It's not hard at all to refute the Byzantines' claims to being the Roman empire. If your empire doesn't include Rome, it cannot be the Roman empire. Similarly, Taiwan is not China even though they are the continuation of the old Chinese government.
When the bizantine re-took part of Italy, the local germanic tribes who had occupied Italy identified them as Romans, which is why to this day there's a geographical region called "Romagna" a few hundred kilometers from the city of Rome.
That's silly. The Roman empire could not have existed at all, delusional people claimed roman citizenship but lived far beyond the city limits. You can't be a citizen of a place you've never been, so the whole thing is just dumb and a myth.
I can't believe you buy into this absurd nonsense that there could even be a Roman Empire without a megalopolis covering much of Europe, North Africa and the Levant.
