ABSTRACT
Rome captured Greece by force-that much is clear. Yet historians speak of the “transmission” of “Greco-Roman” civilization to Western Europe. Military conquest can have unpredictable cultural consequences. It is not easy to tell, in the long run, who were the winners and the losers. The conquerors do not necessarily keep their language or their identity. The Franks kept only their name as they were absorbed into late antique Gallo-Roman civilization. The more militant and more successful Normans lost their language and culture twice: first when they moved from Scandinavia into northern France, and then again in Britain. Both the Mongols and the Manchus conquered the Han Chinese and established dynasties in the Middle Kingdom, but the invaders were finally Sinicized and absorbed into Chinese culture. In what ways did Greeks become “Roman,” or did Romans become “Greek?” What was Greek identity and what was Roman identity in the bicultural Imperium Romanum?
