Are Modern-Day Italians Descendants of the Ancient Romans?

Are Modern Italians Descendants of the Ancient Romans? A Look at Genetics

• Modern-day Italians are culturally, ethically, and philosophically descendants of the Ancient Romans and Greeks.
• The Roman Empire was vast, with over 70 million people across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa calling Rome their capital.
• Recent studies show that Roman DNA was highly varied and heterogeneous, with genetic characteristics of the many people who composed the empire.
• The genetic profile of the Romans changed over time, becoming more diverse and taking in the genetic characteristics of conquered peoples.
• The Roman Empire did not impose its culture, and there was often mutual passing of knowledge, habits, and traditions between conquerors and the subdued.
• The genetic makeup of modern Italians is a colorful mix-and-match of genes, similar to the United States' "melting pot" concept.
• Two millennia have passed between the Roman Empire and modern-day Italy, during which history made and destroyed countries, invasions and conquests took place, and languages changed.
• The Lombards were the first real Italians, who vanquished the Romans but fully embraced their culture and mixed with them through marriages.
• The fall of the Lombard kingdom to the Franks was considered by Machiavelli as the first of many foreign invasions that plagued Italy throughout its history.
• History reshaped Europe, moving people around the continent and bringing people from other lands to Italy, such as the Goths, Lombards, Franks, and Normans.
• These "Barbarians" embraced much of what Rome had to offer culturally and socially, while keeping their own habits and traditions alive.
• Medieval Italians are closer ancestors to modern-day Italians than the Romans, and their DNA is present in modern-day Italians' veins as much as the Romans.