Romans, Dacians, Thracians, Slavs,or Pelasgians? : A history of the debate on the ethnogenesis of the Romanian people since 17th century until the computer age

Romania: land of conquest by Romans, Huns, Turks, last outpost of Christendom in Eastern Europe, part of the Eastern front during the 20th century wars, a Soviet satellite and, finally, member of the European Union and of NATO. Romania has always been subject to different ideas of identity meant to define its essence: latinity or dacianism? Europe or authochthonism? The essay aims at analysing the debate regarding the ethnogenesis of the Romanian people since its origin in the 17th century, through the debates of the 19th century and the interwar period and, finally, analysing the debate between latinity and dacianism during the Ceauşescu regime in the light of the cultural politics of the regime and of the debate between different factions of intellectuals.As stated explicitly in the text, the original version of this article was written in italian and has been published in the collection BASSI, Jacopo; CANÈ, Gianluca (eds.) Sulle spalle degli antichi. Eredità cassica e costruzione delle identità nazionali nel Novecento, Milano, Unicopli, 2014.