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Some Greek and Roman Observations on the Ethiopian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Frank M. Snowden Jr.*
Affiliation:
Howard University

Extract

The absence of color prejudice in the Greco-Roman world has been noted by numerous classicists, anthropologists, and sociologists. Observations on this social phenomenon, however, have been usually made only in the most general terms, unaccompanied by detailed, specific discussion of the etiology of a racial outlook differing substantially from many later attitudes which attached great importance to the color of the skin.

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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

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58 As to the color of the skin and the concept of beauty among the Greeks and Romans, Philostratus (Imagines 1.29) speaks of charming Ethiopians with their strange color (ήδεῖς Αἰθίοπες ἐν τῇ τοῦ χϱώματος ἀτόπῳ). Sextus Empiricus (Adversus ethicos 43) says that although men agree on the existence of beauty, they disagree on what constitutes the beautiful woman — the Persians preferring the whitest and the most hook-nosed, the Ethiopian, the blackest and the most flat-nosed, and others considering the most beautiful, one who is intermediate in features and color. The attitude of the Greeks and Romans toward persons described by adjectives for ‘black’ or ‘dark’ (see n. 69 infra for μέλας and niger as the equivalent of ‘Negro’ or ‘Negroid’) apparently varied with the individual. A certain Philaenion is described as short and black (μελανεῦσα) with hair more curled (οὐλοτέϱα) than parsley and skin more tender than down. The poem describing this black lady concludes: ‘May I love such a Philaenion, golden Cypris, until I find another more perfect.’ (Philodemus in Anthologia Palatina 5.121 [1.184 Loeb]). Asclepiades ibid. 5.210 (1.232 Loeb) praises the beauty of a certain Didyme of whom he writes: ‘Gazing at her beauty I melt like wax before the fire. And if she is black (μέλαινα), what difference to me? So are coals but when we light them, they shine like rose-buds.’ Latin passages suggesting preference for a candidus type: Lucretius 4.1160; Ovid, Ars amatoria 2.657-658; Remedia amoris 327; Martial 1.72.5-6, 4.62, 7.13; Augustine, Enarrationes in psalmos 33.15 (CCL 38.292). Passages suggesting preference for a niger type: Vergil, Eclogues 2.16-18, 10.38-39; Martial 1.115.4-5, 7.29.7-8. Martial (1.115) did not hesitate to write that though he was sought by a girl whiter than a washed swan, than silver, snow, a lily, and privet, he sought a girl blacker (‘nigriorem’) than night, an ant, pitch, a jackdaw, a cicada (whose integument is described as αἰθίοπι … χϱωτί, Anthol. palat. 7.196.4 [2.110 Loeb]). For the early Christian commentary on the verse in the Jewish Song of Solomon (1.4 Vulgate; 1.5 Septuagint) which reads in Origen and Augustine: ‘nigra (fusca) sum et [not sed] formosa (speciosa),’ see at notes 73-75 infra. Google Scholar

59 L. Shapiro, H., ‘Race Mixture,’ in The Race Question in Modern Science (New York 1956) 344.Google Scholar

60 Although Toynbee finds both the environment- and the race-theory of the geneses of civilizations intellectually vulnerable (op. cit. [n. 8 supra] 253), he considers the environment-theory more imaginative, more rational, more human, and above all unprejudiced and possessing none of the repulsiveness of the race-theory. The Greeks explained obvious physical differences, Toynbee adds, ‘as being the effects of diverse environments upon a uniform Human Nature, instead of seeing in them the outward manifestations of a diversity that was somehow intrinsic in Human Nature itself’ (p. 250).Google Scholar

61 For the history of the Europe-Asia antithesis originating in the opposition of Greeks to Persians and modifications in the Greek outlook, see Pugliese Carratelli, G., ‘Europa ed Asia nella storia del mondo antico, La parola del passato 40 (1955) 519.Google Scholar

