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Challenging the Modern Comparison: a New Approach to Studying Racial Formations in Roman Society Master's Thesis Presented To

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Challenging the Modern Comparison: a New Approach to Studying Racial Formations in Roman Society Master's Thesis Presented To Challenging the Modern Comparison: A New Approach to Studying Racial Formations in Roman Society Master’s Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Graduate Program in Ancient Greek & Roman Studies Cheryl Walker, Advisor In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree Master of Arts in Ancient Greek & Roman Studies by Cynthia Susalla Copyright by Cynthia Susalla ©2014 Acknowledgments I would like to thank all the wonderful faculty of the Department of Classical Studies at Brandeis University, whose excellent teaching and unique classes helped shape the perspective I take in this study and also offered me outlets for exploring specific niches of race and ethnicity in the ancient Mediterranean leading up to this thesis. Thank you to Patricia Johnston and Lenny Muellner for sharing their excellent knowledge of Latin and Greek. Lenny’s acute attention to word study has been an inspiration in my approach to this thesis. Thanks also to Bernadette Brooten, whose Spring 2013 class on Roman slavery fueled my interest in ancient perceptions of race. Special thanks to Cheryl Walker, who, already overburdened with other theses, agreed to advise me throughout the completion of this thesis. My gratitude also to Andrew Koh and Ann Koloski-Ostrow, not only for agreeing to read this work thereby taking upon themselves the arduous task of 90+ pages of editing, but also for their continuous support throughout the Ancient Greek & Roman Studies M.A. Program. I would also like to thank Heidi McAllister for her assistance on numerous occasions and reassuring presence. I am grateful for the support and comradery of my friends and colleagues in the Ancient Greek & Roman Studies Program, especially those co-sufferers of thesis writing, Sarah Schofield, Katie David, and Ryan Johnson. Special thanks to Cam Reynolds and Gus Ruse for helpful references to relevant textual passages and for listening with understanding and compassion to so many complaints, epiphanies, and theories. Thank you to my undergraduate professors at Ohio Wesleyan University Lee Fratantuono and Donald Lateiner, who provided me useful advice and recommendations from the very iii beginnings of my interest in the topic and were willing to entertain impromptu Facebook brainstorming questions. I must also acknowledge and thank the poor professors who interviewed me as a prospective PhD student and, therefore, had to listen to me ramble on about my as yet unformed thesis. I will refrain from dropping names; they know who they are. Their suggestions were very useful, and our discussions were very helpful to me in formulating a structure to all my various thoughts. I also must express my appreciation to Professor James Dee, my conversation with whom at the 2012 annual meeting of the APA began this entire journey, little does he know it. Last but certainly not least, thank you to my personal support group—my family, coworkers, and friends, especially Emileigh Lucas, Emma Kropp, and Clayton Noyes—for putting up with me during this long and stressful process. iv ABSTRACT Challenging the Modern Comparison: A New Approach to Studying Racial Formations in Roman Society A thesis presented to the Graduate Program in Ancient Greek & Roman Studies Graduate Schools of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts By Cynthia Susalla This thesis explores how to conceptualize and analyze the racial system of Ancient Roman society. Evaluating the broad range of scholarly theory on the topic and using ethnographic accounts from Roman authors writing in Latin between 88 BCE and 117 CE, I conclude that 1) racial distinction was a factor in Roman ideology that was heavily influenced by imperial expansion, and 2) the Roman system of racialization was subject to its own ideology and Latin terminology, which cannot and should not be interpreted according to modern ideological constructs of race. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Objectives ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Parameters .................................................................................................................................. 5 Structure ....................................................................................................................................... 7 A Note about Audience ........................................................................................................ 9 Part I: A Reassessment .............................................................................................................. 13 1.1Scholarly Approaches to the Study of Race in Antiquity ...................... 13 1.2 A Spectrum of View on Race ................................................................................. 30 1.3 A Discussion of Terminology ................................................................................ 36 Part II: The Ancient Evidence ............................................................................................... 44 2.1 A Note on Authors and Works ............................................................................. 44 2.2 Caesar’s De Bello Gallico ........................................................................................... 47 2.3 Sallust’s Bellum Iugurthinum ................................................................................ 54 2.4 Pomponius Mela’s Chorographia........................................................................ 61 2.5 Pliny the Elder’s Historiae Naturalis ................................................................ 67 2.6 Tacitus’ Germania ........................................................................................................ 73 Part III: Diachronic Analysis .................................................................................................. 79 3.1 Views of Specific Groups Across Authors ..................................................... 79 3.2 Evolution in World View: Roman Superiority ........................................... 87 3.3 The Diction of Classification ................................................................................. 90 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 94 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 101 vi Introduction Race and ethnicity, much like water and air, are all around us…the only way to confront this demon is to continually shed light upon it…Discrete episodes must be approached over time if we are to identify racial periods, systems and processes.1 These observations by Rodney Coates aptly summarize the essence of this paper; the three main divisions of the present study can be identified with each of these thoughts. Race and ethnicity are all around us, and Part I of this paper aims to clarify these concepts and our approach to studying them in the ancient Roman world. By analyzing Roman literary accounts in Part II, it is hoped that such light will be said, as Coates encourages. Lastly, by tracing observations across time in Part III, evidence is put into perspective in order to gain an idea of the racial system at play in ancient Roman society. Objectives This study concerns itself with perceptions of race in ancient Roman ideology. There a two essential ways in which the term “race”2 is used in the English language. In the first, “race” is an ideological construct according to which humans categorize each other, as seen in the sentence “race remains a pervasive force in Western society.” This usage refers to an abstract concept of differentiating groups of people. The second way is as a classifying term used in the modern day to denote a level of this construct, as seen in the sentence “as what race do you identify?” This usage refers to a specific label within the larger ideological 1 Rodney Coates, Race and Ethnicity Across Time, Space and Discipline (Boston: Brill, 2004), 1-4. 2 In the identity sense, not the competition sense. 1 construct of difference. In this paper, I analyze race in the former sense, exploring the cultural conceptualization of racial difference in the ancient Roman perspective. Accordingly, my goal is not to delineate the so-called “races” in the Roman Empire, for this application of the term (an example of the latter usage) would require me to anachronistically apply a modern level of identity “race” onto the ancient Roman construct. This label would connote modern concern for skin color along with many other factors inappropriate to the Roman racial scene. Furthermore, it would bias our modern understanding to mirror a modern one. Rather than produce such an anachronistic and therefore misleading list, I seek to discern what levels of identity Romans did employ in their ideological construct of racial categorization. No doubt exacerbated by the above ambiguity of the word, “race” is an immensely controversial term in scholarly discourse on the ancient Mediterranean, one from which many shy. Indeed, a number of scholars deny its very applicability to the ancient world.3 Some denounce its use as a concept at all.4 Conversely, yet others offer staunch views of classical antiquity as
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