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The "Byzantines" WERE Roman and always called themselves such. They were the "Rum" to the Turks because they called themselves Roman.

I'm not sure how a state which can trace a direct lineage of law and rulers back to Romulus is "carrying the torch".

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We're falling into pedantry here. I'm very well aware of that fact, which is why I referenced it in the original post.

I guess we agree to disagree. I just don't like calling them the "other" Romans, or even referring to them as the Byzantines who were carrying on the torch, when they never considered any such thing, and would never have referred to themselves as such.

Then again, despite being an engineer by trade, I'm a historian specializing in Late Roman Antiquity (specifically, the Eastern Empire from Leo the Isaurian to Alexios I, so I'm probably a little pedantic about it.

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