62 Menander, frag. 612 (A. Koerte, Leipzig 1953; = frag. 533 in Kock, T., Comicorum atticorum fragmenta III [Leipzig 1888] 157), as translated by Allinson, F. G. in the Loeb Menander, 481. Pointing out that the Romans evince no preoccupation with racial purity, Syme, R., Colonial Elites : Rome, Spain and the Americas (London, New York, Toronto 1958) 17, cites Cicero, Pro Balbo 51 (especially ‘[imperatores] hominum ignobilium virtutem persaepe nobilitatis inertiae praetulerunt’) for a Roman attitude that it is personal quality that counts, not race or origin.Google Scholar

63 Antiphon, frag. 44B in Diels, Vorsokr. II 352-353.Google Scholar

64 Philemon, frag. 95 (Kock [n. 62 supra] II [Leipzig 1884] 508).Google Scholar

65 Schmidt, C., ‘Eine griechische Grabinschrift aus Antinoë,’ Aegyptiaca: Festschrift für Georg Ebers (Leipzig 1897) 100 (‘Der Stein … jetzt unter No. 13471 im Museum von Berlin aufbewahrt’ [p. 101]). For later printings of this inscription see Geffcken, J., Griechische Epigramme (Heidelberg 1916) no. 371; Peek, W., Griechische Vers-Inschriften (Berlin 1955) no. 1167.Google Scholar

66 Westermann, op. cit. (n. 12 supra) 104.Google Scholar

67 Origen, De principiis 2.9.5-6 (Rufinus’ translation; GCS, Origen 5.169-170).Google Scholar

68 Colossians 3.11.Google Scholar

69 The ancients selected the Egyptian, the Moor, the Indian, but especially the Ethiopian to illustrate blackness of color. That the Greeks regarded blackness as typical of the Ethiopian's color is apparent not only from the descriptions of the Ethiopian's skin as the blackest in the world (Arrian, Anabasis 5.4.4 and Aristotle, Problemata 10.66.898B) but also from the proverbial Αἰθίοπα σμήχειν (Lucian, Adversus indoctum 28). Reference is made to tanning the skin until it resembles an Ethiopian's (Lucian, Bis accusatus 6); a flower is described as dark as an Ethiopian's skin (Achilles Tatius 4.5.2). The Romans followed a similar practice; ‘(derideat) Aethiopem albus’ (Juvenal 2.23); ‘(vocamus) Aethiopem cycnum’ (Juvenal 8.33); ‘Aethiopes argentei’ (Jerome, Epistulae 40.3 (CSEL 54.311) (cf. Isidore, Origines 1.37.24); ‘Aethiopum colorem’ (Pliny, Nat. hist. 22.2); ‘colore Aethiops’ (Ferrandus, Epist. 11.2; PL 65.378); ‘in aspectu Ethiopissimam, neque Aegyptiam, sed totam nigram,’ Actus Petri cum Simone 22, in Lipsius, R. A. and Bonnet, M., Acta apostolorum apocrypha I (Leipzig 1891) 70. In fact, the evidence indicates that μέλας and niger were at times the equivalent of Αἰθίοψ and Aethiops. (1) Μέλας as the equivalent of Αἰθίοψ: (a) τῶν τὴν χϱόαν μελάνων (Aristotle, De generatione animalium 2.2.736a); (b) a young legate from Ethiopia was described as τήν χϱόαν … ἀϰϱιβῶς μέλας (Heliodorus 2.30.1); (c) τώς μέλανας] τοὺς Αἰθίοπας (Scholia in Callimachi hymnos 6.11a); (d) μέλανας ἀνθρώπονς ἑώϱων] ὁ γὰϱ Νότος ἀπò τῆς Λιβύης πνέει, ἔνθα οἰϰοῦσιν οἱ Αἰθιοπες (Scholia in Luciani dialogos marinos 15.4 in Rabe, H.'s edition [Leipzig 1906] 268). (2) Niger as the equivalent of Aethiops: (a) Memnon is referred to as ‘Memnonis Aethiopis’ (Catullus 66.52) and as ‘nigri Memnonis’ (Ovid, Amores 1.8.3-4 and Virgil, Aeneid 1.489); (b) ‘nigro tibicine: Aethiope’ (Scholia in Iuvenalem 15.49 1d [ed. Wessner, P.; Leipzig 1941]); (c) ‘nigra coloratus produceret agmina Memnon’ (Claudian, De consulatu Stilichonis 1.265); (d) ‘inter nigra virum percocto saecla colore’ and ‘usque ad nigra virum percocto saecla colore’ (Lucretius 6.722, 1109); ‘nigris Meroe fecunda colonis’ (Lucan 10.303). The fact that the lord of the classical underworld had been described as ‘nigri Jovis’ (Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus 1705 and Statius, Thebais 2.49) and as ‘nigri Ditis’ (Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.438; ‘nigro Diti,’ Statius, Thebais 4.291) and, because of his association with darkness, had been called the ‘black one’ perhaps accounts in part for the early Christian practice of sometimes applying ‘Ethiopian’ and ‘Egyptian’ to the devil. For early Christian examples of such a usage, see J. Dölger, F., Die Sonne der Gerechtigkeit und der Schwarze … (Liturgiegeschichtliche Forschungen 2; Münster 1918) 51-57.Google Scholar

