African encounters in Roman Britain

[Viggen]

...fascinating article...

 

Perhaps the most remarkable tale to survive is an episode in the Historia Augusta (Life of Severus 22) concerning the inspection of the Wall by the emperor Septimius Severus. The emperor, who was himself born in Libya, was confronted by a black soldier, part of the Wall garrison and a noted practical joker. According to the account the notoriously superstitious emperor saw in the soldier’s black skin and his brandishing of a wreath of Cyprus branches, an omen of death. And his mood was not further improved when the soldier shouted the macabre double entendre iam deus esto victor (now victor/conqueror, become a god). For of course properly speaking a Roman emperor should first die before being divinized.

 

The late Nigerian classicist, Lloyd Thompson, made a powerful point about this intriguing passage in his seminal work Romans and Blacks, ‘the whole anecdote attributes to this man a disposition to make fun of the superstitious beliefs about black strangers’. In fact we might go further, and note just how much cultural knowledge and confidence this frontier soldier needed to play the joke – he needed to be aware of Roman funerary practices, superstitions, and the indeed the practice of emperor worship itself....

 

full article at the OUP Blog

[caldrail]

There is reason to believe that Africans manned the Wall, but at the same time, the use of language can be misleading sometimes. I recall there was a hullabaloo a while back because someone had spotted something about 'black heathens' from Ireland in a historic source and assumed it meant 'Irish Africans', when it referred instead to their demeanour and behaviour. Further evidence or clarifiaction might be useful here.