R omanness: a multiple identity and its changes

In the often controversial debates about early medieval ethnicity and identities, R omanness has received little attention. But it should, because it is a particularly interesting case of the transformations of identity. What did it mean to be R oman after R ome? Early medieval R oman identities could be civic, regional, imperial, religious, cultural, legal or military; by self‐identification or by outside ascription; they could constitute one facet in a complex web of affiliations, or a stubbornly maintained point of reference for the survival of a community. The ‘Byzantine’ empire, the city of R ome, the Catholic church, an educated elite or a regional population could provide foci of post‐ R oman R omanness in the west. R omans could be counted as one gens among others, or still measured by their imperial pretences. These ambivalences about R oman identity are not simply a result of the fall of the western empire. Numerous recent studies have dealt with the significance of R omanness in antiquity, and have shown that this was a paradoxical construction from the start, creating a wide variety of ways to be R oman. At times, R omanness was also ethnicized, although usually its political, legal and cultural definitions were in the forefront. The present contribution sketches some ways in which the classical multiplicity of romanitas affected its early medieval development.