70 Origen, Homiliae in Ieremiam 11.5 (GCS, Origen 3.84).Google Scholar

71 Origen, Commentarium in Canticum canticorum 2.377 (GCS, Origen 8.125); cf. Paulinus of Nola, Carmina 28.249-251 (CSEL 30.302): ‘qui vorat Aethiopum populos non sole perustos / sed vitiis nigros et crimine nocticolores / tales Aethiopas serpens edit …’Google Scholar

72 Origen, op. cit. 2.379 (GCS, Origen 8.127).Google Scholar

73 Cant. 1.4 (Vulg.; 1.5 Septuag.). In the Vulgate the verse runs: ‘Nigra sum sed formosa.’ Origen, Commentarium in Canticum canticorum 2.360 (GCS, Origen 8.113) writes: « Fusca sum et formosa, filiae Hierusalem, ut tabernacula Cedar, ut pelles Solomonis. » In aliis exemplaribus legimus: « nigra sum et formosa ».’ In Enarrationes in psalmos cited in n. 75 infra and in the discussion which follows one finds the reading: ‘Nigra sum et formosa.’ Origen's interpretation of the ‘Nigra sum et formosa’ verse (Commentarium in Canticum canticorum 2.360-361, 366-367 [GCS, Origen 8.113-114, 117-118]) offers an exposition in which he makes these points: (1) the bride represents the Church assembled from among the Gentiles; (2) she is vilified by the daughters of an earthly Jerusalem because, of ignoble birth, she cannot point to the noble blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; (3) the bride's reply is that she is black and though she cannot boast descent from famous men she is nevertheless beautiful, for in her is the image of God wherein she was created and she has received her beauty from the Word of God; (4) the black and beautiful woman is the same as the Ethiopian whom Moses married; (5) the indignation of Mary and Aaron (since they did not say that Moses should not have taken an Ethiopian wife and should have married one of his own race) expressed in the words ‘Hath the Lord spoken to Moses only? Hath He not also spoken to us?’ indicated that they understood Moses’ marriage in the terms of the mystery, i.e. Moses, the spiritual law, had entered into union with the Church gathered from among the Gentiles.Google Scholar

74 Origen, Homiliae in Canticum canticorum 1.6 (GCS, Origen 8.35-38). For a similar use of the Ethiopian in the language of spiritual blackness and whiteness, see Origen, , Commentarium in Canticum canticorum 2.372-373 (CGS, Origen 8.122-123), in which Origen interprets those coming from places beyond the rivers of Ethiopia as those who, because they have been darkened with many, serious sins and have been stained with the dye of wickedness, have become black and dark. The Lord accepts even these, according to Origen, if they offer sacrifices to God humbly and in the spirit of confession and repentance.Google Scholar

