Ancient Roman DNA

At a glance

When

the Roman Republic and Empire, about 500 BCE to 476 CE in the west

Where

the city of Rome, Italy and the provinces from Britain to the Levant

Entries in our catalogue

840 (492 individual genomes)

Countries of the finds

22

What ancient DNA shows

A 2019 study in Science of individuals from Rome and central Italy found that the Iron Age and Republican population resembled other Western Mediterranean people of the time, and that during the Imperial period most sampled individuals in the city carried ancestry shifted toward the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East. After the empire's decline in the west, ancestry in Rome shifted back toward Central and Northern Europe.

Provincial cemeteries tell the same story on a smaller scale. Studies of frontier sites in the Balkans, such as Viminacium in Serbia, found many people with ancestry typical of Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean during the Imperial period, yet that ancestry left only a limited lasting mark on later local populations.

Their genetic legacy today

There is no single Roman ancestry to inherit. People of the Roman world are best compared region by region with modern Italians and other Mediterranean and European populations.

Ancient Romans samples in the MYDNATLAS catalogue

Our ancient DNA catalogue holds 840 entries whose culture label names the Ancient Romans. 492 of them are individual genomes; the others are reference entries, such as averages of several individuals, and samples flagged as outliers. Half of the 836 dated entries fall between 100 CE and 295 CE, with a median of 200 CE.

Measured from the live catalogue on 2026-10-17. Dates are those recorded for each entry; the archaeological dates of the culture are given above. See our data sources for where the samples come from.

Compare your DNA with the Ancient Romans

To see how close you sit to Ancient Romans samples, you need your DNA as G25 coordinates. Download your raw data file from your testing company, convert it, and MYDNATLAS compares your coordinates with these entries and the rest of the catalogue, period by period, in its closest population and mixture tools.

1. Download your raw DNA file: step by step for each testing company.
2. Upload it from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage or FamilyTreeDNA, or another supported provider.
3. Explore the results with the period by period breakdown and closest populations.

Start free: browse the Population Encyclopedia. The Population Encyclopedia is free to browse with a free account; analysing your own DNA needs a paid plan.

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