That is a very interesting point, because even though what we call
"Romanization" was a successful and brutal process of
'globalization' and
'internationalization' of the Latin, imposed "
manu militari" worldwide as official language, during the
Late Antiquity we see the resurgence of the local, pre-Roman identities, mainly the Celtic, Iberic and Italic languages (now maybe in disguise of Latin dialects?), this lead us to the interesting conclusion that under the ashes of the lost tribal identities, those ancient sounds were not dead, those ancient identities were still alive and, in the moment of crisis of the Roman state, just those defeated and forgotten identities, rise again, indeed becoming one of the key factors of the resistence of the
Romanitas against the Germanic invaders. Arthur was not alone in his fight against the Germanic invaders, all over Europe, the pre-Roman substrate was not dead, it was still alive and it was still fighting back, to survive and to defend a world the Roman state was no more able to defend.
Late Antiquity, seen as some sort of
double telescope pointing in opposite directions, through which we can perceive and understand phenomena, as the survival of regional cultural substrates under the thin blanket of Romanization, impossible to fully understand on the basis of
Classical Antiquity, is one of the key factors making the study of
Late Antiquity so interesting and essential in the understanding not only the III, IV, V and VI centuries and the incoming Middle Age, but even the previuos history of the
Classical Ancient World.
.. Let me close, coming back to the contents of my frist posts on this ancient and venerable thread, saying that if my professors of Latin were right saying that you have no hope to speak a good Italian without studying Latin, I think we can't hope to fully understand the Latin world and language without watching them also from a ..
Vulgar perspective.