Why Modern Italians look like the Roman Empire

[@claudiaoddi5548]

The genetic pool of italian people has not changed from pre-roman times. Italians are still basically the same: greeks, latins, italics, etruscans and celts. The peoples that originally lived in Italy before Rome and during the Roman era grew in number reaching millions of inhabitants. Italy has always been one of the most populated lands in europe. The few hundreds of thousands people of different origins who later arrived and settled in the italian peninsula had to mingle with millions of people already living there, and had just a minor and very fleble impact on the existing genetic pool, which is still dominant in the Italian People.

[@synaestesia-bg3ew]

Yes it did.

[@lyricofwise6894]

Modern italians are obviously diverse, but indigenous populations of the italian penninsula during classical antiquity (meaning from the roman/etruscan kingdoms to the fall of the western roman empire), were less diverse than now since all the immigrations, invasions, etc.. The ancient romans during those times were 60% percent Plus (so, a majority), anatolian neolithic farmer middle eastern dna profile, with a mixture of minority other dna, second most usually western huntergatherer (descendants of people like cheddarman). During late antiquity, the people of italian penninsula became more mixed, and even more after the fall of WRE. So southern italians are the people most closely related with the romans of the empire, since they have the most anatolian neolithic farmer dna.

[@bijelimedved2983]

Etruscans are Slavic from the Balkan par of Europa

[@tylerpatti9038]

@@bijelimedved2983 No, Etruscans were not Slavic nor were the ancient Balkan people. that would be akin to saying the Hittites were Turkish; which is also not true.

[@bijelimedved2983]

@@tylerpatti9038 Hetiti were slavic and Etruscans were slavic theri laungage has benn translated using slavic laungage and ther genetis are the same as slavs, this was proven to be true by Italian and German and Americans professiors who wrhote books about it ....

[@ThaKingzsouljahPR777]

The only way that a modern Italian would know that was Julius Caesar would be when Caesar would be speaking straight up Latin! 😆

[@nytn]

guess my two years of college latin would finally pay off😂

[@synaestesia-bg3ew]

​@@nytnThe Latin that you've learned at school is different.

[@OfficialFlameSports]

@@synaestesia-bg3ewyeah when the Roman Empire fell, Latin changed

[@synaestesia-bg3ew]

@@OfficialFlameSports The reason I said this is that modern Latin is a reconstruction of vulgar Latin. Latin arrived in England with the Normandy French, who used it extensively in their legal system.

[@Ponto-zv9vf]

He would probably be speaking to your chest, they weren't tall those Romans.

[@vidtuby]

Romans are alive and well! And their descendants are scattered worldwide😊

[@nytn]

What do you think? What two faces were most surprising from the collage? 🟢Send me a coffee!: ko-fi.com/nytn13#linkModal ⚪Support more storytelling click the "Join" button. ⚪Want to connect? facebook.com/findinglolafilm/ 🟢Grab your own Ancestry DNA test now*! : amzn.to/3UxGKJxkzbin.infogaming/emoji/7ff574f2/emoji_u1f7e2.png

[@dleonardo3238]

3:44 "northern italy", shows a neapolitan southitalian lmao. also the greeks where in the south before the romans came

[@stefciko5831]

@@dleonardo3238 e le popolazioni italiche non c'erano haha?

[@ryan7864]

Thanks for busting this stereotype. Because the vast majority of Italian immigrants came from the south, Americans have developed an unrealistic perception of what Italians look like. In truth, "Italian" is a civic identity as well. Having lived in Italy for 13 years, I can attest that people identify with their region before Italian.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

The town, the village, the single corner of the village...

[@lyricofwise6894]

Modern italians are obviously diverse, but indigenous populations of the italian penninsula during classical antiquity (meaning from the roman/etruscan kingdoms to the fall of the western roman empire), were less diverse than now since all the immigrations, invasions, etc.. The ancient romans during those times were 60% percent Plus (so, a majority), anatolian neolithic farmer middle eastern dna profile, with a mixture of minority other dna, second most usually western huntergatherer (descendants of people like cheddarman). During late antiquity, the people of italian penninsula became more mixed, and even more after the fall of WRE. So southern italians are the people most closely related with the romans of the empire, since they have the most anatolian neolithic farmer dna.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

@@lyricofwise6894 Before the birth of the Empire, the Romans were an Italic population coming from what is now Czechia. They were more mixed than you think, because they lived near the proto-Kelts. Ancient Southerners are a non-existent category. In the South there were various areas inhabited by peoples of different origins. The people who spoke Oscan were second wave Italics. The Greeks were Greeks (but there were Greeks of ancient Minoan descent and Greeks of more recent descent). The Apulians were Illyrians. The Bruttii of Calabria had links with ancient populations of Asia Minor. In Sicily there were an archaic indigenous population, another population of the first Italic wave, a Greek population and a Phoenician population. So no unity of DNA.

[@NoName-hg6cc]

​@@giorgiodifrancesco4590No population has unity in DNA not even Japan. What unite us is our culture

[@lyricofwise6894]

@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 I already said they were mixed, but the main source of the umbrella groupings (tree chart) however were firstly, Anatolian Neolithic farmer related dna, they were 60% plus, and the second most at 30 percent were western hunter gatherers and its assorted progeny (for original WHG ppls, think descendants of the people like cheddarman), this dna has been proven (of people of the italian penninsula, notably in the estruscan roman region firstoff, all the way to late antiquity, these markers already encompass what you said)

[@gloriathomas3245]

As in the case of Spaniards and Portuguese, today's Italians are an admixture of peoples of peoples that settled on the peninsula. And most southern Italians are going to have a strong Greek ancestry.

[@georgebaccett9951]

According to a report from the BBC in London, a modern Italian is the sum of: Romans (these do not exceed 38%) + Germanic people, among them: Lombards, Ostrogoths, Heruli, Swabians and Normans, all accentuated and established in what is now Italy and on a smaller scale: Celts and Greeks. Separately, there is Sicily that belonged to Carthage (today Tunisia and part of Turkey) invaded by the Romans and when it dissipated it was taken by the Arabs although it was short-lived due to Ostrogothic pressures (Germanics) and in the end the Normans (Germanics) prevailed over said territory. From the above it is evident that a modern Italian is the mixture of Western Europe

[@Ponto-zv9vf]

It is old Greek, pre Slavic, more like the people of Crete and some of the Greek islands. Greek mainlanders are like their Balkan neighbors. And in Sicily there were native peoples, the Sicels, the Elymians and the Sicani.

[@caesarmonturano9777]

well, like you said this report is "According to a report from the BBC in London" You may take it from there.@@georgebaccett9951

[@John-gz4zh]

Being half Irish and half Italian I can tell you stereotypes are funny I have irish cousins with dark hair olive skin and a Have Italian cousins with light hair light skin

[@Trebor-17]

In reality the photo of the blond Italian Footballer at 3:46 depicts Ciro Immobile, a southern Italian

[@Ponto-zv9vf]

Was he meant to be a Northerner or just a lighter Italian?

