[Music] hey Noble ones welcome back to my channel this is the Metatron speaking and today we are back into ancient Roman history again and we are going to talk about a specific Roman politician who also served as an emperor AKA Septimus seus Septimus SOS was a Roman politician but he was also an emperor from 193 to 2011 ad now often s when you read about Septimus Aus you'll notice two things you'll notice one statement which says Septimus Aus was an African Roman Emperor this statement is correct but it does need a little caveat which I'll
give you in a second but the second statement that sometimes you will find is that he was the first black Roman Emperor because he was African now it's very important to contextualize this and of course as you know the question but was he black was he white was he both is a question that I think is excellent to ask in this channel because you know I have no agenda you know I only care about the truth and what the documented evidence tells us but also because thanks to my team we can dive into said evidence
and provide context so let's begin by that context well the first thing we need to say is that of course Africa or the word Africa is the name of a Roman province but at the time when you say Africa you don't mean the entire continent but you mean a specific section of Northern Africa consisting roughly speaking of today's Tunisia Libya and Algeria now if you're familiar with Roman provinces and how they work you'll know that they often times change name or sometimes the areas or the territorial divisions may change instead of just hearing Africa or
province of Africa you might have heard Africa proconsularis that is absolutely a term that will evolve with time involving different territories but the reason why it's called Africa proconsularis it's because it's being governed by a pro Consul in dead of a Roman legot now where was he born so we have established that he was born in the Roman province of Africa which as we say is already different from saying he was born in Africa the guy wasn't born in central Africa he wasn't born in southern Africa he wasn't from the Horn of Africa if you
will but he was also born in what would be modern day Libya now depending on which section of Libya we're talking about and what period it could overlap with the Roman province of Africa proconsularis as we said or with Africa tripolitania regardless he was born in day Libya Northern Africa now having established that is fantastic but it doesn't help us to identify his ethnicity because differently from other areas of Continental Africa this specific section would be extremely multiethnic and Multicultural and you would have lots of different ethnicities mixed which means that just saying that he
was born in the Roman province of Africa doesn't tell us what What ethnicity he would have belonged to which means we need to dive into the actual sources bearing in mind the question was he Roman in the sense that he was an Italian looking Roman was he black or was he of a lentine origin let's dive into the [Music] sources while some classicists tend to promote a completely italic origin for the septimi family there is a much larger number of historians Who present a Punic origin of the Father's Side supported by epigraphic and literary data
specifically an incription from leptis the ancient Punic City of lepki is presented celebrating a number of septimi Septimus seus introduced as the grandfather of the emperor our Domin nostri who would have served as suete and we find this in an inscription of Roman tripolitania 412 and a suete would be a type of indigenous magistracy of Punic Origins another important element in defining the native origins of the septim comes from the poet status who wrote a lyric OD dedicated to a young man named setius seus who had been sent as a Child by his family to
we to study status writes it is possible then that rugged leptis in the distant cus gave birth to you who will ever believe that de Septimus did not take his first steps on each of Romulus Hills who will dare deny that once wind he nourished himself by drinking from the Fountain of utura your virtue should not surprise even before knowing the shadow bottomed Africa you immediately entered ports of of the aians and adopted still tiny you sail on the waves of atua and again we read your eloquence is not veny and your sword rests in
its sheath unless your friends beg you to wield it but the most important passage is the following passages 45 and 46 we read the language you speak is not Punic nor is your figure Punic your mentality has nothing foreign Italian Italian you are maybe Italian could be a good translation since Italy didn't exist as a country but you know what I mean Italia as a term absolutely existed in ancient Rome and and he meant the peninsula at this time it already actually included the islands too kind of depends on on the era but anyways Italia
was absolutely used and the word italiani existed so after initially emphasizing the African origin status insists several time on how no one would have ever doubted the young man's romanness who in language and Customs is to be considered % italic highlighting something that would have otherwise been obvious in the case of a true Colonial in other words the way this should be interpreted is not that they are telling us that he was 100% Roman in the sense of Italian Roman no no no this should be interpreted as this family is originally from the Punic world
but this kid was so Roman he had no accent because of the way he was brought up his culture his understanding the way he was was so Roman that they would underline look he might be different in Origins but he's basically like one of us if he was Italian Roman this would make absolutely zero sense to say and do keep in mind that when we say a colonial we're talking about Italian Romans as a family that moov to another area for example Galia and then they have kids and the children they were born in Galia
