Hello  and ! I really do not have time, just right now, to elaborate on a reply. I'll do latter on. Let me just remark two things,  
 #I did not intend to make a general comment on Americans being ignorant, I merely described something that happened with a colleague of mine quite recently - and I agree that patronizing comments about anyone are unnecessary in this forum. 
 #When you say Italy, you are refering to a present state that occupies the whole of the Italic Peninsula; when you say Ireland you are refering to an island called such and to two states that are both called Ireland; when you say Roman England you are refering to the Roman presence in the territory of modern England (not Wales or Scotland); when you use Spain to denote the whole of the Iberian Peninsula you are doing something very different - you are using the name of a modern country that occupies parte of Iberia to refer to the whole of it, it is as if I said Roman England (and not Roman Britain) and the went on about the Roman presence in Scotland (suppose it had existed perenially). 
 Do you see my point? Cheers! I'll be back in a while.