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Constant_Count_9497 t1_j4dh1n4 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in I think that the term Byzantines is rightly used for adressing the Eastern Roman Empire. by VipsaniusAgrippa25

True, they even claimed to be descendants of Anaeas. Romans were just grecophiles with a superiority complex

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EmperorG t1_j4fd80l wrote

I dont think proclaiming yourself a descendant of the Trojans means you consider yourself a greek.

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Constant_Count_9497 t1_j4ht69v wrote

I think it shows that from even their own origin myth the romans adopt Greek history/myth.

There's plenty of things showing romans were Greek fanboys, the most apparent being tutored by Greeks (as apparently you're no a true civilized Roman aristocrat if you don't own/pay for an expensive Greek tutor)

I'll concede that they probably didn't REALLY consider themselves Greek, that was just a poor exaggeration on my part

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Particular-Second-84 t1_j4mi73a wrote

Though the Trojans themselves were considered to be Greek.

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EmperorG t1_j4mxdnc wrote

What? By who? The Trojans/Wilusians were more closely related to the Luwianians and Hittites than the Minoan or Mycenaean. Linguisticly, religiously, and culturally they are in no way considered to be Hellenic.

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Particular-Second-84 t1_j4n1uzy wrote

The ancient Greeks themselves considered the Trojans (of the Trojan War era) to be Greeks. Dionysius of Halicarnassus even stated that Troy was ‘as Greek as any true Greek city’ (something like that; I don’t remember the precise wording). This belief is displayed in the Iliad too, where the Trojans are presented as having the same language, culture, and religion as the Greeks.

Obviously this doesn’t fit the reality of the Mycenaean era, since the Greeks only settled Troy from c. 900 BCE. But then, plenty of chronological information about the Trojan War actually places it post-900 BCE (like the evidence from Ctesias).

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