[@starventure]

Which Italian are we discussing though? Sicilianos, Calabrians, Tuscanians? The Swiss have a large amount of Italian because of the close shared history, are they not just Italian but of Roman descent? I have argued with others that the Swiss descendants of the ancient Helvetii tribe are the last remotely true Romans, in that they never were conquered by foreign armies other than the Romans. Who is Italian and who is of Roman descent?

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

Me (it's a joke!)

[@tylerpatti9038]

the helvettii were celts.

[@Ermagron]

Anyone, swear allegiance get federati status and keep go from there. Joke aside that sums it, these talk will never end i could say that i am more roman than anyone else because i understand and respect their IUS logic better then 99% of the ppl and this likely make me a better roman candidate that anyone with better dna. The best roman is a unnamed and noble wanna be stlicho and not a random gaius or treacherous arminius.

[@youtubeyoutube936]

Siciliani is the plural. Ethnically Canton Ticino is Italian and a few valleys in the Grison canton. Can’t say I have heard anyone saying we are the descendants of the Romans.

[@pipebomber04]

Ancient Italians (latins, etruscans, oscans, umbrians, po valley gauls, veneti, greeks) were one of the first peoples to be given roman citizenship. But eventually all of the people within the empire were given citizenship.

[@nemomarcus5784]

Where I grew up most people were from the Mediterranean from Southern Europe to. North Africa and the Middle East. To me, the Mediterranean look is what looks normal and I don't really think of the Italian look.

[@Ponto-zv9vf]

The Mediterranean look is a catchall. The reality is that Europeans, Near Easterners and North Africans are different in looks. Europeans from Britain and Germany that wanted to go into Arabia, visit Mecca, Medina, old sites in the Near East in the old days just dressed and acted like Arabs, spoke Arabic and had no problems. West Eurasians tend to look like each other just not identically.

[@SpecialAgent666]

You only need to look at the proximity of a place and skulls to know that the true Italians had a round Africoid skull and as other groups came into the region, you all had Germanic features added too. Look at the Ancient artwork, the Ancient Greeks were more Africoid then took on lighter tones. The North & South like Today in other regions in the world differ.

[@LOVE-JC777]

Actually Northern Italians immigrated to the state Veracruz Mx. Many mixed with the folks in the state of Michoacán Mx. some are brown skinned people.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

The mixed ones, maybe.

[@LOVE-JC777]

@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 in Veracruz they are lesser mixed but have not lost the traditions. they live in chipilo and speak older véneto .

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

@@LOVE-JC777 Italians are those of Italy. That are people of partially italian descent, who live in another culture: it's different

[@LOVE-JC777]

@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 the folks in chipilo Mx are 5 generation since the president of Mexico Porfirio Diaz . The Altos of Jalisco only descendants of Italians from the early days like my friends the Rizzo family The Neri family they’re 100 percent Mexican that’s all they know. Actually Italy was created in last 100 years mostly it was states with different dialects. The people went by their region’s names.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

@@LOVE-JC777 Italy exists from before the unification The culture was italian yet before. This is not an opinion. The folk regional differences are other things

[@cjc2]

I always thought that Italian and other Mediterranean peoples have these common traits like large, deep set eyes. High nose bridge, thick eye brows, ability to grow full beards. Dark colored hair. Skin tones from white to tan. But with thousands of years of migration there are always exceptions. I know Greeks, Sicilians and Turks with blonde hair and blue eyes.

[@nonradicalnationalist6608]

There are also blonde Italians, Meditations are mixed with Arabs they were originally whitter looking Slave were more Germania looking in past before mixing with Asians

[@nonradicalnationalist6608]

Slavs* Germans* Stupid autocorect

[@elleanna5869]

It's an interesting puzzle. Btw nowadays, with way less people working outside in fields and with change of economy, if you take a walk in Palermo you wouldn't find blatant difference from a crowd in Rome or Milan. The difference between Northern and Southern Italians was really exaggerated according 19th pseudoscience speculations. They assumed that being Sicilians and southerners poor and close to Africa 🙄 they had of course to be poor inferior negroids "that don't belong to civilised Europe" 🙄 but actually these claims were based more on prejudice than facts.

[@darrellm9915]

@@nonradicalnationalist6608 Lol Blonde hair and blue eyes does not make people "more white" because most white people have always had brown hair and brown eyes. That's basically just a Nordicism ideology, which the Nazis were obsessed with for all the wrong reasons. Dark hair and dark eyes can be found all over Europe, and it's not because "Arab" admixture. Southern Europeans, on average, only carry about 1 to 5% Middle Eastern DNA. That's not nearly enough to affect how someone looks. There are also Mediterranean-looking British/Irish people too. Look at Henry Cavill, David Gandy, Russell Brand, Colin Farrell, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cillian Murphy, Colin O'Donoghue, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Rowan Atkinson, Victoria Beckham, Kit Harington, Kate Beckinsale, Aisling Bea, Young Pierce Brosnan, Andrew Scott, Grainne Seoige, Caitriona Balfe, among others. Dark hair & eyes are especially natural among Celtic people as well, aside from those with red hair. Moreover, Italians don't even differ that much in terms of physical appearance and DNA from Northwestern Europeans. Only a tiny fraction of Southern Italians and Sicilians might have a bit more in common with Arabs, but that's not the case for most of them.

[@nonradicalnationalist6608]

@@darrellm9915 When roman empire fell there non white slaves went free It's no surprise that germans and Italians are way more close than Arabs and Italians 5% is significant enough to influence how you look Italians who are darker than most Italians have about 10% non white genes it really depends on Italian but in general Italians have little north African blood which made theme darker

[@JohnnyLodge2]

As someone of sicilian descent i like to show people miriam leone (catania) giusy busceni (marzo del valle) margareth made (palermo) and stella egitto (messina) and ask them to pick which one is the sicilian. They all are but only Made has the stereotypical dark features. Most sicilians I encountered in sicily were not olive skinned shiny black hair and almond shaped dark eyes. A lot of genetic diversity bc there have been a lot of influences there.

[@valtermalvezzi4353]

Mia moglie è siciliana e io sono.di origine venete, io sono di carnagione scura e moro, mia moglie carnagione chiara e castana, i miei fratelli biondi e occhi verdi, i parenti siciliani di mia moglie certi lineamenti che sembrano nord africani e certi che sembrano del nord Europa biondi e occhi celesti. Siamo un crogiolo di DNA.

[@japeri171]

Perhaps this is due to atavism.This occurs when certain characteristics of a certain people remain "dormant" for a long time and then reappear in their descendants.

[@DavidSmyth8439]

Dna is showing northern Italians are more closely related to pre roman empire Italians. Matching most closely with Lombardy. Southern Italy is very high with greek and middle Eastern ancestry. Modern iberians are also closer to pre roman empire Italians than Southern Italians

[@lyricofwise6894]

indigenous populations of the italian penninsula during classical antiquity (meaning from the roman/etruscan kingdoms to the fall of the western roman empire), were 60% percent Plus, anatolian neolithic farmer middle eastern dna profile, with a mixture of minority other dna, second most usually western huntergatherer. During late antiquity, the people of italian penninsula became more mixed, and even more after the fall of WRE. So southern italians are the people most closely related with the romans of classical antiquity, since they have the most anatolian neolithic farmer dna.

