Latins#Middle Ages

{{Main|Latins (Italic tribe)}}

{{further|Latin League|Romanization (cultural)}}File:Volsci.jpg (Latium Vetus) and surrounding regions in central Italy that were eventually annexed by Rome to form "New Latium". The Alban Hills, a region of early Latin settlement (from {{circa|1000 BC}}) and the site of the Latiar, the most important Latin communal festival, are located under the "U" in {{sc|latium}}. The region's two main lakes, Nemi and Albanus, are visible under the "I". The leading Latin city-states of Rome, Tibur (Tivoli), Praeneste (Palestrina), Ardea and Gabii are shown.]]

The Latins were an ancient Italic people of the Latium region in central Italy (Latium Vetus, "Old Latium"), in the 1st millennium BC. Although they lived in independent city-states, they spoke a common language (Latin), held common religious beliefs, and extended common rights of residence and trade to one another.{{Cite web |title=Ancient Rome - Latin League, Republic, Empire {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Rome/The-Latin-League |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en }} Collectively, these Latin states were known as the Latin League.

A rupture between Rome, one of the Latin states, and the rest of the Latin League emerged as a result of the former's territorial ambitions. The Latin League fought against Rome in the Latin War (340-338 BC), which ended in a Roman victory. Consequently, some of the Latin states were incorporated within the Roman state, and their inhabitants were given full Roman citizenship. Others became Roman allies and enjoyed certain privileges.{{Cite web |title=Ancient Rome - Latin League, Republic, Empire {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Rome/The-Latin-League |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en }}

The Roman Empire would go on to dominate the Mediterranean region for the next several centuries, spreading the Latin language and Roman culture. The Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire ended in AD 476, while the Greek-speaking eastern half survived on until 1453.

{{further|Latins (Middle Ages)}}

File:12th century unknown painters - Crusaders - WGA19723.jpg depiction of Latin Crusaders]]

In the Eastern Roman Empire, and the broader Greek-Orthodox world, Latins was a synonym for all people who followed the Roman CatholicismGeorge Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State of Western Christianity,{{cite web |title=Distinguishing the terms: Latins and Romans |url=http://www.orbilat.com/General_Survey/Terms--Latins_and_Romans.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180709112810/http://www.orbilat.com/General_Survey/Terms--Latins_and_Romans.html |archive-date=2018-07-09 |website=Orbis Latinus}} regardless of ethnicity.{{Cite web |title=Distinguishing the terms: Latins and Romans |url=https://www.orbilat.com/General_Survey/Terms--Latins_and_Romans.html |website=Orbilat}} The term was related to the predominance of the Latin Church, which is the largest autonomous particular church within the broader Catholic Church, and took its name from its origins in the Latin-speaking world which had Rome as its center.{{Cite web |title=Why So Many Rites in the Church {{!}} EWTN |url=https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/why-so-many-rites-in-the-church-4827 |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=EWTN Global Catholic Television Network |language=en}}

Latin was generally a negative characterization, especially after the 1054 schism. The term is still used by the Orthodox church communities, but only in a theological context. Nonetheless, it did not share this negative connotation in the West, where many self-identified with the term, such as Petrarch, when he states "Sumus enim non greci, non barbari, sed itali et latini." ("We are not Greeks or barbarians; we are Italians and Latins.").{{Cite web |title=Invectiva contra eum qui maledixit Italiam - Wikisource |url=https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Invectiva_contra_eum_qui_maledixit_Italiam |access-date=2022-09-11 |website=la.wikisource.org |language=la}}

{{Further|Romance languages|Languages of Europe#Romance|Latin America}}{{See also|Category:Latin regions}}

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The various Romance-speaking groups of the present day, usually those of Latin Europe and Latin America, have sometimes been collectively referred to as "Latin peoples".{{Cite web |date=2023-06-10 |title=Latin Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Latin#kidsdictionary:~:text=Latin%20grammar-,b,Latin%20languages,-2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610084939/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Latin#kidsdictionary:~:text=Latin%20grammar-,b,Latin%20languages,-2 |archive-date=2023-06-10 |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=Merriam-Webster }}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i69BAQAAIAAJ |title=MultiCultural Review: Dedicated to a Better Understanding of Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Diversity |date=2001 |publisher=GP Subscription Publications |isbn=978-0-8239-9700-8 |language=en }} Other synonymous terms are "Romance peoples"{{Cite book |last=Dame |first=Frederick William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eyUkAQAAIAAJ |title=History of Switzerland: Historical Switzerland from the Romans to Napoleon |date=2001 |publisher=E. Mellen Press |isbn=978-0-7734-7386-7 |language=en |chapter=The Swiss Romance Peoples And Their Identity }} or "Romanic peoples".{{Cite book |last=Pavlovic |first=Zoran |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7rovXFnqXYMC |title=Europe |date=2006 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-0455-3 |language=en |chapter=Romanic Peoples }} Likewise, the Romance languages themselves are sometimes referred to as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages.{{Cite web |date=2023-06-10 |title=Latin Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Latin#kidsdictionary:~:text=Latin%20grammar-,b,Latin%20languages,-2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610084939/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Latin#kidsdictionary:~:text=Latin%20grammar-,b,Latin%20languages,-2 |archive-date=2023-06-10 |access-date=2024-03-08}}{{Cite web |title=Definition of NEO-LATIN |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Neo-Latin |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}} The designation also specifically survived in the names of two Romance-speaking groups: the Ladin people of northern Italy and the Ladino people of Central America.

