- See ethnic Greek for the modern ethnic group.
The name by which Hellenes are known in Latin literature (Graeci or
Greeks in English).
Aristotle and Apollodorus
first write about Graeci, who seem to be the same people as Selle from Epirus.
The name becomes known to Latins with the colonization of Italy from Greek settlers.
While Greeks call themselves Hellenes, the Romans begin to call them
Graeci, the name of the specific Greek colonists.
During the Roman era the name Hellenes is not used anymore. The Greeks, along with the rest of the people from the Roman
provinces, call themselves Romans.
After the fall of the Western Roman State in 395 A.D. and the beginning of the Middle Ages in Western Europe the Latin term for the
Greeks is used broadly. In Eastern Roman State a change takes place. While in general the citizens of the Byzantine Empire are called Romans, the Greeks assume the name
Graeco to distinguish themselves from the rest of the Byzantines. After the schism the name Graeco meant orthodox and Latin meant
Catholic. After a while the two terms assumed a national character as well.
After the independence of the modern Greek state from the Ottoman
Empire the term Graeco or Greek was abandoned totally by the Greeks themselves. The new country was officially named
Hellenic republic (or 'Hellas") and the people "Hellenes". The rest of the world calls them Greeks nevertheless and
their country Greece.
The Greeks is also the financial term for the set of
measures derived from the Black-Scholes option pricing formula. The name
is used because most of the parameters are denoted by the Greek letters
delta, gamma, lambda, rho and theta.
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