Were the Romans Trojans or Latins?
score:10
The Aeneid by Virgil is not an historical book, but a mythological one, telling a founding myth of Rome. It can be considered to have been written "on commission" by Augustus, to legitimize the Julio-Claudian dynasty as descendants of the founders, heroes, and gods of Rome and Troy (as reported from wikipedia).
There are a lot of different myths about the origin of the founding of Rome, of which Aeneid is just the most famous.
That said, other than myths, the archaeological discoveries told us that ancient Rome was populated by Latin populations, and are Indo-European people, migrated from central Europe around 1000 BC.
It must be taken into consideration that the Italic peninsula was the target of many different migrations, and many different populations were present at the time of the founding of Rome (the Etruscan population was an autochthonous population of central Italy).
So Rome is most likely to have been founded by locals (Latin - Indo-European) people rather than having a Greek origin.
Upvote:7
As far as cultural heritage goes, your best bet is almost always linguistics. The linguistics in this case are quite clear. The Romans were Latins.
Latin is an Indo-European language of the Italic family. This means the cultural ancestors of the Romans were the Italic Tribes who migrated into Italy from the north around 1,800 BC.
The Italics themselves seem to have been part of a group of proto-Indo-Europeans (along with the Germanics and the Gauls) who split off from the rest of the Indo-Europeans as a group in about the 3rd Milenium BCE, likely as part of a joint move into the Danube valley. Those 3 started splitting from each other soon after, with the Germanics moving north and the Italics moving south into the Italian peninsula.
After the Italics moved into the interior of the Peninsula, over many generations they split into various sub-groups, with the Latins being the group that founded the city of Rome. Meanwhile (non-Indo-European) Etruscans became the dominant power in the north, while the burgeoning Greek peoples started colonizing the coastal areas in the south. As you can see from this map below, the Latins were in a rather humble position, and in fact Rome was sending tribute to the Etruscans for a lot of its earliest history.
Eventually of course Rome turned the tables on the Etruscans and became the dominant power in the peninsula (on their way to becoming the dominant power in the Mediterranean world). However, coming up from nobodies wasn't considered a very inspiring story back then, which is why a mythology of descent from a noble people with a very old history (Trojans) became the preferred story.
More post
- 📝 Did the US quarter shrink in size?
- 📝 Why did Xerxes choose Hellespont over Bosphorus?
- 📝 Who was Richard of York at the Battle of Grunwald?
- 📝 How did the Allies locate, identify and process Nazi War criminals?
- 📝 Why did Hitler not claim the German-majority areas of Schleswig?
- 📝 Is Josephus a legitimate historical text?
- 📝 Why is China a member of the UN Security Council?
- 📝 In Studying the peoples of pre-Roman Britain, what are our primary reference sources?
- 📝 Why was the C-pennant chosen as the flag of ships from Allied-occupied Germany?
- 📝 How was Germany's border decided?
- 📝 How did Islamic finance under the early Caliphates profit or take loans if charging interest wasn't legal?
- 📝 What does this Samurai crest mean?
- 📝 What does BPE/PE in some archaeology journals stand for?
- 📝 Why did Alexander the Great succeed in overthrowing the Persian Empire?
- 📝 Which 11 countries were democratic in 1941?
- 📝 Why did Bayer lose aspirin and heroin trademarks under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles?
- 📝 Origin of Diocletian's tetrarchy
- 📝 Why did the British take Hong Kong instead of any other of the later treaty ports?
- 📝 How do nations maintain sovereignty over conquered nations?
- 📝 What is a major historical event historians are deeply divided over?
- 📝 How much is known about the Earl of Sandwich's sandwich?
- 📝 Is there a precedent for a large amount of refugees granted asylumn by a distant foreign nation
- 📝 What kind of music was played at European, High Middle Age (c. 1100-1400 A.D.) universities' ceremonies?
- 📝 Which were the last castles to be besieged and fall in the United Kingdom?
- 📝 What was Martin Luther's incentive for reformation?
- 📝 Was it normal for New York schools in the late 1960s to be desegregated?
- 📝 When did migration and international travel become legally limited?
- 📝 What was life expectancy in early medieval Britain?
- 📝 Were officers allowed to resign during the American Civil War?
- 📝 Was there a major Mexican military disaster in the Navajo Wars?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Were the Romans Trojans or Latins?
- 📝 Why were the Romans unable to conquer Germania?
- 📝 When did the Romans finally acknowledge that they were living in an empire?
- 📝 What were the thoughts of the Celts, Romans and other ancient European people about the standing stones which survive from prehistoric times?
- 📝 Were Trojans the ancestors of the Romans?
- 📝 How aware were the latter Greek-speaking Romans (ERE: Byzantines) of the early history of Rome?
- 📝 Were there any Roman villas in Britain which were used rather than destroyed after the Romans left?
- 📝 What were the key difficulties for the Romans in the conquest of Germanic tribes?
- 📝 If Rome's women were the cause of her downfall, why did the Romans not import women from abroad?
- 📝 Were there women who were against giving women the right to vote?
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 How did the Romans do division?
- 📝 Did the Romans eat breakfast?
- 📝 Why were so many more Jewish men than Jewish women killed during the Holocaust?
- 📝 Where did the Romans store their cash?
- 📝 Why were the Allies so much better cryptanalysts?
- 📝 How did the ancient Romans count with their fingers?
- 📝 Were Medieval Britons aware of the existence of the Roman Empire?
- 📝 How were smallpox vaccines enforced in the US?
- 📝 Why were helmets and other body armour not commonplace in the 1800s?
- 📝 ‘Avoid sleeping on your back’ & ‘breathe in toilet smells’ were seen as precautions against the Black Death. Why did doctors think these would work?
- 📝 In the "Christmas truce" of 1914 were there any football (soccer) matches between British and German troops?
- 📝 What were the acceptance criteria in universities of medieval Europe?
- 📝 How severe were the casualties in ancient/medieval battles?
- 📝 Why were the West African islands uninhabited?
- 📝 Were defendants at the Nuremberg trial allowed to deny the holocaust?
- 📝 Were there large scale protests after earlier presidential elections in the US?
- 📝 Did the Romans leave any technical instruction manuals behind?
- 📝 Why were the drawings of Colossus burnt after WW2 and why was its very existence "of course" kept secret?