Are Italians descendants of Romans?

Question

You know how Rome's in Italy? And the Romans lived in Rome? Does that mean Italians are descendants of Romans?

Answer 1

Yes, Italians of today are descendants of Romans who lived there 2000 years ago. By Romans, I mean inhabitants of the city of Rome who had spread out (thinly) to conquer and administer a vast Mediterranean empire by that time. The original Italians 1000 years before that were probably Celts. They are probably pretty much the same today. We watch movies in which hordes of barbarians invade, knock down the columns, set things on fire, and carry off the dancing girls. Actually, the population of Italy was in the 10's of millions. The Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Huns, Arabs, and Normans were each in the 10's of thousands. The descendants of these invaders are still there. But much more numerous are the descendants of the original Italians. The ancient Italians are still there

Answer 2

Modern Italians are probably one of the most diverse nationalities, in terms of ancestry. By the 2nd Century AD, Roman soldiers were being drafted from Germany and Spain and from other provinces. Slaves who worked in Rome came from all over the empire. By 576 AD, when the Vandals sacked Rome, many peoples had passed through the peninsula. Later on, Arabs, Normans, Turks and others invaded Italy and some may have settled permanently. So there must be many lineages to be found in Italians today. This is true of major European and Mid East countries, for the same reasons.

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Answer 3

It depends on how you look at it. The peninsula, which is Italy, was inhabited before the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire actually grew from a small community on the Italian peninsula. So, technically, Romans are descendants of Italians.

Answer 4

Yes. Italians also have ancestry from Germanic tribes(many practically ruled the Italian Peninsula before and after the Byzantine Empire conquered the Italian Peninsula), Greeks(Greek Colonies flourished in southern Italy until the end of the 2nd Punic War) and Arabs(Part of Sicily).

Answer 5

Actually, the Italians were there first. Romans ARE Italians, they're only called Romans because that's the city they're from.

Answer 6

You have answered you own question my dear, except the "Romans" made citizens from the tribes they conquered, so they were multi-racial long before we even thought of the term for a society.