The Romans of Naissus

Naissus commanded the great military road through the Balkans, and in about 272 CE it gave the empire its most consequential son: Constantine the Great, the emperor who legalised Christianity and founded Constantinople, was born here and later kept a palace at Mediana on the city's edge. These genomes are of the late Roman townspeople of his birthplace.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in A genetic history of the Balkans from Roman frontier to Slavic migrations.

Every Ancestrify Global25 report includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported — a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances — that is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Romans of Naissus are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about the full G25 analysis.

• 01

  Who were the Romans of Naissus?

  The Romans of Naissus (c. 250–500 CE, Naissus (Niš), Serbia) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 2 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "A genetic history of the Balkans from Roman frontier to Slavic migrations".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Romans of Naissus mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported — a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

• 03

  Are they my ancestor?

  No — and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

• 04

  How do I see my own distance to the Romans of Naissus?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestrify Global25 report — never sold separately. Order the G25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers — browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Greeks of Histria2nd–6th century CE

• The Silla Nobles of Gyeongsanc. 300–500 CE

• The European Hun Elites5th century CE

• The Romans of Docleac. 100–400 CE

• The Sarmatians of the Lower Danubec. 100–400 CE

• The Goths of the Vistulac. 100–400 CE

• The Romans of Viminacium1st–6th century CE

• The People of Imperial Romec. 100–300 CE

• The Gepid Kingdomc. 450–560 CE

• The Pictsc. 420–630 CE

• The Early Bavariansc. 500–600 CE

• The Anglo-Saxonsc. 450–750 CE