On the Issue of Studying Byzantine Ethnonymy in the 20th Century (on the Works of Russian Historians)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the review of the Byzantine ethnonymy in Russian and foreign historiography. It is noted, that Soviet and Russian historiography paid much attention to the problem of systematising the use of different ethnonyms in the Byzantine narrative and acts. Separately, the article discusses the research experience and study of ethnonymy by American scholar Anthony Kaldellis. It is demonstrated, that he poses a somewhat different task in his monographs. The sources for his monographs are exclusively narrative sources and (Byzantine, Arabic and Western European). One of his works deals with ethnonymy from ethnographic positions. The other discusses the ethnonymy-related concept of “romaism”, i.e. the interaction of different peoples with the Romans and their incorporation into the social and governing structure of the Roman Empire.