Of the new eastern religions introduced into the Greek world, the most successful was Christianity. From the early centuries of the Common Era, <answer>the Greeks identified as Romaioi ("Romans")</answer>, by that time the name ‘Hellenes’ denoted pagans. While ethnic distinctions still existed in the Roman Empire, they became secondary to religious considerations and the renewed empire used Christianity as a tool to support its cohesion and promoted a robust Roman national identity. Concurrently the secular, urban civilization of late antiquity survived in the Eastern Mediterranean along with Greco-Roman educational system, although it was from Christianity that the culture's essential values were drawn.
What alternative name were the Greeks known by ?
the Greeks identified as Romaioi ("Romans")