The Racial Struggle in Ancient Rome

by Hans F. K. Günther

Hans F. K. Günther traces the origins of the Italic peoples, highlighting their migrations and the conflicts between Nordic-descended patricians and indigenous plebeians.

These are excerpts from Hans F. K. Günther’s The Racial Elements of European History (1930) and Lebensgeschichte des Römischen Volkes (History of the Roman People) (1966).

Linguistics and prehistoric research seek the original settlements of the Italic peoples — among whom the Latin tribe became the leading one that created the Roman Empire — in areas of the upper to middle Danube, also between the upper Danube and the Eastern Alps, Bohemia, Moravia, and Lower Austria. Prehistoric research has found the area from which the Italic peoples migrated south over the Alps between eastern Switzerland, the eastern Alps, and the Danube. The closest neighbouring tribes of the Italic peoples in the central European area of Indo-European origins must have been the Celts and Germans.

Since about 2000 BC, various migrations of Italic tribes from the northeast have reached the Po Valley over the lower passes of the eastern Alps, from where further expansion took place in the Bronze Age until most of Italy — except for the Etruscan areas, which succumbed to the power of the Latin tribe of the Italic peoples only around 300 BC — was occupied by Italic tribes of Indo-European language and culture and of Nordic racial origin. The pre-population encountered by the Italic peoples in their advance must have been predominantly of Western race, and in northern Italy it was likely a racial mix of Western and Eastern, perhaps with minor Dinaric influences.