The Byzantine Empire acquired a negative reputation among historians of the 18th and 19th century not only for the complexity of the organization of its ministries and the elaborateness of its court ceremonies (from this came the term still in modern use, "Byzantine", often used pejoratively to describe any work, law, or organization that is excessively complex and/or difficult to understand; see also Baroque), but also for their alleged lack of courage and military ability. This prejudice originated, according to the medievalist Steven Runciman, from the impressions of medieval Europe with this mighty power. "Ever since our rough crusading forefathers first saw Constantinople and met, to their contemptuous disgust, a society where everyone read and wrote, ate food with forks and preferred diplomacy to war, it has been fashionable to pass the Byzantines by with scorn and to use their name as synonymous with decadence."¹ However, many of the emperors of the Middle and Late Empire were full-time military commanders, and several were men of letters as well. They may have had little patience with elaborate court ceremonies. The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centred at its capital in Constantinople. ... The Byzantine Empire had a complex system of aristocracy and bureaucracy. ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens: dynamic figures spiral down around a void: draperies blow: a whirl of movement lit in a shaft of light, rendered in a free bravura handling of paint In arts, the Baroque (or baroque) is both a period and the style that dominated it. ... Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman (7 July 1903 - 1 November 2000) was a British historian known for his work on the Middle Ages. ... Map of Constantinople. ...

By the 18th century refinement and polite manners were no longer considered effeminate, so writers like Gibbon and Montesquieu searched after a new justification for their prejudice against this civilization. Gibbon found it in the scholarly works of the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos, and seized upon the bookish style of this invalid and bookish ruler, who was forced to pass most of his reign as a figurehead. Exploiting this source to confirm his own preconceptions ², Gibbon thus gave new life to an oversimplified view of a "decadent" Byzantium, which lives in the public mind by the poetry of William Butler Yeats. Edward Gibbon (1737-1794). ... Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (January 18, 1689 – February 10, 1755) was a French political thinker who lived during the Enlightenment and is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted... Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos (the Purple-born) (905 – November 9, 959) was the son of Byzantine emperor Leo VI and nephew of Alexander III. He earned his nickname as the legitimate (or more accurately legitimized) son of Leo, as opposed to the others who claimed the throne during his lifetime. ... William Butler Yeats (June 13, 1865 – January 28, 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, mystic and public figure. ...

Likewise, the term "Byzantine" also suggests a penchant for intrigue, plots and assassinations. In fact, the Empire was among the more stable political entities of its own or any other time. Its famous intrigue and turmoil was far less than that of Western Europe's unruly feudal states, and occurred most often during relatively brief interregnums between strong (and sometimes brilliantly led) dynasties. The very stability of the imperial state, however, probably undermined the creative impulses and innovativeness that characterized the early centuries of the remarkable Byzantine civilization, thus contributing to its eventual downfall.