Black people in ancient Roman history: Difference between revisions
→See also: I deleted the reference to Afro Italians , that are immigrants , naturalized immigrants or Italians with African ancestry in modern Italy , so there is no relationship with black people in ancient roman history. |
Off topic: the articles deals with black people. People from north africa were not black (and are not today), as they were berbers, punics or egyptians. Tag: references removed |
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Black people existed outside of Africa before the time of [[Homer]].<ref name="Snowden, 1970" /> |
Black people existed outside of Africa before the time of [[Homer]].<ref name="Snowden, 1970" /> |
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Roman writers described people with physical characteristics of sub-Saharan Africans as "Aethiopes", but the term carried no social implications.<ref name="Thompson">{{cite journal|last1=Thompson|first1=Lloyd|title=Roman Perceptions of Blacks|journal=Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the Classics|date=Sep 1993|volume=1|issue=4|page=1|url=https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V1N4/thompson.html|accessdate=9 May 2017}}</ref> There was no such thing as a black community; immigrants from south of the Sahara were few and from disparate ethnic communities. Though most would have been [[Trans- Sahara slave trade|imported as slaves]], there was no equivalent of the later [[plantation economy]] in the Americas. The immigrants would have been separated from each other in households of white people, and if they had descendants these would have blended within very few generations into the local population.<ref name="Thompson" /> While slavery was a deeply-stigmatized social status, the great majority of slaves were from European and Mediterranean populations; inherited physical characteristics were not relevant to slave status.<ref name="Thompson" /> Black people were not excluded from any profession, and there was no stigma or bias against [[multiracial|mixed race]] relationships in Antiquity.<ref name="Snowden, 1970" /> |
Roman writers described people with physical characteristics of sub-Saharan Africans as "Aethiopes", but the term carried no social implications.<ref name="Thompson">{{cite journal|last1=Thompson|first1=Lloyd|title=Roman Perceptions of Blacks|journal=Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the Classics|date=Sep 1993|volume=1|issue=4|page=1|url=https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V1N4/thompson.html|accessdate=9 May 2017}}</ref> There was no such thing as a black community; immigrants from south of the Sahara were few and from disparate ethnic communities. Though most would have been [[Trans- Sahara slave trade|imported as slaves]], there was no equivalent of the later [[plantation economy]] in the Americas. The immigrants would have been separated from each other in households of white people, and if they had descendants these would have blended within very few generations into the local population.<ref name="Thompson" /> While slavery was a deeply-stigmatized social status, the great majority of slaves were from European and Mediterranean populations; inherited physical characteristics were not relevant to slave status.<ref name="Thompson" /> Black people were not excluded from any profession, and there was no stigma or bias against [[multiracial|mixed race]] relationships in Antiquity.<ref name="Snowden, 1970" /> |
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Rome had provinces in [[North Africa]] along the [[Mediterranean]] coast. The troops from that area were part of the [[Roman military]].<ref name="Cowherd">{{cite journal|last1=Cowherd|first1=Carrie|title=Roman and Carthaginian Spain: The Black Presence|journal=Afro-Hispanic Review|date=May 1983|volume=2|issue=2|pages=23–25|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23053734|accessdate=9 May 2017}}</ref> [[North Africa]] was home to a Roman [[textile]] industry that employed workers regardless of race and of varying social status: free men, North African natives, [[freedmen]] and slaves.<ref name="Johannesen">{{cite journal|last1=Johannesen|first1=Rolf|title=The Textile Industry in Roman North Africa|journal=The Classical Journal|date=Jan 1954|volume=49|issue=4|pages=157–160|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3293839|accessdate=9 May 2017}}</ref> |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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Revision as of 11:53, 11 May 2018
Black people in Ancient Roman history originated from Africa. They had a small number in Rome itself[citation needed] but were prominent in Rome's African provinces. Black people in Antiquity were involved in a variety of occupations, such as industry and the military, but some were also subjected to slavery. Black people did not appear in literature until the 5th century BC. The scholarly discussion of black people in Antiquity is sometimes misinterpreted by modern race relations that were present in Antiquity.[1]
History
Black people existed outside of Africa before the time of Homer.[1]
Roman writers described people with physical characteristics of sub-Saharan Africans as "Aethiopes", but the term carried no social implications.[2] There was no such thing as a black community; immigrants from south of the Sahara were few and from disparate ethnic communities. Though most would have been imported as slaves, there was no equivalent of the later plantation economy in the Americas. The immigrants would have been separated from each other in households of white people, and if they had descendants these would have blended within very few generations into the local population.[2] While slavery was a deeply-stigmatized social status, the great majority of slaves were from European and Mediterranean populations; inherited physical characteristics were not relevant to slave status.[2] Black people were not excluded from any profession, and there was no stigma or bias against mixed race relationships in Antiquity.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Snowden, Frank M. (1970). Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience (1 ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 1–106. ISBN 0674076265. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
- ^ a b c Thompson, Lloyd (Sep 1993). "Roman Perceptions of Blacks". Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the Classics. 1 (4): 1. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
Sources
- Benjamin, Isaac (Mar 2006). "Proto-Racism in Graeco-Roman Antiquity". World Archaeology. 38 (1): 32–47. doi:10.1080/00438240500509819. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
- Snowden, Frank M. (Winter 1997). "Misconceptions about African Blacks in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Specialists and Afrocentrists". Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics. 4 (3): 28–50. Retrieved 9 May 2017.