What does the word "byzantine" mean today?

Answer 1

To some extent, it means the same thing it always did - something having to do with the Byzantine Empire or the city of Byzantium. The city of Byzantium is now called Constantinople, so most references refer to something more historical than present, though sometimes it is used to refer to the modern city that no longer carries that name.

Now, there is also a particular rite that originated in the city of Byzantium which is important in the Eastern Orthodox Church. This rite is the Byzantine Rite, and because of it sometimes the whole Eastern Orthodox Church is referred to with the term 'Byzantine'.

Another peculiarity of the Byzantine empire was that it had a very complex social organization, including an convoluted bureaucracy and perhaps over-elaborate court ceremonies. As such, it acquired a negative reputation among efficient-minded Roman scholars, and they began to use the term 'Byzantine' in a derogatory sense. Thereafter, it sometimes came to be used to describe anything that is over-complicated and obscure, and unnecessarily so. It is also sometimes used to describe the kind of politician in such a system - elaborately scheming and tricky.

I find that it is these later uses that are more commonly encountered these days, and usually the one about being confusingly complex. I hope this definition was more entertaining than byzantine! ( :

Answer 2

The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, centered around its capital of Constantinople. In certain specific contexts, usually referring to the time before the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it is also often referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire. To its inhabitants, the Empire was simply the Roman Empire (Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων - Basileia tōn Rhōmaiōn) and its emperors continued the unbroken succession of Roman emperors. During much of its history it was known to many of its Western contemporaries as the Empire of the Greeks because of the dominance of Greek language and culture. In the Islamic world it was known primarily as روم‎ (Rūm).

There is no consensus on the exact point when the Eastern Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire. Some place it during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284–305), whose administrative reforms divided the empire into a pars Orientis (eastern half) and a pars Occidentis (western half). Some consider Constantine I the first Byzantine emperor. Others start it during the reign of Theodosius I (379–395) and Christianity's official supplanting of the pagan Roman religion, or, following his death in 395, with the permanent division of the empire into western and eastern halves. Others place it yet further in 476, when Romulus Augustus, the last western Emperor, was forced to abdicate by the Ostrogoths, thus leaving sole imperial authority with the emperor in the Greek East. Others again point to the reorganisation of the empire in the time of Heraclius (ca. 620) when Latin titles and usages were officially replaced with Greek versions. In any case, the changeover was gradual and by 330, when Constantine inaugurated his new capital, the process of Hellenization and increasing Christianization was already under way.

I'm not aware of its meaning anything different today.

Answer 3

Byzantine: anything relating to the Byzantine Empire

Answer 4

Byzantine refers to the Byzantine Empire which refered to the anicent great City of Byzantium. (which is why Constantinople was build on that location)

Answer 5

If it doesn't mean the period in history called The Byzantine Period when present day Turkey was called Byzantium then it may be one of these meanings which includes one that relates to computers. Check this website: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/finesse

Answer 6

If you can't stand the byzantine intrigue, you'd best get out of the cabal.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

If it is not referring to the culture/Empire and it's creations (eg. Architecture) it is used to describe very complex (and often underhanded) politics and political machinations - similar in meaning to "Machiavellian"

Answer 9

the samething it meant yesterday

Answer 10

use a dictionary