"Alienteans"

I firmly believe in a theory I encountered in Robert Silverberg's "Letters from Atlantis" (Dragonflight Books). Atlanteans are aliens. Romany was their home planet, destroyed when its sun became a supernova. Theirs was an advanced race, sending out many rocketships when they learned of Romany's impending doom. These ships found Earth near the end of one of the ice ages, and built a country on an island. They had with them a crystal that perhaps had powered the craft (see "The 'A' Files" by Rebmakash) and used it to keep Atlantis's climate warmer than the rest of the world. At this time, they called their empire Athilan. Because they considered themselves superior to the current population of Earth, Athilantans called humans "dirt people".

"...I'm not sure whether they mean that the mainlanders live in dirt...or that they actually are dirt. But I think it's the latter." Letters from Atlantis, page 40.

The Athilantan empire quickly spread over the world.

Thousands of years later, when Atlantis sank, the humans, free from the Athilantans' rule, gathered up all the evidence of Atlantis and destroyed it.

Remember that the planet was called Romany? The Atlantean Empire and the Roman Empire may have been one and the same.

A bit more information to this effect is given in Bruce Coville's "The Search for Snout" (Aladdin Paperbacks), but one must read the other books in his trilogy first.

Thank you for reading my theory. You may contact me at juliab@78704.com or visit my website at http://www.dazzled.com/atlantima/