I'm writing an AU modern-day fanfic from a canon set during the reign of the Roman Empire Republic (ETA: Specifically, between 73-71 BC) and I have several interdependent questions
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I know a woman whose family comes from Iraq, and she calls herself Assyrian. However, I'm not sure #1 is true. It may depend on the period of the Roman Empire you're talking about. There's an incident in the New Testament referring to a person from modern-day coastal Syria as Syro-Phoenecian, and there was a Roman province called Syria.
That's Roman Republic, not Empire. This was before Pompey conquered Syria, so in this era it's Coele-Syria, a kingdom ruled by Seleucid Greeks and populated by Greeks, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Jews, and others.
So essentially, without more specificity, he could conceiveably be any of those ethnicities. I see. Thanks.
Well, for the purposes of my story, I'd prefer for him to be Middle Eastern rather than Greek or culturally Jewish, etc.. So if he were Iraqi, is that how he'd refer to himself? Or Iranian, would he say "Persian?" (I did once encounter an Iranian man who referred to himself as such, in fact.)
Someone who was ethnically Phoenician or Assyrian, but from Coele-Syria, would nowadays be Syrian, not Iraqi. Certainly not Iranian/Persian, since that's an identification with a specifically Indo-Aryan culture and ethnicity. Similarly, although Turkey covers part of Coele-Syria, 'Turkish' is an ethnicity with Central Asian roots.
I'd really take some time to look at modern Syria. You seem determined to talk about Iraq, as though modern Syria isn't relevant.
No, not determined either way. Just confused and looking for information. Perhaps I was too focused on the assumption that Syria = Iraq, but that was due to ignorance and faulty searching on my part. That's why I came here to ask questions.
Er, Syria has been in the news rather a lot recently. I'm not sure why you'd assume it was equivalent to Iraq. I'm not trying to be funny, but I think you may need to abandon a lot of your assumptions about this area both now and in the 1st century BC, and start over.
What I meant, was the information I'd come across seemed to say that Syria *at the time, in the first century BC*, was equivalent to *modern day* Iraq. If that is not so, then it isn't, and again, that's why I asked, to find out.
All I'm trying to find out is, if the character was called "Syrian" then, what would he call himself now? For example, part of my personal heritage is Czech. Used to be that Czechoslovakia was one country, but now is two, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. However, my ancestors came from Bohemia, in specific. As such, I prefer to say I have Bohemian heritage, but most of the general populace would simply say "Czech." So what I'm asking, is what *he* would say of himself, if his heritage is the modern equivalent of 1st century BC Syria?
As I said initially, I'm not sure your first bullet point is correct. Syrian and Assyrian are not the same thing. Syria was ruled by various iterations of the Assyrian empire, but the Seleucids had had control over the region for a long time by the time Rome took control of Antioch. There's no reason to assume that someone in the area would identify as Assyrian. They'd be culturally Greek.
If your modern version of the guy is from modern Syria, he'd call himself Syrian. I'm not sure what you're looking for beyond that.
So I can assume modern Syria is the same as 1st century BC Syria in terms of internal cultural identity?
No. There have been many, many ethnic migrations, wars of conquest, and other changes since that period. The main language of the area is no longer Greek.
*nod* Somehow I didn't figure that was the case. Maybe I'm asking my question in a strange way. Maybe an analogy would help?
You have a light that shines blue (Syrians in 1st century BC) but different colored gels have been put over it again and again (various Empires through history). Now, most people would call the color teal (whatever the modern term for the region is, possibly Arab from a comment below?), but there's a veteran light tech who happens to know that it was originally blue. Would they say the light was "teal" (Arab), "blue" (Syrian), specialized light tech jargon unique to light techs (an internal cultural identity specific to the people of that region)? Does that make more/any sense?
No, sorry, that makes even less sense to me. "Syria" (I'm putting it in quotes because I mean both the ancient and the modern areas referred to as Syria) is a Mediterranean region, it was already a mixing bowl of different cultures way before the Romans.
What I want to know basicslly boils down to, A) on a modern map, where would the region known as "Syria" to the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC be located, and B) what would someone born in America in, say, the 1980s, with ancestors predominantly/exclusively from that region call themselves? I'm seeing it isn't a cut and dry answer, but at this point possibilities are good too.
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Well, for the purposes of my story, I'd prefer for him to be Middle Eastern rather than Greek or culturally Jewish, etc.. So if he were Iraqi, is that how he'd refer to himself? Or Iranian, would he say "Persian?" (I did once encounter an Iranian man who referred to himself as such, in fact.)
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I'd really take some time to look at modern Syria. You seem determined to talk about Iraq, as though modern Syria isn't relevant.
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All I'm trying to find out is, if the character was called "Syrian" then, what would he call himself now? For example, part of my personal heritage is Czech. Used to be that Czechoslovakia was one country, but now is two, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. However, my ancestors came from Bohemia, in specific. As such, I prefer to say I have Bohemian heritage, but most of the general populace would simply say "Czech." So what I'm asking, is what *he* would say of himself, if his heritage is the modern equivalent of 1st century BC Syria?
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If your modern version of the guy is from modern Syria, he'd call himself Syrian. I'm not sure what you're looking for beyond that.
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So I can assume modern Syria is the same as 1st century BC Syria in terms of internal cultural identity?
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No. There have been many, many ethnic migrations, wars of conquest, and other changes since that period. The main language of the area is no longer Greek.
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You have a light that shines blue (Syrians in 1st century BC) but different colored gels have been put over it again and again (various Empires through history). Now, most people would call the color teal (whatever the modern term for the region is, possibly Arab from a comment below?), but there's a veteran light tech who happens to know that it was originally blue. Would they say the light was "teal" (Arab), "blue" (Syrian), specialized light tech jargon unique to light techs (an internal cultural identity specific to the people of that region)? Does that make more/any sense?
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