Olympia: Geocultural Provinces of Noricum, Latium, and Hellas

Noricum. This was the name of a kingdom, centered around what would become Vienna, that was eventually absorbed by the Roman Republic. Things related to Noricum are Noric; its people, Noricans.

This province includes a broad collection of today's countries: southern Germany, most of Austria, western Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, northern Italy, and eastern Switzerland.

Boundaries: N: the Danube River; E: Danube, Drina, and Lim rivers; S: Adriatic Sea, Reno and Arno rivers, Ligurian Sea; W: watershed of the Western Alps, then an imaginary line north to the Rhine River.

Latium. Usually the land of this province is referred to as Italy. We can’t use that name for our study of history because it’s the name of a modern country. Historically, the most significant ethnic group in this province was the Latini. The ancient Romans belonged to them. They called their land Latium. Things related to it are Latin.

Latins have participated in Latin Christendom for centuries. During Latin Christendom’s great civil war (1517-1648), Latins—not surprisingly—remained loyal to their own Latin Church. For centuries most have spoken some variation of Italian.

Boundaries of the Latin Peninsula: N: the Arno and Reno rivers; E: the Adriatic Sea; S: the Ionian Sea; W: the Tyrrhenian Sea. The geocultural province of Latium includes the large islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corisa.

Hellas is the Greek name for Greece: home of the Hellenes. Things related to Hellas are Hellenic.

This larger geocultural province includes today's Greece, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria.

Boundaries of the Hellenic Peninsula: N: the Danube River; E: the Black Sea, Bosporus, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles, and Aegean Sea; W: Ionian and Adriatic Seas, Lim and Drina rivers. This province includes the island of Crete.

Copyright © 2013 by Steven Farsaci.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.