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I was traveling in Greece and heard a story about the modern Greek independence fighters in the ~1850's. At the time the soldiers were traveling around the vari
by elcritch 3y ago
I was traveling in Greece and heard a story about the modern Greek independence fighters in the ~1850's. At the time the soldiers were traveling around the various Greek islands to gain support.
According to the story on one small island, the local children asked who the soldiers were. They said "we're Greek, like you!" The children were confused and answered "no, we're Romans!".
- philoinvestor 3y agoI don't think what you say translates the way you think it does :) "Romios" or "Romiosyni" (the act of being a Romios) is considered in many instances parallel to being Greek. Remember that the Roman Empire dumped Latin and went with the Greek language.
- epilys 3y agoThe intricate matter of the name of the Greeks :) To be pedantic, the soldiers might have probably said Hellenes, not Greek (γραικοί). But Roman was also a common ethnonym back then, used by the Ottoman society. In Greek (Helleneke) it was spelled Ρωμιός https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%A1%CF%89%CE%BC%CE%B9%CF%8C%CF%82 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%A1%CF%89%CE%BC%CE%B9%CF%8... . The point of confusion was probably that, I suppose? I grew up in Greece, no one uses any name other than Hellene anymore. To the point that "Greek" sounds more English than Greek to a native Greek speaker.
- BerislavLopac 3y agoAlso Rumelia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumelia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumelia