October is Black History Month, so every day for the next 31 days I will be posting up an introduction to an historical person of colour with a place in the history of the United Kingdom.
Septimius Severus has been described as the first black Roman Emperor. He was indeed Emperor of Rome, ruling from 193 to 211. Whether he could be described as ‘black’ is a matter of some debate – he was born in Leptis Magna in what is now Libya (one of my bucket list travel destinations!).
Septimius Severus travelled to Britain in 208, strengthening Hadrian’s Wall and reoccupying the Antonine Wall. In 209 he invaded Caledonia (modern Scotland) with an army of 50,000 men but fell fatally ill of an infectious disease in late 210 and died the following year in York.
(The painting above known as the Severan Tondo shows Septimius Severus with his wife and their two sons Caracalla and Geta. The erased face is said to be Geta, who was murdered by his brother Caracalla less than a year after their father’s death. Caracalla then announced a damnatio memoriae against his dead brother, which meant what it sounds like – a scrubbing out of all references to someone, with faces removed from portraits, names obliterated from monuments and official records.)
More about Septimius Severus at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septimius_Severus
There is no debate within the classical community as to Septimius Severus’ skin colour, he was of Italian and Lebanese descent. Equating living in Africa and being black is like saying Rudyard Kipling was Indian merely because he was born there. Blatant lies like this are quite why the Lib Dem’s won’t ever win an election on their own. You would be laughed at for stating these lies to a classicist.
Thank you for your comment, Max. I confess readily to not being a member of ‘the classical community’ – mea very clearly culpa therefore for expressing any interest in the subject. I started my post by saying, which is true, that Septimius Severus ‘has been described as’ the first black Roman emperor. I then went on immediately to suggest that this was open to dispute – and indeed I think it’s highly unlikely that he would have been ‘black’ in any sense in which most people would recognise the term. I’m not claiming to be writing a peer-reviewed academic treatise (I’m not remotely qualified to do that), just a short introduction to a number of people of colour (and yes I realise that’s a contentious term in itself) which I thought might be of some interest to some of the readers of my blog during Black History Month. I am sure that if the Lib Dems don’t win the next election, I will put it down entirely to my not describing Septimius Severus’s ancestry to your satisfaction.
He was black… Great post to acknowledge and honor historical ancestors.