Scattered through the mountains of the southern Balkans, in Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, and beyond, live the Aromanians, one of the most remarkable and least known of Europe’s peoples. A Romance-speaking nation often called the last Romans, heirs to the Latin speech of the ancient Balkans, famed as shepherds and traders, they have preserved a Latin tongue and a distinct identity in the heart of the Slavic and Greek Balkans without ever having a state of their own.

This is the story of who the Aromanians are: where they came from, how they lived by their flocks and their trade, what they believe, and how they preserved a Latin language and identity through the long centuries in the Balkan mountains. It is a tale of shepherds and caravans, of a great vanished city, and of a scattered people whose songs and language carry the memory of Rome into the present day.

The Aromanians on Film

Contents

• Origins
• The Name
• The Language
• The Homeland
• The Old Way of Life
• Society and Community
• Religion and Belief
• Traditions
• Crafts
• Food
• Festivals
• History
• Today

Origins

The Aromanians, also known as Vlachs, Macedo-Romanians, or by their own name Armãnji, are a Romance-speaking people of the southern Balkans, one of the most remarkable and least known of Europe’s peoples. Scattered across Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and beyond, they speak a language descended from Latin and are often called the last Romans, heirs to the Latin speech of the ancient Balkans.

The origins of the Aromanians lie in the Latinization of the Balkans under the Roman Empire, when the local peoples of the southern Balkan lands adopted the Latin language of their rulers. As the Roman world faded and Slavs and others moved into the region, these Latin-speaking communities survived above all in the mountains, preserving their Romance tongue through the long centuries.

By the Middle Ages the Aromanians appear in the records as the Vlachs, a term used across the Balkans for the Romance-speaking, often pastoral populations of the mountains. Renowned as shepherds, herders, muleteers, and traders, they moved with their flocks through the highlands and along the trade routes, a distinctive presence in the Balkan world.

Never possessing a state of their own, and scattered across the mountainous heart of the southern Balkans, the Aromanians nonetheless preserved a distinct identity, rooted in their Latin-derived language, their pastoral and mercantile way of life, and their Orthodox Christian faith. They remain one of the most distinctive of the stateless peoples of Europe.

The Name

The Aromanians call themselves Armãnji or Rãmãnji, names derived, like the word Roman, from the Latin Romanus, a proud echo of their descent from the Latin-speaking world of the Roman Balkans. In English and in scholarship they are called Aromanians or Macedo-Romanians, to distinguish them from the Romanians of the north, to whom they are related.

They are also widely known as Vlachs, a name used across the Balkans by their neighbors for the Romance-speaking, often pastoral peoples of the mountains. This term, applied to several related groups, reflects the outside view of the Aromanians as the Latin shepherds and traders of the highlands.

The Aromanians have no state and no single homeland, but their sense of a distinct identity, rooted in their language and their history, is strong. In modern times some have developed flags and symbols to express this identity, and the name Armãnji stands for a people bound by their Latin tongue and their shared heritage rather than by a country of their own.

The relationship of the Aromanian name and identity to that of the Romanians has been debated, for the two peoples share a common Latin origin and closely related languages, yet the Aromanians of the southern Balkans developed as a distinct community. The Aromanian name stands for a Romance-speaking people of the Balkan mountains, proud heirs of Rome.

The Language

The Aromanian language is the heart of the identity of the Aromanians, a Romance language descended from the Latin of the Roman Balkans and closely related to Romanian, with which it shares a common origin. Along with Romanian and a few smaller tongues, it forms the eastern branch of the Romance languages, the Latin speech that survived in the Balkans.

Aromanian preserves in its very words the Latin heritage of its speakers, and its close kinship with Romanian reflects their common descent, though centuries of separate life in the southern Balkans, and the influence of Greek, Slavic, and other neighboring languages, gave Aromanian its own distinctive character. It has several regional varieties across its scattered communities.

