were the Romans racist?

In our current society, we are surrounded by prejudice. Discrimination isn’t something easily resolved, as it has existed for years and is therefore internalised. But when did people begin to develop these ideas? Has it always been the case that certain people are considered inferior based on something as simple as their skin colour? We’ll focus on the ancient Romans and how they worked with these ideas. Were the Romans “racist” according to our modern interpretation of that word? Did the centuries-long discrimination against Black people begin with them, or did it really only begin with the Transatlantic Slave Trade? We already know that Romans owned slaves, but did prejudice or discrimination have anything to do with slavery?

When we talk about racism, we’re referring to a form of discrimination based on the prejudice that certain ethnic groups are inferior to others. This isn’t necessarily based on skin color, but rather on ethnic origin. Discrimination is the overarching concept that describes considering people inferior based on personal and physical characteristics. In this text, we’ll discuss racism, which is therefore linked to prejudice. Prejudices can be positive or negative and are simply assumptions and generalisations about people without any real evidence.

Within the Roman world, the “us versus them” principle was very strong. Anyone who wasn’t Roman was called a “barbarian.” This word already had a negative connotation, but not in the context we would use it today. Because they considered every non-Roman a “barbarian,” they didn’t really feel the need to make any more distinctions, especially not based on skin colour. They did, however, respect certain peoples whose civilisation they considered highly advanced. For example, the Egyptians weren’t considered true “barbarians,” simply because their culture wasn’t considered primitive by the Romans.

In principle, everyone had the chance to reach the top. Even if an Egyptian had Ethiopian roots and darker skin, they could find a job as a teacher, civil servant, musician, or even a general. There were also others who went further: Trajan, Hadrian, Septimius Severus, and Macrinus were all examples of emperors of non-Roman descent. This diversity demonstrates that being Roman in the later period of the empire was less about place of birth and more about culture and political power.

Perhaps the Romans respected certain peoples, but what about the “primitive” “barbarians,” and on what basis were they called such? Throughout the history of the Roman Empire, they continued to subdue and conquer peoples. Prisoners of war became slaves. These could have been Greeks, Gauls, Britons, Italians, Numidians, and so on. Within slavery, there was no positive discrimination: anyone could and would become a slave. Therefore, every slave also had the opportunity to buy their own freedom. Even then, prejudices persisted. Slave traders sought Nubian slaves for the hard work. Educated Greeks then became teachers, cooks, or musicians. There were no criteria for becoming a slave, but tasks were sometimes based on physical characteristics. Physical characteristics, in turn, depended on ancestry, thus creating an indirect distinction based on ancestry.

When we talk about internalised racism, it’s usually linked to beauty standards. Without realising it, people are conditioned to think certain things about certain physical features. When this is combined with skin colour, it can become dangerous. Throughout history, the standard of beauty has been to be pale. This was also true for the Romans. The paler your skin, the higher your status. It showed that you were wealthy enough not to have to work outdoors in the sun. To achieve this ideal, Roman women used makeup and creams to keep their skin even and fair. As a Mediterranean people, the Romans did have a wide variety of skin tones, but paleness was a cultural trend to emphasise status. This would have negative consequences for people with darker skin, as it automatically assigned them a “lower status.”

Racism isn’t always about skin colour. The literal definition is “a form of discrimination based on the prejudice that certain ethnic groups are inferior to others.” So we should also consider how the Romans viewed other white people. Juvenal gives us his opinion of the Greeks. The Greeks and Romans interacted frequently, often enough to form genuine opinions about each other instead of creating prejudices fuelled by ignorance. Juvenal talks about how they take all the jobs, how promiscuous they are, how they constantly try to please and flatter others, and all sorts of other negative things. In other words, his “opinion” of the Greeks isn’t very positive and reinforces the “us versus them” effect against any other people.

Meanwhile, African peoples were viewed with the same, if not more intense, negativity. Pliny the Elder recounts how certain peoples had “degenerated below the level of normal human customs.” He goes on to describe how others didn’t marry, cursed the sun daily, crawled on their knees, and all sorts of other bizarre characteristics. Like most prejudices, this information is also based on “ignorance.” Black people were either unknown to the Romans at the time, uncommon, or only encountered in the form of slaves. The most contact they would have had with Black people was through their trade routes in Ethiopia. Thus, “Ethiopian” essentially became a generic term for any person with a darker skin tone. If they were to read things like Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, this ignorance would fuel all sorts of fantasies. In such an environment, it’s easy to form prejudices based on origin.

If we truly want to find racism among the ancient Romans, we’ll encounter it. This manifests as prejudice based on beauty standards or ignorance. This is more internalised, specific to that time and environment. But explicit racism didn’t exist, especially not within slavery. Anyone could become a slave, regardless of their skin colour or background. The Romans did have a strong sense of “them versus the rest” and considered almost all other cultures barbaric. In conclusion, certain attitudes toward people with different skin colours did exist, but these are not comparable to the racism we experience today.