A Social and Cultural History of Republican Rome (Wiley Blackwell Social and Cultural Histories of the Ancient World) by Eric M. Orlin

Author:Eric M. Orlin
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781118359501
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2021-11-07T16:00:00+00:00

By the first century BCE, Rome was home to thousands of people born outside Italy, let alone the city of Rome. The term “Roman” had never comprised a single ethnic group, but now it included people from all over the Mediterranean. Some had voluntarily moved there while others had been brought forcibly as enslaved persons. As discussed elsewhere, enslaved persons became full Roman citizens if restored to free status, such that people from all over the Mediterranean and of many different physical appearances were included in the Roman citizen body. It is clear that the Romans noted the physical differences between themselves and others. For instance, the Romans noted the dark skin, curly hair, and thick lips of a people they called “Aethiopians,” but drinking cups with images that match this description suggest primarily a Roman fascination with bodies different from their own (Figure 7.3). The Romans do not seem to have singled out skin color as a reason for treating people differently, and unlike in modern racist discourse there is no indication that the Romans ascribed negative traits to these physical features. One reason for the Roman approach may be that ancient writers often associated differences among peoples with their surrounding environment: people in the north were flabby and of pale complexion because the cold and wet made them sluggish, just as people to the south had strong bodies in order to withstand the heat of their climate. The story of Rome’s founding suggests an ideology that Rome built her strength by incorporating outsiders into the state, and the surviving evidence suggests that this openness extended to people living overseas as well as in Italy.

Figure 7.3 Terracotta vase from Etruria, fourth century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. The short curly hair, broad nose, and fleshy lips identify him as a Black African.

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