[@DavidSmyth8439]

I should have said pre roman empire Romans. Southern Italians have been largely Greek genetically before the roman empire due to all the colonies. Modern Dna consistently shows greeks and Southern Italians plotting together. Southern Europe wherever you go is high in anatlolian farmer ancestry, Sardinia most of all. The most common paternal haplogroup of the Romans before the empire was R1b and is of Italy today. This is a western steppe herder haplogroup. Also, the etruscans were a completely alien people to the Romans, a non indo european remnant.

[@JosephHolness-u2m]

The Italian side of my roots originated in Trieste/ Northern Italy. I frequently get mistaken for a Slav or Russian (could be from my French-Cajun roots or something in my family tree I'm not aware of).

[@angelmoreno6577]

Italy is very diverse ethnically. I know much Italian sportsman with look absolutely germánic

[@DIFESA_RAZZA_BIANCA]

Italians are white we are not diverse

[@angelmoreno6577]

@@DIFESA_RAZZA_BIANCA Indro Montanelli in Historia di Roma, pensaba como io

[@lyricofwise6894]

​@@DIFESA_RAZZA_BIANCAWell its fitting since Southern italians are actually the closest genetically speaking to the romans of classical antiquity; the romans of classical antiquity (of the kingdoms, republic, and western roman empire; late antiquity became more mixed, obviously) were around 60 percent (so majority) anatolian neolithic farmer which is most similar to middle eastern dna, which makes sense since the mediterranean and the middle eastern areas had civilization since 4000 bc, it was around 480 ad that europe (not including italy and areas of current day greece) started to develop civilization

[@fomalhauto]

@@DIFESA_RAZZA_BIANCA white and black races don't even exist they're social constructs created out of White Supremacy it was out of ignorance of human genetics When the racial groups were created, there was a belief that not all modern human beings were human and that's why Sub Saharan Africans were being referred to as other primates like apes and monkeys According to 2003 Human Genome Project, all modern humans are 99.9% genetically identical.

[@wednesdayschild3627]

?

[@johnmanole4779]

There were other groups other then the romans in Italy. Like other ancient italic tribes with whom rome fought in it's infancy.

[@Ariapeithes_]

Correct.

[@donsena2013]

What you have there is the narrower definition of Roman, as bein\g of the ancient city state of Rome, apart from the other Italic tribes of Italy. In time, of course, all there other tribes were subsumed into a more general concept of Roman, all of whom would be speaking Latin, having now lost their original languages. Parts of the empire that would follow were not forcibly Latinized, as we can see from the NT alone

[@Ariapeithes_]

In short... the answer is yes and no, or _Is ea_ or _Ní hea_ in Irish... The fact that the Romans spoke an Indo-European language, means they derived in some way from ancient Kurgan males that invaded Europe sometime between 3500-3000 B.C., spreading the Indo-European languages, if you're familiar with Marija Gimbutas Kurgan hypothesis. Celtic/OIr Latin _*kaballos_ _caballus_ _rí_ _rex_ _oí_ _ovis_ _fén_ _covinnus_ _*gladiwos_ _gladius_ _ech_ _equus_ _Día_ _Deus_ _fer_ _viri_ _*karbantos_ _carrus_ Italic and Celtic were once very close to one another linguistically before diverging into completely separate branches, which means that some of the earliest settlers of Italy were of Celtic origin, which would explain why people like Cato had red hair. Southern Italians look more Mediterranean, while northern Italians look more Nord or Celtic like, no different than how the Ulster Scotts apparently looked different from southern Irish. And yeah if you look at George Clooney or Eric McCormick compared to someone like Mel Gibson or Gerard Butler, they have completely different phenotypes. In Irish legend the _Corca Oíche_ were a race different from the invading *Milesians* and the _Tuatha De Danann_ who immigrated to Ireland expelling or annihilating the original settlers. With the rise of the Celts in Europe around 3000 years ago, the Celts made a significant impact on Europe's racial and cultural development.

[@jimmyalfonda3536]

So Mediterranean pre-celts?

[@Ariapeithes_]

@@jimmyalfonda3536 It appears to be that way.... the Celts were notorious for being redheaded according to the Romans, a trait also common among ancient Germanic tribes like the Swabi, and certain place names in Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland like Bohemia, Helvetii, Belgae, Teveri(Trier), Briton, Gaul etc., are all Celtic in origin.

[@LandDownUnder77]

@@Ariapeithes_ I have a lot of Celt/Germanic ancestry, but I'm dark haired and blue eyed. Some people say the red hair may have come from Scandinavians, but can't say if that's true or not.

[@Ariapeithes_]

@@LandDownUnder77 You're a North Atlantid type.

[@ColdandRain202]

Central Italians?

[@JustFluffyQuiltingYarnCrafts]

Very cool to put those faces together in a collage, Danielle. 👍👍♥️

[@WickedFelina]

The statue you show of "Julius" Caesar is actually Caesar Agustus.

[@nytn]

yes! that's right

[@Ponto-zv9vf]

Julius Caesar had a distinctive look, the receding hair, the cheekbones.

[@jamescorvus6709]

I always wanted to understand the phenotype of ancient latins/ Romans and today. Also they "germanized" ancient Rome and ancient Greece

[@raulrambome]

GERMANIZED - IS AN AMERICAN TERM - YES GO HOME!

[@lyricofwise6894]

Modern italians are obviously diverse, but indigenous populations of the italian penninsula during classical antiquity (meaning from the roman/etruscan kingdoms to the fall of the western roman empire), were less diverse than now since all the immigrations, invasions, etc.. The ancient romans during those times were 60% percent Plus (so, a majority), anatolian neolithic farmer middle eastern dna profile, with a mixture of minority other dna, second most usually western huntergatherer (descendants of people like cheddarman). During late antiquity, the people of italian penninsula became more mixed, and even more after the fall of WRE. So southern italians are the people most closely related with the romans of the empire, since they have the most anatolian neolithic farmer dna.

[@mosescola4174]

Take into account the Etruscan’s whom were indigenous to southern Italy during ancient times. Olive skin was a thing in ancient times but the whole racial purity thing came from west of Europe. Why is everything about nose’s?

[@cesarpisa6964]

The Etruscans were from the Modern area of Italy known as Tuscany which is north central Italy.

[@darrellm9915]

@@fortunatomartino8549 Some had fair skin.

[@synaestesia-bg3ew]

I believe it is the opposite. The majority of today's Italians come from outside of Rome, specifically from paysantery. The ancient Romans were citadine, and they never mixed with paysantery.

[@lucianomezzetta4332]

Some Italians look like Romans of the Roman Republic ( from the Lazio and Umbria regions especially ). Some look like Germans ( from the Trento region ). Some look like French people ( from Piedmont ). Some look like James Gandolfini ( all my cousins from the region near Borgo Val di Taro ).

