eastern Roman Empire was headquartered in
Constantinople. After repeated attacks and bloodbaths by the barbaric ethnic
groups—the Huns and the Germanic people (Goths), the old Rome in the
Italian Peninsula became dilapidated.
In 476 A.D, Western Roman Empire completely broke up under the attack of the
barbaric Germanic people. The emperor of Western Roman Empire issued
abdication edict, declaring the end of the Western Roman Empire and all
colonies of the empire could become independent at their will. However, the
Constantinople-based Eastern Roman Empire continued to survive as the sole
Roman Empire that had inherited the legitimate authority and bloodline of
the Ancient Roman Empire.
【Constantinople developed from the Persian Chalcedon】
The Constantinople-based Empire is the authentic heir of Ancient Roman
Empire, with Latin as its official language. All the neighbors (the eastern
Persian Empire and Arab Empire, the western European countries, northern
Russia, and the Chinese in the Far East) called them Romans. However, Asia
Minor and West Asia, which came under the rule of Eastern Roman Empire, had
developed an exclusively-used geographic name “Hillen” since the ancient
time. And it was this name that was later grafted by western historiography
circle to Greece of the Balkan Peninsula, and thus the centuries-old ancient
civilization of West Asia (e.g. Egypt) and Asia Minor (e.g. Persia and
Babylon) had been turned over to Athens and finally attributed to the
Germanic people.
But as a matter of fact, the Roman rulers in Constantinople looked down upon
the local aboriginals of Asia Minor, and categorized them into the peoples
to be conquered and ruled. If someone attempted to call the Romans in
Constantinople “Hillen”, they would consider it an insult.
During the later history evolution of the Medieval times, Eastern Roman
Empire based its civilization on Asia Minor culture, selected Christianity
and Orthodox Eastern Church as the official religions, used Latin as its
national language, and introduced Hebrew language, Asia Minor language and
ancient Arabic. In this way, it managed to become an empire typical of
oriental cultures, distinguishing itself from Ancient Roman Empire and
Europe.
The precursor of Constantinople is Chalcedon governed by the Persian Empire,
not the so-called Byzantium.
【Crescent served as emblem of Constantinople】
The extant historical data of Eastern Rome Empire show that before 670 BC “
crescent” was used as the urban totem and emblem of Chalcedon city. However
, the tradition of worshiping crescent and Phospherus (morning star) and
using them for emblems originated from Babylon and Egypt.
In 330 AD after the construction of Constantinople city, Constantine the
Great added Phospherus (Virgin Mary’s star) to the flag and decorated it
with crescent. Constantinople was the first governing state that used
crescent as emblem.
After the Turks had attacked and occupied Constantinople, the flag of the
Ottoman Empire continued to use the emblem combining both crescent and
phosphorus. This emblem has always been regarded sacred by the Arabians.
by He Xin
2013.03.24 |
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