Exciting news for cat lovers! The research abstract itself does not seem to mention Romans, but the study text does.
"Roman soldiers helped spread domestic cats across Europe 2,000 years ago, using them for rodent control along military routes, with cats reaching Britain by 100 CE, according to genome analysis of 70 ancient cats. ..."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
Tracing the origins of domestic cats (Felis catus) has been limited by a lack of ancient DNA for these animals, as well by their morphological similarity to the African wildcat (F. lybica lybica) and European wildcat (F. sylvestris).
De Martino et al. generated low- to medium-coverage genomes for 87 ancient, museum, and modern cats (see the Perspective by Losos). They found that domestic cats are most genetically similar to African wildcats, although there has been widespread gene flow between wild and domestic populations. European samples that cluster with domestic cats only appear in the 1st century CE, suggesting a later dispersal of domestic cats than previously thought. Although broader sampling is needed, this study shows the complexity of population dynamics that is often revealed when looking beyond mitochondrial DNA. ...
Structured Abstract
INTRODUCTION
The domestic cat (Felis catus) originated from the African wildcat (Felis lybica lybica), which is presently distributed across North Africa and the Near East. It has since rapidly expanded to achieve a global distribution. Archaeozoological and iconographic evidence points to two possible centers of domestication: Neolithic Levant ~9500 years ago and Pharaonic Egypt ~3500 years ago.
Ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data support a dual-origin model for cat dispersal, indicating an initial spread from Anatolia to Europe by Neolithic farmers ~6400 years ago, followed by a second wave from Egypt ~2000 years ago.
RATIONALE
The timing and circumstances of cat domestication and dispersal remain uncertain owing to the limited number of ancient and modern genomes analyzed thus far. Questions remain about the natural distribution ranges of African and European (Felis silvestris) wildcats in the past and their potential admixture. A recent study showed that ancient gene flow might confound the reconstruction of cat dispersal, particularly when based on mtDNA. The origin of African wildcat populations in the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica is also elusive. Present evidence suggests that they are not feral domestic cats but instead represent a separate wildcat lineage. To address these questions, we analyzed the genomes of 70 ancient cats from archaeological sites across Europe and Anatolia and 17 modern wildcats from Italy (including Sardinia), Bulgaria, and North Africa (Morocco and Tunisia).
RESULTS
We generated a genomic time transect spanning the past 11,000 years and found that cats previously identified as carrying a F. l. lybica mtDNA clade from Neolithic and Chalcolithic southeast Europe and Anatolia, dated between 9500 and 6300 years ago, were F. silvestris wildcats whose ancestors hybridized with F. l. lybica. Ancient genomes revealed an increasing trend of African wildcat ancestry ranging from 9 to 34% eastward, from Bulgaria to central Anatolia.
The earliest cat belonging to the genetic cluster of as F. l. lybica and F. catus in Europe originates from the site of Genoni, in Sardinia (Italy), and is dated to ~2200 years ago. This cat is genetically similar to present-day wildcats in Sardinia, and they all appear to be closely related to a F. l. lybica wildcat from Morocco.
All other archaeological cats from Europe and Anatolia included in the cluster of F. l. lybica and F. catus are dated from ~2000 years ago onward. They possessed the typical gene pool of modern domestic cats and shared more affinities with modern African wildcats than with their Levantine relatives. Their rapid dispersal across the Mediterranean in the past 2000 years marked a demographic expansion recorded in their maternal ancestries.
CONCLUSION
Our findings challenge the commonly held view of a Neolithic introduction of domestic cats to Europe, instead placing their arrival several millennia later. We redefine the timing of cat dispersal by identifying at least two waves of introduction to Europe. The first dispersal most likely featured wildcats from Northwest Africa that were introduced to Sardinia and founded the island’s present-day wild population. A distinct and yet-unknown population in North Africa sourced a second dispersal not later than 2000 years ago that established the gene pool of modern domestic cats in Europe."
"... Phoenicians and later the Punic people established and maintained colonies in Northwest Africa, Sardinia and the southeastern Iberian Peninsula from the 9th c. BCE until their defeat by the Romans in the Third Punic War in 146 BCE (38, 39). Because Sardinia had been under Roman supremacy since 238 BCE (40), the translocation of F. l. lybica to Sardinia could have been carried out by either the Phoenicians and Punic people or by the Romans before the Imperial period starting 27 BCE (41).
Subsequently, since the Roman Imperial era, cats more genetically similar to present-day domestic cats were spread across Europe from a distinct North African population. The earliest sample carrying the ancestry found in present-day domestic cats was dated to 50 cal. BCE-80 cal. CE, from the site of Mautern, in Austria. Cats with this ancestry were then identified in Italy (n=4) and in Roman Imperial military sites along the Danube Limes in Austria and Serbia (n=6) (42–45), confirming previous claims that the Roman army and its entourage played a role in spreading domestic cats to central and eastern Europe (1, 46). This dispersal reached northern Europe relatively early in the Roman Imperial era, as testified by the genome of a cat from the site of Fishbourne, Britain, dated to 24-123 cal. CE (15). The ancestry typical of present-day domestic cats is then found continuously in all cats from Europe and Anatolia from the Byzantine era (n=7), the Medieval (n=23) and post-Medieval periods (n=2) until present-day (Fig. 1D). ..."
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The introduction of domestic cats to Europe.
The genomes of ancient cats from archaeological sites across Europe and Anatolia (dark circles in the map) revealed that domestic cats were introduced to Europe from North Africa starting at ~2 thousand years ago (kya), several millennia after the onset of the Neolithic in Europe. African wildcats in Sardinia originate from a distinct wildcat population in Northwest Africa.
A cat sits on ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus in present day Izmir, Turkey.
