You do know that Romano and Feliciano were both mostly part of the Western Roman Empire, right? This is canon.

Italy is the heir to the Western Roman Empire. As for the Eastern Roman Empire Greece is definitely the ''major'' heir with many minor ones (most importantly Serbia and Armenia) that indeed played their own role through the centuries. So it would have made much more sense if this story was about Greece instead of Romano.

Of course, given how each of those countries is just a tiny part of what was the Roman Empire at it’s zenith I don’t think any single one can claim to be the one true heir.

Again, it was a nice read, but if you know the history of Byzantine, it doesnt make sense that Romano and Byzantine are the same person.

Okay, this is awesome and I just love the idea of an old as dirt, badass Romano.

I love this. A lot. Like, insane amounts of love. I've read this at least five times. Do you think you could do a sequel of the other countries reacting to this knowledge?

Secondly, I live in South Italy and I can tell you that in this story you have many perceptions of our history which are not true at all. Romano was not Byzantine Empire. He once was a part of Byzantine Empire, but he was never the center of it, he was just a small part of it. Byzantine had a great influence over us and thats why we love Greece today and it was a multiethnic empire but we never had that kind of influence over Byzantine like Greeks had. For the people and for foreigners the Eastern Empire was considered as a Greek Empire. You should have made this fic about Greece and not about South Italy.

You say that “Romano was the trend setter for Christianity.” This is not true at all. The Orthodox faith was central to Byzantine notions of their identity and what distinguished them from "barbarians". The Byzantine Empire laid the foundations for Orthodox Christianity in Greece, the Balkans and Russia and Greek replaced Latin as the official language. So the Second Roman Empire become very Hellenic and Orthodox after the Emperor made Constantinople the capital of the Empire but South Italy has always been strongly Catholic since we were originally part of Western Roman Empire and the Catholic Church isn't a successor to the Empire. The Papal States (which was a NORTHERN Italian country) was the leading force of the Catholic world due to Vatican City and the Pope and because its capital was Rome. And Constantinople (the former name of Istanbul, which is the capital of Turkey) is nowhere near Southern Italy, so your story makes absolutely no sense.

Southern Italy, “Mezzogiorno”, is an economic and cultural region of Italy traditionally encompassing the territories of the former Kingdom of the two Sicilies. Medieval South Italy was a mish-mosh of city-states and the occasional Kingdom of Two Sicilies. “South Italy” first came into use only in the 18th century and it was more commonly used only after Italian unification in the 1860s. Thats it!

I understand that in fanfiction you can twist the story in your own way and see it in your own way and your view of the story might not agree someone elses but Hetalia is based on historical events (even though Hetalia is not historically accurate, mostly its just making fun of stereotypes) And history cant be changed. So, if you want to give Lovino some fancy backstory, thats fine, I have no problem with that. But just do you your research properly before writing. You should make it clear to your readers that this fanfic is not historically accurate.

When I looked at the comments, I saw that many readers now have a completely wrong idea of the history of both Byzantium and South Italy. It makes me very sad as a someone who lives in South Italy and who is proud of our history and culture. I want others to learn about our history and it makes me really happy if someone wants to write fanfiction stories about it but I dont want other people to have some fake misguided perceptions of Lovinos history. :( I hope you undertand.

Please, I ask you to either rewrite this or to tell other readers that this is not completely true historically and this is only your fan made version of the history of Romano. Im sorry if I come off as too rude or if I take this fic too seriously but Im from South Italy. And if Hetalia has taught us anything its that Southern Italians take everything way too seriously, especially if someone says something about us which is not true. XD Have a nice day! :)

Sincerely
Alessia

PS. Here is more about our history, in case you are still interested about Sothern Italy. Just keep in mind that its just a wikipedia page, so it may have some mistakes and therefore its not a completely reliable source but theres our history in a nutshell. And as you can see, Byzantine Empire was an important part of our history, but South Italy was not Byzantine Empire. But if Hetalia inspires you to research history and historical events – go for it! :)

wiki/Southern_Italy

First off, I understand that this is headcanon and I know that you made this just for fun, but Im living in South Italy and Im also a huge history nerd, so I would like to point out that Byzantine Empire was Roman Empire with its capital city relocated. The Byzantines are Romans, it’s just that the Greeks populate and continue its legacy and retained much that made Rome successful.

