19 Facts About Roman people

At times, different groups within Roman people society had different ideas as to what it meant to be Roman people.

Roman people culture was far from homogeneous; though there was a predominant Hellenistic-inspired cultural idiom, one of the strengths of the Roman people Empire was its ability to incorporate traditions from other cultures.

Roman Empire affected the personal identities of its subject peoples to a considerable extent and Roman identity lasted throughout the lands of the empire until long after the Roman Empire itself had faded away.

Whereas Roman identity faded away in most of the lands where it was once prominent, for some regions and peoples it proved considerably more tenacious.

Term 'Roman people' is today used interchangeably to describe a historical timespan, a material culture, a geographical location, and a personal identity.

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Terms such as "Aethiop", which Romans used for black people, carried no social implications, and though phenotype-related stereotypes certainly existed in Ancient Rome, inherited physical characteristics were typically not relevant to social status; people who looked different from the typical Mediterranean populace, such as black people, were not excluded from any profession and there are no records of stigmas or biases against "mixed race" relationships.

Per the writings of Cicero, what made Roman people barbarians were not their language or descent, but rather their customs and character, or lack thereof.

The majority of the Roman people populace detested Jews and Judaism, though views were more varied among the Roman people elite.

The Roman people state was not wholly opposed to the Jews, since there was a sizeable Jewish population in Rome itself, as well as at least thirteen synagogues in the city.

Over time, Roman citizenship was gradually extended more and more and there was a regular "siphoning" of people from less privileged legal groups to more privileged groups, increasing the total percentage of subjects recognised as Romans though the incorporation of the provinciales and peregrini.

In most cases, it is not clear to what extent the majority of the new Roman people citizens regarded themselves as being Roman people, or to what extent they were regarded as such by others.

In Egypt, Roman people emperors were seen as the successors of the pharaohs and were depicted as such in artwork and in temples.

In some cases, Roman people authors ascribed different qualities to citizens of different parts of the empire, such as Ammianus Marcellinus who wrote of the differences between 'Gauls' and 'Italians'.

Culturally and legally, Roman people identity remained prominent in the west for centuries, still providing a sense of unity throughout the Mediterranean.

Since the term 'Roman people' was seen as implying political loyalty to the empire, it was regarded by the Vandal government as politically loaded and suspicious.

The decrease in the diversity of peoples recognised as being Roman meant that the term Roman increasingly came to be applied only to the now dominant Hellenic population of the remaining territories, rather than to all imperial citizens.

In chronicles written in the 10th century, the Rhomaioi begin to appear as just one of the ethnicities in the empire and by the late 11th century, there are references in historical writings to people as being "Rhomaios by birth", signalling the completion of the transformation of "Roman" into an ethnic description.

At this point, "Roman people" began being used for Greek populations outside of the imperial borders, such as to the Greek-speaking Christians under Seljuk rule in Anatolia, who were referred to as Rhomaioi despite actively resisting attempts at re-integration by the Byzantine emperors.

Roman people identity survives prominently in some of the Greek populations outside of Greece itself.