Latins

Last updated

The term Latins has been used throughout history to refer to various peoples, ethnicities and religious groups using Latin or the Latin-derived Romance languages, as part of the legacy of the Roman Empire. In the Ancient World, it referred to the people of ancient Latium, including the Romans. Following the spread of Christianity, it came to indicate the Catholics of the Latin Church, especially those following Western liturgical rites. Currently, it defines the peoples using the Romance languages in Europe and the Americas. [1]

Contents

Antiquity

Map of 5th century-BC Latium (Latium Vetus) and surrounding regions in central Italy that were eventually annexed by Rome to form "New Latium". The Alban Hills, a region of early Latin settlement (from c. 1000 BC) and the site of the Latiar, the most important Latin communal festival, are located under the "U" in LATIUM. The region's two main lakes, Nemi and Albanus, are visible under the "I". The leading Latin city-states of Rome, Tibur (Tivoli), Praeneste (Palestrina), Ardea and Gabii are shown. Volsci.jpg
Map of 5th century-BC Latium (Latium Vetus) and surrounding regions in central Italy that were eventually annexed by Rome to form "New Latium". The Alban Hills, a region of early Latin settlement (from c.1000 BC) and the site of the Latiar, the most important Latin communal festival, are located under the "U" in LATIUM. The region's two main lakes, Nemi and Albanus, are visible under the "I". The leading Latin city-states of Rome, Tibur (Tivoli), Praeneste (Palestrina), Ardea and Gabii are shown.

The Latins were an ancient Italic people of the Latium region in central Italy (Latium Vetus, "Old Latium"), in the 1st millennium BC. Although they lived in independent city-states, they spoke a common language (Latin), held common religious beliefs, and extended common rights of residence and trade to one another. [2] Collectively, these Latin states were known as the Latin League.

A rupture between Rome, one of the Latin states, and the rest of the Latin League emerged as a result of the former's territorial ambitions. The Latin League fought against Rome in the Latin War (340-338 BC), which ended in a Roman victory. Consequently, some of the Latin states were incorporated within the Roman state, and their inhabitants were given full Roman citizenship. Others became Roman allies and enjoyed certain privileges. [3]

The Roman Empire would go on to dominate the Mediterranean region for the next several centuries, spreading the Latin language and Roman culture. The Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire ended in AD 476, while the Greek-speaking eastern half survived on until 1453.

Middle Ages

12th century depiction of Latin Crusaders 12th century unknown painters - Crusaders - WGA19723.jpg
12th century depiction of Latin Crusaders

In the Eastern Roman Empire, and the broader Greek-Orthodox world, Latins was a synonym for all people who followed the Roman Catholicism [4] of Western Christianity, [5] regardless of ethnicity. [6] The term was related to the predominance of the Latin Church, which is the largest autonomous particular church within the broader Catholic Church, and took its name from its origins in the Latin-speaking world which had Rome as its center. [7]

Latin was generally a negative characterization, especially after the 1054 schism. [4] The term is still used by the Orthodox church communities, but only in a theological context. Nonetheless, it did not share this negative connotation in the West, where many self-identified with the term, such as Petrarch, when he states "Sumus enim non greci, non barbari, sed itali et latini." ("We are not Greeks or barbarians; we are Italians and Latins."). [8]

Latin peoples and regions

Latin Europe (orthographic projection).svg
Map of Latin Europe.
Roman Empire (orthographic projection).svg
Map of the Roman Empire.


The various Romance-speaking groups of the present day, usually those of Latin Europe and Latin America, have sometimes been collectively referred to as "Latin peoples". [9] [10] Other synonymous terms are "Romance peoples" [11] or "Romanic peoples". [12] Likewise, the Romance languages themselves are sometimes referred to as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages. [13] [14] The designation also specifically survived in the names of two Romance-speaking groups: the Ladin people of northern Italy and the Ladino people of Central America.