Remember, the Roman empire was never a nation, it was an ancient empire. Empires aren't the same as nations. Empires don't tend to have a universal culture, language, and sometimes don't even have a universal legal system (look at what the British Empire was.) Sure, for purposes of government and trade a certain common language would be used, and the Romans did have a somewhat standardized legal system. But the Latin guys living in the Italian peninsula had no goal or desire to convert Greece, Anatolia, Egypt etc culturally. They were interested in maintaining the Empire, which typically relied on the locals accepting Roman rule, authority, law, and some Roman practices but otherwise the local culture and practice remained.

When the Empire became too unwieldy to rule and it was split up, the Eastern half was still considered just as much a part of the Roman Empire as the Western half. Once the Western Empire actually fell to the barbarians over time the Eastern half developed a different system of government but it was still Roman-inspired and the Byzantines still considered themselves as Romans. "Roman" was a citizenship title not an ethnic term. The name "Byzantine" is a modern invention. The people who lived in "Byzantine" called themselves Romans and the Byzantine Emperors consistently use the title "Emperor of Rome".

It's funny how we insist on calling it "Byzantine", which nobody in the Empire actually called themselves. The Sassanids, Arabs, and every other nation called them ROMAN until their fall in 1453. The only people who didn't were Western Europeans, who wanted to claim the legacy of ancient Rome for themselves, even though the 'Byzantines' carried on the legal system, army, and social systems that completely justified their continued use of the term "Roman" until the Ottomans finally ended the empire. “Byzantine Empire" was coined centuries later by Western European politicians, historians and scholars to keep the "roman " name to themselves and to demean the East because of political reasons. Unfortunately, the Western European view dominates history, still teaching that the Roman Empire "fell" in the 400s. Both "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" are historiographical terms which were normalized after the end of the Empire in 1453.

And just like you said, many other nations (Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire, Napoleon, Mussolini, German Empire) have claimed that they are the supposed successor to the legacy of Byzantine Empire. It is just as ridiculous as saying that Romano was Byzantine Empire. Politically these new Roman Empires had no real connection to the original but it pleased Europeans to think that they were the heirs of classical Rome. They popularized the idea that the western empire was the real Roman Empire. And in order to strengthen the claim that these European empires were the successor states to the classical Roman Empire, they had to undermine Constantinople's much stronger claim.

The people claiming Byzantine wasn't the Roman Empire are basking in ignorance. "It wasn't Roman because they spoke Greek and their culture was more Greek " - What a thinly constructed argument. Is the Eastern Half of Canada not "Canadian" because they speak French in addition to English and their cultural heritage is strongly French? I've never heard it suggested that a change of language creates a new state. Julius Caesar and other educated Romans of his day would often speak Greek among themselves. It's not as if they were suddenly assimilated by Anatolian culture and language.

The Second Roman Empire become very Hellenic after but empires culture naturally changes all the time. And citizens still openly declared allegiance to the Roman Empire and considered themselves as Romans until 1453. Regardless of what the prevalent culture was in "Byzantium" they were the direct surviving governmental branch of the Roman Empire. The prevalent culture may have evolved because of Greeks, yes, but that does not entitle us to rename a country based on their culture or because the economically, militarily and culturally weaker western parts of the empire were destroyed when history proves that they are entitled to the name "Roman".

The Eastern Empire lasted a thousand years after the west fell. Looking at the history of the Empire as a whole, the capital was located in Constantinople considerably longer than it was located in Rome. So technically Roman Civilization lasted 753BC-1453. Over 2200 years! I agree with you, its truly impressive. :)

As for successor states, I don't think that there can be any such state existing today as I don't think there is any modern state which owes its current form to any manifestation of Rome. A successor state isn't just whatever state happens to occupy the same geographical territory of a past one; it's whatever state inherits the rights and obligations of its predecessor. I think you'd be hard-pressed to point to any historical treaties, for example, that the modern-day South Italian regions have agreed to honour.

But culturally, linguistically, geographically its Greece (obviously). Diplomatically, politically and culturally it's Russia too. While the Kiev Rus and Muscovy (the predecessor state of Russia) were both independent of the Byzantine government, their growth came from interactions with Byzantine and adopted many Byzantine ways. Byzantine was the basis for future Russian religion, government, art and architecture and their culture grew into the early Russia we know today. After the fall of Constantinople, Eastern Orthodox people nominated Moscow and Muscovy as the “Third Rome”. The idea of the Third Rome began when Sophia Palaiologina, the last Princess of the Byzantine Empire, married the Russian prince, passing the torch to Moscow. By the rules and laws of inheritance followed by most European monarchies of the time, Sophia could claim that their offspring were heirs of the fallen Byzantine Empire and Russia took the place of Byzantium as a leading orthodox state and it maintained the Byzantine tradition - in faith, art, architecture etc. If it didn't, the whole of Christendom would have been the same nowadays instead of looking so different when comparing Orthodoxy with the Catholicism. Russia got to save that heritage and thats why the Byzantine impact on Russian culture cannot be ignored.

