Race of the ancient Romans?

[Curtis24]

Thanks!

[manu]

how about him?

[Curtis24]

who is that guy?

[curiousman]

Romans were the same as italians today. European race.

Never existed a "Roman race" and not even a "Roman ethnicity". Since the beginnings Romans were of mixed ethnicities or tribes (in the primordial Rome: Latins, Sabines and Etruscans). People could have been "Roman" only by citizenship ("civis romanus sum"). After the Social wars Roman citizenship was extended to all the tribes living in the peninsular Italy and at the time of Augustus to the tribes living in Cisalpine Gaul too when the borders of Italy were brought to the Alps. In 212 AD with the constitutio antoniniana Roman citizenship was extended to all free peoples living inside the Empire.

[Tabiti]

Depends from where they were. There is no such thing as Roman racial type or ethnicity. I don't think they looked much different from the modern Europeans.

[poiuytrewq0987]

Depends from where they were. There is no such thing as Roman racial type or ethnicity. I don't think they looked much different from the modern Europeans.

I think they look different today compared to the past largely because of the genetic influence the Lombards (and Norman and Arab invasions of the boot and ball) may have had on the ancient Romans

[manu]

who is that guy?

a football manager, not professional though.

[Treffie]

Thread moved to History and Ethnogenesis.

[Curtis24]

Thanks Ken.

I have read that the original Italici tribes - the original Latin speakers who founded Rome - were Nordids(though, as curiousman points out, of great cultural variation), who formed a ruling class over the native Italian population, gradually admixing with them. Keep in mind, I am no supremacist, just repeating the theory of many physical anthropologists. At the same time, we know from the historical record that the Roman aristocracy could not distinguish between themselves and the slave class(there was an ongoing debate in Roman society over how to mark out slaves), so the admixture was probably very great.

As to what extent Germanic invaders had on Italy, it seems like it would probably be large. Many historians and archaeologists believe Northern and Central Italy were massively depopulated during Late Antiquity(Visigothic, Ostrogothic, and Vandal invasions) and especially during the Early Middle Ages(Justinian's War), so it seems likely that invaders during these periods would have a larger effect on the gene pool.

Not too sure about the Arabs, though. They did not rule for very long in Southern Italy.

[Matritensis]

We will never know,but contemporary descriptions of peoples living further to the North (Gauls and Germans) always stress their bigger frames and their lighter pigmentation,and that tells in my opinion that they were mainly Mediterranean,and probably a bit darker than the average Italian nowadays,not the other way around.