The term Latin Europe is sometimes used in reference to European nations and regions inhabited by Romance-speaking people. [15] [16] [17]

Latin America is the region of the Americas that was colonized by Latin Europeans, and came to be called so in the 19th century. [18] The term is usually used to refer to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, namely Hispanic America and Brazil. Latin Americans are called latinoamericanos andlatino-americanos in Spanish and Portuguese, respectively; the shortening of this term resulted in the name for Latinos, [19] who are themselves sometimes just called "Latin". [20] [21] [22] [23]

Many of the present-day independent states of Africa have main official languages that are Romance, as a result of colonization by Romance-speaking European nations in the 19th century. [24] Barthélémy Boganda, a politician of the Central African Republic, proposed a "United States of Latin Africa" in 1957 that would serve as a federation of the Romance-speaking countries in the region of Central Africa, which never came into fruition. African-American author Richard Wright, who criticized the proposal, said that "Latin Africa" correlated with "Catholic Africa" and would create an unnecessary religious division against the English-speaking "Protestant Africa". [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeland</span> Place associated with a collective identity

A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic nationalist connotations. A homeland may also be referred to as a fatherland, a motherland, or a mother country, depending on the culture and language of the nationality in question.

Hubris, or less frequently hybris, describes a personality quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence and complacency, often in combination with arrogance. The term arrogance comes from the Latin adrogare, meaning "to feel that one has a right to demand certain attitudes and behaviors from other people". To arrogate means "to claim or seize without justification... To make undue claims to having", or "to claim or seize without right... to ascribe or attribute without reason". The term pretension is also associated with the term hubris, but is not synonymous with it.

The term Hispanic refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad broadly. In some contexts, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an ethnic or meta-ethnic term.

A lingua franca, also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volsci</span> Italic Osco-Umbrian tribe in Ancient Italy

The Volsci were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. At the time they inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the south, the Hernici on the east, and stretching roughly from Norba and Cora in the north to Antium in the south. Rivals of Rome for several hundred years, their territories were taken over by and assimilated into the growing republic by 304 BC. Rome's first emperor Augustus was of Volscian descent.

The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church, the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orient</span> Archaic term for the Eastern world

The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term Occident, which refers to the Western world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classical antiquity</span> Age of the ancient Greeks and Romans

Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the interwoven civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome known together as the Greco-Roman world, centered on the Mediterranean Basin. It is the period during which ancient Greece and ancient Rome flourished and had major influence throughout much of Europe, North Africa, and West Asia.

Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have some degree of speaking ability, but choose not to speak because of the negative or unwanted attention atypical voices sometimes attract. Such people communicate using sign language. Some consider it to be a derogatory term if used outside its historical context; the preferred term today is simply deaf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italic peoples</span> Ethnolinguistic group

The concept of Italic peoples is widely used in linguistics and historiography of ancient Italy. In a strict sense, commonly used in linguistics, it refers to the Osco-Umbrians and Latino-Faliscans, speakers of the Italic languages, a subgroup of the Indo-European language family. In a broader sense, commonly used in historiography, all the ancient peoples of Italy are referred to as Italic peoples, including those who did not speak Indo-European languages such the Rhaetians, Ligures and Etruscans. As the Latins achieved a dominant position among these tribes, by virtue of the expansion of the Roman civilization, the other Italic tribes adopted Latin language and culture as part of the process of Romanization.

Dominus is the Latin word for master or owner. Dominus was used as a Roman imperial title. It was also the Latin title of the feudal, superior and mesne, lords, and an ecclesiastical and academic title. The ecclesiastical title was rendered through the French seigneur in English as sir, making it a common prefix for parsons before the Reformation, as in Sir Hugh Evans in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. Its shortened form Dom remains used as a prefix of honor for ecclesiastics of the Catholic Church, and especially for members of the Benedictine and other religious orders. The title was formerly also used as is, Dominus, for a Bachelor of Arts.

Greek EastandLatin West are terms used to distinguish between the two parts of the Greco-Roman world and of medieval Christendom, specifically the eastern regions where Greek was the lingua franca and the western parts where Latin filled this role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latium</span> Historical region of Italy

Latium is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire.

A Roman colonia was originally a settlement of Roman citizens, establishing a Roman outpost in federated or conquered territory, for the purpose of securing it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of a Roman city. It is also the origin of the modern term "colony".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alumni</span> Graduate of a school

Alumni are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums or alumns as gender-neutral alternatives. The word comes from Latin, meaning nurslings, pupils or foster children, derived from alere "to nourish".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western world</span> Countries with an originally European shared culture

The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and states in the regions of Western Europe, Northern America, and most of Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also constitute the West. The Western world likewise is called the Occident in contrast to the Eastern world known as the Orient. The West is considered an evolving concept; made up of cultural, political, and economic synergy among diverse groups of people, and not a rigid region with fixed borders and members. Definitions of "Western world" vary according to context and perspectives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legacy of the Roman Empire</span>

The legacy of the Roman Empire has been varied and significant. The Roman Empire, built upon the legacy of other cultures, has had long-lasting influence with broad geographical reach on a great range of cultural aspects, including state institutions, law, values, religious beliefs, technological advances, engineering and language.