The term Latin Europe is sometimes used in reference to European nations and regions inhabited by Romance-speaking people.{{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Lawrence |author-link1=Lawrence M. Friedman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEMUKyPTE9AC&q=%22latin+europe%22 |title=Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe |last2=Perez-Perdomo |first2=Rogelio |date=2003 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=0-8047-6695-9 |page=1}}{{Cite journal |last=Iiams |first=Thomas M. |date=1971 |title=National Libraries of Latin Europe |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25618521 |journal=American Libraries |volume=2 |issue=10 |pages=1081–1085 |jstor=25618521 |issn=0002-9769}}{{Cite web |title=The History of the Romanian Language |url=https://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/Ling450ch/reports/romanian.html |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=linguistics.byu.edu}}

Latin America is the region of the Americas that was colonized by Latin Europeans, and came to be called so in the 19th century.{{cite book |last=Chasteen |first=John Charles |author-link=John Charles Chasteen |url=https://archive.org/details/borninbloodfirec00chas_0 |title=Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America |publisher=W. W. Norton |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-393-97613-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/borninbloodfirec00chas_0/page/156 156] |url-access=registration}} The term is usually used to refer to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, namely Hispanic America and Brazil. Latin Americans are called latinoamericanos and latino-americanos in Spanish and Portuguese, respectively; the shortening of this term resulted in the name for Latinos,{{Cite book |last1=Gutiérrez |first1=Ramón A. |title=The new Latino studies reader: a twenty-first-century perspective |last2=Almaguer |first2=Tomás |date=2016 |publisher=University of California press |isbn=978-0-520-28483-8 |location=Oakland (Calif.)}} who are themselves sometimes just called "Latin".{{Cite web |title=Definition of LATIN |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Latin |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en }}{{Cite web |last=Fajkus |first=Michelle Margaret |date=2022-11-21 |title=10 Differences in Latin Culture Compared to U.S. Culture |url=https://www.spanish.academy/blog/10-differences-in-latin-culture-compared-to-u-s-culture/ |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=Homeschool Spanish Academy |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Horvath |first=Richard |date=2021-11-23 |title=10 things in Latin Culture that Will Influence a Workplace |url=https://www.englishtospanishraleigh.com/blog/latin-culture-influence-workplace |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=English to Spanish Raleigh |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=highheelsandabackpack |date=2023-01-30 |title=Dating Latin Men - Everything you need to know |url=https://www.highheelsandabackpack.com/dating-latin-men/,%20https://www.highheelsandabackpack.com/dating-latin-men/ |access-date=2024-03-10 |language=en-US }}

Many of the present-day independent states of Africa have main official languages that are Romance, as a result of colonization by Romance-speaking European nations in the 19th century.{{Citation |title=Manual of Romance Languages in Africa |date=2023-12-18 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110628869/html |access-date=2024-08-04 |publisher=De Gruyter |language=en |doi=10.1515/9783110628869 |isbn=978-3-11-062886-9 |editor-last1=Reutner |editor-first1=Ursula |url-access=subscription }} Barthélémy Boganda, a politician of the Central African Republic, proposed a "United States of Latin Africa" in 1957 that would serve as a federation of the Romance-speaking countries in the region of Central Africa, which never came into fruition. African-American author Richard Wright, who criticized the proposal, said that "Latin Africa" correlated with "Catholic Africa" and would create an unnecessary religious division against the English-speaking "Protestant Africa".R. Wright, « To French Readers », Mississippi Quarterly, 42, 4, 1989 (Automne) {1959}

• Latin Rights
• Latin Valley
• Greek East and Latin West
• Roman people#Later history
• Latin Union
• Pan-Latinism

{{reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20180709112810/http://www.orbilat.com/General_Survey/Terms--Latins_and_Romans.html Distinguishing the terms: Latins and Romans]

Category:Latin language

Category:Italic peoples