What did the Ancient Romans think about Race?

[Apollo]

Interesting

 

[Kool-Aid]

Romans respected people with wise minds and athletic bodies.

 

[Kool-Aid]

Lucius Septimius Severus

In AD 193, Lucius Septimius Severus was named ruler of the Roman Empire and in doing so became Rome's first African Emperor.

 

[Prime Minister]

Lucius Septimius Severus

In AD 193, Lucius Septimius Severus was named ruler of the Roman Empire and in doing so became Rome's first African Emperor.
View attachment 190630

Was he black?

 

[Kool-Aid]

Was he black?

Septimius Severus was certainly African, because he was born in Leptis Magna, a city on the African continent, but this does not necessarily mean that he was what most people today would consider black, since there are many people who were born in Africa who are not normally considered black.

 

[Kool-Aid]

Was he black?

Probably looked something like this:

 

[Apollo]

By the way, that YT channel is really good. Somehow I only discovered it recently. It has nice animations with good history content.

 

[Aurelian]

By the way, that YT channel is really good. Somehow I only discovered it recently. It has nice animations with good history content.

See kings and generals, they started doing 1h long animation of battles one of which is Finland vs USSR

 

[Cerberus]

The success of Roman empire was due to using only fittest men, like you had to pass various fitness tests to qualify.

 

[Username]

The Roman idea of race seems much better than the current one despite them having a lot of weird descriptions of people, at least they only grouped people who were actually similar together.

The one today is stupid and groups people who have nothing in common...

 

[Apollo]

The Roman idea of race seems much better than the current one despite them having a lot of weird descriptions of people, at least they only grouped people who were actually similar together.

The one today is stupid and groups people who have nothing in common...

The Romans had to deal with less racial complexity though. The main ''different'' ''races'' they saw were these: Northern Europeans, Southern Europeans, Northern Africans, Arabs, rarely some Sub-Saharan Africans and extremely rarely some Indians.

Nowadays in the average city in the West you will see nearly every race just walking outside in a few mins.

 

[Gadhwayne]

The Romans had to deal with less racial complexity though. The main ''different'' ''races'' they saw were these: Northern Europeans, Southern Europeans, Northern Africans, Arabs, rarely some Sub-Saharan Africans and extremely rarely some Indians.

Nowadays in the average city in the West you will see nearly every race just walking outside in a few mins.

There were hardly any Arab clans or Arabic language speakers in any Roman province. You must be referring to other ethnicities that spoke other Semitic languages since the only Arab that Romans saw the most was probably a nomadic tradesman visiting the nonArab Levant and Arab tribal militias on a mission to raid the Aramic speaking sedentary population under Roman rule

 

[Apollo]

There were hardly any Arab clans or Arabic language in any Roman province. You must be referring to other ethnicities that spoke other Semitic languages since the only Arab that Romans saw the most was probably a nomadic tradesman visiting the nonArab Levantand Arab tribal militias when on a mission to raid the Aramic speaking sedentary population under Roman rule

Broadly speaking, as in people we consider ''Arabs'' today like Levantines and Mesopotamians. They don't look that different from ethnic Saudi Bedouins as people think, especially to outsiders like Europeans.

Romans called a big portion of Palestine and Jordan as Arabia Petraea.

 

[Gadhwayne]

Broadly speaking, as in people we consider ''Arabs'' today like Levantines and Mesopotamians. They don't look that different from ethnic Saudi Bedouins as people think, especially to outsiders like Europeans.

Romans called a big portion of Palestine and Jordan as Arabia Petraea.

Fair enough but Anbaad tribe in Raqm/Petra were much smaller than the Suryaani/Kancaani speaking tribes of the Levant and actually they might have been on their way to becoming assimilated as an Aramaic speaking Masiixi tribe before Muslims liberated the Levant. Its not fair to name all Levantine tribes aftera tiny minority tribe that they could easily assimilate. Strictly speaking even the modern Levantines speaking Arabic are not ethnically Arab the same way Xijaaz and central Saudia are actually decendants of real Arabs

 

[Username]

The Romans had to deal with less racial complexity though. The main ''different'' ''races'' they saw were these: Northern Europeans, Southern Europeans, Northern Africans, Arabs, rarely some Sub-Saharan Africans and extremely rarely some Indians.

Nowadays in the average city in the West you will see nearly every race just walking outside in a few mins.

True but weren't these current "races" formed during colonial times when the West wasn't diverse at all?

Also I just don't like how Africans are considered one, whereas for example Asians have multiple races.

 

[JarutheGreat]

Africans in Roman art:

I believe these are scenes from Pompeii or Herculaneum. People engaging in ceremonial worship, the cult of Isis. The bald headed men are most likely Egyptian priest.

 

[JarutheGreat]

More Africans in Roman art:

Sex scene from Pompeii

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