It is important to see that Byzantine history has never been more popular than it is now. In the past, Byzantine History was often seen as the time of a theocracy ruling the Romans. Some historians still gripe about the intellectual era of Paganism being taken away by the Christians, but these academics are generally speaking, of a certain political persuasion and reveal bias quite easily and are projecting onto that era. Christians much like Pagans, were human beings. However, in the battle of ideas, the Pagans were no longer able to provide answers to their biggest spiritual and secular questions. Christianity was as big of a transformation of Rome as Buddhism was to China in the 1st Century CE by the Silk Road coming from India.
The Byzantine Era was an incredibly interesting time in the history of the Roman Empire. I think that the willingness to ignore the Byzantine era shows the bias against any sort of Christian regime after the 18th Century and particularly after Gibbons published his book on the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Many thinkers just wanted Christianity out of the way and wanted a culture that was based on rationalism. They would get their chance with the revolution in France in 1789 but it was quickly shown to be a descent into great violence and chaos, leading to the rise of Napoleon and his conquering Grande Armee.
Classical Antiquity would continue to get more popular in the years after the Revolution. Even though Classical art and concepts were popular before the French Revolution, they became in a sense democratized by the Revolution and were now more in the public. The deciphering of the Ancient Egyptian language script with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone also made Egyptomania, more sustainable. This meant that the ancient world, before the rise of Christianity, was becoming more popular. While the Bible would remain a bestselling book in the 19th Century, classical antiquity was what was in vogue in that age.
As result, history of the Christian phase of Roman history was generally ignored by scholars.
Another issue was that many of the sites pertaining to the Byzantine Empire were in the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire, which still had control over much of Greece.
In order for Byzantine history and culture to be taken on its own in America and Anglo-speaking countries, there needs to be a change in the way people associate it. Instead of how people view it now, Byzantine history has to be seen as cool again so that people are willing to study it in college and other settings.
The shadow of antiquity hovers over the Byzantine Empire. People are currently skeptical of the sovereignty of the Christian era in the historical narrative of the Roman Empire.
In order to change this, we need to be able to grab some unique and inspiring moments and magnify them in order for people to pay attention to them. Through this way, we will be able to give the Byzantine Empire the attention that is needed to give the culture the exposure it needs for us to have better understanding of Roman history as well as the changes in Christian states.
Byzantine-Empire.com 