> What culture do Germans, Greeks, Latvians, Bulgarians, Fins, and Spaniards share? The one that used to be called the Roman Empire, then Christendom, and is now called Western Civilisation. It is also arguably the greatest achievement of the human species.
The Roman Empire had no cultural identity. People in Gaul had nothing in common with people in Egypt. The most Roman did is spread some Roman values to the elites but even that was often very thin. Christendom is totally divided with constant wars. The values are not uniform and christen philosophy was never particularly great. Rejection of most of those values defines modernity.
Yes it did. Romanization was a real thing. Much more so in the last centuries when both Galo-romans and Egyptians where christians. Even after the city of Rome was no longer relevant in the empire other provinces still produced staunch Roman patriots. The Illyrians are the best example. In the darkest times of the third century crisis the greek speaking romans from Syria formed guerrillas to tackle the Persians during the collapse of the goverment.