75 Augustine, Enarrationes in psalmos 73.16 (CCL 39.1014).Google Scholar

76 Augustine, Enar. in psalm. 71.12 (CCL 980); cf. Augustine, Enar. in psalm. 67.40 (CCL 897): (a) ‘Aegypti, vel Aethiopiae nomine, omnium gentium fidem significavit, a parte totum …’ (b) ‘… nihil aliud videtur dictum: Aethiopia praeveniet manus eius Deo, nisi: Aethiopia credet Deo’ (67.41, CCL 898).Google Scholar

77 Augustine, Enar. in psalm. 71.12 (CCL 980. The phrases ‘Aethiopes extremos … hominum’ in this passage and ‘… eam … gentem … quae in finibus terrae est,’ cited in n. 76 supra, are strikingly similar to Homer's Ethiopians — τηλόθ’ ἐόντας Αἰθίοπας τοὶ διχθὰ δεδαίαται, ἔσχατοι άνδρῶν (Odyssey 1.22-23) — and in a manner similar to Menander (n. 62 supra) and Origen (n. 67 supra) leave no doubt as to the comprehensiveness and meaning of Augustine's concept, particularly since Augustine by the Homeric reminiscence takes the reader back to the beginning of recorded classical literature which described as ἔσχατοι ἀνδϱῶν a people used frequently in later authors as one type of physical extreme unlike the Greeks and the Romans.Google Scholar

78 Ferrandus Epist. 11.2 (PL 65.378); see Origen, , Comm. in Cant. cantic. 2.373-374 (GCS, Origen 8.123) for the Ethiopian eunuch Abdimelech probably also from such a quarter — ‘iste alienigena et obscurae gentis homo et degeneris’ (cf. n. 73 supra for the ignoble birth of the black woman mentioned in the Song of Solomon), who rescued Jeremiah from the cistern. According to Origen, Abdimelech represented the people of the Gentiles who believed in the resurrection of Him whom the princes of Israel had handed over to death and by faith recalled back from hell. (The reference is to Jeremiah 38.7-14). — For the Ethiopian eunuch, a minister of Candace, whom Philip baptized, see Acts 8.27-38, and Jerome, Epist. 69.6 (PL 22.660): ‘Eunuchus Candacis reginae Aethiopum … Christi baptismati praeparatur.’Google Scholar

79 Augustine, Enar. in psalm. 67.41 cited in n. 76 supra. Google Scholar

80 PL 65.378-379.Google Scholar

81 Augustine, De civitate Dei 16.8 as translated by Oates, W. J., Basic Writings of Saint Augustine (New York 1948) II 326-327.Google Scholar

82 Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 2.2.Google Scholar

83 Ephorus as cited in Strabo 7.3.9.Google Scholar

84 Diodorus 3.8.2-4.Google Scholar

85 Diodorus 3.2.1-4. Frankfort, H., Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near-Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature (Chicago 1948) 163165, 348 (n. 4), 383 (n. 22) suggests that certain features common to ancient Egyptian and African culture may have ultimately been derived from an old, widespread ‘Hamitic substratum.’ Arkell, A. J., Early Khartoum: An Account of the Excavation of an Early Occupation Site Carried out by the Sudan Government Antiquities Service in 1944-5 (London, New York, Toronto 1949) 111–114, points out (a) that the early Khartoum people belonged to a Negroid race whose pottery and barbed stone spears seem in type to be earlier than the earliest known in Egypt and that it is reasonable to think that they may have been passed on to predynastic Egypt; (b) that the tradition (preserved in Diodorus) of the southern origin of many Egyptian customs may contain some truth. Kantor, H. J., reviewing Arkell's book (American Journal of Archaeology 55 [1951] 414-415), considers Arkell's findings perhaps the first tangible evidence in support of those who have questioned the traditional concept that Nubia and Sudan merely received and perpetuated various elements of Egyptian culture.Google Scholar

