How were black people treated in the roman empire?

like kangz (n shied)

>>1864891
Like any other gladiators

>>1864891
People will tell you they were treated like any other person because discrimination by race as we know it on the modern times didn't exist, and it was all about how you behaved.

While it's not literally wrong, it's a half truth that hides a very important fact. For most of roman history, being black is a gigantic mark that screams: "Look at me, I'm a barbarian". They were not the only barbarian peoples who had to suffer this, of course.

>>1864891
Depends how wealthy they were

Depends

Some citizens, some slaves, some barbarians

Nubians were good archers and had lots of gold for sale

>>1864918
I doubt romans would think so bad about the southern people like middle easterners and blacks. I mean they are still strangers and romans always thought they are better than everyone else but especially the persians were considered an equal match.

>>1864942
Wealth was less important than social class in antiquity, specially in regards of how you were treated.

A wealthy freedman or stranger could not expect to be considered above a less wealthy roman patrician. He would only be above less wealthy people of his same kind, and maybe above poor free plebeians if the situation makes it convenient.

>>1864891
The same way everyone else was. If you had utility for a Roman, you were cultivated, if you didn't, lel fuck your life.

So lots of black mercs, freeman workers/craftsmen/traders etc were all perfectly tolerated.

>>1864990
Equal match in power and sophistication, nothing more. Don't imagine a caveman when I say barbarian, because in a classic context the word has nothing to do with how sophisticated is your culture. The archetypical barbarian for the greeks was the persian, arguably more sophisticated. Too sophisticated to be considered civilized.

>>1864990
Nignogs arent similar to Persians though
They were even less developped than Germanics of the time (and remained so until whtey came in 19th century) and were thus viewed as monkeys, just like they always were by anyone who met them until the 20th century

>>1864891
It depended on their usefulness to the Romans like >>1864998 stated.

Saint maurice was well respected

>>1864918
>>1864996
But you could still marry into upper classes, and it was actually somewhat frequent were patricians would have half barbarian/slave children and being half black wouldn't deny your status and rank unless you know the parent denied the child or something

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>>1864918
Pretty much this, though there was less of a stigma than being German.

They could marry into senatorial families and be perfectly normal respectable Romans. Their skin color didn't really matter

>>1865078
Lmao deluded nog

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>>1864891
DEY WUZ EMPERORS N SHIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEET

>>1865056
It will hint people that you are not a patrician, even if it was a misleading hint. Of course that would be irrelevant in your day to day life, since most people in whatever place you live would know the weird mulatto is actually a normal citizen despite his looks. Maybe people would remind you your mother was a barbarian slave, or call you barbarian, if they want to insult you. First impressions on strangers would not be precisely your strong point, though.

The son of a punic or iberian slave would most probably not have this problem, since he probably would not be easily detected. This is what I meant in the first post, being black (or half-black) is not something that goes unnoticed.

>>1865087
I may be many things but a nigger aint one of them

>>1865042
we aren't talking about sub saharan africa dumbass.

>>1865139
Not him since I would never call some of the blacks that romans would be likely to encounter "less developed than germanics". But unless Nubia and Ethiopia no longer count as sub-saharan african for some reason, yes we're talking about sub-saharan africa.

>>1864891
like any other civile

>>1864918
For most of roman history, being black is a gigantic mark that screams: "Look at me, I'm a barbarian"

Like they did to anyone with blue eyes and blond hair, or some semitic looking person, or anyone that didnt look remotely roman or greek.

>>1865184
Yes, exactly. OP didn't ask about how germans were treated in the roman empire, though.

>>1865189
Not to mention that, while rare, blue eyes and blond hair are atributes that cannot be compared to black skin in rarity. Amongst mediterranean people, I mean.

>>1865139
Oh look, one of those tards who think Egypt and Carthage were black

Aesop was a fabler that was said to have died in the 6th century BC. He became a stock character and people attributed various fables and parables in his name. And during the Greeks time, they made him out to be comically ugly (as many of the fables' nature were comedic), which included him being short, hunchback, foreign (was initially said to be from Phrygia), pot-belly, and high-pitched; basically everything that was opposite in male physical attractiveness. His wisdom was supposed to be ironic given his initial slave-status (which many Greeks believed that slaves were naturally inclined to be stupid and submissive), foreign background, and being illiterate.
The Romans adopted his character as-well, and attributed his appearance the same but this time attributing that he was black and from Aethiopia.

>>1865207
were are you getting that idea from?
Nowadays sure, there was a lot of mixing up of genetic material after the barbarian invasions, but back then, blond hair and blue eyes were just as rare as black skinned people. Possibly more rare, considering that northern germany and scandinavia was a lot more isolated from the Mediterranean than places like Ethiopia or Nubia

>>1865213
Aesop Rock is pretty good, I don't like his voice all that much tho.

