Republican Rome’s Genetic Lead Shrank

Applying modern education‑and‑intelligence polygenic scores to ancient genomes, the article finds Central Italy had a measurable genetic advantage during the Roman Republic over Britain, Continental Europe, Scandinavia and Iberia, and that gap largely disappears by the Imperial and post‑Imperial periods — partly because other regions (notably Iberia) show later score increases. The claim rests on two score types (a within‑family education score and a population EA score) and on filtered ancient genomes meeting high‑confidence coverage for the score variants. — This matters because it supplies empirical evidence about how migration, selection and population change reshaped traits tied to education and cognition across Europe — evidence that can inform historical narratives and also invites caution about policy or ideological misuse of genetic claims.