Angela
Elite member
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- Ethnic group
- Italian
500 BC Founding Romans were more North Italian like
500 BC - 0 They slowly become more Southern Italian like
0 - 400 AD Levantine admixture increases
400 - 1000 AD Cities are population sinks-low reproduction, population reverts back to the 500 BC state by repopulation from rural areas
Caveat: I read rumors that some Samnites were Cypriot like, if that's true founding Romans may be more mixed or even more Southern like.
With the fall of Rome, the people in the cities died; the population didn't just wither away. It was the same in World War II when La Spezia and Aulla, for example, were bombed so intensely that almost nothing of the old cities is left. Sound familiar? Those who didn't die at enemy hands in the fighting, deprived of fresh water, food from the countryside, or bread from Egyptian grain just died. Farmers in the countryside stash away food they've grown themselves, have places to hide, and have a better chance of survival. It's what my relatives did, with supplies into caches carved into the hillside terraces, and and animals in caves in the woods. Pestilence spreads more easily in crowded urban centers as well. This was, after all, the time of Justinian's Plague. Survivalists today don't build their hideouts in the middle of New York City, right?
What is also often forgotten is that Rome and most cities of the West had begun to decline years before the actual "Fall". The City of Rome was a shadow of its former self by the end. The Empire of the East, centered in Constantinople, was the new lodestar. Some of the population would have been attracted there. It was certainly more of a locus for foreign trade than Rome by the last century or so. I wonder if these researchers bothered to read a comprehensive history of Rome the city before doing their analysis?
I doubt the population reverted completely back to the 500 BC state. Some of the people whom Rome attracted probably did stay, some may even have settled in the countryside. I have to see the actual samples to get a better handle on it.
Pax has already explained the difference between Sabines and Samnites.
So much confusion.