The term "Roman" is typically used interchangeably to describe a historical timespan, a material culture, a geographical location and a personal identity.
Though these concepts are obviously related, they are not identical.
Although modern historians tend to have a preferred idea of what being Roman meant, so-called Romanitas (a term rarely used in Ancient Rome itself), the idea of "Romanness" was never static or unchanging.
What being Roman meant and what Rome itself was would have been viewed considerably different by a Roman under the Roman Republic in the 2nd century BC and a Roman living in Constantinople in the 6th century AD.
Even then, some elements remained common throughout much of Roman history.

Crucial to understanding Roman identity is that unlike other ancient peoples, such as the Greeks or Gauls, the Romans did not see their common identity as one necessarily based on shared language or inherited ethnicity.
Instead, the important factors of being Roman were being part of the same larger religious or political community and sharing common customs, values, morals and ways of life.
The term "Roman" is typically used interchangeably to describe a historical timespan, a material culture, a geographical location and a personal identity. Though these concepts are obviously related, they are not identical. Although modern historians tend to have a preferred idea of what being Roman meant, so-called Romanitas (a term rarely used in Ancient Rome itself), the idea of "Romanness" was never static or unchanging. What being Roman meant and what Rome itself was would have been viewed considerably different by a Roman under the Roman Republic in the 2nd century BC and a Roman living in Constantinople in the 6th century AD. Even then, some elements remained common throughout much of Roman history.
Crucial to understanding Roman identity is that unlike other ancient peoples, such as the Greeks or Gauls, the Romans did not see their common identity as one necessarily based on shared language or inherited ethnicity. Instead, the important factors of being Roman were being part of the same larger religious or political community and sharing common customs, values, morals and ways of life.
Roman people