For most of its history Aromanian was above all a spoken language, carried by the shepherds and traders of the mountains, while Greek, the language of the church, of learning, and of commerce, served the Aromanians for writing and education, and many Aromanians were bilingual or multilingual. Some early works and dictionaries were nonetheless produced in the language.

In modern times Aromanian is recognized as an endangered language, spoken by a dwindling number of people and under pressure from the national languages of the states in which the Aromanians live. Yet there are efforts to record, write, and revive it, and the language, as the clearest mark of descent from Rome, remains central to the identity and pride of the Aromanian people.

The Homeland

The Aromanians have no single homeland or state, but are scattered across the mountainous heart of the southern Balkans, in Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and beyond, wherever their pastoral and trading way of life led them. Their world was above all the mountains, the highland pastures and valleys where their flocks grazed and their villages clung to the slopes.

The great heartland of the Aromanians has traditionally been the Pindus mountains of northern Greece and the ranges of southern Albania and North Macedonia, a world of high peaks, forests, and upland pastures. Here, in mountain towns and villages such as Metsovo, Samarina, and once the great city of Moscopole, the Aromanians made their home.

The pastoral life bound the Aromanians to the mountains and to the seasonal movement of the flocks, the transhumance that took them from the high summer pastures to the lowlands in winter, so that their homeland was in a sense the whole vertical world of the mountains and the routes between. This mobile, highland existence shaped their character and culture.

Today the Aromanians remain scattered across several countries, in mountain villages and towns and, increasingly, in the cities and the diaspora, from the Balkans to Romania, western Europe, and beyond. Their homeland is less a country than the mountainous heart of the southern Balkans and the network of communities that preserve the Aromanian heritage.

The Old Way of Life

The traditional way of life of the Aromanians was above all pastoral, and they were renowned throughout the Balkans as shepherds and herders, moving their great flocks of sheep and goats between the high summer pastures of the mountains and the warmer lowlands in winter. This seasonal migration, the transhumance, was the very rhythm of Aromanian life.

From this pastoral base grew a wider economy, for the Aromanians were also famed as muleteers and caravan traders, carrying goods along the mountain routes and across the Balkans, and as craftsmen and merchants in the towns. Some Aromanian communities became prosperous through trade, and their traders were known across the Balkans and beyond.

The Aromanian villages and towns of the mountains, such as Samarina and Metsovo, and once the great city of Moscopole, were centers of this life, their stone houses clustered on the slopes, their communities bound by kinship, custom, and the Orthodox faith. In summer the high villages filled with life, in winter many descended with the flocks to the plains.

This world of shepherd and caravan, of mountain village and seasonal migration, though largely vanished in modern times, is remembered as the heart of the Aromanian way of life. The pastoral traditions, the crafts, the songs, and the strong bonds of the mountain communities are cherished as the roots of the Aromanian people.

Society and Community

Traditional Aromanian society was built around the family, the clan, and the pastoral community, shaped by the demands of the shepherd’s life and the seasonal movement of the flocks. Strong bonds of kinship and a code of honor and hospitality ordered life in the mountain villages, and the extended family was the basic unit of the pastoral world.

The Aromanians were divided between those who followed the pastoral life of the flocks and those who settled in the towns as traders, craftsmen, and merchants, and some Aromanian communities grew wealthy and influential through commerce. Aromanian traders and their families were found in towns across the Balkans, and many rose to prominence in trade, learning, and public life.

Notably, Aromanians played a large part in the commercial and cultural life of the Balkans out of all proportion to their numbers, and many prominent merchants, benefactors, and national figures of the Balkan nations were of Aromanian origin, often assimilating into the surrounding peoples. This urban, mercantile side stood alongside the pastoral world of the mountains.

Shaped by the mountains, the pastoral life, and their position as a scattered people among other nations, the Aromanians developed a strong attachment to their language, their kin, and their traditions, even as many assimilated into the surrounding peoples. The values of family, hospitality, and enterprise, and the bonds of the mountain communities, remain part of the Aromanian heritage.

