Why was kiev called the third Roman empire?

Answer 1

First of all, the term was not Third Roman Empire. It was the Third Rome. Secondly, this term was not applied to the Kievan Rus. It was applied to the Grand Principality of Moscow (or Muscovy) in the time of Ivan III Vasilyevich, the Grand Price of Moscow and "Grand Prince of all Rus."

The term Third Rome described the idea that some city, state, or country is the successor to the legacy of ancient Rome (the first Rome) though connection to the Byzantine Empire (the second Rome).

The notion of the Third Rome started in Bulgaria under Tsar Ivan Alexander. The renamed his capital Tsarevigrad Tarnov (which was very similar to Tsarigrad, the Slavic for Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire) to bolster the prestige of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople called it "second both in words and deeds after Constantinople."

The idea of the Third Rome was taken to Russia by monks who fled Bulgaria after it was taken by the Ottoman Turks. Some orthodox Christians then nominated Moscow as the Third Rome. The Tsar Ivan III of Russia (reigned 1462 -1505), who had married Sophia Paleologue, a niece of Constantine XI, the last Byzantine emperor, claimed that he was the heir of the fallen Byzantine Empire soon after the capture of Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The Russians saw themselves as the upholders of the religion of this Empire, which had fallen to Muslims. In 1501 a Russian monk, Filofey, wrote an ode to Ivan's successor, Vasili III, in which he said that: "Two Romes have fallen. The third stands. And there will be no fourth. No one shall replace your Christian Tsardom!"

The Bulgarians and the Russians, as well as the Serbs and the Romanians were converted to orthodox Christianity by Byzantine missionaries.

.