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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1024942, member: 19463&quot;]While not a popular opinion in Italy, I believe part of the problem is that &#039;Rome&#039; the ancient culture and &#039;Rome&#039; the city in Italy parted ways long before the period being discussed here.&nbsp; Even as early as the fourth century, there were several cities in the Empire at least as important as Rome.&nbsp; Emperors after the first century were more likely to come from other places and universal citizenship from the time of Caracalla made being from Italy no particular advantage.&nbsp; The straw that broke the camel&#039;s back was when Constantine moved the nominal capital to Constantinople but the Imperial court before that was as likely to be found elsewhere.&nbsp; This became especially true when the Empire was split into East and West with the Western Emperor as likely to be tending duties on some frontier or being just a puppet in Rome while the real power was in the hands of someone else (often a German).&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&#039;Rome&#039; was not a city in central Italy but a culture that spread from Britain to Africa.&nbsp; The Holy Roman Empire and the modern country of Romania have roots in Ancient Roman culture just as did the assorted states that reformed into modern Italy.&nbsp; For coin collectors, it is fair to say that most Roman coins did most of their circulating outside Italy with, at least in the later centuries, most being made at mints outside modern Italy.&nbsp; &#039;Rome&#039; as a culture belongs to the world or at least certainly to Europe.&nbsp; While we thank the brothers Romulus and Remus for starting it in Central Italy, what defined &#039;Rome&#039; over the centuries developed into much more than what fit on the Seven Hills.&nbsp; Our ancestors from Germany, Britain, Spain, Turkey and Romania can be just as &#039;Roman&#039; as are those still settled in the town of that name.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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