Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
- Reaction score
- 12,329
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
Yes.
Currently it looks like we can observe a combined effect of:
- Provincials moving South, when the Roman rule began to collapse. This was a real and fairly large movement of people as well.
- Germanics came in, which included not just "pure", but also mixed Germanics and again provincials, of which many fled with them, away from the steppe invaders and Slavs.
- There was resurgance from the local rural Italian population, from areas with lowered Levantine admixture.
- Also there was continuous lower level gene flow from the Frankish (German-French sphere) into Italy from Medieval times onwards.
I think all 4 effects need to be combined for properly explaining the backshift. However, how big each of this effects actually was, because all of them are real, is still up to debate.
I have yet to see any factual foundation for your point number one, but that doesn't surprise me. Furthermore, it's nonsensical. By going south they would be going straight into the mouth of the hell which was the Gothic War. Even the preamble was no picnic. Anyone who thinks the Byzantines were good stewards is much mistaken.
As to number 2, they weren't fleeing any Slavs, because no Slavs made it into Italy. The Langobards were quite good at holding on to their newly conquered territory. Before pontificating on Italian genetics, I think it might be helpful to learn something about Italian history.
I have seen no actual documentation for all these provincials fleeing south, but that has never stopped you from speculating wildly before, so I doubt it will stop you now.
That lower level gene flow, for which neither you nor anyone else can assign a number, went into the elite strata. They didn't bother with the likes of us. We supported the merchants of the communes, and we gave short shrift to any of these foreign "Lords".