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Question: Can some one tell me about the ethnic diversity of Roman empire!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Because of the number of cultures that Rome conquered in its prodigious reign, there were many ethnic groups who reached Italia and subsequently settled there!. These groups include Romans, Italians, Goths, Greeks, Spanish, Celts, Turks, Crusaders, Romanians, and Gypsies over the centuries!. By 100 AD Rome is a rich mix of different cultures and religions!. Despite such dictatorial power wielded by Rome at the height of its power, Rome was actually more democratic when it comes to keeping its people’s cultural practices and traditions alive!. The freedom by which its constituents – citizen or otherwise – exercise their diversity can be still be seen in present Rome’s architecture, language and people!.

Rome’s architecture shows a fusion of traditional Etruscan and Greek elements!. For the whole of the republican period, Roman architecture was a nearly exact copy of that of Greece!. However, it was late through their reign that they achieved originality in construction!.

Carried over from Macedonia, mosaic was used to tile the floors of houses in Rome!. Mosaic floors are particularly associated with Roman dwellings from Britain to Dura-Europas!. Splendid mosaic floors distinguished luxurious Roman villas across North Africa!. In Rome, Nero and his architects used mosaics to cover the surfaces of walls and ceilings in the Domus Aurea, built 64 AD!.

Moreover, the dialects of Rome, which comprised the Italiano Centrale, is a group of western Romance dialects spoken in Latium, Umbria, central Marche, extreme southern Tuscany, and a little part of Abruzzo in central Italy!. These dialects may have slight differences among them, but all are closely related to Tuscan and are mutually intelligible with each other as well as with standard Italian!.

Italiano Centrale dialects include Marchigiano (from the central part of Marche), Umbrian dialects (Umbria), Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano (L'Aquila and Province of Rieti), Tuscia dialect (Tuscia, northern part of Latium), Romanesco (Rome), Romanaccio, Giudeo-Romanesco, Castelli Romani dialect (Castelli Romani), and Ciociaro (Ciociaria, southern part of Latium)!.

Italkian, another minority dialect in Rome, was spoken mainly in urban areas in Rome and in central and northern Italy (especially in Livorno) from the 10th to the 17th centuries in Italy!. Described as a mix between Italian and Hebrew, it is estimated that only a tiny number of people speak Italkian fluently today and less than 4,000 people still use it in their everyday speech!.

Italkian is not the only dialect that employs Hebrew!. Others include Yiddish, which is a mix between German and Hebrew, and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), a mix between Spanish and Hebrew!. Linguists also make a distinction between such Jewish Italo-Romance dialects as Giudeo-Ferrarese, Giudeo-Mantovano, Giudeo-Modenese, Giudeo-Reggiano, and Giudeo-Veneto!.
http://diversityworkingtoday!.blogspot!.co!.!.!.

A summary:
The Roman Empire encompassed a huge amount of territory, but also allowed people of many different cultures to retain their heritage into modern times!. The empire helped to perpetuate the art, literature, and philosophy of the Greeks, the religious and ethical system of the Jews, the new religion of the Christians, Babylonian astronomy and astrology, and cultural elements from Persia, Egypt, and other eastern civilizations!. The Romans supplied their own peculiar talents for government, law, and architecture and also spread their Latin language!. In this way they created the Greco-Roman synthesis, the rich combination of cultural elements that for two millennia has shaped what we call the Western tradition!.
http://www!.encarta!.nl/encyclopedia_17415!.!.!.

I tried to condense the following article, but it was too interesting to cut much out of it:

The Roman Empire was composed of many ethnic groups, who spoke dozens of languages!. Celts, Italians, Berbers, Jews, Egyptians, and Greeks could all become citizens of the Roman Empire if the emperor chose to grant that status!. The term Roman was not an ethnic description but a political one!. Rome successfully assimilated many different groups and gradually extended Roman citizenship to conquered peoples!.
The Romans insisted that "barbaric" peoples learn Latin before they became citizens, but they freely extended citizenship to Greeks, whom they considered civilized, although they knew no Latin!. Three centuries earlier, Roman statesmen like Cato the Elder had scorned Greek culture, but the Roman elite during the empire spoke fluent Greek and directed their contempt toward other eastern peoples, like Jews and Syrians!. Greek philosophers, Asian orators, African religious scholars, Syrian satirists, and Saint Paul himself all boasted Roman citizenship, although they all wrote in Greek!. It is not easy to generalize about the Roman influence; it can best be seen in the effects of conquest on specific peoples!.

