Rome and Europe?

[Ras-Xafun]

I have always wondered why northern Europeans connect so much with Romans, when Romans didn't care much for them Its quite obviouse by all their historical records that they didnt put much effort on trying to interfere nor integrate them northern barbarians, besides Germanians whom they really hated and called them "the worse barbarians of them all" says it all.

But modern europeans are trying to fool us by telling us fictionate histories of how romantic these relationship were

These people who never met these damn romans claim all kind of roman heritage, while those who really had to do with romans and fought against them don't claim them at all.

Lol even Sudan where they left more ruins and heritage than 80% of Europe, don't gloat and boast as Europeans.





I'm seriously tired of this bullshit, (how can a damn Dane or Dutch who were outside the connection of the empire today be closer than a Morrocan or Libyan?)
Romans were as little European as Algerians are European today, these eurocentric lies must end NOW.

[maniac]

You have to understand that the Romans did in Europe what the Arabs did in Northern Africa(ie Romanize, Arabize). I'm sure you hear a lot of romantic stories about the Arab(moslem) invasion into the swahili coast but I'm sure history wasn't so kind or romantic as many african historian would like to portray. But I do agree with you no Northern European should be attaching himself/herself to Rome.

[Cerdic]

A lot of the connection between modern northern Europeans and Rome is cultural. When these areas were Christianised the version of Christianity they received was very centred on Rome. Latin was the language of the Western Church and Latin became the language of educated classes throughout the whole of Western Christendom. This was true into the early 20th century. The fact that all intellectuals in the Occident could understand Latin made the writings of Ancient Romans very accessible to them. Any "gentleman" or scholar raised on Caesar's Gallic Wars or Cicero was bound to feel some very real identification with the people of Ancient Rome, and Graeco-Roman culture generally. If you look at the military song "The British Genadiers" written in the 18thC, it compares the British soldiers to "Alexander, Hercules, Hector and Lysander" all heros of the Classical World.

When the Christian and Latin speaking areas of North Africa were Islamised and Arabised this cultural connection was broken. St Augustine of Hippo was a native of what is now Algeria, but he means nothing to modern Algerians. However, he was one of the great thinkers of early Christianity and has more cultural resonance to a Norwegian, raised in a Christian culture, than to anyone raised in his homeland.

Most of Britain was within the Roman Empire, considerable parts of Holland, Germany and Austria were also Roman (Vienna was orginally the Roman city of Vindobona). The cultural separation between German and Roman was hardly rigorous. The Roman emperor Magnentius was probably of Frankish and British origins, the Emperor Valentinian III had some Frankish ancestry and one of the kings of the Vandals had a Roman mother (from the imperial family). At a slightly later date one of the Frankish kings, Chilperic, was noted for his Latin poetry.

[geo]

puntlander said:

I have always wondered why northern Europeans connect so much with Romans

Example?

[trentor]

What is norhern Europe? You talk about Germany and Austria, for me thats surtenly central-europe...