Publication details

Colours of the Roman Empire: Could Minorities Be Authorities?

Authors

BARTŮNĚK Jiří DADÁK Pavel

Year of publication 2015
Type Article in Proceedings
Conference Mezinárodní Masarykova konference pro doktorandy a mladé vědecké pracovníky 2015
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Web http://www.vedeckekonference.cz/library/proceedings/mmk_2015.pdf
Field History
Keywords racism; Rome; Greece; blacks; skin colour; prejudice; slavery; mythology; Mediterranean; racial superiority
Description Topic of racism is still 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 were 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) literary 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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