[@maxromano2262]

All you have to do is look at a DNA map of Italian admixture in Europe. You will see that it aligns almost perfectly with the borders of the Roman Empire.

[@et76039]

I am 100% pre Revolutionary American, but when FamilyTree determined that I had a tiny fraction of a percent that was Balkans, the most likely explanation was an early English colonial family in Virginia named Taliaferro, which was pronounced Tolliver and often spelled that way. That colonial family traced back to a Venetian businessman named Bartolomeo Tagliaferro who settled in London in the 16th century. Autosomal DNA tests of people in northern Italy often show up as partly Balkans.

[@johnnyearp52]

My mom's ex-boyfriend is half Southern Italian and half Polish. His DNA from the Italian half was mostly Balkans. Apparently his family came from a majority Balkan town in Italy.

[@et76039]

@@johnnyearp52, turns out that there are three towns east of Rome that speak the Shtokavian dialect of Croatian.

[@johnnyearp52]

@@et76039 That is interesting!

[@Clayjar444]

One need only look at a map to see why the Veneto region may have some intermingling with the Balkans. Incidentally, Tagliaferro means Iron-cutter, so you know what their trade was...

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

Ancient populations of Apulia were of Illirian descent.

[@MsMaureen1975]

That was so interesting. And the thing you said about where our looks come from brought back a memory . My mother always said I looked like my great grandmother, but we had no pictures of her. We all look like our ancestors near and far in some way. Nice video.

[@Ponto-zv9vf]

I have 7 siblings and don't look like them. I have dna tested and am my parents' child.

[@anthonygreco5335]

I appreciate you covering this! My family hails from Calabria (on both sides but from opposite coastlines) and not only are the majority of them swarthy but we range from very dark to very fair skinned with a variety of variations in between depending on who dramatically tans better and faster than others. Also it’s worth noting that genetically speaking, Southern Italians primary ancestral group come more from the Greek world, especially the Greek islands in the Eastern Aegean. I believe a study revealed our Greek ancestry is closest related to Cretans, Cypriots and Greeks from an archipelago stretch along southwestern Turkey called the Dodacanese islands. Plus, even within the same region there is diversity. My moms family seems to largely be Greek with a hefty smattering of Levantine related ancestry and a smidge of Roman/Central Italian. My dad’s has Greek, Sardinian, Levantine, North African, Ashkenazi Jewish and West Asian related ancestries. Same region, different coastlines, unique admixtures. All are Calabrese. All are Italian (those of us who still have citizenship or live there). The dialects even reflect it. One side is heavily Greek and Spanish influenced with a Latin base. The other has little Spanish to speak of but heavy Arabic influence. A melting pot for sure!

[@Neoyorchese]

I dont call them dialects because they are true languages with their writings, words, and grammar and way of pronouncing

[@francis4835]

My grandparents on my father's side came from San Giuseppe Sicily and produced 9 children all facial identical looking but skin color ranging dark/ blk hair to white skin/ blond hair.

[@Dimanto22]

Early Romans are more like northern Italians actually and imperial era Roman’s to southern ones (in general) genetically speaking. Oh, and btw northern Italians don’t have Germanic ancestry but Celtic; most of it was named Gallia Cisalpina for a reason.

[@EdwardofWoodstock-bc9ue]

The substrate is celtic but arrived in north an central Italy a lot of Germans. Depending on the area. If you think that the ostroghots were ca 200k and the longbards also ca 200k in a population of the early middle ages of CA 5/6 millions of the all Italy you can see that in just a mid upper part of the country they were Not insignificant. More than 400 common words of Italian are germanic origin!

[@ColdandRain202]

They were of ancient tribes around Italy including central Italy

[@Ermagron]

​​ that is not indicative, we have proof that modern italian has been forged due the use of notary. The political group in power and the law they promulgate had way more influx on the used language ppl would late keep use, this is sadly more evident today with the influx of the english which substitute italian in part even it italian have a corresponding word for it. For ex: slide / diapositive. So ad example a germanic ruling in italy and a germanic law system and later a mix germa-latin law system impacted enough and for enough time the daily life of the ppl that it changed also their language. So the group of power is more important than the dna.

[@James-oi7mz]

Did you ever see the dying Gaul statue. I believe it is a Roman depiction of a helinistic satutue of a Galelic warrior. The features are totally distinct from Roman features. I thought that was interesting in relation to Roman statues

[@nytn]

Going to look it up now!

[@LandDownUnder77]

Whether the statues were intentionally colored that way or not, I still think they look pretty awesome. 😜 Also, I had some Italian (Lazio and Sicily) show up in my DNA test, which I didn't expect, since my ancestry is Northwest Euro mostly. Weird lol.

[@alicemoore2036]

Sylvester Stallone looks uncannily like Emperor Constantine.

[@ilgufo1146]

The title of this video doesn't make sense

[@nytn]

thank you! fixed it

[@ilgufo1146]

@@nytn Oh ok, it was a mistake. Understood

[@nytn]

I didn't say that at all.

[@chiaroscuro3223]

I'm half Sicilian and although I have only 1% Levantine ancestry, my eyes are anatomically shaped like Arab eyes. Sicily was occupied by Arabs for several 100 years, so my eyes are no doubt a legacy of that occupation.

[@selinaBARMAR2565]

I see being Roman, Ancient Rome as a multiple civic hotspot of the world at the time and yes an "civic idea" more than an ethnicity. I see Rome as a melting pot but also having some specific looks that became known to be looks of some Italians today. As one from NYC I grew up around a lot of Italians and pretty much my accent and intonations can come across as NYC older style of Italian accents, this is true for many of us who are from there. Also having a Latin American background I see some Roman Hispania DNA since there was a Roman conquest of Iberian. Having a diverse history I'm shock to see where some of my ancestors migrated to, but there's no one look of any group, of any human. lol, Haven't many of us noticed how we can change in our lifetime from looking like one side of the family to shift to looking totally like the oher side; it's like our own genetics bounce back an forth in us too. I think another matter is how hard the racial idealogy of the U.S. tries so hard to squeeze humanity into two or three boxes when human have been mixing and migrating for thousands of years. I know an Italian family in NYC that I've grown to love dearly, the father an older man has very dark brown hair he's what you would call a fair olive tone, but can tan to a medium brown ,his wife I think is Italian but has some French too, well there three sons all look different. The oldest has looked some like Asian from childhood somone thought he belonged to a Filipina woman she knew, the middle son looks I would say what's considered the sterotypical NYC Italian look for lack of a better term, and the younger son is fairer toned than his brothers, father and a little more than his mother, blone hair and blue eyes. Same parents but does that really mean they share the exact same history? I don't think so because genetics don't have to show up in sibings exactly the same. So at the end of the day we are the human race and there's no exactness to this race theory. You could fit into this family too! lol

[@nemomarcus5784]

Funny but when I think of Romans, I imagine them as looking like Americans.

[@wendyraby3134]

This is very interesting, thanks Danielle!

[@elizabethdavis1696]

Have you seen some of the videos saying that we are all related and that everyone is descended from Charlemagne the great?

