A young toga-clad man of letters holding a scroll.
In classical antiquity, Greek and Roman writers were acquainted with people of every skin tone from very pale (associated with populations from Scythia) to very dark (associated with populations from sub-Saharan Africa (Aethiopia). People described with words meaning "black", or as Aethiopes, are occasionally mentioned throughout the Empire in surviving writings, and people with very dark skin tones and tightly-curled hair are depicted in various artistic modes. Other words for people with other skin tones were also used.[citation needed]
Skin tones did not carry any social implications, and no social identity, either imposed or assumed, was associated with skin color. Although the color black was associated with ill-omens in the ancient Roman religion, racism as understood today developed only after the classical period:
"The ancients did not fall into the error of biological racism; black skin color was not a sign of inferiority. Greeks and Romans did not establish color as an obstacle to integration in society. An ancient society was one that for all its faults and failures never made color the basis for judging a man."
— Frank Snowden, Jr.[1][2]
^Snowden, Jr., Frank M. (1970). Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
^Art and the somatic norm image, Frank Snowden. pp 79-82 in Before Color Prejudice, Harvard University Press 1983
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