86 Lucian, , De astrologia 3.Google Scholar

87 Pliny, , Nat. hist. 2.189.Google Scholar

88 Odyssey 19.246-248.Google Scholar

89 Iliad 1.423-424 and Odyssey 1.22-25.Google Scholar

90 Diodorus mentions the campaign of Cambyses (Herodotus 3.25) but makes no reference to the campaign of Petronius in 23 B.C. (Strabo 17.1.54). The latest contemporary event mentioned by Diodorus has been dated by some in 36 B.C. and by others in 21 B.C. (cf. Oldfather, C. H., Loeb Diodorus I ix-x and conflicting views cited). Of the Petronius campaign, however, Rostovtzeff, M., The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (2nd ed. revised by M. Fraser, P., Oxford 1957) II 679 n. 56, says that in light of the terms of peace granted by Augustus in Samos and of the Meroitic version of the campaign, Strabo probably exaggerated the successes of Petronius and that perhaps we can no longer speak of a capture of Meroë by Petronius.Google Scholar

91 Diodorus 3.2.2-4 and 3.3.1.Google Scholar

92 Placidus, Lactantius, Commentarii in Thebaida 5.427 in Jahnke, R., P. Papinius Statius , III (Leipzig 1898) 284.Google Scholar

93 Herodotus 3.20; cf. Periplus Scylacis Caryandensis, in C. Müller, Geographi graeci minores (Paris 1882) I 94 for tall stature and handsomeness of Ethiopians.Google Scholar

94 Seneca, Dialogi 5.20.2.Google Scholar

95 AJP (cit. n. 1 supra) 68.283-292; Amer. Anthropol. 50.34-41; ‘A Classical Addendum to Tannenbaum's Slave and Citizen,’ Classical Outlook 25 (1948) 7172.Google Scholar

96 Babelon, E., Traité des monnaies grecques et romaines, deuxième partie : Tome premier: Description historique (Paris 1907) 10001001 and plate xlii, figures 22-23; Head, B. V., Historia nummorum (Oxford 1911) 340-341; T. Seltman, C., Athens: Its History and Coinage before the Persian Invasion (Cambridge 1924) 97.Google Scholar

97 See AJP 68.271-2 for my discussion of Terence's race.Google Scholar

98 Although certain biographical details of Terence's life were a subject of controversy even in Roman times, what is important for the Roman image of dark peoples is not the truth of these details but the attitude of mind that made them possible.Google Scholar

99 Den Boer, W., in a series of articles in Mnemosyne 4, argues that Lusius Quietus was μαῦϱος, a black man: ‘The Native Country of Lusius Quietus,’ 1 (1948) 327337; ‘Lusius Quietus an Ethiopian,’ 3 (1950) 263-267; ‘Lusius Quietus (III),’ ibid. 339-343. Roos, A. G. disputes Den Boer's conclusions as to the racial identity of Quietus: ‘Lusius Quietus Again,’ Mnemosyne 4 3 (1950) 158-165; ‘Lusius Quietus: A Reply,’ ibid. 336-338.Google Scholar

100 Aristotle, , De generatione animalium 1.18.722A; Historia animalium 7.6.586A; Plutarch, , De sera numinis vindicta 21; Calpurnius Flaccus, Declamationes 2; Pliny, Naturalis historia 7.51; St. Jerome, Hebraicae quaestiones in Genesin 30.32-33 (CCL 72.37f.; PL 23 [1845]984f.).Google Scholar

101 Apuleius, , Metamorph. 11.26. See my article ‘Ethiopians and the Isiac Worship, L'antiquité classique 25 (1956) 112116.Google Scholar

102 For a similarity between the lack of color prejudice in the classical world and that in certain parts of modern Latin America, see my Classical Outlook article cited in n. 95 supra and Syme, R., Colonial Elites (n. 61 supra) 33, for the statement that the Spaniards in America were heirs of that old Mediterranean civilization that knew no color bar.Google Scholar