Black Romans in Britain
The idea of Black Romans may at first seem fanciful. In Britain, we tend to think of Romans as Italians, but this is not specifically the truth. The Roman Empire spanned a huge area and was made up of fighting men and their families from all the conquered territories ranging from Northern Europe to the Middle East and North Africa. In addition, the Romans did send expeditions into the Sub Saharan Interior, where they would have certainly come into contact with the local people.
Black Romans At Hadrians Wall
There was a “Moorish” Division of Roman Soldiers stationed on Hadrians Wall at Burgh-on-Sands, near Carlisle. The division was named (Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum) after Marcus Aurelius or another emperor who may have been known by the same official name. Whilst Moor is a term generally accepted for North Africans we do know that there were Many ‘Sub-Saharan Africans amongst the ‘Moors’ who conquered Europe, so it’s not unlikely that some of the moors at Hadrian’s wall would also have been black Romans.
The African born Emporer, Septimus Severus travelled to Britain where he spent time organising the strengthening of Hadrian’s Wall, and the Antonine Wall
Whilst there is no evidence to suggest that Septimus Severus was a “Black African” He certainly lived in North Africa, where he himself would have been no stranger to the presence of Black Africans.
Septimus Severus was inspecting the wall in the year 210 when he was reputedly mocked by an “Ethiope” (old term for Africans) who was wearing a garland of Cyprus leaves. The Cyprus bough was sacred to Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld.
When ordered away, the Black soldier replied with sarcasm “You have been all things, conquered all things, now, O conquerer, be a god!” Severus perceived this to be a bad omen. He died shortly afterwards in York.
DNA Traces of Black Romans?
Dr. Richard Benjamin of Liverpool Museum, writes this on Black Romans:
“It was recently suggested that African DNA might be found to be present in the local populations near to Hadrian’s Wall, for instance, Burgh-by-Sands. However, this would not conclusively show that the black Roman soldiers on the wall intermarried with the local population because of the problem of admixture. Admixture is a process whereby the DNA of a population becomes diluted over time and it cannot be shown at what period in time that dilution took place.”
As well as the common soldier, there may well have been officers or Prefects from North Africa living in the area. In 1951 a Romano-British cemetery was unearthed in York. 350 skeletons were found of which several exhibit limb proportions which suggest that they were Black Africans.
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people_in_Ancient_Roman_history
- https://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/collections/collections-highlights/ivory-bangle-lady/
- https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/how-ethnically-diverse-was-roman-britain/
- https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/feb/26/roman-york-skeleton
- https://www.heritageeastbourne.co.uk/ancestors.aspx
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-25962183
- https://blackpresence.co.uk/black-romans/
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