Carlos Marcelo Shäferstein · March 8, 2019 Historian

Are Italians descendants of the Romans?

Not exactly. The Italians are the product of centuries of invasions and mixtures between peoples.

The Sabines, together with the Etruscans, the Latins, the Aequi, the Ligurians, the Samnites, the Sabellians and the Hernics, among others, were ancient peoples who inhabited pre- Roman Italy.

Its origin can not be determined with certainty, but it is believed that they were in Lazio since prehistory and, once the Republic was established, they were assimilated to the culture and became citizens of Rome.

According Virgilius they were linked to the Trojan legend of the creation of Rome.

To populate the newly created city, Rómulo accepted all types of refugees and uprooted from neighboring cities, of Latin origin. The colony was formed entirely by men, but to build a city women were also needed. They then placed their eyes on the daughters of the Sabines, who inhabited the neighboring hill of the Quirinal. Rome was founded on April 21, 753 a. C.

To get hold of them, Latinos organized a big party, with chariot races and banquets, and when the Sabines were overcome by the vapors of wine, they kidnapped their women to build families.

The Roman Empire became so big that there were a lot of different people with different cultures living in it. So you can’t really say there was one way of living in the Roman Empire. There were many different ways of living.

Families living in the Roman Empire took many different forms. In general, there was more equality between men and women under Roman law than there was under the Greeks or under West Asian law. But there was more equality in the western part of the Empire, in Europe and North Africa (including Egypt), than there was in the east, in West Asia. There, most people followed West Asian and Greek traditions.

People of minority races or cultures probably were more comfortable under the Roman Empire than they were before or after. There were people of so many different cultures travelling around the empire interacting with each other that there seems to have been a lot of tolerance for other cultures. On the other hand, this contact did also cause tension. Sometimes that tension burst out into violent persecutions of minority groups.

People were forced into slavery in every corner of the Roman empire, from the beginning to the end. But again the kind of slavery and the way enslaved people were treated depended on where you were and also on when. In Italy and Sicily, and maybe in some other places, big farms were worked by slave field-hands, who were very badly treated.

Other slaves were house servants, like nannies, nurses, cooks, laundry-women, and stable- boys who took care of the horses. A lot of enslaved people also worked for the Roman government, or for private businesses, as managers, or running a shop, or in small factories. Still other enslaved people were criminals who had been sentenced to work in the mines or other hard labor as punishment. Even if they were freed, people who had once been enslaved still didn’t have the same rights as other people, but their children did, if they had been born free.

All over the Roman empire, many boys in cities probably went to school. Some girls went too, but most girls were not allowed to go to school. Out in the countryside, in small villages, probably hardly anyone could read or write. Very few people went to college, but those that did often travelled far from home, to Athens or Alexandria in Egypt, for a good education.

Partly at school, and partly through their families or just playing ball games outside, kids all over the Roman empire did have lots of friends.

Girls and boys from rich families, however, were not allowed to get romantic together. Most marriages among the upper classes were arranged by the parents. It was probably different, and more like today, for the poor.

In addition to this initial population structure, the "pure" Romans mix their race with that of the invaders through history.

1. The Etruscans, in central Italy (Tuscany and northern Lazio), eighth century BC a.C. - 1st century BC; 2. The ancient Greeks, in southern Italy and Sicily, 8th century BC C. - 290/280 a. C.; 3. The Romans, who dominated all of Italy from the 1st century BC until the fall of the Western Empire; 4. Several barbarian peoples, from the IVth to the VI century AD; 5. The Longobards, mainly in Northern Italy during the High Middle Ages (6th-7th centuries AD); 6. The Byzantines, mainly in the South of Italy and in Ravenna during the high Middle Ages (6th-7th centuries AD); 7. The Arabs, in Sicily (from 827 until the fall of Noto in 1091); 8. The Franks, in central and northern Italy (8th-9th centuries AD). His most important emperors, Carlo Magno, founded the Holy Roman Empire; 9. The Normans, from 1000 to 1194 in Sicily and southern Italy; 10. The Svevos (of present-day Germany) in the 12th century and later the Angioini (in present-day France), in Sicily and southern Italy; 11. From the second half of the XVI century to the end of the XVII century the Spanish domination, direct or indirect in almost all Italy; 12. In the 18th century and in the 19th century the Asburga (Austrian) domination, direct or indirect, in a large part of Northern Italy and 13. The Napoleonic domination, in almost all Italy from 1796 to 1814.

All these invasions and migrations produced ties of blood with the original races to give the characteristics of the Italians at the beginning of the XX Century. Advanced the current Century, it is not restricted knowledge that there is a second Islamic invasion ~silent and peaceful~ over all of Europe, as well as the influx of black populations that settled everywhere ~fleeing from misery and war in their lands~ and that today are part, if you will, of the Italian typology.

Refugees from the cargo ship Vlora in Bari’s port (Italy) on 8 August 1991.

Syrians refugees flee to Rome.

A record number of migrants have reached Italy by boat from North Africa in 2016, according to official data, as pressure on Italy’s shelter and asylum systems grows.

U.N. says up to 500 migrants may have drowned on their way to Italy

SOURCES:

1. (PDF) The evolution of migration flows in Europe and Italy 2. Breaking News, World News & Multimedia Migration to Europe Is Down Sharply. So Is It Still a ‘Crisis’? 3. An Ancient Tuscan Village, Like Italy, Is Reshaped by Migration 4. Immigration to Italy: a look at the numbers 5. Historical Patterns in Ancient and Contemporary Migration Phenomena in the Mediterranean Area ScienceDirect 6. Migration discourses in Italy