Religion and Belief

The Aromanians are a traditionally Orthodox Christian people, sharing the Eastern Orthodox faith with most of their Balkan neighbors, and religion has long been central to their life and identity. The Orthodox church, its calendar, and its festivals shaped the rhythm of the year in the mountain villages and the Aromanian towns.

For much of their history the church language and much of the learning of the Aromanians was Greek, for the Orthodox Church in the region was closely tied to Greek culture, and many Aromanians were educated in Greek and took part in Greek religious and cultural life. This close bond with Greek Orthodoxy shaped the religious world of the Aromanians.

The Aromanian towns and villages were adorned with fine Orthodox churches, and none more than the great city of Moscopole, now Voskopojë in Albania, which in the eighteenth century was a flourishing center of Aromanian wealth and culture, famed for its many churches, its school, and even its printing press, before its destruction. Its ruined churches recall this golden age.

The Orthodox faith remains an important part of Aromanian identity, its festivals, saints, and customs woven into the culture of the people. The churches of the mountain villages and towns, and the memory of centers such as Moscopole, are treasures of the Aromanian religious heritage and a lasting part of the identity of this Latin people of the Orthodox Balkans.

Traditions

Aromanian traditions are rich in music, song, dance, and the customs of a pastoral mountain people, and they reflect both the shepherd’s life of the highlands and the wider culture of the Balkans. Music and song, carried in the Aromanian tongue, lie at the heart of this heritage, treasured as expressions of a distinct identity.

The songs of the Aromanians, from the plaintive songs of the shepherds and the songs of exile and longing to the lively music of celebration, carry the feeling and memory of the people, while the circle dances performed at weddings and festivals, in colorful traditional costume, are shared with the wider Balkan world yet keep their own Aromanian character.

The traditional costumes of the Aromanians, differing among the various communities and richly worked with embroidery, are among the finest expressions of the folk culture, worn with pride at festivals and important occasions. The customs surrounding weddings and the great moments of life followed rich patterns of ritual and song handed down through the generations.

The festivals of the Orthodox calendar and the gatherings of the mountain communities, above all in summer when the high villages filled with life, were the great occasions of Aromanian tradition, marked by music, dance, feasting, and the renewal of the bonds of kinship. These traditions, rooted in the pastoral world and the Orthodox faith, are cherished as expressions of the Aromanian people.

Crafts

The crafts of the Aromanians grew from their pastoral and mercantile life in the mountains, and above all from the products of their flocks. The working of wool was central, and Aromanian women wove and made the cloth, blankets, carpets, and above all the heavy woolen cloaks and garments suited to the shepherd’s life in the mountains, along with the richly embroidered traditional costumes.

The traditional dress of the Aromanians, worked with fine embroidery in patterns that varied among the communities, was among the finest expressions of the craft, and the making of these costumes and their silver ornaments was a valued skill. The heavy woolen capes and rugs of the shepherds were both practical and finely made.

The mercantile side of Aromanian life fostered other crafts and trades in the towns, where Aromanian artisans worked as goldsmiths and silversmiths, coppersmiths, and in many other trades, and Aromanian merchants dealt in the goods of the region. The prosperous Aromanian towns were centers of craft as well as commerce.

Alongside these, the crafts of the pastoral life, the making of the tools, gear, and objects of the shepherd’s world, and the arts of cheese-making and the products of the flock, formed part of the heritage. These traditions, above all the working of wool and the making of the fine costumes, are cherished as a valued part of Aromanian culture.

Food

Aromanian cuisine is the food of a pastoral mountain people, rooted above all in the products of the flocks, the dairy and meat of the sheep and goats, along with the produce of the highland gardens and the wider cooking of the Balkans and Greece. It is a simple, hearty cuisine shaped by the shepherd’s life and the mountain seasons.

Dairy holds pride of place, and the Aromanians, as great shepherds, were renowned makers of cheese, above all the cheeses of the mountains such as the celebrated smoked cheese of Metsovo. Milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter from the flocks were the foundation of the diet, along with the meat of the sheep and lamb.