[@nytn]

no! I'll have to find those

[@georgebaccett9951]

According to a report from the BBC in London, a modern Italian is the sum of: Romans (these do not exceed 38%) + Germanic people, among them: Lombards, Ostrogoths, Heruli, Swabians and Normans, all accentuated and established in what is now Italy and on a smaller scale: Celts and Greeks. Separately, there is Sicily that belonged to Carthage (today Tunisia and part of Turkey) invaded by the Romans and when it dissipated it was taken by the Arabs although it was short-lived due to Ostrogothic pressures (Germanics) and in the end the Normans (Germanics) prevailed over said territory. From the above it is evident that a modern Italian is the mixture of Western Europe.

[@rogeramezquita5685]

That Bust at the end is Augustus (Octavian ) first Roman emperor not Julius Caesar ,

[@nytn]

yes! Thanks. I forgot to add the description below it. thanks!

[@elleanna5869]

Sorry for addictional comment, just a note about noses: aquiline is def a symbol and sign of distinction, of virility , being fierce , dominant and tough. In many books set in 18th / 19th century , male (but also female sometimes) characters with strong will and charisma , especially in the aristocracy, have this nose and I am talking of English and sometimes German/ French books, no Italian characters or stories.

[@albertross2456]

You realize those types of stereotypes have the least credibility

[@ryanmichael1298]

There is an Episode of The Sopranos that explains all of this.

[@di5833]

The girl giving the video would abuse me till she owns me.

[@trollinmartin7260]

Southern Italian African decent not influence right? I also would say Romans are not indigenous to Italy they are colonizers who set up their first fort on the palentine hill. Rome doesn't have a monopoly on Italy. The Eutruscans are indigenous. I could be wrong about that but we really never know.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

African descent is your obsession, not the reality.

[@babyboy562]

@@giorgiodifrancesco4590Etruscans were Indigenous Black Europeans get over it albion whites are not indigenous to Europa get a clue and education ✊🏾 same goes for Minoans 💪🏾

[@trollinmartin7260]

So let me get this right if Americans who come from the lineage of Slavery and Jim-Crow have a mixture of African and European (not by choice but through a system of rape by Slave Masters Sanctioned by the U.S Government) we are African decent. We not Americans who are a product or produced out of the American experience. But when Italian are swarthy because of African decent it is all of a sudden African influence. 😂 Racist mf"s

[@Ponto-zv9vf]

I consider the differences between Northern and Southern Italians are exaggerated, frankly the look similar to me. As to pigmentation, they are different from the extreme Northwest Europeans who are ruddier, are paler, and the eyes are often blue or green, the hair lighter than the browns of Italy. Most Northern Italians have dark hair, and brown eyes, and are not ruddy. True in the borderlands, people who spoke German or French or Slovenian there may be some the approximate NW Europeans in pigmentation, but even going into the countries surrounding Italy there are many of darker pigmentation. An ancient Roman would stick out today because they would be slimmer, and shorter than modern Italians. I would say the looks of Italians compared to ancient Romans, Etruscans, Samnites, Greeks and Gauls probably are quite similar, but genetically the modern Italians are shifted slightly towards the east. There was a huge number of Greek speaking immigrants to Rome and its empire from Anatolia and Syria, and most of them stayed and interbred with the old Italians. You cannot deny the dna results from the different periods of Italy. The pre Imperial Romans were like modern Central and North Italians, the Imperial Romans shifted towards Anatolia and Syria, post Imperial Italians are like Southern Italians.

[@stanleyamatucci4185]

Lot of misinformation here. Let’s back up. Romans were a tribe that conquered Italy. Julius Caesar then turned it into an empire which meant tribes outside Italy could participate and in fact rule over Romans. That’s why the stabbing happened. Would you lump all of native Americans and look for a typical Apache look and then assign that look to be typical to all native Americans? The price of empire meant the price of genetic diversity. They have DNA samples and studies which identify southern Italians with some DNA shared with the eastern Mediterranean, Middle East and Anatolia. Makes sense. Northern Italy naturally has more Northern European blood. Invasions don’t matter. Armies are small. Mass migration is the major factor. These migrations always happen when the host country birth rate declines (always due to increased wealth). Even this is deceiving. Groups migrate, branch off, then re-unite after 1000s of years. In between you have an occasional mutation in the DNA. Sorry, but those busts look more Northern European to me. Some frescoes look “south Italian”. This typical look is very similar to Spanish, Arab and even a slight Indian look in there as well. It’s complicated for sure.

[@axjohn]

Julius Caesar might not look any different walking into a bar in Rome but he’d sure cause a stir by trying to pay for his drinks with money with his head on it! 😂😂😂

[@jimmyalfonda3536]

Imagine Julius Caesar trying vodka and being like "w-why am I drunk a a a after only a few sips?"

[@rocketreindeer]

The picture of Pompey next to Walter M. reminds me of Harvey Keitel getting very irritated by someone. I dated a Greek Australian girl who looked exactly like an ancient fresco or painting from Crete that I saw later.

[@zilkmusik7652]

Great video thx!

[@nazarioguerrieri4880]

Il popolo italiano di oggi è il risultato finale della piu grande e gloriosa storia millenaria che ha alle spalle ...evviva Roma evviva l Italia

[@MartinaValla]

I've always thought that there kind of is a distinct italian look, in the sense that is a mixed look. You can spot an italian cause they (we) have characteristics from more than one "look" stand out. If someone looks a bit french, a bit etruscan, a bit roman, a bit balkan and a bit greek in varying percentages, they're italian 😆

[@Savadorason1]

-For women my kid, teenage, & even now after all these years is my never ending crush, the young & beautiful Sophia Loren ❤. To me she already looked like the classic stereotypical Italian woman. And Danielle, even though you can blend into a few other ethnicities, you also fall in this catagory ❤

[@jcortese3300]

Yeah, I've seen old Roman statues that looks EXACTLY like every one of my grandparents. One was an absolute dead ringer for my grandmother -- which was hilarious since the statue was super-grumpy looking. 🙂

[@RGUint178]

Thank you for this video. It was fun.

[@gazoontight]

Two books you might enjoy: Italian Neighbors and An Italian Education.

[@cynthiapickett7403]

Fascinating; I have both Northern and Sicilian ancestry as well, judging by the numerous matches in FTDNA .

