About Roman Identity: Critical Balance of its Contemporary Theories

Abstract

This article offers a critical analysis of contemporary theories addressing the Roman identity of Classical Antiquity. We identified a transfer among the homogenizing perspectives to others that make visible the relevance of smaller groups as agents of their own identity. From this conception of identity and its development factors, we recognized three general theories, from which three specific proposals have been derived: Firstly, that recognizing the identity in its relation with the romanization; secondly, that rejecting this concept and revealing that of ethnicity, and, from this, that of rejection and discrepancy;
and finally, that linking previous theories—cultural identity. From this last theory, we found a relevant way whose works seems to refer to the Roman identity as civitas.