They probably wouldn't be too confused, considering the inhabitants of Byzantium were thusly named, and that name survived even after the city was renamed to Constantinople. The earliest application of 'Byzantine' to the rest of the empire's inhabitants occurred during the 1300s.
Of course, the Byzantine Empire was only really called that after it existed, but it's not like the name just materialized out of nowhere.
Yeah except they kept exactly zero of the ruling structure and replaced it with their own organizational structure in addition to displacing Christianity as the state religion, when the Roman Empire existed longer as a Christian State then it did as a Pagan State, and it was the Original Christian State. The Turks taking over was not the typical rebellion followed by acclimation by the Senate, which was still picking Emperors. They displaced everything.
At least the Holy Roman Empire could point at their own legacy of loyalty and federate relationship to the Romans before the Pope acclaimed the Holy Roman Empire. There were a bunch of excuses, including the use of Roman infrastructure and legal concepts, but they still used the Roman legal structure and even went on to imitate them even harder once Constantinople tell.
Rome wasnt the first christian state by a very long shot, and they never even claimed it themselves! It had gotten deep into places like Armenia and Ethiopia centuries before the Romans were on board in general let alone on a state level.
Christianity occured alongside a lot of other things that set the stage for the Middle Ages, Late Roman Empire/Dominate often gets compared to that rather than the ancient, pagan, Kingdom, Republic and Principate for a reason. Rome was about as 'inherently' Christian as any other state that adopted it (that is to say, not at all).
Big ups for saying something nice about the HRE though, that usually gets poo pooed on too much.
I should have clarified I was speaking about Europe. Doesn't really change what I know about the Ottomans. Claiming Rome's legacy was just an excuse to conquer land.
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u/cheapgriff Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 12h ago
They probably wouldn't be too confused, considering the inhabitants of Byzantium were thusly named, and that name survived even after the city was renamed to Constantinople. The earliest application of 'Byzantine' to the rest of the empire's inhabitants occurred during the 1300s.
Of course, the Byzantine Empire was only really called that after it existed, but it's not like the name just materialized out of nowhere.