[@waimar5457]

Min 1,23 this seems more Augustus than Julius Caesar. Min 3,10 you didn't mention the germanic tribe of the Lombards who rule most of Italy after the fall of Roman Empire for two centuries till the conquest of Charles the great, more precisely the part of Lombard kingdom in southerh Italy remained existent and ruling., in fact the blonde northern type guy at Min 3,47 is a soccer player from Neaples, south Italy ....Hi from Italy

[@F.D.R48483]

😅Ok I don't like to complain, but as an Italian and especially as a Sicilian, this video unfortunately represents the usual way in which things get confused and distorted due to a lack of awareness (even though these topics are "mentioned in the video" which I will write about) Romans were "racists" that is, anyone who was not Greek or Roman was BARBARIAN, a term used for all other peoples. The Romans represented in the statues and paintings are the upper class Romans of Rome with the necessary exceptions; Northern Italy, therefore the whole of the North excluding Tuscany, are descendants of the Celts, first of all whose tribe is identified with Gaul (divided into Cisalpine and Transalpine... therefore present-day France and Northern Italy where they are still spoken today in Italy the Gallo-Italic languages ​​similar to French) then subsequently the Lombards arrived, these were Germanic unlike the first! Southern Italy is different and the islands are equally different, Calabria and Salento as well as Sicily were the object of pre-Christian Greek immigration. The Greeks who settled there over time continued immigration for a long time, merging with the Sicilian natives (even with the Punic of the western - northern area) adopting the Greek language, religion and culture (and adapting their gods to the Greek ones and making mixed marriages between civilizations so much so that today we speak of "Greek and southern Italian" ethnicity because we are literally the same people "Greeks who speak Latin" given the profound stratification of our DNA in its most ancient phase until after the classical age, being part of the Byzantine Empire and therefore of Christian Greek rite and Greek language, but there is a parenthesis, namely that of the Emirate of Sicily ...as happened to Greece with the Ottoman Turkish empire, Sicily was Arabized and Islamized by Tunisia. The North Africans are Berbers and Copts (modern Egyptians and Berbers, both Arabized and otherwise). This is what science says and it is witnessed by history it is not my opinion (also because there would be nothing wrong with the opposite) North Africans are not "black" they are a different people the olive complexion is not a discriminator because even at the time of the pyramids North Africans they could have either curly hair and dark or olive skin or red or blond hair and ivory skin (still present today in isolated Berber communities in the most internal areas of North Africa, just read or watch a video on KZbin and you will discover that this is the case 😅 ) This is important because as a Sicilian (among other things originally from a town in Sicily of Arab-Berber origin) this is our history and our culture. There would be absolutely nothing wrong with the opposite but I see a lot of Americans generalizing Sicilian and Southern Italian history... even talking on certain channels about "African diaspora in Italy". But it is a question of different peoples, it would be like saying that Turks and Arabs and North Africans are the same people when all three have different origins and languages. And I repeat it's not racism, Sicilians live very well with Sub-Saharans otherwise we won't help them as we do. (In Sicily for example the concept of "interracial couple" doesn't exist, this concept doesn't even touch us, for us love is love).

[@wednesdayschild3627]

Family tree dna says that Italy is one of 2 genetic isolates. Finland is the other one. The north shows a celtic inflence, the south shows a greek influence. I am of central italian ancestry. Olive skin can be light olive. Look it up.

[@emmanuelespataro3139]

I'm a dark skinned Sicilian. 😎🤌🇮🇹

[@karenblack2869]

Diverse, indeed! And, yet another physical stereotype is busted. Love it!

[@Lisa-NewEngland]

When I was in Italy, I noticed a lot of people have the “Greek Nose”. I’m full Italian & I think I too have the “Magna Graecia”nose 😊

[@BroadwayRonMexico]

"And the Romans...where are they now?" "You're lookin at em, asshole"

[@thinkbeforeyoutype7106]

Great reporting as always

[@The1ByTheSea]

Most Southern Italians ,including members of your family look like Latin Americans .

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

The mixed ones.

[@victormitrell2989]

How Latin Americans look like? Latin Americans can be black, white, indigenous, mixed…

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

@@victormitrell2989 Italian could not, because are europeans, No indigenous or black mixed. Europeans admixtures happened thousands of years ago, generally. Is not the same thing.

[@AnXX94]

Yes but she has actually also black and native american ancestry.. but her father does look similar to dark skinned/tanned berbers in North Africa in my opinion.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

@@AnXX94 If you speak about the daughter she has those types of ancestry from her mother side. On the contrary, simply we don't know if her father is dark skinned or tanned (that is very different: the tan end in the winter and the dark skin is the normal condition, not a transitory one like a tan could be). Then we don't know his true genealogical history. He may also have ancestors other than those he believes he has. We can only deal with a bunch of words. He seems more a mixed Latin American than a North African. I see Maghrebins each day.

[@EmpressKadesh]

My boyfriend that died looked EXACTTLY like statues of Antinous, his middle name was Antonio and his uncle who was an older clone of him was named Tony. Even weirder though was that his best friend looked like Hadrian. I was always worried about them going Brokeback on me. ;D

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

If you want to know what Italians are like, you have to come to Italy and tour all of it, but accompanied by Italians who will let you know who is Italian from who is not (because I'm sure you couldn't do it alone). "Standard" Italians have never existed (just as standard Englishmen or standard Spaniards have never existed). It may be one thing to be the mental map that Americans have made for themselves and another to be the reality, which is, precisely, varied, different. However: 1) Italians tend to differ not only from region to region, but from village to village (according to the prevalence of the people who have settled in each place) 2) they are different from family to family 3) they are different even among siblings (my sister was blond with blue eyes and I was brown with brown eyes, but we both had the same nose tending to aquiline: this kind of profile comes from the fact that our phenotype is "Dinaric," but that doesn't mean that all Italians are like that...there are plenty of Dinaric people even in the Balkan Peninsula ) 4) Italians are the people with more difference between individuals than any European people. This is according to science. 5) the generic pre-Roman component, in Italy, continues to be prevalent everywhere. This means that Romanization has reshuffled, but not as much as you think. Italians were until yesterday a peasant people, marrying their neighbors. Already those in the neighboring village were looked upon with distrust. Of course, along the sea coasts the reshuffling was greater, but Italians have never been a people of sailors. They had to face the sea by force: they traded to eat and earn and waged war on the sea, but trying to turn it into solid ground (think of those implements called crows, existing on Roman ships, which would bring down a deck on the enemy ship and make the confrontation ground similar to dry land). Sailors are very few in Italy.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

First of all, you showed a painting of Pompeii, but without saying that those were two freed slaves who had become rich: the husband was probably Berber and the wife seemed to be Syrian. Pompeii was a seaside resort town, full of slaves, but don't think all of Roman Italy was. in Italy, slaves were in palaces and villas of the rich Romans, but there were not the majority of the population. Never existed masses of South Saharians slaves like in the USA. In the italian paeninsula, slaves were others europeans, like people who came from Gaul, Germany, Spain, Pannonia, Thrace or Dacia. All whites. Only in Sicily were there masses of Syrians slaves, but they were not Africans. Blacks, in Rome, were imported as an exotic good, to be displayed like tigers and peacocks. Furthermore, to understand the Romans of Italy (Romans in the broad sense) it makes no sense to show the portraits applied on the Fayyum mummies: the people portrayed were all made up of people of mixed Greek-Egyptian origin. They were at home in Egypt, but under the rule of Rome. The Italians have nothing to do with them.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