>>1864891
They were considered exotic, like Egyptians or Spaniards.

Germans were considered much worse

>>1865228
You're aware that blond hair and blue eyes arent that rare among celts, right?
Gauls had shittons of them

>>1864918
It's more complicated than that tho. Ethiopians had different features than people from South Libya or India. Things like noses, lips and especially hair played a bigger role to distinguished between peoples than it does for us. I have yet to read a source where the color of skin actually plays an important role.
>>1865078
Yepp. Even having red hair was in Republican times a sign of being of barbaric descent i.e. German.

>>1865254
https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V1N4/thompson.html
Fairly accurate.
>Abstract. Certain preconceptions about 'blacks' in predominantly 'white' societies have distorted modern visions of the ways in which Aethiopes were perceived in Roman society, resulting in much misinterpretation of the relevant texts. In Roman perceptions categories like black African, white, 'paleface' and swarthy were neither communities nor socially defined 'races' with ascribed group-statuses. Categorisation was determined by the physical appearance of the individual person, not by parentage or 'blood'.

>>1865209
says the man who forgets about the region between them

>>1865228
Completely false. There's a lot of mediterranean historical figures who are said to be blond or redhead, even before the migration period. It's mentioned because it was rare, of course, but it's mentioned and they existed.

>>1864918

Level of Importance

>Patricians
>Plebians
>Roman Citizens
>Free Men <---Blacks stop here except on a special circumstance
>Slaves

>>1865254
>Things like noses, lips and especially hair played a bigger role to distinguished between peoples than it does for us.

Who is us? I can't think about a place where those facial atributes are not part of the archetypical black person. Look at the caricatures about blacks, it's never just a guy with different skin.

>>1864891
I assume pretty well, since they literally ruled it.

>>1865364
Maybe it would be important to distinguish between stranger/unr-romanized free men and romanized free men, if you're to make a ranking of importance.

>>1865364
Anyone could become a roman citizen if he earned that right.

They were treated as well as a guy with Blonde hair and Blue eyes.

Both barbarians, but as the empire aged they became more accepted. Also any with gold or status were treated better

In reality the idea of racism is a largely social construct that stemmed from modern times and is magnified in the Western hemisphere due to it's explicitly and history of radicalized slavery.

>>1865393
The second half of your sentence makes the first half pretty much meaningless, and confirms the words of the anon you're quoting. Notice how he bothered to mention special cirumstance.

>>1865087
not an argument

>>1865372
>where those facial atributes are not part of the archetypical black person
Imagine there are no black persons but rather big nosed people, small eyed people etc. That's what I meant.

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>>1865364
>special circumstances
>theban legion
>5,200 exclusively black soldiers (all legionaires were roman citizens)
>and their entire families
>and even higher ranking patrician officers
>that served for more than 300 years
>special circumstances

>>1865042
The nogs (Axum, Nubia, etc.) romans likely had most contacts were pretty developed.

>>1864891
there were none

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>>1864891
>people

lol.. nice bait, OP

>>1866124
that dude looks gay as fuck

>>1866124
man that kid from home alone really got his shit together

>>1865659
Theben legion isn't history, it's christian fanfiction that's breen proven anachronistic and frabricated

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WE WUZ PRINCEPS AND ON THE VERGE OF INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND SHEIIIT UNTIL YOU WHITE BOIS CAME ALONG WITH YOUR CHRISTIANITY

>>1866811
love it when /pol/tards and meme pros use that poster for kangz material, shows up just how abjectly culturally impoverished they are
it's a fucking play

>>1866826
Yeah. Shaking up the actors in a Shakespeare production to change the context of everything is a very old hat and I don't know why they get buttmad about it.

Remember the production of Othello Patrick Stewart put on where he played Othello and everyone else in the cast was black?

>>1866826
a black julius caesar is funny as shit you take the internet too seriously bro

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>>1866826
Yeah, we all understand the many plays are indiscriminate in actor selection when it comes to race/culture/gender whatever. It is not ignorance of the fact that we find a black Julius Caesar fucking hilarious.

>>1864891
What a blasphemy, I bet that it's british

>>1864891
About the same as any other barbarian

>>1865089
There were black popes

Like regular slaves but without people bitching about it all the time

>>1864891
>How were black people treated in the roman empire?

The very very few Blacks in Rome were probably slaves or slavers honestly. Roman contacts with Ethiopia and Nubia aren't extensively documented. Arabs were treated ok so idk.