The Latins are the most influential Italic group in the history of the world. Of course, their most obvious contribution is their language, Latin. Latin was not only the main language of the Romans and by extension much of Europe for centuries but it is also the father language of the Romance Languages. A group that includes the likes of French, Italian, Spanish, and so on.

Today, the successors of Latin are the native languages of over 900 million people across the globe. However, the Latins are also influential due to the actions of one of their own tribes, the Romans. That's right the Romans are actually Latins.

While history refers to the two groups as essentially separate peoples, the truth is that the Romans were a Latin tribe who just so happened to become one of the most powerful peoples in the history of the world. It's similar to the old adage, "every square is a rectangle but not every rectangle is a square." Every Roman was a Latin but not every Latin was a Roman.

So why then are the two seen as separate peoples by the historical record? Why were the Latins so influential? Where did the Latins come from? And how did the culture develop? Let's talk about it.