Where did the Romans come from?

Now I'm just spitballing here, so I'm drawing on things I know and have read, w/o any links to base this off of. Many are quite dismissive of ancient texts, like the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Aeneid, but they've been used to find archaeological sites. The site of Troy was found using the Iliad, and found accurately, shedding further light on the story. If anyone's interested, a bit of a sidenote, but many Classical scholars believe that there is actually a lot of truth to the less believable stories, like the Trojan Horse. You see, Poseidon in Greek mythology was the God of the Sea, but what a lot of people don't know about him is that he was also the God of Horses and of Earthquakes. The Trojan Horse - archaeological digs found extensive evidence of an earthquake, that likely broke the back of Troy.

Descriptions from the Aeneid also have been used to find the historical home of Odysseus in Ithaca. There were no maps, so its location was far from a certainty before. It's location was found using descriptions from the Odyssey. It's worth noting, though, that the archaeological evidence isn't as conclusive as it was for Troy and so there is still some scholarly debate, but the matter is considered largely settled.

But the Aeneid claims that the Roman origins lay in the ruins of Troy. What do you guys think? Do you believe that Trojans actually fled the city in the wake of it's destruction and went to Italy?

 

Romulus and Remus

http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Romulus_and_Remus.html

 

Romans were a mish mash of Italian tribes and kingdoms during the early stages of the Roman empire and of of course much later on became much more diverse.

To be frank I think that the question of where the Romans came from is so open ended that one may as well ask where humans come from and naturally this goes more into migratory history.

 

it's simpler than that but led into what you posted...a singular group of people in the geographic vicinity of present day rome grew into what you said...

 

Soooooo - Romans came from Rome?

 

yup...a city state that became an empire

 

Sorry my inner voice just found that answer as funny as

 

it's ok...sometimes the answers are as obvious as they appear to be...

 

the aeneid was just a propaganda book like the nazi newsreel

 

not really. It was a collection of old stories, which is essentially what the Iliad was. The Iliad is supposed to have first been written down about five centuries after the event. It's also worth noting that the oldest copy in existence is from the 10th century AD.

pffft, that's just myth and can't be taken seriously.

If the Trojans went to the area that became Rome, it's likely that they mixed with the people in the area, rather than being transplanted and ex-Trojans entirely dominating the region.

 

Romans came from what is today called "Italy." The founders of Rome actually came from a village very close to today's Rome and were Etrurians.
Want to know more?

 

The Romulans.

 

Not quite...

[video=youtube;SMTz9nIUkGc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMTz9nIUkGc[/video]

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I think the Troans who survived went to Ireland not Italy .
Rome was built to host the surrounding tribes , Athens was made like that .

Odyssey is cheesy because the Mediterranean was too well known for an islander to get lost .

*In mythology the "guy" responsible for earthquakes was Engelados and from what i remember Homer doesn't mention him .

 

[video=youtube;F1rhJisx1-8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1rhJisx1-8[/video]

You may be right...

 

Iliad romulus remus trojans all as valid as moses jesus and the bible...lots stories/myths, some are compelte bs and some contain a tiny bit historical truth...

 

greeks colonized a number of areas in the western Mediterranean I've never heard of trojans in rome but it's more plausible than ireland...

 

the offical story is the founders' grandfather was from Troy. see Margot's link.

 

Probably descendants of the ancient humans originating in Saharan Africa, especially in the vicinity of modern Niger.

 

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This is where the "Romans" came from...

[video=youtube;WL3obwVYdTg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL3obwVYdTg[/video]
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[video=youtube;sURNP5PRiMI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sURNP5PRiMI[/video]

 

If you're talking about the Iliad, Odyssey, Troy, ect... than you aren't talking about Rome only, but also Ancient Greece.

In that case, This means you're actually wondering where Western Civilization came from. Rome was just another step on the construction of our Civilization. Romans were rather unimaginative with their culture and borrowed it from their neighbors who they conquered.

The roots of Western civilization, in the ancient world, were mostly about the collected knowledge of city-states around the Mediterranean. The only ones I can think of off-hand are Greece and Phoenicia (where we get the word phonics from), but I know there were others.

 

It appears some think they've found a DNA link between Turkey and the Etruscans, but not the other peoples of Italy, but the genetic link appears limited to a small part of Italy. The Romans may have been already there when the Etruscans arrived.

In any case, here's an article that touches on all the theories, including the Troy one.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/18/italy.johnhooper

Can't find an article on whether the Romans have any genetic links to anywhere in Africa, or the Celts.

 

Today's opinions are mixed and so it was in the past ages, a roman historian of the roman age even stated that they were originally a tribe coming from north europe who interbred with local population and that explains their mixed mediterranean/nordic traits. Another said romans were a band of greek exiliates who estabilished in rome, yet another said they were etruscan descendants.

My personal opinion is that they were definitely of the same stock of greek people. Why am i so sure? The fighting style of early romans is reported to have been the hoplitic phalanx heavy infantry, which is the very same fighting style of ancient greeks. Not only that but they also shared many gods, even if they had different names and legends about. It doesn't really matter where exactly did they come from but they had a lot in common with greeks and that's for sure.

 

romans were chameleons, they copied everyone who had something better culturally and technically....the greeks colonized the Mediterrenean inculding the italian peninsula so it shouldn't be a surpise the romans copied their culture, architecture and military...