Abstract
The aim of this paper is to examine how εσπερα and δυσιζ, both meaning “west”, are used in Byzantine historiography of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It is concluded that εσπερα and δυσιζ, when used to designate Hungary, meant simply “west”, while the same words when used to designate the Crusades, the Holy Roman Empire and other Western powers, meant “Western Europe” and were used in the context of its military power.
In the eleventh century, εσπερα and δυσιζ were used in contrast to εωζ, which means “east”. These words served to change the scene from wars with western enemies to those with eastern enemies, and vice versa. Besides that, they expressed the Byzantine imperial ideology that the Byzantine Empire was situated in the middle of the civilized world surrounded by the western and eastern barbarians. In the twelfth century, however, εσπερα and δυσιζ came to be used without “east” in many contexts and began to be used to modify the word “troops” when describing the Western countries' armies.
Much research has concluded that Byzantine historiography defined Western Europe as a society characterized by the Catholic Church and feudalism. This survey, however, shows that it characterized Western Europe by the military power that finally conquered the City of Constantinople in 1204.