The warlike Celts spread from central Europe to northern Italy, Spain, Britain, and Ireland!. The Romans in the west absorbed the Celts so thoroughly that Celtic languages survive today only where Romanization failed: Ireland, Wales, the highlands of Scotland, and Bretagne (or Britanny) in northwest France!. The Romans called the Celts of northern Italy and France Gauls, and they became the most Romanized people of the provinces!. Roman roads and cities appeared everywhere, and southern Gaul was so strongly influenced by the Romans that its residents called it "The Province," and it is today still known as Provence!.

The Gauls intermingled with the Romans and adopted Roman traits so quickly that it is difficult to identify which Romans actually had Gallic blood!. The poets Catullus and Virgil and the noted historian Livy all came from northern Italy and were possibly Gauls!. Southern Gaul produced the historian Tacitus and the emperor Marcus Aurelius!. The Gallic elite built many amphitheaters, theaters, and temples in the Roman style!. Autun, a city of 80,000, boasted a theater that was the fourth largest in the Roman world and held over 30,000 people!. The amphitheater at N!?mes still survives and is used as an arena for bullfights!.

Conquest by Rome cost the Gauls their freedom and the wild, warlike spirit that once so terrified their enemies!. The Gauls first served as auxiliary cavalry for the Roman army and later were made soldiers in the legions!. Rebellions in AD 21 and AD 68 were short-lived, and Gaul continued to prosper!. As Roman subjects, the Gauls welcomed the art, religion, and literary culture of Italy!.

They turned their efforts to agriculture, metalwork, and pottery, which decorated and enriched their cities!. Imports of Gallic glass, pottery, and wine replaced local production in Italy and brought great wealth to some Gauls!. These wealthy merchants and landholders lived in large villas, one of which had 200 rooms!. Such villas became self-sufficient communities during the chaos that marked the last years of the empire!. The Gauls became Romanized quickly and contributed their energy and spirit to Roman civilization rather than many specific Celtic traditions!.

Spain
Augustus established new cities with Roman citizens (including retired veterans) and extended citizenship rights to existing cities!. All of Spain accepted the Latin language except the Basques, who lived in remote areas of the Pyrenees!. Peace also brought considerable prosperity to Spain, with its fertile agricultural lands and rich mines!. One scholar estimates that 45 million quarts of Spanish olive oil reached Rome every year from AD 15 to AD 255!. Spaniards went to Rome, where some served in the Senate or at the imperial court!. There was also a Spanish intellectual circle, including the philosopher Seneca and the poets Martial and Lucan!. One emperor, Trajan, and possibly another, Hadrian, were born in Spain, although they both traced their ancestry to Italians colonists who had settled in the province!.

Britain
Only a century after Julius Caesar briefly invaded Britain, the emperor Claudius launched a major expedition in AD 43 and imposed Roman rule in southern England!. The Britons were rebellious, and at first the Romans preferred to rule through subject kings!. But the Britons resented Roman domination and especially Roman taxes!. In AD 60 Boudicca, queen of the British tribe called the Iceni, led a major insurrection and destroyed Roman settlements at London, Saint Albans, and Colchester!. The Romans later retook England, but only partially conquered Wales and parts of lowland Scotland!. For a long time, Hadrian's Wall, stretching across northern England, remained the frontier of the empire!. New evidence also suggests a Roman presence on the coast of Ireland!.

The native peoples in Britain were less urban than those in Gaul and were correspondingly less influenced by Roman culture!. Stone inscriptions indicate that the Britons were also less literate than the Gauls!. Latin did replace Celtic in most lowland areas of Britain, although the German invasions of Britain of the 5th century AD eliminated Latin there as a living language!.

Africa
An indigenous or native people known as the Berbers originally populated the northern coast of Africa!. However, colonists from the eastern Mediterranean kingdom of Phoenicia (most of modern Lebanon) established the city of Carthage on the Gulf of Tunis (present-day Tunisia)!. To the west of Carthage, native Berber kings ruled in Numidia and Mauritania (present-day Algeria and Morocco)!. After Rome defeated Carthage in 146 BC, it established its first province in Africa!. Later, Rome also added Numidia and Mauritania as provinces!. When the North African general Lucius Septimius Severus became emperor in AD 193, he spoke Latin with a Punic accent!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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