Blacks In The Roman Legion?

[Guest Thanos]

Hello, I am curious to find out if the Roman Legion had any black soldiers. Weather it be from slavery or choice.

[Primus Pilus]

Yes, there were Roman citizens of all skin colors and ethnicities. Therefore, there were legionaries as well. By the mid to late imperial period, as citizenship became less exclusive and non Latin or Italian citizenship boomed, there was a disproportionate number of these non Latin/Italic soldiers.

[Guest Thanos]

Thank you Primus. Guess I will do a little more digging.

[Ursus]

if you find anything, let us know. It's an interesting subject.

[Augustus]

I don't think there were blacks in the Roman legian of any significant number, most of the areas conquered by Rome just didn't have any, except Egypt.

 

How many legionares were pulled from Eygpt?

[Ursus]

Lock down until PP can ban the troll

 

[done, and pointless posts removed, PP]

[Germanicus]

There must have been Black Romans, whether they came from North Africa as freemen, or were freed after a period of slavery. I can't imagine the Romans banning free men from the legions based on skin color. I have also seen Septimus Severus refferred to as "The Black Emperor" Any truth in this you think ? Or is it just a reference to his African home ?

[Jimbow]

I can't find the reference right now, but I came across it many years ago, and it refers to a black centurion stationed in Britain. There was a suggestion that he took a local wife and had a child with her. If I can find it I'll post it.

 

Jim.

[Julius Caesar]

There must have been Black Romans, whether they came from North Africa as freemen, or were freed after a period of slavery. I can't imagine the Romans banning free men from the legions based on skin color. I have also seen Septimus Severus refferred to as "The Black Emperor" Any truth in this you think ? Or is it just a reference to his African home ?

Trying to determine the race/ethnicity of ancient figures of North Africa is a fairly controversial subject in the way the debates often become political or ideological. You have people who insist Cleopatra was black, even though all but one (I think) of her family tree can be traced to the the Macedonian Ptolemic line. Hannibal is also a subject for debate, as is Septimus Severus, though his lesser standing in history means he gets little press.

 

I've read that his mother's family was Italian by ancestry, while his father's descended from Libya. Whether or not that meant they were 'black' is uncertain.

 

Its interesting, but I'd rather have a detailed account of his Parthian Wars than know the answer to this. He is a fascinating emperor, perhaps the last to rule over a Rome of indisputable supremacy over its barbarian and eastern enemies.

[Guest mathias]

there is catholic saint named maurice that was a legionaire from egypt. he was supposed to have been black

[longbow]

The celestial saint of Germany is St. Maurice, a pure African. While in command of a Roman legion in Switzerland in 287 A.D., he refused to attack the Christians when ordered by Emperor Maximian Herculius. For his defiance he was killed. His picture is in many German cathedrals and museums with the German eagle on his head.

 

Trajan ordered the commander of his Mauritanian auxiliaries, Lusius Quietus, to clean the suspects out of these regions(egypt). Quietus organized a force and killed many Cypriote, Mesopotamian and Syrian Jews - in effect wiping them out; as a reward, he was appointed governor of Judaea. (He is one of the few blacks known to have made a career in Roman service.) He was responsible for a forced policy of hellenization; in response, the rabbis ordered the Jewish fathers not to teach their sons Greek

 

It seems there were individual black soldiers serving rome,but i dont think there was hole units of black soldiers.

L

[Ceres]

Cleopatra was of Roman decent... or so I remember from my English II class.

[Primus Pilus]

Cleopatra was of Roman decent... or so I remember from my English II class.

Macedonian actually.

[Caesar]

Actually, since the Roman military drew from all of its territories, there were said to be a number of African-Romans in the Legions. Supposedly, a number of the officers in the African provinces were natives that were Romanized.

[longbow]

Septimius Severus , Although his family was of Phoenician rather than black African descent, ancient literary sources refer to the dark colour of his skin and relate that he kept his African accent into old age.He Died in York,England.

 

 

This is a good sculpture of him.