Even if you go to Sicily, you will not find a uniform population of olive-skinned people. There will be some that meet your mental ideal, but you will also find opposites and often in the same family. This is the beauty of all of Italy. Furthermore, the myth of the Arab invasion is largely a myth. The invasion of Sicily was Muslim in the broadest sense. The North African Berber element had great importance, then there were also Middle Easterners, but believing that Muslims had a major impact on genetics means: 1) not knowing the scientific data 2) not knowing the history. In fact, in the Sicilian DNA there is a minimal part of North African genes (up to 5%, on average: what is called an uncertain "background noise"), while a part of Middle Eastern blood may exist, (but not due to invasion Islamic, as to the fact that previously, the Romans concentrated Syrian slaves in their farms) and a part of Greek DNA too. We specify that these are Syrians from before the Arab invasion of Syria, therefore a little different from the current ones (also taking into account that it was the Arabs who introduced sub-Saharan and pre-Islamic Maghreb slaves into Syria). But in the Sicilian DNA there are also the traces of the pre-Roman peoples of Sicily and of other Italians. Not to mention the northern Europeans and French and Spanish. Why didn't Muslims have much impact at the time of the invasions? Because neither of the two religious communities yearned for the merger so much. The rest of the Southern Italy has never undergone Muslim domination. There were battles and massacres, but never anything else.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

One last thing: Italians mixed between North and South during the twentieth century, but only in the North and especially in and around the big cities Far from the cities, the situation remains the same as before industrialization. The only difference is that Albanians, Romanians, Moldovans, Moroccans and Chinese have arrived almost everywhere. There were marriages with immigrant Europeans. With others less so, due to religious and social differences.

[@Ayinde65]

@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 You seem to forget that the "blacks" that the Romans would have made contact with would have been from Northeast Africa, which had a far more ancient civilization than the Romans, or Greeks. They would have traded with the Kushites and may have even had mercenaries in Rome. There was even a failed attempt to invade Kush.

[@giorgiodifrancesco4590]

@@Ayinde65 You are right: Rome was full of civilised Kushites. If you believe that, that's OK. You will have your reasons to believe so. Maybe this will make you feel better.

[@georgebaccett9951]

The real and pure Romans were blonde and this is stipulated in the writings of Tacitus and Flavius ​​Josephus (historian born in Jerusalem), the latter having greater relevance because, not being Roman, he had a more critical view of them. Remember that Rome was an empire in which different ethnicities could access their citizenship, in fact in a legion Romans 60% of the legionaries were not Romans. That is why both historians and archaeologists agree that to know what a (pure) Roman was like, you have to investigate the (older) royal houses. The purely Roman appearance is very similar to that of Hulk Hogan (real name Terrence Boullea of ​​Italian descent) or Frank Sinatra. By the way, the island of Sardinia is considered to be where the Roman ethnic group was best preserved; in fact, the majority are white, tall, with light hair and eyes.

[@caesarmonturano9777]

Nonsense! I've heard this line of crap from certain types of racists for years. Thankfully not very often. In your long post you have said nothing that supports your basic claim. After all is said and done, what you think doesn't matter a whit. as Italian with family near Rome, I can assure you that youd draw a big laugh.

[@ThomasDeLello]

Modern day Italians (I'm one...) don't have Roman ancestors. Our ancestors were the Etruscans.

[@michaelchen8643]

Yes, southern Italians did go to certain parts of the United States, New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, the great lakes cities of Chicago for the most part and then after World War II Italians, in general came to the United States in the 1950s and the Northern Italian basically went to California as did also Italian Americans The northern Italians, through centuries of genetic intermingling look more Germanic. They’re a lot more blonde people a lot more lighter skin, then blue eyed people, so they had a tendency to fit into the more northern western European look. Just to give you an idea, a lot of people of southern Italian extraction in the American movie industries in the 1940s, 1950s 1960s and even to the 1980s were cast into roles to play Mexican Americans and Latin Americans because of their look and also because they were more and franchised into the social in business aspects of them, U.S movie in the Street Hollywood I am related to a lot of people in this ethnicity from Italy so I know a little bit about this

[@michaelchen8643]

If you go way back to the timer, Proto italic language when the Latin tribe was just a small group on the Italian peninsula A lot of Europe was covered by glaciers and people lived along the Mediterranean and in Turkey, because it was the only habitable place so you had a smaller, genetic pool of people to influence how people looked I think your supposition of the Roman republic. A couple hundred years before zero A.D. would produce a look and people that would be significantly different than Modern Italians.

[@The1ByTheSea]

Walter Mazzari looks like any germanic/Celtic.He looks like many Irish ,Germans, people from Belgium

[@alexandrapatricio2727]

It is possible that they remain with the same faces in mutiple encarnations....

[@WickedFelina]

Saracen Knights from Egypt raided Southern Italy from the year 800 to 1300 when the Italians finally pushed them out. THey left their language, and architecture among other things during that 400 yr span. Lots of blonde Italians in Southern Italy. My family is part light and part very dark. In the story of Helen of Troy there is a scene where she looks out at night to see young women bathing in a lake. They are described as blonde and red heads. Those were ancient times. Southern Italy was colonized by the Greeks. Once was ruled by Egypt, ppl as far as Syria came to be indentured servants until after 10 yrs they married to become full Roman citizens. Southern Italians are related to the ppl of the ancient Greek Islands of Knosis, Crete, and Minoen ppl. Also, they are most directly related to the ppl of the Southeastern Mediterranean. Ancient Egyptians were found in it;s oldest burial grounds to have light skin, red and blonde hair. This was before there was an influx of ppl from the land of Cush migrated North. I know this because I am half Southern Italian. My grandparents with their children (my mother was the youngest) migrated from Southern Italy. Turi, Bari to be exact. My father has Egyptian ancestry. Good shows BTW!

[@lyricofwise6894]

This is incorrect

[@nukekidontheblock8349]

Ahahahahha my god these f clowns are really pushing hard at spreading bullsheet on this hebrew platform that really think someone would take them in consideration ahahahaha f back to school you absolute muppet Italians still the same people of 2000 years ago, prolly eve the last white pure race left considering how bad Europe unlike Italy was f by the Barbaric Invasions, invaders here never settled, Italic always had blonde hair and blue eyes in their genes just like any other IndoEuropeans race more or less, who’s tryna spreading bullsheet are this stupid that don’t even realize that everyone’s laughing at them ahahahab you really think someone would get a culture on a Jewtube video??? Ahahaha get a life losers and think more about your fourth world countries, purside Italy you all crumbling like a sandcastle

[@Vito-2005]

Al pacino from serpico kinda looks like Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor

[@TejanoTigre]

that first bust was not of Julius Caesar. That was his grand-nephew and adopted heir Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor.

[@dryciderz]

My boy looks like Nero wit the neckbeard

[@kathleens.laroche754]

Fun to see!

[@louismarano8121]

The first statue shown was not that of Julius Caesar, but rather his grand-nephew Octavian, later the Emperor Augustus.

[@louismarano8121]

At the end of the video, Octavian/Augustus is again misidentified as Julius Caesar.

[@FulmineNero]

A large number of my ancestors emigrated to South America, especially Uruguay. Only one known ancestor emigrated to the USA. My family comes from Campania.

[@nytn]

mine, too!

