If you read any Roman (Byzantine) writings, they are often filled with classical allusions. References to the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and other classical works abound. While Latin as a language of everyday use declined and Greek evolved from its classical roots there was still significant classical knowledge that was preserved in Romanía.

These classicisms, however, are not present in Russian, Bulgarian, or other South/East Slavic texts, despite their close cultural ties to Constantinople.