Ottoman Empire could be too considered as a successor to the legacy of Byzantine. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II declared that he was now "Caesar of Rome". His claim was recognized by the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. The Ottoman Sultans used the title "Emperor of Rome", and continued to do so until 1923. The Ottoman Empire made Constantinople its capital and ultimately Ottoman Empire ruled almost the same area that the Byzantine Empire had ruled and their administration was heavily influenced by the Byzantines. Only religion changed. the Ottomans assumed legal rights of Byzantine and agreed to honor their international obligations.

OK, there's my super long rant. XD

First, list stories like these are not allowed on this site. Check the Rules and Guidelines page: Entries Not Allowed: 1. Non-story entries': lists, bloopers, polls, previews, challenges, author notes, and etc.

Second, Romano would not have been the Byzantine Empire. For one, The Eastern Roman Empire didn't hold all of Italy. Western Roman Empire did until Rome fell in 476. They, Byzantine, held Egypt, Greece (their core), and Asia Minor until the Byzantine emperor; Justinian, came to powere. He had a dream of reclaiming the lost territory of the Roman Empire, thus started his morethan 30 conquest to reclaim those lost territories. He eventually accomplished his goal. Having reclaimed all of Italy, North Africa, Spain, etc. But his conquest brought money issues. Disease broke out in the empire. Invaders chipped away at the territory. After Justinian's death, the territory he claimed was lost to the invaders. The Empire shranks to no more than a city state, but held onto its core, Greece and Constantinople for 800 years until the Ottoman Empire defeated her.

Romano would have still been a child during all of this. Also, Byzantine was born from the Ancient Greece city Byzantium which they built over. In a drama CD of Hetalia, it was hinted at that Ancient Greece became Byzantine, or that Byzantine was Greece's mother.

Romano and Veneziano are related to each other having both been born from Rome, and Greece. Though, with other different other roots.

History!

Well, I've got a new headcanon... This was pretty great thanks for writing it!

This is absolutely, wonderfully amazing! I would love if you you could write a sequel where everyone, who is old enough, remembers who Romano was before.

Shite and written by a four year old

This was absolutely beautiful. I loved it with all my heart I swear. I've been wanting to see Lovi played in a better light and you just blew me away. I wish I'd found this sooner.

Nique

Coolio.

You totally need to like write a story for this. It would be interesting when England finds out that he and Romano are related. And Spain's reaction when he finds out that Romano is his uncle. :)

;; Why.
This is my new headcanon.

I'm so sorry for reviewing, and I know this was published more than two years ago, but I couldn't resist. I've read this fic multiple times and each time I was tempted to review but I didn't because I didn't think my review would be good enough to summarize how much I love this fic. But yeah, I love this a lot

Your writing style is practically flawless, and the historical references are quite accurate. Bless you for writing this! I dislike how Romano is portrayed in a lot of fanfictions, since I personally believe that he is a secret badass (Look at how he beat up the mafia when they got in the way of "Operation Save Spain"!) who only reveals that side when his loved ones are in danger, and I also think that Rome cared about him and trained him much harder than he did Veneziano since Romano would become his heir (After all, Grandpa Rome gave Rome (as in the city) to Romano, so we can see who he appointed as heir despite people generally believing that Rome favored Veneziano, which was true to a certain extent but I think he treated Romano more strictly and pampered him less in order to make him into a warrior, just like the way Prussia did to Germany).

This story just portrayed everything so beautifully and I also loved the Spamano parts, as well as the explanation for hating Germania and Germany (Again, I fully agree with you about Romano's reasons for hating Germania and Germany, since I believed that this was because a) Germania caused the fall of Rome and b) Holy Roman Empire broke Veneziano's heart (Unintentionally, of course, but Feli's heart still got broken), and these two events caused Romano to distrust the Germans and try to get Veneziano to stop spending time with Germany because he loves his fratello and doesn't want Veneziano to get hurt again.

Overall, I think that you really did Romano justice in this story, portrayed everyone in character mostly, and this is now part of my Hetalia headcanons (If I ever get off my lazy butt and write quality Hetalia fanfiction about Romano, I may slip this in and credit you in my Author's Notes, but only if you're okay with this ), so thank you for writing this amazing masterpiece!