The Greeks of late antiquity lived throughout the eastern Mediterranean - Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Greece itself - speaking variants of Greek, maintaining cultural traditions stretching back centuries, yet firmly within Roman administrative control. This wasn't the age of independent city-states but of provincial cities where Greek language and culture coexisted with Roman law. Urban centers like Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, and Constantinople itself remained intellectually vibrant. Libraries preserved ancient texts. Philosophers debated in forums and baths. Rhetoricians trained students in classical oratory. Most Greeks lived in cities or towns rather than scattered agricultural settlements - urban life remained central to identity even as countryside supplied the grain and olive oil that sustained it. Christianity transformed religious landscape, but Greek remained the language of theology, liturgy, and scholarship in the east. A merchant in Smyrna might attend church services in Greek, conduct business using Roman legal forms, and quote Homer while negotiating contracts.
These centuries saw Greek cultural influence expand even as political independence remained lost. Christianity's adoption as state religion paradoxically strengthened Greek culture - theology developed primarily in Greek, eastern bishops dominated church councils, monastic traditions took root in Egyptian and Syrian deserts where Greek-speaking monks preserved learning. The division between Latin west and Greek east deepened gradually. When Rome fell to barbarians in the fifth century, Constantinople became undisputed center of what remained of the Roman world - but it was fundamentally a Greek city ruling a Greek-speaking empire. Trade networks connected Greek ports across the Mediterranean and into the Black Sea. Manufactured goods from eastern cities - textiles, glassware, metalwork - commanded premium prices. Educational institutions continued training administrators, lawyers, physicians who maintained sophisticated bureaucratic systems. Yet threats mounted - Persian wars drained resources, plague devastated cities, religious controversies split communities. By 700, Arab conquests had seized Egypt, Syria, much of Asia Minor. What remained became Byzantine Empire - Roman in law, Christian in faith, but Greek in language and culture.
Greek strength lay in their synthesis of ancient intellectual traditions with Christian fervor and Roman administrative efficiency. Education remained central to Greek identity - literacy rates in cities far exceeded rural populations anywhere in Europe. This created bureaucrats who could manage complex taxation systems, keep records, conduct diplomacy in multiple languages. The same tradition produced theologians who could argue doctrine and philosophers who preserved ancient learning. Economic sophistication meant Greeks dominated Mediterranean trade networks through combination of merchant expertise and urban manufacturing capacity. Religious devotion - often mixing Christian faith with philosophical inquiry - gave cultural confidence even under political subordination. Greek craftsmen could establish workshops quickly, concentrating production efficiently rather than dispersing it across rural areas. Yet political fragmentation persisted - cities maintained local identities and rivalries that predated Roman conquest. Military weakness remained constant. Greeks produced capable administrators and merchants, not warriors. Defense depended on Roman legions, later Byzantine armies that increasingly recruited from other peoples. Cultural prestige couldn't substitute for military power, leaving Greek cities vulnerable to anyone willing to use force. The tradition that preserved Homer couldn't preserve territorial integrity without soldiers willing to fight for it.
