Abstract

The ethnonym Graeci, widely used in Latin and subsequently adopted across Western Europe, has a complex linguistic and historical relationship with the Greek ethnonym Graikoi (Γραικοί) and the name Hellenes (Ἕλληνες). According to Aristotle (Meteorologica I.14), the term Graikoi originally referred to a population associated with the region of Dodona and the Achelous in Epirus, whom he identifies as among the earliest Hellenes. The term has traditionally been connected with the Greek noun graia (γραῖα), meaning an old woman or aged woman, and appears in ancient literary contexts with associations of age, wisdom, priesthood, and divination.

The subsequent geographical and historical development of the term Graeci was influenced by Roman usage. Following Roman encounters with populations identified as Graikoi, including those associated with Graia in Boeotia, Graeci became a broader Latin designation applied to Greek-speaking populations. Over time, particularly in Western European historical and ecclesiastical terminology, Graeci came to denote the inhabitants and Christians of the Eastern Roman Empire, who generally identified themselves as Rhomaioi (Ῥωμαῖοι), or Romans.

This distinction became particularly significant in the medieval period. The ethnonym Hellene gradually acquired a negative connotation within the Christianized Eastern Roman Empire because of its association with paganism and polytheistic religious practices. Consequently, Rhōmaios remained a primary self-designation, while Graeci was increasingly employed by Western Latin sources to distinguish the Eastern Christian tradition from the Latin West, especially in the context of the ecclesiastical divisions that culminated in the Great Schism of 1054.

The history of Graeci, therefore, illustrates how ethnonyms can change in meaning and scope through linguistic transmission, political transformation, religious developments, and external designation. Its evolution from an ancient regional term to a widely used Western designation for Greek-speaking Eastern Romans demonstrates the complex relationship between self-identification and externally imposed ethnonyms in the history of the Greek and Roman worlds.

From Graikoi to the Western Designation of the Greeks

Ironically, the ethnonym Graeci, by which Greeks are widely known internationally, is primarily a Roman designation and was not the preferred ethnonym of the Greek population itself.

The term Graikoi (Γραικοί) is traditionally associated with an ancient population located in the region of Dodona and the Achelous in Epirus. Aristotle, in Meteorologica I.14, states:

«Οἱ περὶ τὴν Δωδώνην καὶ τὸν Ἀχελῷον πρώτοι Ἑλλήνων, Γραικοὶ δ’ ἐκαλοῦντο τότε.»

This passage has been translated as referring to those living around Dodona and the Achelous as among the earliest Hellenes, who at that time were called Graikoi. Aristotle’s reference occurs in a discussion concerning the ancient traditions and religious practices associated with the region of Dodona.

The linguistic relationship between Graikoi and graia (γραῖα) has also attracted attention. The term graia denotes an old or aged woman and may, depending on its literary context, carry associations with age, wisdom, priesthood, or ritual knowledge. Related expressions occur in ancient Greek literature. Examples include ἡ πεπονηρευμένη γραῖα, meaning “the cunning or clever old woman,” and ἡ γραῖα καὶ ὁ υἱὸς αὐτῆς, meaning “the old woman and her son.”

Ancient literary sources also employ graia in contexts associated with age and ritual authority. The expression Ἡ πολιὴ κροταίφοισι Κοτυττάρις, ἡ πολύμυθος Γραῖα refers to an aged woman, while Lucian uses the expression τὰ γραῖα τῆς ὕλης, which has been interpreted as referring to the aged or withered parts, or the outermost portions, of a forest. Similarly, Γραῖα Κοτυτθαρίς may be understood not as a personal name but as a designation associated with a priestess or ritual practitioner connected with the rites of Cotytto. In Theocritus, Idyll III.31, the expression γραῖα κοσκινομάντις refers to an old woman engaged in divination with a sieve.

The Roman adoption of the term Graeci represents an important stage in the subsequent history of the ethnonym. When the Romans encountered populations associated with the name Graikoi, including inhabitants connected with Graia near Tanagra in Boeotia, the Latin form Graeci became increasingly established as a designation for Greek-speaking populations. In the course of Roman expansion and later Western European usage, the term consequently acquired a much broader geographical and ethnographic meaning than its earlier regional associations.

The term subsequently became particularly significant in the context of the Eastern Roman Empire. The inhabitants of the empire generally identified themselves as Rhomaioi (Ῥωμαῖοι), meaning Romans, rather than exclusively as Hellenes. This distinction was influenced in part by the changing meaning of the term Hellene within the Christianized Roman Empire. For several centuries, Hellene could denote a pagan or adherent of traditional polytheistic religion and therefore acquired a religious rather than exclusively ethnic meaning.

As a consequence, Rhomaioi remained an important form of self-identification among the inhabitants of the Eastern Roman Empire, whereas Graeci increasingly functioned as an external designation in Western European and Latin sources. The distinction became particularly pronounced in ecclesiastical terminology, where Western Latin writers used Graeci to distinguish Eastern Christians from the Latin Christian communities of the West.

Following the Great Schism of 1054, this terminology became increasingly embedded in the distinction between the Latin and Greek ecclesiastical traditions. In Western sources, Graeci could therefore refer not only to Greek-speaking populations but also to the Christians of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, tradition. The term was consequently employed in reference to the Greek or Byzantine rite and to Eastern Christians associated with the Orthodox tradition.

The historical development of Graeci thus illustrates the distinction between an ethnonym used for self-identification and one established primarily through external political, linguistic, and ecclesiastical usage. Its transformation from an ancient regional designation associated with Graikoi into a broader Latin term for Greek-speaking populations reflects the complex interaction between language, geography, Roman political expansion, religious change, and medieval Western perceptions of the Eastern Roman world.

Sources

Aristotle. Meteorologica. Edited by Immanuel Bekker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1837.

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Lucian. Verae Historiae. Edited and translated by A. M. Harmon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.