Traces of Roman civilisation within the area formerly occupied by the Roman Empire

Abstract

The subject of this article is the series of traces left by the Roman Empire, throughout the area formerly occupied by it, even though many separate cultural identities have formed and even though time has passed. When the Roman Empire split into two, into a Greek East and a Latin West and the unity of the Mediterranean area was broken, two separate cultures appeared, but in reality this was just a reflection at the summit of society of differences that had always existed at the root or base levels. These two separate Eastern and Western worlds within the Mediterranean area, to which a Roman-Germanic area created by the movement of tribes should be added, can be compared by means of the elements shaping their political culture. These are the economic social characteristics, the economic-social and legal-political aspects of the government systems, the differing views of citizenship, the relations between individuals, families and the state, the relation between religion and state and the secularisation process at individual and social levels. The conclusions reached are that even though time passes the base characteristics are very change resistant and that choices related to the form of government like the choice between unitary or federal systems, are not very easy since the mentality that shapes a political culture does not change even though the governments and even the regimes do change. Subjects to which this article is related: The break up of the Roman Empire, East-West differences, differences between the Roman and the Germanic worlds, political culture, European regimes, secularity versus religiosity and unitary versus federal structure.