but then again they're basically Romans and they basically Italian Romans both parents being Italian Romans that's a colonial family as historian Anthony Burley points out a member of a Colonial Family returned to Italy would have been deeply offended if it had been emphasized how Italian he appeared in language and Customs as these aspects should have been part of his original cultural heritage and the poet's compliments would be useless if the septim had been of Italian origin The Poetry communicates a great deal between the lines in the Roman mentality the memory of the Punic Wars and
the threat of Hannibal was still very much alive at this time there is no doubt that the appearance in Italy of the first Libyan and Punic citizens must have aroused many comments and mistrust from the population which the poet status wants to dispel that's what it's doing within this appropriate historical context the speech and mentality of his friend Septimus Aus are italic because he grew up in Italy regardless of his Punic origin now returning to inscription 412 from leptis it is remembered how the emperor's grandfather had first held the position of suete remember and then
that of dumir as a consequence of vasan's concessions now during vasan's reign in fact leptis had been granted the use Lati that is Latin rights and a city that was previously a paragen community in other words foreign is recognized as a mikum its magistrates are automatically granted Roman citizenship and their title changes from the indigenous one in this case the Punic suti has explained to the Latin one Doom Wei around 120 ad lucu Septimus seus who is Emperor Septimus seus grandfather marries an unknown girl from whom he has two children one of these children is
puus Septimus GAA who is Septimus A's father GAA married fulvia Pia the daughter of a wealthy family of Roman Colonials the fwi so his mom was Italian from this couple lucus Septimus seus was born around 146 ad who was to become the first African emperor of Rome now what I think you all know by now is that I probably have a clinically diagnosable obsession with both wood and metal I mean anyways that's beyond beond the point but if you do really like wood and metal then what's not beyond the point is the Thea sponsor that
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of Septimus Aus phenotypic traits with a bit more confidence we have established that Septimus seus was therefore partly Punic at least a quarter perhaps half but this is not enough to give a certainty about his phenotype the Punic world was extremely varied from an ethnic point of view and as the 2009 study of the onomastic present on the kipi of the Tet of Carthage by French archaeologist Stane bang and sandrin kette it was revealed that already in the 3rd Century BC there were Punic citizens who were children or grandchildren of Greek rascan italic and even
Celtic immigrants so already even though generally speaking when we talk about the Punic World we're talking about the alentine people as you can see when you just say that someone has Punic blood it could mean any of these possible immigrants in the area with a lower percentage but we cannot completely renounce them a priori furthermore both osteological studies on carthaginian burials and literary sources show that in the Punic social fabric there was also a component consistent of individuals of a phenotype that today we would absolutely Define as black theodorus culus tells us about the inhabitants
of the North African city of Felina which was a subject to Carthage and he tells us that their skin and I quote has the same color as that of the Ethiopians and pair that with frontinos who tells us that some of the mercenaries or carthaginian auxiliaries specifically during the Sicilian wars were black the data analysis that we can get from this is twofold on one hand we understand that yes there were people who were black and lived in Northern Africa at this time and specifically in the area of Carthage we know that in Carthage they
had a whole enclav for black people however by the way this is worded the city of Felina their inhabitants were black or during the Sicilian Wars The carthaginian Mercenaries were black means that the rest of the population wasn't otherwise what would be the point of pointing that out they were of lentine origin so probably Semitic just the fact that he had Punic ancestry could mean that he was of lentine origin itascan origin Greek origin Celtic origin or black origin so what would be a good way to try and change the percentages of these possible ethnic
groups apart from the actual population percentages another thing that we could do is talk about which of these groups had more influence since we're talking about a powerful family of course the Liv time group would be the most probable in that case but what we have examined so far is not sufficient to remove the possibility they may have been half black and here is why in support of this data for example there is a certain interpretation of the famous Sean tondo a painting that portrays the emperor alongside his consult Yulia domna and with his sons
GAA and kakala in front of him the face of one of the two sons it is still debated whether GTO kakala has been deliberately erased because of dadio memor but in any case it appears evident that Septimus ao's complexion appears much darker than that of his wife and visible Sun it should be said however that darker skin can be interpreted in different ways in this period And if on the one hand it is known that tanning was a male prerogative in the Mediterranean world to be contrasted with feminine and childlike paleness and therefore did not
necessarily imply an ethnic identification in this specific case it could also be simply traced back to a Semitic ancestry to be ascribed to the phian element that was well present in the Punic world so it would be a case of tanning not not a case of fullon dark complexion in any case there is something that can lead us to decisively exclude the image of a black or even half black Septimus seus and that is a passage from the book Historia austa in which the emperor welcomed during a visit to Britain by an Ethiopian soldier who
served as a irregular unit so-called numerus reacts in such a way as to unequivocally imply his ethnic affiliation so let's read it after inspecting the wall near the rampart in Britain just as he seus was wondering what Omen would present itself an Ethiopian from a military unit who was famous among buffoons and always a notable Joker met him with a gang of Cyprus and when seus in a rage ordered that the man be removed from his sight troubled as he was by the man's ominous color and the ominous nature of the Garland the Ethiopian by
