Stuff I’ve learned from Twitter and archived here for future reference.
First we’ll credit “v ness” and her response to attacks of a talented graphic artist representing Roman poets with dark skin:
My meagre contribution prompted some scholarly refs I want to save (image I posted was photographed and posted by Gareth Harney):
Armand D’ Angour quoted:
” I’m not too bothered, Caesar, to inspire your delight, Nor to determine whether, as a man, you’re black or white. Nil nimium studeo, Caesar, tibi velle placere, nec scire, utrum sis albus an ater homo.“
Catullus 93
While all agree that the b/w allusion here likely does not refer to skin but politics or sexuality, this led Rebecca Futo Kennedy to recommend the following readings:
Dee, James H. “Black Odysseus, White Caesar: When Did “White People” Become “White”?” The Classical Journal 99, no. 2 (2003): 157-67. Stable JStor Link. No paywall link from USC.
Haley, Shelley. “Be Not Afraid of the Dark: Critical Race Theory and Classical Studies,” in Laura Nasrallah and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (eds.), Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies, 4 Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2009: 27-50 No paywall PDF from Press.
Kennedy, Rebecca Futo. “Colorlines in Classical North Africa” Classics at the Intersections: Random thoughts of a Classicist on ancient Greek and Roman culture and contemporary America by Rebecca Futo Kennedy. 8 October 2017.
Also see:
Snowden, Frank M. “Misconceptions about African Blacks in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Specialists and Afrocentrists.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 4, no. 3 (1997): 28-50. Stable JStor Link.
More Black-Centered Resourced for Ancient Mediterranean Studies
Should another reading be listed here? Send it to me! I’d love to expand this post or link to other blogs/websites that collect these readings.
Liv Mariah Yarrow 