Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience

Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience by Frank M Snowden Jr. Published by The Belknap Press of Harvard Univeristy Press, Cambridge, 1970. 1st Edition. Hardbound, No DJ. Size 8vo. Condition: VG. Discarded Library Book. Orig owners stamp impressed on title page. LCCN 70-88812. The Africans who came to ancient Greece and Italy participated in an important chapter of classical history. Although evidence indicated that the alien dark and black-skinned people were of varied tribal and geographic origins, the Greeks and Romans classified many of them as Ethiopians. In an effort to determine the role of black people in ancient civilization, the author examines a broad span of Greco-Roman experience, from the Homeric era to the age of Justinian, focusing his attention on the Ethiopians as they were known to the Greeks and Romans. He dispels unwarranted generalizations about the Ethiopians, contending that classical references to them were neither glorifications of a mysterious people nor caricatures of rare creatures. He has probed literary, epigraphical, papyrological, numismatic, and arch'ological sources and has considered modern anthropological and sociological findings on pertinent racial and intercultural problems. He has drawn directly upon the widely scattered literary evidence of classical and early Christian writers and has synthesized extensive and diverse material. Along with invaluable reference notes, he has included over 140 illustrations which depict the Negro as the Greeks and Romans conceived of him in mythology and religion and observed him in a number of occupations--as servant, diplomat, warrior, athlete, and performer, among others. Presenting an exceptionally comprehensive historical description of the first major encounter of Europeans with dark and black Africans, the author found that the black man in a predominantly white society was neither romanticized nor scorned, that the Ethiopian in classical antiquity was considered by pagan and Christian without prejudice. 364 Pgs. Description text copyright 2007 www.BooksForComfort.com. Item ID 13839.