Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 306 Romans in Seres, Seres in Rome

"Then you changed the Greek language like this, wouldn't the Greeks know what to say?" Princess Jeanne asked curiously.

"The big question is, what is a Greek?" Guo Kang pointed out the problem.

"Aren't those who speak Greek the Greeks?" Princess Jeanne didn't seem to think there was anything wrong.

"It's hard to say." Guo Kang shook his head: "The concept of Greeks is very confusing. Many people, especially ordinary people, don't know what they are. They can't tell the relationship between Greece and Rome."

"Generally speaking, people in cities, especially educated people, have a clearer understanding of Greece. I remember that it was probably during the Nicaean dynasty. In order to fight against the Crusaders who occupied most of the capital, the Greek dynasty officially launched The banner of 'Greeks'." Guo Kang recalled, and said: "But even at that time, the concept of 'Greeks' was mainly circulated among the courts of the princes and the upper literati. They did not abandon the Romans because of this. recognition."

"As for the folks... 'Greeks' was a bad word for a long time. They called us Greeks back then."

"Ah? Why is that?" Princess Jeanna was very surprised.

"Because what they commonly call 'Greece' and 'Rome' is largely a religious distinction." Guo Kang said: "Many rural people like to call people who believe in monotheism 'Romans', and their religion is called Rome." Religion and language are called Romans. And those ancient civilizations that left many relics are the 'Greeks' who believed in polytheism."

"When we went south to Morea, in order to reduce unnecessary friction, we recruited some educated old nobles from cities such as Dadu and Theronica, and asked them to persuade the locals."

"As a result, some mountain people's leaders discovered that these people had previously converted to worshiping God, which was quite different from the old-fashioned Orthodox religion that the local people believed in. They even thought they were polytheists. There was a gap between the two groups, and they quickly quarreled The mountain people called the old noble a Greek..."

"So there is such a thing." Little Rangna was also quite emotional.

"There is no way, because even in Greece, where the culture was relatively prosperous, most ordinary people actually didn't have much opportunity to go to school, and special history education was even rarer." Guo Kang explained: "Everyone usually The source of culture that can be contacted is basically the church, and the church has indeed always regarded itself as the Roman orthodox belief. Over time, this strange habit has formed."

"But isn't it... no effect?" Little Jeanna asked curiously, "Those nobles don't deny that they are Greeks."

"That's right, so it's a chicken-and-duck talk from beginning to end." Guo Kang spread his hands.

"Now the term 'Greek' is actually a very broad concept, and so far, it has different meanings in different groups."

"For example, among these people around me—more precisely, in the upper echelons of the Legion, 'Greeks' can sometimes refer to all Greek-speaking people, but it also has a clearly pejorative connotation, and many times it refers specifically to those who are in the upper echelons. , but the Greek aristocrat who is a vegetarian and has no bottom line."

"And this meaning has spread to refer to all people who are considered weak, incompetent, stupid and short-sighted, whether they are high or low, and sometimes even whether they speak Greek. But the concept of 'Greek', and the language. The concepts of 'Greeks' do not exactly coincide and sometimes contradict each other."

"We even share a common language with some Greek commoners in despising the old Greek nobles. Everyone likes to call themselves Romans and call these people 'Greeks'. But on the other hand, we also habitually call these commoners Greeks. people, but most of them are clearly unacceptable."

"This is really messy." Zhu Wenkui said with emotion.

"These are just a few of our internal opinions, and it will be even more chaotic if you include foreign countries." Guo Kang said: "From the perspective of other countries, especially Alemanni, there is no 'Rome' in the East, only 'Greece'. A long time ago, they thought that our side was just a Greek country, and there was no Rome for a long time. But in this regard, even the old nobles who have the Greek identity firmly refused to recognize this title—you see, facing the competition The proclaimed barbarians, everyone started to band together and call themselves Romans."

"So what exactly is this?" Monk Daoyan was a little puzzled.

"I don't know." Guo Kang directly spread his hands.

"Didn't I just say that we try to avoid using terms like 'Roman language' and 'common language'? The reason is the same." He said, "Not only the Greeks, but many surrounding residents have always believed that Roman language is Greek. Among us, some people think that the Roman language can change with the times, so it can be used to call Chinese. But some people think that this kind of change is likely to cause more confusion, and it is better not to change it randomly.”

"I think it's already very confusing, and adding a little more probably won't make any difference..." Zhu Wenkui commented.

"The impact will be even greater." Guo Kang pointed out: "At least most of the Greeks were once under the rule of the Roman Empire, but if a new Roman language is announced, most of the 'Roman language' speakers will be found in the East. If everyone It’s easy to explain. But there will definitely be more contacts in the future, who will be the Romans by then?”

"Then what are you guys now?" Zhu Wenkui asked.

"I don't know." Guo Kang said bluntly: "The Alemanni and Poles think we are Mongols, the Russ and Kipchaks think we are Khitans, the upper Greeks think we are Seres, most Ordinary people just generally think that we are Romans from the East, and they don’t care what we are.”

"Of course we want to build a solid 'Roman' crowd. That's why we chose to start from scratch and build a group that agrees with Rome from the grassroots level. Our country is indeed a legionary country, because if there is no military organization, Then Rome may be a confusing concept similar to "Greece" now-no one knows its exact definition, and can't find its boundaries. Now, we can at least say that these people are definitely Romans. "

"Because they have a lot of Roman elements? Or do other people admit it?" Zhu Wenkui asked.

"Because they have no choice but to recognize Rome." Guo Kang replied.

"what?"

"In the beginning, these people basically belonged to the lord. If they were Bulgarians, it meant they belonged to the territory of Bulgaria; if they were Wallachians, it meant they belonged to the territory of Wallachia." Guo Kang explained.

"For other Europeans, their groups are often named after territories. People in Catalonia, for example, form a separate group from other Spaniards. But here, many people deliberately Avoid these titles, as it is easy to think that oneself and the family were once serfs of the local lords."

"Of course, with the passage of time, their descendants gradually don't care about these things. But the traditional territorial division has long been broken, and the education of several generations has also made the characters used by everyone tend to be consistent. Everyone is used to the name of the Romans. gone."

"There are so many stories..." Zhu Wenkui said with emotion.

"Yeah, so we are very conflicted." Guo Kang said: "The backbone of our country is these Romans, and we ourselves are the founders of this organization, so we have dialogues with outsiders—for example, when facing the Ming Dynasty. , we are the Romans."

"But on the other hand, there are indeed differences. Chinese has not replaced the local dialect, and many people's mother tongues are actually Slavic and Greek dialects. Compared with them, those of us who really use Chinese as our mother tongue have become The Han Chinese among the Romans. Things are so troublesome."

"Actually, it doesn't matter. I think Europeans don't pay attention to these things at all." Zhu Wenkui suggested: "You are Romans in Seris, and you are Seresians in Rome. That's fine."

"..."

"I've told you everything, so save a few words." Little Jeanna tried to stop him again.

(End of this chapter)