Romanitas

Romanitas is the collection of political and cultural concepts and practices by which the Romans defined themselves. It is a Latin word, first coined in the third century AD, meaning "Roman-ness" and has been used by modern historians as shorthand to refer to Roman identity and self-image.

==Literal meaning and origin== Romanitas means, as a rough approximation, Roman-ness in Latin, although it has also been translated as "Romanism, the Roman way or manner". The term, not common in Roman sources, was first coined by the 3rd century Roman writer Tertullian, an early Christian from North Africa, in his work de Pallio (IV,1). Tertullian used the term pejoratively to refer to those in his native Carthage who aped Roman culture.