> The emperors however, when Byzantium was established did not, as they came from latin speaking Roman elites What the Emperor's ethnic/cultural background is,

> The emperors however, when Byzantium was established did not, as they came from latin speaking Roman elites What the Emperor's ethnic/cultural background is, and what the general populace spoke are two different things. If we want to use that analogy, then let's look at the Ottoman sultans. The first few Ottoman sultans were primarily of Central Asian Turkic ethnic makeup, however every one of them had a policy of having children with women who were Christians of either Greek, Circassian, Balkans/Caucus, and later Polish backgrounds. That means that very quickly, the average Ottoman sultan was almost entirely a blend of Greek/Balkan/Circassian and a very small percentage actually of Turkic ethnic makeup. Does that mean that the Ottoman empire for most of its existence was a Greco-Caucasian Empire, rather than a Turkish one?