Greek identity, from Mycenae to Byzantium

Greek identity did not move in a straight line from “ancient Greek” to “Byzantine Greek.” It changed across nearly two millennia, from Mycenaean palace scribes to medieval people who called themselves Romans. (britannica.com, britannica.com) The earliest written Greek now known is Mycenaean Greek, recorded in the Linear B script on clay tablets from sites including Knossos, Pylos, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Thebes. Britannica dates Linear B tablets to about 1400 to 1200 Before the Common Era and calls the language the oldest discovered form of Greek. (britannica.com, britannica.com) Those tablets were not literature in the later Homeric sense. Britannica says Mycenaean was mainly a chancellery language for records and inventories kept by palaces and commercial establishments. (britannica.com) That writing system disappeared when the Mycenaean palace world broke down in the 12th century Before the Common Era. Britannica says Greeks then seem to have been illiterate for several centuries before borrowing an alphabet from the Phoenicians by the 8th century Before the Common Era. (britannica.com, britannica.com) The later Greek alphabet was not a direct continuation of Linear B. Britannica says it derived from a North Semitic, Phoenician script in the 8th century Before the Common Era, creating the writing system used for Archaic and Classical Greek. (britannica.com) Greek identity also widened after Alexander the Great’s conquests in the late 4th century Before the Common Era. Britannica says local dialects gave way to Koine, a common Greek that spread through the new urban centers of Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor. (britannica.com) By the medieval eastern empire, language and political identity no longer matched the labels many people use today. Britannica says modern historians call the state “Byzantine,” but its inhabitants identified as Romaioi, or Romans. (britannica.com) That Roman identity took shape inside a state that became more Greek in daily practice. Britannica says Emperor Heraclius, who ruled from 610 to 641 Common Era, replaced Latin with Greek as the official language of the empire. (britannica.com) So the long arc runs from the first written Greek in Bronze Age palace archives, through the loss and reinvention of writing, to a Christian eastern empire whose people spoke Greek and called themselves Romans. The names changed, but the record shows continuity through language, institutions, and self-description rather than one fixed label across all periods. (britannica.com, britannica.com, britannica.com)