Re:How a late-blossoming classics don became Britain’s most ...
by vidarh on Friday February 02, 2018 @07:31AM
(#16290018)
Frescoes and mosaics are not reliable sources for the composition of the overall population, as they generally will over-represent specific social-strata and specific demographics, so without a control we don't really know what they tell us.
Considering Libya where the Roman presence itself in the North quite possibly was quite light-skinned and where the elite under Roman rule likewise quite likely was white than average for the population, with a lot of people coming from elsewhere in the empire. But a lot of the rest of the population was berbers, which range from relatively light brown to the darkest sub-Saharan black.
We know that sub-Saharan berber groups went to the North, because we know that a whole Roman legion was stationed on the coast to repel raiders from the South.
But I don't think we do know how large a number of the Northern population was made up of Romans from elsewhere and lighter skinned berbers vs darker skinned berbers and/or other groups at any given point in time. If there is data on this, I'd love to see it.
Though we also know that the bedouin population that dominates the North of Libya today, largely came with the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, so modern day Libya is at the very least a very poor indicator of what it looked like 2000 years ago.
(focusing on Libya because Septimius Severus - one the persons mentioned in Beards response - was born in Libya, and because I've covered it in other comments)
Considering Libya where the Roman presence itself in the North quite possibly was quite light-skinned and where the elite under Roman rule likewise quite likely was white than average for the population, with a lot of people coming from elsewhere in the empire. But a lot of the rest of the population was berbers, which range from relatively light brown to the darkest sub-Saharan black.
We know that sub-Saharan berber groups went to the North, because we know that a whole Roman legion was stationed on the coast to repel raiders from the South.
But I don't think we do know how large a number of the Northern population was made up of Romans from elsewhere and lighter skinned berbers vs darker skinned berbers and/or other groups at any given point in time. If there is data on this, I'd love to see it.
Though we also know that the bedouin population that dominates the North of Libya today, largely came with the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, so modern day Libya is at the very least a very poor indicator of what it looked like 2000 years ago.
(focusing on Libya because Septimius Severus - one the persons mentioned in Beards response - was born in Libya, and because I've covered it in other comments)