[SunkenCiv]

This should be an amusing topic, in terms of anachronistic responses. In before the stupid 'graverobbing' comments.

Skull of skeleton T15, a 35- to 50-year-old male who was buried in a cemetery in the modern neighborhood of Casal Bertone, Rome, Italy. Isotope ratios suggest he may have been born near the Alps. [Credit: Kristina Killgrove]

[erkelly]

The Roman Empire covered most of Europe, the Mediterranean, and parts of Africa. Of course, many people in the provinces did well under Roman rule and low Roman taxes, they became citizens of Rome, and came to Rome for various and sundry reasons, and some died there. As well, the Romans took slaves as they conquered Europe and brought them to Rome. Some slaves earned their freedom, prospered, and when they died, buried in Roman cemeteries. This information is hardly new.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Migrants or slaves?

The movement of people during the classical period has always been a fascinating subject to me.

A while back I did a lot of study on Romania (Roman Dacia), and that province was considered the “California” of the Roman Empire in the 2nd Century AD. The region was so thoroughly Latinized that it is the only nation east of Italy that still retains a Romance language.

[PGR88]

I’m not a classical historian, but isn’t it already widely known that by the 2nd century, the Preatorian Guard, for example, was mostly made up of non-Romans from Gaul, Germania or North Africa?

I could imagine a case where most Romans themselves were either mired in luxury or poverty, or were so politically factionalized, they were no longer any use in controlling the vast empire.

[TexasRepublic]

Speaking of migration of early peoples, I was visiting the Egyptian section at the Houston Museum of Natural History. One of the Egyptian mummies on display had been unwrapped enough to show the man’s face. He was in an amazing state of preservation for being 2,000 years old (period of the Greek Ptolemic rule) and he had red hair and a beard. The museum curator told me that the guy was European and not Egyptian. The curator said that details of his wrapping indicated that he belonged to the middle class and that he was possibly a wealthy merchant. The ancients got around more than we usually think.