Angela
Elite member
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- Ethnic group
- Italian
Does it matter? Does any of it matter? The important thing, surely, is that he was the product of Greek civilization? He was a Greek speaker, taught by Greeks in Greek thinking, worshipped Greek gods, and thought of himself as spreading Greek civilization.
If you want to get into the nitty gritty of his genetics, how can it be settled at the present time? We have no samples from his area and time period, so discussions just generate into t-rolling because of jealousy of the Greeks from my point of view.
Do I think Alexander was like a modern or even ancient Peloponnesian or an Athenian or Ionian Greek? I doubt it, but I don't know. I could punt and say maybe he was like the modern day Macedonians, but Alexander was about a thousand years, give or take, before the Slavic migrations, so that's probably wrong.
Until we get some ancient samples from the "Macedonians" of his day we're just not going to know are we? Since the Slavic in the Balkans is on a north/south cline, maybe he will be closer to modern day Greeks further south than Macedonia.
Or maybe he'll turn out to be like the Illyrians and Thracians, who seem to be closer to North Italians than to modern people from the Balkans.
Maybe someday we'll find out. Until then, I'm absolutely sure about one thing: trying to find the earliest place a form of his name was recorded tells us bupkis. That's zero, nada. It may be of academic value, but it will tell us nothing about his genetics.
As for the Corsicans, I'm a great believer in self-determination for ethnic groups. I think that Corsicans refer to themselves as "Corsicans" primarily, but also as French citizens, or French citizens of Corsican ancestry. That Corsican ancestry is genetically very close to Tuscan and Ligurian ancestry, and their language is close to Tuscan, but if they don't want to identify as Italian that's fine with me. I'd certainly welcome them if they wanted to switch over. Same goes for the people of Nizza and surrounding areas.
As for a lot of the people in the Alto-Adige areas, they are Italian citizens but are not Italians genetically and don't want to be. That's fine with me. I hope they secede. Good riddance.
The Romanians are a different story. They may speak a Latin language, but I don't know how much actual ancestry from the Romans they carry. That's completely different from the people of Corsica or Nizza. I actually have some experience with Romania, and the ones I met were quite proud of their Italian connection, although they didn't claim to be Italian. That would be silly. Nice, educated people the ones with whom I had dealings. Then there's some of the ones I've met on these Boards. Mad as hatters some of them. You Balkanites can keep those.
If you want to get into the nitty gritty of his genetics, how can it be settled at the present time? We have no samples from his area and time period, so discussions just generate into t-rolling because of jealousy of the Greeks from my point of view.
Do I think Alexander was like a modern or even ancient Peloponnesian or an Athenian or Ionian Greek? I doubt it, but I don't know. I could punt and say maybe he was like the modern day Macedonians, but Alexander was about a thousand years, give or take, before the Slavic migrations, so that's probably wrong.
Until we get some ancient samples from the "Macedonians" of his day we're just not going to know are we? Since the Slavic in the Balkans is on a north/south cline, maybe he will be closer to modern day Greeks further south than Macedonia.
Or maybe he'll turn out to be like the Illyrians and Thracians, who seem to be closer to North Italians than to modern people from the Balkans.
Maybe someday we'll find out. Until then, I'm absolutely sure about one thing: trying to find the earliest place a form of his name was recorded tells us bupkis. That's zero, nada. It may be of academic value, but it will tell us nothing about his genetics.
As for the Corsicans, I'm a great believer in self-determination for ethnic groups. I think that Corsicans refer to themselves as "Corsicans" primarily, but also as French citizens, or French citizens of Corsican ancestry. That Corsican ancestry is genetically very close to Tuscan and Ligurian ancestry, and their language is close to Tuscan, but if they don't want to identify as Italian that's fine with me. I'd certainly welcome them if they wanted to switch over. Same goes for the people of Nizza and surrounding areas.
As for a lot of the people in the Alto-Adige areas, they are Italian citizens but are not Italians genetically and don't want to be. That's fine with me. I hope they secede. Good riddance.
The Romanians are a different story. They may speak a Latin language, but I don't know how much actual ancestry from the Romans they carry. That's completely different from the people of Corsica or Nizza. I actually have some experience with Romania, and the ones I met were quite proud of their Italian connection, although they didn't claim to be Italian. That would be silly. Nice, educated people the ones with whom I had dealings. Then there's some of the ones I've met on these Boards. Mad as hatters some of them. You Balkanites can keep those.