Challenge: Latin-speaking Greece

Is it possible for the Roman Republic to take over the Mediterranean without adopting Hellenization as their own, seeing the Greeks the same way they saw the Carthaginians or Gauls? Could a Romance language become the primary language of Greece?

What if the 279 BC Celtic invasion of Greece isn't repulsed at Delphi, leading to the Greek elites being exiled to the diadochi states, from which point they begin to assimilate into Egyptian and Persian culture? By the time the Romans conquer the area, Hellenism isn't particularly prestigious west of Mesopotamia, although Greek would still be the language of trade.
 
This is going to make expansion much harder. The Romans were very tolerant of conquered people's cultures (they had to be to keep them in line) IOTL.

Expect significant resistance.
 
Greek was the prestige language of Rome well before it became an empire. Kinda hard to undo that. You could easily have parts of OTL Greece take up a Romance language by fiddling around with the Migration Period - perhaps have the Eastern Roman Empire resettle the Sclavinias with Thraco-Romans fleeing the Slavic invasions.
 
Greek was the prestige language of Rome well before it became an empire. Kinda hard to undo that. You could easily have parts of OTL Greece take up a Romance language by fiddling around with the Migration Period - perhaps have the Eastern Roman Empire resettle the Sclavinias with Thraco-Romans fleeing the Slavic invasions.
That's who modern Aromanians are.
 
If the Romans become intolerant of other cultures and languages , I suspect that their conquest will be far far more difficult to achive if at all.
This could lead to the greeks unite against the common enemy just like they did against the Achaemenids, and this could make the Roman conquest of eastern med more difficult than OTL when they had allies amongst the people they conquered.
 
If the Romans become intolerant of other cultures and languages , I suspect that their conquest will be far far more difficult to achive if at all.
This could lead to the greeks unite against the common enemy just like they did against the Achaemenids, and this could make the Roman conquest of eastern med more difficult than OTL when they had allies amongst the people they conquered.
The Romans could be tolerant of the Greeks without becoming Hellenistic themselves. They did so for most of their other non-Latin subjects.
 
Is it possible for the Roman Republic to take over the Mediterranean without adopting Hellenization as their own, seeing the Greeks the same way they saw the Carthaginians or Gauls? Could a Romance language become the primary language of Greece?

What if the 279 BC Celtic invasion of Greece isn't repulsed at Delphi, leading to the Greek elites being exiled to the diadochi states, from which point they begin to assimilate into Egyptian and Persian culture? By the time the Romans conquer the area, Hellenism isn't particularly prestigious west of Mesopotamia, although Greek would still be the language of trade.

The earlier POD would be better - Alexander the Great did not become "Great", he was killed in the battle against Darius. Instead the history has "Darius the Great" who exploited his victory to the full - helped the Greeks overthrow the Macedonian yoke, then used the Greeks against the Greeks and made Greece the Persian sphere of influence. When the Celts came and steamrolled Greece the Persians were not too sad about it.

So the language of power and prestige in the Eastern Mediterranean is Persian.

When the Romans come to Greece they find there a mix of Celtic/Greek population which they would gladly latinize :)
 
Top