THE CONCEPT OF RACE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

Ethnicity, as a biological fact, is a product of the nineteenth century that we can not apply to antiquity.(1) In the ancient world, ethnic identity is not particularly important and it is, in any case, a cultural process, always under construction (2). If it is true that from ancient times many populations or social groups tended to shut themselves off from others, excluding or discriminating against those they considered different, their attitude can be defined as “xenophobic” or “ethnocentric” rather than “racist” in the true sense, based on the foundations of presumed linguistic, cultural, and religious superiority. For example, the Greeks and the Romans called people who did not speak their languages “barbarians”. However, this did not favour a feeling of unity within a single race. Among them, the Greeks carried out ruthless wars which often ended with real genocide and with the enslavement of women and children (the so-called “andrapodismos”). (3) During the battle of Traente (A small Calabrian river), in 510 B.C., Crotone, city of “Magna Graecia” (the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy), even diverted the course of the Crati river to destroy another Greek city, Sybaris.
To better understand how the concept of race was unimportant in ancient times, an interesting story may be that of Tarquinius Priscus. At the end of the VII century B.C., the son of a man from Corinth (Greece) settled in Tarquinia, southern Etruria (the area corresponding to current-day Tuscany, Italy), decided to emigrate to Rome, together with his wife Tanaquil, because the aristocracy of Tarquinia did not allow him to pursue a career. In Rome they called him “Tarquinius” because he came from that city, and they elected him their king after the death of the fourth king of Rome, Ancus Marcius. Who was Tarquinius? He was raised in Tarquinia and “culturally” he was Etruscan. Was he therefore Tarquiniese, as he appeared to the Romans? Was he a Roman, considering the fact that he was king of Rome? Or was he rather, Greek, considering that his “biological” origin was Corinthian? Evidently all and none of these answers can be considered true. A coherent hypothesis would see Lucius Tarquinius Priscus as an exponent of the archaic Mediterranean élite, who used various ethnic backgrounds to express his status. (4)

Even in the Roman world, race was not a particularly important issue. The emperor Hadrian was born near Seville, in the “Hispania Baetica”, and nevertheless he became emperor. Septimius Severus was born in Leptis Magna (Libya) and he managed to become emperor. The Spaniard, Seneca the Younger, born in Cordoba, became a senator of Rome and preceptor to Nero.
In the ancient world – the modern era begins with the discovery of America in 1492 – other categories of identity could have much more of an impact than ethnic identity. Beyond gender (male or female), it was, above all, the social status that determined the identity of a person. (5)
As we said before, the concept of race as a biological fact is a product of the nineteenth century. One of the texts which gave a decisive impulse to the spread of racist ideas was the “Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines” (1853-55) “The Inequality of Human Races” by J.-A. de Gobineau, who supported the biological and spiritual superiority of the Aryan Germanic race. However, the most tragic expression of racism was in Nazi Germany, which sought to achieve the supremacy of the Aryan race by enslaving the Slavs and eliminating the Jews.

Bibliography:
(1) B. Isaac “The invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity” – Princeton 2004
(2) Gabriel Zuchtriegel “I Greci e le popolazioni indigene dell’Italia antica: un problema antico o moderno?” pag 65 da “Pompei e i Greci” Massimo Osanna e Carlo Rescigno – Electa 2017
(3) ibid. p. 63
(4) ibid. p. 65
(5) ibid. p. 63

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