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 hmm, ya i have no guesses 
 Me neither.  That's what annoys me. 😅 
 I think a people can run out of steam. I do think they can rebuild it, and italy was on the way in the early 20th century, but they've been colonized since WW2 
 The closest I came to a theory is the difference between northern and southern Italians.  They are totally different.  Northern Italians are closer to Austrians or Swiss or French.  Northern Italy is well run, while southern Italy is not.  Maybe the ancient Romans were closer to the northern Italians.  Beyond that, I don't have a guess. 
 there are a whole bunch of ancient tribes of italy: the Estrucians for example: britannica.com/topic/Etruscan 
 @Archivist of Santa's Workshop's Worker Safety Reco... @Shadowman311 @Zealist @Sick Burn, Bro primarily the area of and near sicily is worse affected by jews. but also theres a natural tendency within a country and sub contries for there to be a north south iq cline, and in itally sicily is the natural power base, so without some eugenic force or state force controling sicily it wont be at its optimum.
also roman very rapidly took control of egypt and spain and so was able to utilize a lot of resources from a very early state, it also was not very politically stable, and originally it was a city state and then a coalition of city states exerting control over foreigners, once they enlarged politics became complicated and once they mixed theylost any racial optimum and started declining
itally doesnt have the stability of being a single city nor is it in a postion to acquire resources to do what it will with, nor are its racial equals and superiors so unorganized nor could they be used to rejuvenate a disgenic population