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Message:: [QUOTE="SeptimusT, post: 4084720, member: 91240"]I would argue that you have to concede their 'Romanness' in order to grasp who they were. It's clear that they saw themselves as the heirs to Rome and made that part of their identity. They can still be Romans without being Classical Romans. They weren't Greeks, because their identity had been fundamentally changed by their incorporation into the Roman Empire. The process of assimilation [USER=84047]@Voulgaroktonou[/USER] mentions changed them in a lot of ways, but it's ultimately what defined them. The speech by Constantine XI, which they show a bit of in the show and which invokes the Punic Wars, Augustus, Constantine, and Justinian, really taps into that identity. There's some question of its authenticity, but the fact that it was attributed to the emperor shows that it is a plausible representation of their identity.[/QUOTE]