Why the Byzantine empire was a Greek empire

The Byzantine empire was the ark of the ancient Greek knowledge, the empire had a Greek character, while the official language was the Greek from the 7th century AD.

The name Hellas and Graecia never stopped to be mentioned both in Byzantine and Western documents, While the theme of Hellas was founded at 687 AD.

For the eastern people the Eastern Roman empire was considered as a Greek empire. For the Armenians, Georgians and other people of the near and middle east the byzantines were called as yoni, Javan and yavani, which means Greeks.

In many islamic sources the Byzantine empire is also called Ighrigiyah and
yunaniyun. In one passage of the history of Ibn Zabala which was written at
814 AD it is mentioned that the king of the Greeks sent to Αl-Walid help, for the reconstruction of Mohamed's mosque in Medina.
The Arab historian and Geographer Ali al-Mascuch reffering to the period of Emperor Romanus Lekapenus and his policy, he characterizes the empire as homeland of the Greeks and the emperor as king of the Greeks.

Al-Tabari calls the Byzantine emperor as lord of the Greeks.At the same period , the Arab geographer Shams ad Din, also known and as Mukaddasi, writes "we will exclude now the description of Tarsus city and its periphery because for now is at the hand of the Greeks".Tarsus was capured by Emperor Nikiphorus Phokas at 965 AD.

For Pope Gregory the great, Gregory of Tours, Isidore of Seville, Liutprand of Cremona, Paul the Deacon the chronicler of the lombards, wiliam of Tyre and many others the eastern Roman empire was Greek and all the western documents call the empire as Imperium Graecorum which means a Greek empire.

Leo the Mathematecian (790-870 AD) calls himself a Greek through one of poems with the tittle"To myself who is called Greek" And he describes himself as a modest person who doesnt desire fame or riches.

Already from the 11th century Anna Comnene ("The Alexiad") uses the name Greeks as a national identification for the people of the empire.
Anna Comnene "The Alexiad"

Nicetas Choniates insisted on using the name "Hellenes", he states that he cannot continue in writting history, which is one of the greatest inventions of Hellenism and he stressed out the outrages attacks of the "Latins" against the "Hellenes" in the Peloponessus.
Nicetas Choniates, "The Sack of Constantinople", 9 '¦Å, Bonn, pp.806



Emperor John III Ducas Vatatzes (1192-1254 AD), wrote in a letter to Pope Gregory IX about the wisdom that "rains upon the Hellenic nation"and states that Constantine's heritage was passed on to the Hellenes, so he argued, and they alone were its inheritors and successors.
John Vatatzes, "Unpublished Letters of Emperor John Vatatzes", Athens I, pp.369--378, (1872)

Theodore II Lascaris (1222-1258), was eager to project the name of the Greeks with true nationalistic zeal. He made it a point that "the Hellenic race looms over all other languages" and that "every kind of philosophy and form of knowledge is a discovery of Hellenes... What do you, O Italian, have to display?"
Theodore Lascaris, "Christian Theology", 7,7 & 8

In the 14th cent AD Nikolaos Kavasilas calls Greeks the scholars of Thessaloniki, and the city as "house of Hellenism". Nicephorus Blemmydes referred to the Byzantine emperors as Hellenes. Theodore Alanias (in 1204) wrote in a letter to his brother that "the homeland may have been captured, but Hellas still exists within every wise man".
Nicephorus Blemmydes, "Pertial narration", 1, 4
Theodore Alanias, "PG 140, 414"

The neo-platonic philosopher George Gemistos Plethon (15th cent AD) stated "We are Hellenes by race and culture".
George Gemistus Plethon, "Paleologeia and Peloponessiaka", pp.247

The scholar, teacher, and translator, John Argyropoulos (15th cent AD) calls John VIII Palaiologos as a Greek king and addresses him as "Sun King of Hellas".
Makrides, Vasilios (2009). Hellenic Temples and Christian Churches: A Concise History of the Religious Cultures of Greece from Antiquity to the Present. New York, New York: New York University Press.

Two days before the fall of Consantinople the Emperor Constantine Paleologos calls the city as "The joy and hope of all Greeks".
Sphrantzes, George (1477). The Chronicle of the Fall.

The Byzantine empire was a Greek empire, an empire which lasted over 1000 years.

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