Colours of the Roman Empire : Could Minorities Be Authorities?

Authors

BARTŮNĚK Jiří DADÁK Pavel

Year of publication 2015
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source AD ALTA: Journal of Interdisciplinary Research
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Web http://www.magnanimitas.cz/05-02
Field History
Keywords racism; Rome; Greece; blacks; skin colour; prejudice; slavery; mythology; Mediterranean; racial superiority
Description Topic of racism is st ill very alive in today's world. This article is meant as reflection on question of how racism was understood in ancient cultures. Ancient people, Greeks, Romans, founders of modern Europe and its system of values we re in constant contact with nationalities, which were different in many ways, including skin colour. Our aim is to understand, how they saw people of different skin colour – if they condemned dissimilarity or were without prejudice. Based on (not only) lit erary point of view of ancient authors, this paper tries to answer old question, whether racism against blacks was born already in ancient Rome and the most glorious civilization of Europa's history was based on racial segregation, or the idea of superiority based on colour of one's skin is really modern past's invention.
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