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Summary
The ancient Italic tribes (Bronze Age Indo-Europeans) were initially genetically and phenotypically very similar to present-day Central Europeans, such as the Germanic peoples.
Genetic evidence indicates that this changed pretty quickly, as they mixed with the non-Indo-European native Neolithic population of Italy (Early European Farmers) while invading the peninsula.
The Early European Farmers of Italy were genetically and phenotypically very similar to present-day Sardinians. They had darker pigmentation than the Early European Farmers of North and Central Europe; which is where Southern Europeans get their Mediterranean phenotype — not from Middle Easterners and North Africans!
The ancient Romans and modern Italians are a mix of these two populations, in an roughly 30:70 ratio of PIE to EEF on a North-South gradient, with increased EEF ancestry in the South.
The majority of Italian DNA has been native to Italy for ~6,000 years and present in Europe for ~9,000 years
Non-European races contributed an insignificant amount to the DNA of modern Italians.
The ancient Romans were not Nords, nor North Africans, nor Middle Easterners, and certainly not Kangz, but White Southern Europeans who were genetically almost identical to modern Italians.
The answer to the question “What race were the ancient Romans?” is: “The same race as the modern Romans.”