[@angelusvastator1297]

Roman Empire was a diverse multicultural state. so no surprise italians have diverse looks.

[@rachaeldover5170]

People should know it only takes 4 generations of one black mixing with anglos to become totally looking like the whole family is Anglo and always was. There are rare genetic recessive pop ups but Anglo genes are very strong. So generationally that could mean within that same blacks lifetime of within a hundred years. So you can imagine the changes within hundreds and thousands of years! There are black couples that pop out a white child and totally freak out not realising they had a white ancestor also! The whole world of peoples used to travel a lot more than we realise! Only it took so long they probably stayed where they had had enough from travelling lol.

[@lyricofwise6894]

Its actually the opposite, anglo genes are submissive, the dominant alleles are not there, thats why when a black person and a white person have baby together, higher chance of the person coming out darker skin tone than lighter (hence, dominant and recessive alleles)

[@lelandkinsella7380]

Who was the one female out of all the ancient faces shown? Anyone famous?

[@hedylus]

You have to remember that in the time of the original Romans the culture and language of the elites was Greek. The Latins who served Rome, were also originally Greek from 2500bc but over 1500 years the language evolved and was set with Latinos introducing the disused western Greek alphabet which was too basic for the cultured and civilised Greeks AND the Etruscans who preferred their version of the Minoan Linear A script. Prior to the fall of Rome, the Greek speakers escaped to New Rome, Constantinople, leaving the Latin Greeks behind to fight the Germans who seized, occupied and absorbed all of the traditions and culture of Rome to seem civilised. However, even up until the 19th century, most of Southern Italy was still Greek speaking until Garibaldi homogenised Italy into one Latin Greek speaking nation with mostly the Venetian dialect.

[@AndreaMoletta-s3c]

False, Italics are either descended from Lombards, Celts, Tuscans, Papalines and Two-Sicilians. Being Roman is a form of citizenship, not ethnicity. In this aspect, Italics are NOT Roman.

[@X9xx99]

But Romans are Italic.

[@mysteryman3479]

Because those statues are not older than 300 years,they are whitewashed.The original romans were Africans, just like the Etruscans.Benjamin frankling has confirmed that only the saxons and the English were white in europe.Italian were blacks ,Germans ,France,whole europe. This is the same nonsens as the jews, they were black,but come back as a modern white Europian😇

[@dantesabatino5429]

Italy like all South Europeans has a wide variety of appearances due to evolving in the hot Mediterranean climate. Spain as well has many white-passing people Jerry Garcia(Spanish American), and dark Europeans like Penelope Cruz and Bardem.

[@elleanna5869]

I just can take this US thing of "one drop" for "passing"😐 edit it's I can't take it. It just seems stuck in past racist mentality

[@lindyashford7744]

There is really no concept of ‘white passing’ in Europe!

[@modgirl2001]

@@elleanna5869, Yes, agree with you 100%. Any biology book will tell you that not all of your ancestry shows up in your DNA. Look at Megan Markle and her mom. Look at Quincy Jones and his daughter Rashida Jones. It is fascinating to see where our ancestors come from, but we are all one human race. Race is a social construct and should not be used to separate or "classify" people. Humanity was born in Africa. Let's not forget that.

[@gloriathomas3245]

Iberians even though they identify as white are an admixture of Visigothic and berbers peoples.

[@DIFESA_RAZZA_BIANCA]

@@modgirl2001no

[@evamaiori7235]

I RECOGNIZE ITALIANS BY THE EYES...SOMETHING IN THE EYES...

[@JulyMoon82]

I think this is very interesting and as you mentioned, it's obvious there's a lot of diversity there's no one way to "look" Italian. It's kind of an odd thing to mention, but it's something that this video made me think about. I have a special edition copy of The Godfather on DVD, and there's some interview and behind the scenes footage, and in one of the interviews, it was mentioned that the casting director and Francis Ford Coppola wanted the Michael Corleone character to have more of a southern/Sicilian look which was one of the reasons why they chose Al Pacino for the role, and they wanted Sonny to have a more Northern Italian look which was one of the reasons why they went with James Caan. They were intentionally trying to show more than one "look" if you will. Granted most of the characters had darker features, but there was that whole idea that not all Italian people look alike or share the same features. I feel this is also true of Black Americans. With my mom's own siblings you can see diversity as they're not all the same skin tone or all have the exact same hair texture. People are not a monolith and I think it's important to point that out. Ethnically speaking, there's no one way to look like whatever one's ethnicity is, especially considering the fact that most people are ethnically mixed in some way or another unless they've lived in an isolated village somewhere without contact with other ethnic groups. Anyway, another interesting video!

[@42NORRIS]

I'm surprised this is even a thing. Of course modern italians(mostly southern italians)look like ancient romans, they're literally the same people.

[@georgebaccett9951]

According to a report from the BBC in London, a modern Italian is the sum of: Romans (these do not exceed 38%) + Germanic people, among them: Lombards, Ostrogoths, Heruli, Swabians and Normans, all accentuated and established in what is now Italy and on a smaller scale: Celts and Greeks. Separately, there is Sicily that belonged to Carthage (today Tunisia and part of Turkey) invaded by the Romans and when it dissipated it was taken by the Arabs although it was short-lived due to Ostrogothic pressures (Germanics) and in the end the Normans (Germanics) prevailed over said territory. From the above it is evident that a modern Italian is the mixture of Western Europe

[@vblake530530]

Wow. Hey Teach. What are the conversations at dinner time for you and the Fam? And are you guys kids like; “Finished the school day, only to sit down for dinner and THE SCHOOL DAY!” Or are they like that scary prank video, as soon as desert is and be like……💨🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️RUN!!!!!

[@nytn]

LOL. to be completely honest, half the time after dinner we pull the curtains, hand out glowsticks and have the kids dance to 90s music. Works like a charm for bedtime😆

[@TheNdh00]

Being a Roman is like being an American 🇺🇸.

[@whoahna8438]

Yes olives are green and black, that was me lol

[@nytn]

I'll never forget it! LOL

[@Matteoakragas]

Italy is based on the Renaissance, therefore Dante Leonardo Michelangelo Galileo Machiavelli Ficino etc. classical antiquity in Italy is not particularly considered. it is considered a joke. but we Italians don't need this stuff we have our own culture.

[@nukekidontheblock8349]

Wtf are you talking about ahahahah you’re not Italian even in the aSlightest to say that bozo what are you trying to do, you really think someone would take you seriously ahahaha go back to your Indian village you absolute muppet

[@modestacattaruzza7400]

I am Italian and a roman descendants.

[@fabrizio.guidi64]

do you post the photo of Al Capone who wasn't Italic but southern Italian so probably a mix of Arab, Greek and African Berber. the Romans were Indo-Europeans, neither Berbers nor Arabs

[@uToobeD]

I think Marconi looks a bit Putin like, with hair. Could be the facial expression

[@tommygamba170]

Remember these our likenesses not exactly how they looked. I mean just look at the Statue of Rocky. It looks like him but not exactly.

[@HenryBriskin]

Do italians look Mediterranean