Steven Runciman: The Cardinal Role of Byzantium
16 June 2026 · 1 min read
«We cannot ignore the cardinal role of Byzantium in preserving the Greek heritage. Of course, Byzantine literature is of limited interest. You see, the Greek language had already reached such a degree of refinement that its perfection became a real misfortune for the literature of the Byzantines, who tried to imitate the Attic models. In poetry, for example, there is a wasteland outside the hymns of Romanos and John of Damascus and the popular epic of Digenes. Yet Byzantine art, the most highly developed in the whole world of that time, had a most profound influence on European art, an influence that is only now beginning to be perceived and studied. Finally, we cannot ignore the contribution of Byzantium to theology».
