Black people in ancient Roman history
In Ancient Rome people of African, though not necessarily Sub-Saharan, ancestry appeared throughout the empire. The Romans called black people "Aethiopes."
In archaeology
A craniometric study of 22 individuals from a Roman burial site at Lant St, Southwark, Roman London, states ‘Due to missing data or an inadequate number of observable traits, ancestry for 29% of the sample could not be estimated. Of those with observable trait scores, 28% classified closest to the European sample (one possible European, four definitive), 24% classified closest to the African sample, and 16% classified closest to the Asian [Chinese/Japanese] sample (one possible Asian, two probable Asians).' Isotopic analysis of the bones suggests ‘that many of the individuals from Lant Street had spent their childhood in warmer climes than London.’[1] Analysis of autosomal DNA from four individuals from Roman London found that one had African ancestry, with brown eyes and dark brown or black hair. Bone isotopes suggested that this individual, a male aged over 45 years, had spent his childhood in the London region.[2] The Ivory Bangle Lady whose rich burial was found in York had cranial features that hinted at a 'mixed' white/black ancestry.[3][4][5]
In the written record
Roman writers described people with physical characteristics of sub-Saharan Africans as "Aethiopes", but the term carried no social implications.[6] They were rare in Rome under Nero; it was evidence of a brilliant and costly affair when the gladiators for a whole day's show consisted only of Aethiopes.[7] There was no such thing as a black community; immigrants from south of the Sahara were few and from disparate ethnic communities. The immigrants would have been separated from each other in households of other people, and if they had descendants these would have blended within very few generations into the local population.[6] 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.[6] Black people were not excluded from any profession, and there was usually no stigma or bias against mixed race relationships in Antiquity.[8]
One "Aethiop" soldier is reported in Britannia about 210, his black skin being considered a bad omen for North African Emperor Septimus Severus[9]
People from North Africa were not described as "Aethiopes"; North Africa was Roman for several centuries and many of its citizens achieved high positions within the Empire. The name "Africanus" could refer to African origins, and a centurion named Vocusius Africanus is recorded from Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall.[10] Notable Romans with origins in North Africa include Lusius Quietus, a officer under Trajan,[11] and the Emperor Septimius Severus who was born in Leptis Magna.[12]
See also
References
- ^ Redfern RC, Grocke D, Millard AR, Ridgeway V, Johnson L. Going south of the river: a multidisciplinary analysis of ancestry, mobility and diet in a population from Roman Southwark, London. Journal of Archaeological Science 2016 74 11-22. http://dro.dur.ac.uk/20965/
- ^ 'Written in Bone': New discoveries about the Lives and Burials of Four Roman Londoners. Rebecca C Redfern, Michael Marshall, Katherine Eaton, Hendrik Poinar. Britannia 48 (2017) 253-277 doi:10.1017/S0068113X17000216. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/britannia/article/written-in-bone-new-discoveries-about-the-lives-and-burials-of-four-roman-londoners/F464D9E93FCE96341DDD7774C4C8CA10/core-reader#
- ^ Leach S, Lewis M, Chenery C, Müldner G, Eckardt H. Migration and diversity in Roman Britain: a multidisciplinary approach to immigrants in Roman York, England' American Journal of Physical Anthropology 2009 140 546-561
- ^ Leach S, Eckardt H, Chenery C, Müldner G, Lewis M. A "lady" of York: migration, ethnicity and identity in Roman York. Antiquity 2010 84 131-135
- ^ Rebecca Gowland. Britannia 48 (2017) 177-194 doi:10.1017/S0068113X17000125 Embodied Identities in Roman Britain: A Bioarchaeological Approach.
- ^ a b c Thompson, Lloyd (Sep 1993). "Roman Perceptions of Blacks". Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the Classics. 1 (4): 1. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
- ^ Cassius Dio. Roman History LXII 3: "Nero admired him for this action and entertained him in many ways, especially by giving a gladiatorial exhibition at Puteoli. It was under the direction of Patrobius, one of his freedmen, who managed to make it a most brilliant and costly affair, as may be seen from the fact that on one of the days not a person but Ethiopians — men, women, and children — appeared in the theatre." https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/62*.html#29
- ^ 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. JSTOR 20163634.
- ^ Historia Augusta, Septimus Severus, chapter 22. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Septimius_Severus*.html#22
- ^ Tab. Vindol. II Introductory Chapters. The Roman Army: Personnel. Vindolanda Tablets Online. http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/tablets/TVII-2-2.shtml
- ^ Dio, Cassius (2004). Dio's Rome. Project Gutenburg.
- ^ Birley, Anthony R (2002). Septimius Severus: The African Emperor. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-113-470-745-4.
Sources
- Benjamin, Isaac (Mar 2006). "Proto-Racism in Graeco-Roman Antiquity". World Archaeology. 38 (1): 32–47. doi:10.1080/00438240500509819. JSTOR 40023593.
- 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. JSTOR 20163634.