Pies of thin pastry filled with cheese, greens, or other fillings are characteristic of the cuisine, shared with the wider region, along with dishes of lamb and the hearty foods suited to the mountain climate. The dishes of the Aromanians reflect their pastoral heritage and the culinary world of the southern Balkans and Greece in which they lived.

Food was bound up with the customs and festivals of the Orthodox year and the gatherings of the mountain communities, when tables were laden and hospitality generously given. Rooted in the flocks and the mountains, and rich above all in the cheeses and dairy of the shepherds, Aromanian cuisine is a hearty expression of the pastoral culture of the people.

Festivals

The festivals of the Aromanians follow the Orthodox Christian calendar and the rhythms of the pastoral year, and they were the great occasions when the scattered communities came together, above all in summer when the high mountain villages filled with life. Music, dance, feasting, and the renewal of kinship marked these gatherings.

The feasts of the Orthodox church, above all the great celebrations of the patron saints of the villages, were the high points of the year, drawing the community together for services, processions, and festivity. In the pastoral world, the movement of the flocks and the seasons of the shepherd’s year gave their own rhythm to the customs and celebrations.

The summer, when the shepherds and their families returned to the high mountain villages, was the great season of Aromanian festivity, of weddings, reunions, and the celebrations of the patron saints, when the villages came alive with music, dancing in traditional costume, and feasting. These summer gatherings were central to the life of the pastoral communities.

Today, as the old pastoral life has faded, the Aromanians keep their traditions alive through festivals and gatherings that celebrate their music, dance, costume, and language, both in the homeland villages and in the diaspora. These celebrations, rooted in the Orthodox faith and the pastoral heritage, are vivid and cherished expressions of the Aromanian people.

History

The history of the Aromanians reaches back to the Latinization of the Balkans under Rome, when the peoples of the southern Balkan mountains adopted the Latin language that would survive among them as Aromanian. Through the fall of Rome, the coming of the Slavs, and the rise and fall of the Byzantine and later empires, these Latin-speaking Vlachs endured in the highlands.

In the Middle Ages the Vlachs appear across the Balkans as a distinctive pastoral people, and at times they played notable roles in the history of the region, including in the medieval states of the Balkans. As shepherds, traders, and craftsmen, they were a mobile and enterprising presence throughout the mountainous heart of the peninsula.

The eighteenth century saw the golden age of Aromanian urban culture, above all in the great city of Moscopole, which flourished as a center of wealth, trade, learning, and the Orthodox church, with schools and even a printing press, before its destruction in the later part of the century, a blow from which the Aromanian towns never fully recovered.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as the nation-states of the Balkans arose, the Aromanians, scattered and stateless, were claimed and courted by the surrounding nations, and many assimilated into the Greek, Romanian, or other national identities. Divided among states and lacking a country of their own, the Aromanians nonetheless preserved their language and identity, though today they are a small and endangered people.

Today

Today the Aromanians are a small and scattered people, numbering perhaps a few hundred thousand, living in Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania, and in a diaspora reaching across Europe and beyond. Their old pastoral way of life has largely vanished, and many Aromanians have assimilated into the surrounding nations.

The situation of the Aromanians differs from country to country, and in most they are a small minority, in some recognized and in others not, their language endangered and their numbers dwindling as assimilation and the loss of the old way of life take their toll. Yet many Aromanians remain proud of their distinct heritage and Latin descent.

In recent decades there has been a revival of interest in the Aromanian identity, language, and culture, with efforts to record and teach the language, to gather and celebrate the traditions, and to unite the scattered communities through associations, festivals, and cultural activity, both in the Balkans and in the diaspora.

Through the long centuries since Rome Latinized the Balkans, the Aromanians have preserved a distinct identity as a Romance-speaking people of the mountains, without ever having a state of their own. A small and endangered people, proud to be counted among the last heirs of the Latin speech of the Balkans, the Aromanians remain one of the most distinctive and remarkable of the peoples of Europe.

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