The Romans (Watts)

Today’s topic: The Romans: a 2,000-year history, by Edward J. Watts. I found it fascinating, but didn’t entirely like it. As the subtitle hints, Watts refuses to take the usual approach of ending the history in 476 CE. He carries the story forward to 1204, covering what historians (but not contemporaries) called the Byzantines. To the end of the state, its rulers and inhabitants called themselves Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι). Indeed, the Arabs took them at their word and called Anatolia Rūm, which is why the Muslim poet Rumi, who came from there, has a name which means “Roman.” You may have heard that the Byzantines lasted till 1453. And they did, which makes Watt’s cutoff a little capricious. What happened in 1204 was the Fourth Crusade, where the “Latins”, the Western Europeans, brutally sacked Constantinople and took it over. They didn’t conquer all Byzantine territory and their state only lasted 57 years. Watt’s point of view is that the institutions of Rome were destroyed for good in 1204.…