way of just cist it is said you have been all things you have conquered all things now oh conqueror be a God so Septimus seus was troubled by the man's ominous color in latinis Aus tus om so what black man or what half black man which usually tend to be black anyways would be deeply troubled by the black skin of another black man just asn't a matter of deductive logic this is from Historia austa Septimus seos 224 to5 so the Historia austa is clear in emphasizing how Septimus seus was coloris Aus tus om or troubled
by The inici Omen of his schola referring to the Ethiopian now on this channel we already discussed on a dedicated video here is the link the concept of ancient Romans and race SL rism and of course the ancient Romans weren't racist in the modern sense in fact we could say that the ancient Romans weren't racist at all they hated everyone equally but at the end of the day we do know that at least among some Romans this doesn't necessarily represent the entirety of the population of course but among some Romans there was a certain superstitious
belief when it comes in association with black skin that had a negative connotation but of course this wouldn't be the case for for example black people who received Roman citizenship they were Romans but they absolutely didn't believe in this kind of Superstition and it's also probable that Romans that maybe lived in colonial provinces or Romans that were for example traitors or dealt with people of other ethnicities would have been more open-minded when it comes to this where whereas for example Italian Romans or specifically powerful members of for instance the Senate would have been as we
know a lot more anyone who isn't an Italian Roman is below us that was something that a lot of Romans believed but as I say even though we can't know up to what extent the idea of someone with black skin would be a better of Misfortune we don't know how widespread this thought was within the Empire it is however evident that this was part of Septimus seus beliefs or at least that the compiler of the story austa decided to attribute this specific Superstition to the emperor now whether it be a reliable or fabricated Chronicle in
any case it appears evident that Septimus seus could not have been black or half himself because in that case he certainly would not have attributed a negative character to his own somatic characteristics or phenotypic traits or on the same note no compiler having the emperor's physical appearance in mind would have attributed precisely this specific Superstition to him consequently if we can certainly indicate Septimus Aus as an African Emperor and this statement is indeed geographically correct since he was born in Africa and to a certain extent we can indicate him as an emperor with Libo phian
SLC carthaginian Origins which was a peculiar element if we consider the hostility that opposed in Rome for so long we cannot in any case Define him as a black Roman Emperor so on his specific phenotype we hardly have any concrete and definitive evidence we don't have certainties particularly due to the marked multi-ethnicity of the Punic world but in general we can say that without doubt Septimus Aus was belonging to a reality that ranged from near Eastern phenotypes typical of Semitic lineages to Mediterranean and European phenotypes so now that we have read all of this evidence
we have established he wasn't black and most likely he wasn't half black but was he white well this kind of makes it a little complicated without putting a lot of caveats when it comes to the modern way we use that term because at the end of the day there are different ways to use the term we could use it in the way Benjamin Franklin used it and according to him which is still quite a popular way of using the word white for example in America then unless you're like of Germanic or Anglo-Saxon origin you're not
white so even an Irish man is not white and I wouldn't be white and someone from Scandinavia wouldn't be white so if this is the way you're using this nomenclature then no he wasn't white but if you use the way we usually refer to or utilize the the term white here in Europe but now I'm in America but in Europe then normally when you say white you mean a European in in the sense that someone who's from whether it be England Germany France Spain Italy Greece we all tend to use usually the term white unless
you belong I suppose to some of those Mediterraneans who tend to have a darker skin not my case as you can see in that case yes he could have been half white considering the other half citic once again though if by white you just mean someone with fair skin that I imagine some Semitic populations do have fair skin and in that case he may have been just 100% white that's not the way I usually use it however because it doesn't really help us particularly when explaining this so this is why rather than ask him yes
but was he white I would say he would have been probably half European half Semitic and would have had some kind of tan or possibly olive skin all in all of course it doesn't really matter what he looked like what's really interesting is the reforms his policies and in general the history behind the man but on the other hand I don't think there is anything wrong with asking this question particularly considering the fact that when you navigate the internet or surf the Internet should we say you will find a lot of answers that unfortunately are
not based on evidence like the answers that we have seen today on this channel but they're based on personal agendas that are of course politically motivated and a lot of the times these will specifically apply selective bias and only push evidence that proves the point that they want to be true regardless I hope that you found this video interesting and of course let me know what you think in the comments below don't forget to take advantage of the amazing offer that our sponsor today has for you and click the link in the description below and
use my special code thank you very much for watching and remember the Metatron has sprad his wings goodbye
