Snowden's classic

This is Frank Snowden's classical “Blacks in Antiquity”, first published in 1970. The book argues that color prejudice in the modern sense didn't exist in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. It discusses Greek and Roman descriptions of “Ethiopians” in both literature and art. It also discusses some lesser known (to the layman) episodes in Roman history involving African peoples at the Nubian border. While the book is somewhat dragging due to its scholarly style (it seems Snowden wanted to be exhaustive in his treatment of the subject), it's also very interesting.

Snowden's book played a somewhat peculiar role in the famed Black Athena controversy. On the one hand, Snowden is seen as a scholarly trailblazer for his efforts to make classical studies more color-sensitive. On the other hand, Snowden denied that the ancient Egyptians were Black Africans (the main point of Afro-centrism). Thus, his book makes a sharp distinction between Egyptian and Ethiopian, only dealing with the latter. As far as I can tell, he doesn't discuss Herodotus' claim (or purported claim) that the Egyptians were “black” and “wooly-haired”. Snowden also distinguishes between two racial types of “Negro”, a no-no in today's anti-racist climate (despite Snowden's own anti-racism). There is the “True Negro”, presumably the West African type or perhaps a generic Negroid type. Then, there is the “Nilote”, a type found in Sudan and Ethiopia, which has a pitch black skin, while being closer in facial characteristics to the Hamites (to which I assume Snowden count the Egyptians). The book doesn't discuss the issue at length, so it's not clear if Snowden regarded these types as co-mingling on the same territory, or living apart. For instance, where the Nubians “Nilotes”? In passing, Snowden also mentions “red” tribes in Africa. The ancient Greeks and Romans also knew about Pygmies and “Macrobians”, the latter said to be the tallest of men. Massai?

As already indicated, “Blacks in Antiquity” is an interesting book on many levels. For instance, it points out that there were both light-skinned and dark-skinned peoples in North Africa already during ancient times. The ancient sources aren't always sure about the exact racial character of a given culture. Thus, the Garamantes were sometimes described as Black, sometimes as White. Even sub-Saharan Blacks were present in Northwest Africa from the earliest times. They are said to have invaded the area and penetrated as far north as the Atlas Mountains. It was also interesting to read about the Blemmyes and their protection of the Isis temple at Philae. Other topics of interest include Busiris, Memnon, Andromeda (so *that's* where George R R Martin got the idea of a White woman becoming ruler over Blacks, cough cough) and Achilles' Black companion. On the more historical side, Carthaginian general Hannibal recruited Blacks to fight in his military expedition in Italy.

One problem with the book is that Snowden insists on using the term “Ethiopian” throughout, making it unclear to the general reader whether he is referring to Nubia, Africa in general or the territory of modern Ethiopia. You probably need to know a thing or two about the ancient world before approaching this work. Another problem is that the author mentions slavery mostly in passing, while admitting that most Blacks reached the ancient world precisely through that route. Perhaps he feared that Black slavery would undermine his thesis of no racism in the ancient world? It doesn't, of course, but in the minds of many readers, slavery = Blackness would have been a standard trope. Most Blacks in the Roman world had ordinary occupations, such as workers, farmers and soldiers. Others worked in entertainment. A few were merchants, diplomats or advisers to Roman emperors. But then, this doesn't mark them out from the rest of the imperial population.

In fact, it makes Blacks in antiquity look rather regular.