Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World: An Anthology of Primary Sources in Translation

This collection of translated excerpts from Greek and Latin authors, from the 8th c. BCE to the 3rd c. CE, brings together a wide range of texts, chosen from historians, epic poets, geographers, medical writers, satirists and others, marvelously illustrating the curiosity of Greeks and Romans about ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity,’ self and other. Since for ancient Greeks and Romans one essential element of identity and difference was customs, we learn a lot from these texts about sex and marriage, funerals, and warfare in the Mediterranean and surrounding lands. But the ancient authors also featured banalities such as clothing, horse bits, cooking, and even trash talking. The translations are fresh, accurate, and accessible. . . . In a brisk and smart Introduction [the editors] point out the absence of fixed words for race and ethnicity in classical antiquity even as they provide some good references for exploring the complexity of these modern concepts. –Mary T. Boatwright, Duke University

Will allow students to understand for themselves how ancient Greeks and Romans conceived of foreign populations and how they thought about issues of racial, ethnic, and cultural difference. –Jonathan Hall, University of Chicago

Very rich. . . . Following an introduction to classical environmental, genetic, and cultural theories of difference, the sources range over the many peoples of the ancient Mediterranean and beyond, from Egypt to Europe. The reach of this text―and its emphasis on the Greek and Roman views of the ‘other’―will make it particularly useful for courses on ethnicity taught in Ancient Mediterranean Studies programs. –Molly Myerowitz Levine, Howard University

Rebecca Futo Kennedy is Assistant Professor of Classics, Denison University.