Editing Greeks (section)

===Roman Empire===
{{further|Roman Greece|Greco-Roman world}}
Between 168 BC and 30 BC, the entire Greek world was conquered by Rome, and almost all of the world's Greek speakers lived as citizens or subjects of the Roman Empire. Despite their military superiority, the Romans admired and became [[Greco-Roman world|heavily influenced]] by the achievements of Greek culture, hence [[Horace]]'s famous statement: ''Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit'' ("Greece, although captured, took its wild conqueror captive").<ref>{{harvnb|Zoch|2000|p=136}}.</ref> In the centuries following the Roman conquest of the Greek world, the Greek and Roman cultures merged into a single [[Greco-Roman]] culture.

In the religious sphere, this was a period of profound change. The spiritual revolution that took place, saw a waning of the old Greek religion, whose decline beginning in the 3rd century BC continued with the introduction of new religious movements from the East.<ref name=Roberts1/> The cults of deities like [[Isis]] and [[Mithra]] were introduced into the Greek world.<ref name=BritHel/><ref name=BritHelRel>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Hellenistic religion|date=13 May 2015|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.|location=United States|id=Online Edition|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hellenistic-religion|access-date=21 June 2022|archive-date=27 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627004110/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hellenistic-religion|url-status=live}}</ref> Greek-speaking communities of the Hellenized East were instrumental in the spread of early Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries,<ref>{{harvnb|Ferguson|2003|pp=617–618}}.</ref> and Christianity's early leaders and writers (notably [[Saint Paul]]) were generally Greek-speaking,<ref>{{harvnb|Dunstan|2011|p=500}}.</ref> though none were from Greece proper. However, Greece itself had a tendency to cling to paganism and was not one of the influential centers of early Christianity: in fact, some ancient Greek religious practices remained in vogue until the end of the 4th century,<ref>{{harvnb|Milburn|1988|p=158}}.</ref> with some areas such as the southeastern Peloponnese remaining pagan until well into the mid-Byzantine 10th century AD.<ref>{{harvnb|Makrides|2009|p=206}}.</ref> The region of [[Tsakonia]] remained pagan until the ninth century and as such its inhabitants were referred to as ''Hellenes'', in the sense of being pagan, by their Christianized Greek brethren in mainstream Byzantine society.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Nicholas, Nick.|title=A critical lexicostatistical examination of Ancient and Modern Greek and Tsakonian.|journal=Journal of Applied Linguistics and Lexicography|volume=1|issue=1|year=2019|page=19|doi=10.33910/2687-0215-2019-1-1-18-68|doi-access=free}}</ref>

While ethnic distinctions still existed in the [[Roman Empire]], they became secondary to religious considerations, and the renewed empire used Christianity as a tool to support its cohesion and promote a robust Roman national identity.<ref>{{harvnb|Kaldellis|2007|pp=35–40}}.</ref> From the early centuries of the [[Common Era]], the Greeks self-identified as Romans ([[Medieval Greek|Greek]]: {{lang|grc|Ῥωμαῖοι}} ''Rhōmaîoi'').<ref>{{harvnb|Howatson|1989|p=264: "From the fourth century AD onwards the Greeks of the eastern Roman empire called themselves Rhomaioi ('Romans')&nbsp;..."}}</ref> By that time, the name ''Hellenes'' denoted pagans but was revived as an ethnonym in the 11th century.<ref name=Cameron>{{harvnb|Cameron|2009|p=7}}.</ref>