The term Roman Catholic is sometimes used to differentiate the Catholic Church and its members in full communion with the pope in Rome from other Christians who identify as "Catholic". It is also sometimes used to differentiate adherents to the Latin Church and its use of the Roman Rite from Catholics of the Eastern Catholic Churches. It is not the official name preferred by the Holy See or bishops in full communion with the pope as a designation for their faith or institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latins (Italic tribe)</span> Italic tribe in ancient antiquity

The Latins, sometimes known as the Latials or Latians, were an Italic tribe that included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small region known to the Romans as Old Latium, the area in the Italian Peninsula between the river Tiber and the promontory of Mount Circeo 100 km (62 mi) southeast of Rome. Following the Roman expansion, the Latins spread into the Latium adiectum, inhabited by Osco-Umbrian peoples.

The name Latin was a common demonym among the followers of the Latin Church of Western Christianity during the Middle Ages.

References

  1. "Definition of LATIN". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  2. "Ancient Rome - Latin League, Republic, Empire | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  3. "Ancient Rome - Latin League, Republic, Empire | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  4. 1 2 George Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State
  5. "Distinguishing the terms: Latins and Romans". Orbis Latinus . Archived from the original on 2018-07-09.
  6. "Distinguishing the terms: Latins and Romans". Orbilat.
  7. "Why So Many Rites in the Church | EWTN". EWTN Global Catholic Television Network. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  8. "Invectiva contra eum qui maledixit Italiam - Wikisource". la.wikisource.org (in Latin). Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  9. "Latin Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster". Merriam-Webster. 2023-06-10. Archived from the original on 2023-06-10. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  10. MultiCultural Review: Dedicated to a Better Understanding of Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Diversity. GP Subscription Publications. 2001. ISBN   978-0-8239-9700-8.
  11. Dame, Frederick William (2001). "The Swiss Romance Peoples And Their Identity". History of Switzerland: Historical Switzerland from the Romans to Napoleon. E. Mellen Press. ISBN   978-0-7734-7386-7.
  12. Pavlovic, Zoran (2006). "Romanic Peoples". Europe. Infobase Publishing. ISBN   978-1-4381-0455-3.
  13. "Latin Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster". 2023-06-10. Archived from the original on 2023-06-10. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  14. "Definition of NEO-LATIN". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  15. Friedman, Lawrence; Perez-Perdomo, Rogelio (2003). Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe. Stanford University Press. p. 1. ISBN   0-8047-6695-9.
  16. Iiams, Thomas M. (1971). "National Libraries of Latin Europe". American Libraries. 2 (10): 1081–1085. ISSN   0002-9769. JSTOR   25618521.
  17. "The History of the Romanian Language". linguistics.byu.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
  18. Chasteen, John Charles (2001). Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America . W. W. Norton. p.  156. ISBN   978-0-393-97613-7.
  19. Gutiérrez, Ramón A.; Almaguer, Tomás (2016). The new Latino studies reader: a twenty-first-century perspective. Oakland (Calif.): University of California press. ISBN   978-0-520-28483-8.
  20. "Definition of LATIN". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  21. Fajkus, Michelle Margaret (2022-11-21). "10 Differences in Latin Culture Compared to U.S. Culture". Homeschool Spanish Academy. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  22. Horvath, Richard (2021-11-23). "10 things in Latin Culture that Will Influence a Workplace". English to Spanish Raleigh. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  23. highheelsandabackpack (2023-01-30). "Dating Latin Men - Everything you need to know" . Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  24. Reutner, Ursula, ed. (2023-12-18), Manual of Romance Languages in Africa, De Gruyter, doi:10.1515/9783110628869, ISBN   978-3-11-062886-9 , retrieved 2024-08-04
  25. R. Wright, « To French Readers », Mississippi Quarterly, 42, 4, 1989 (Automne) {1959}