Today, on three continents, dozens of modern nations exist within the borders of the old Roman Empire (see the box on page 45). These countries have different languages, religions, and political systems, but they share a tie to the ancient Roman world. And these countries, through conquest or immigration, helped spread Greco-Roman culture around the world. _
The Modern Nations of the Roman Empire
Here are the nations that were once wholly or partly within the Roman Empire, or under direct Roman influence:
As noted throughout this book, many modern geographic names come from Latin words or had their roots in the Roman era.
One of the Celtic tribes that Julius Caesar battled was the Belgae; their name is the heart of the word Belgium. Romania’s name came from the presence of Roman troops within its borders. And the Swiss sometimes call their country Helvetia, which came from the Latin name for another Celtic tribe defeated by the Romans. Many modern rivers also take their names from Latin.
These include the Danube (Danu-vius), Tiber (Tiberis), and Rhine (Rhenus). Modern names for seas that came from Roman names include the Mediterranean (Mediter-raneum), Adriatic (Adriaticum), and Aegean (Aegeum).
The largest daily influence of Rome appears in the words people speak. Latin led to the development of a family of languages known as Romance languages. They include French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, and Portuguese. Through conquest, several of these languages, particularly Spanish and French, are now spoken throughout the world. English has also been influenced by the Romance languages and by Latin itself, as
World History
