Italo-Romans ( Italo-Romani ) - the conditional name of the population of the Roman province of Italy , the main and most important part of the Roman people . Another designation of this term is Italians ( lat. Italici ); so called the Roman historians of the inhabitants of the Apennine peninsula in the Roman state . In modern historiography, italics are distinguished - the predominant pre-Roman population of the Apennines, Italians (Italorimlyans) - the Romanized population of the peninsula in the Roman era, and Italians - the population of Italy from the Middle Ages to the present. The Italorimites of late Antiquity formed the ethnogenetic basis of the modern Italian nation . The language is Latin . Religion is Roman , and later Christianity .
The Italo-Romans, as a cultural and ethnic community, were formed as a result of the mixing, assimilation and ancient Romanization of the pre-Roman population - the Italics, Etruscans , Celts , Ligurs , Illyrians , Greeks , Adriatic Venets , Sardis and Corsos (and the influx of slaves from all over the Mediterranean ) by the Romans , with a predominant share of Italians. The formation process was completed by the 1st century BC. e.: Italy was the most important territory of the Roman state, Rome itself was in its center and it was here that the most active processes of assimilation by the Romans of the natives took place. In addition, the Italorimites themselves actively settled throughout the empire, influencing the culture and ethnogenesis of the population of the Roman provinces. Thus, when the colonization and resettlement of the Romans, for example, in Gaul or Spain , is meant, it is primarily the Italorimans. You can also trace the reverse colonization - when the already romanized inhabitants of the empire - for example, of the same Spain or Gaul - moved to Italy, but this process was smaller.
The most important factor in the fusion of the Italorimlians into an ethnic community was geographical. Italy is an isolated peninsula - in the north it is cut off by the Alps , and on the other sides it is surrounded by the sea. This factor of isolation did not allow either the northern "Gallo-Germanic" Italians to break away, moving away to Gaul, or the southern Italians to withdraw to the Greek or African peoples. In addition, a long period of general statehood, and then the consolidating influence of the Christian religion, contributed to the formation of a common cultural, linguistic and economic field on the Apennine Peninsula with a common center.