What did the Romans and Byzantines look like???

Question

Before the Turks conquered Greece back in the 15th century, Greeks were fair skinned, and many had blond hair and blue eyes.

The Western Romans were conquered by various Germanic Tribes, and the Byzantines were conquered by the Turks, but how different do the current inhabitants of Italy, Greece and Turkey look like compared to the people that lived in these regions 500-1500 years ago?

I love history, but never really thought about what the Romans and Eastern Romans/Byzantines looked like. Can anybody offer any insight?

Answer 1

the Romans and Byzantium's were "mostly" of Germanic and Celtic stock(Nordic).almost all of them had fair complexion.although in the south of Italy it always has resembles the people of the Mediterranean because of the constant migration and invasion from north African tribes(mostly inflicted by Carthage).in conclusion they resembled more so of the northern Europeans of today .(Anglo-saxton not include)mostly from the Scandinavian peninsula.

here are some picture to compare ancient roman and Byzantium statues with modern day people.

www.white-history.com/refuting_rm/9.ht...

Answer 2

They were also very short.  Almost "little people" by today's standards.  Im talking just over 4 feet tall.  Let's not forget that.  Look at the ancient ruins of Pompeii.  They are all without question very short people.  In our modern world here in the U.S. we would look like giants to them.

Answer 3

My Italian friend says that people in the Southern part of the country today, are the "originally Roman looking" people of those ancient times. But anyway, today it is very hard to find a 100% natural Roman looking person.  Everybody is exchanging genes, in peace and love!

Answer 4

WELL, WELL, WELL…first of all you have to know that there were very different populations in ancient Greece in 300. B.C. , and some of them were fairy with light skin, like the Illirians, the Macedonians and the Dorians, while others were darker. The same thing during the Byzantine empire. Byzantines were, first, a mix between these populations and Romans but, from the 7th century, lot of barbarian Germanic people from northern Europe (in particular from Scandinavia) emigrated to the Byzantine empire; this happened when scandinavian warriors started becoming the Byzantine emperor’s personal security bodyguards; only Germanic people could enter into it and this increased Germanic immigration into the empire. But, when the empire was conquest by Turkish this deeply changed and this “race” that was formed then disappeared…

Nowadays, the only part of the world in which you can see people “mixed” in this way is northern Italy; actually, as southern Italy is totally different from the north as for the ethnic origin of the population (south is Mediterranean) in Northern Italy there was a true mixture of different races; in particular, in Piedmont (northwest of Italy) the population come from Romans, Byzantines, Celts, and a lot of barbarian germanic tribes such as Longobards, Goths, Burgundians, Teutonics, Cimbri, Vandals and many others…and that’s why the population looks more germanic than latin

I hope this helps, By!

Answer 5

The same as they do today