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The Rise of Rome and the Rise of Polygenic Scores

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Davide Piffer
Jan 16, 2026
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Why did Rome, rather than any of its many rivals in Iron Age Italy, become the core of an empire?

A muddy settlement on the Tiber turns into a machine that can raise armies, write laws that outlive empires, build roads that stitch a continent together, and carry water for millions through aqueducts, while running a Mediterranean-wide bureaucracy for cent…

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