Fox Mccloud
Deity
I just realised now that out of the seven new civs, one of them will be the Byzantines. Why did they include the Byzantines again? All it will do is choke an already overcrowded part of the world.
I don't dispute that they made great contributions to the world in their 1,000 year existence, they certainly did. No question that they were a major world civilization.
The question is should they be considered a separate civilization on their own? Even the word "Byzantine" itself has only been in widespread use since the 19th century. Before that, the word "Byzantium" and "Byzantine" referred only to Constantinople and its residents. It was never used for the whole empire itself during it's existence. In Greek it was called Βασιλεία Ρωμαίων (Basileia tōn Rōmaiōn) or Ρωμανία (Rōmania) meaning "the Roman Empire", and in Latin it's name was Imperium Romanum, meaning the same thing.
It was also sometimes known to the Europeans as "Empire of the Greeks" or Imperium Graecorum. The Muslims called it روم or Rum, a transliteration of Rome.
The Byzantine Empire doesn't have it's own language and their people considered themselves Romans or Greek and their culture was largely from those nations. I guess you could also make that same cultural argument against the Americans, but at least the Americans have their own location, most of a whole continent for themselves. The Byzantines are just going into the same place as Greece and the Ottomans - as well as the Hittites if they will also be in the game. They even share the same capital as the Ottomans.
I await thoughts and comments.
I don't dispute that they made great contributions to the world in their 1,000 year existence, they certainly did. No question that they were a major world civilization.
The question is should they be considered a separate civilization on their own? Even the word "Byzantine" itself has only been in widespread use since the 19th century. Before that, the word "Byzantium" and "Byzantine" referred only to Constantinople and its residents. It was never used for the whole empire itself during it's existence. In Greek it was called Βασιλεία Ρωμαίων (Basileia tōn Rōmaiōn) or Ρωμανία (Rōmania) meaning "the Roman Empire", and in Latin it's name was Imperium Romanum, meaning the same thing.
It was also sometimes known to the Europeans as "Empire of the Greeks" or Imperium Graecorum. The Muslims called it روم or Rum, a transliteration of Rome.
The Byzantine Empire doesn't have it's own language and their people considered themselves Romans or Greek and their culture was largely from those nations. I guess you could also make that same cultural argument against the Americans, but at least the Americans have their own location, most of a whole continent for themselves. The Byzantines are just going into the same place as Greece and the Ottomans - as well as the Hittites if they will also be in the game. They even share the same capital as the Ottomans.
I await thoughts and comments.
