I've been listening to the history of Rome podcast, and, as we all know, the capital of the empire shifted with the introduction of the tetrarchy and eventual rule of Constantine. However, I was wondering if, with the capital change, Rome (the empire) called itself anything different. I know Constantinople was originally called Alterna Roma, so I would imagine they considered themselves Roman, but with the breaks between the Western and Eastern empires and the moving of the Western capital to Milan and later Ravenna, did they (both the Western and Eastern empires) begin to identify as something beyond Romans? Thanks in advance!
They called themselves Romans and their Empire the Roman Empire. When Constantine XI died in 1453, he died as Emperor of the Romans, not "Byzantine Emperor," as that is a later invention by historians both as a derogatory name and as a useful way to differentiate between the classical Empire and the Christian Empire of the Middle Ages.
for more thorough answers https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2gy4if/what_were_the_historical_names_of_the_byzantine/
It was still the Roman Empire or Romania: in the 4th century when west and east were ruled by different emperors, they remained jointly the Roman Empire, a single entity under two administrations (with the eastern gradually becoming supreme). After the Empire's end in the west, the east kept its name, though its people sometimes called themselves Graikoi alongside the official Romaioi.
if I can piggyback off of this: what would, say, a Frenchman in the 13th century have called the Emperor in Constantinople? I know "Byzantine" Empire is a relatively modern coinage.