The ancient Romans did not judge people based on skin color and color did not influence the status an individual could achieve within the Roman Empire, a new exhibit in England contends. Artifacts gathered for the Newcastle University exhibit, "Africans on Hadrian's Wall," suggest that Spanish, African and other people of color were represented at all levels of Roman society. The artifacts come from Newcastle's Museum of Antiquities, which houses many objects and archives relating to Hadrian's Wall, a wall and fort system built in the A.D. 120's by Roman soldiers to mark their empire's northern boundary in England. Lindsay Allason-Jones, who organized the exhibit and is director of archaeological museums at the university, said very few Italians constructed and manned the wall. Most were Spanish, Gallic, German and North African. She said soldiers could rise to senatorial status regardless of their color or country of origin, as long as they were loyal to the empire. Allason-Jones told Discovery News that Emperor Hadrian himself was Spanish. Yet another famous Roman emperor, Septimius Severus, came from Libya. A number of governors of Roman Britain came from various parts of Africa. These leaders included Urbicus, Adventus, L. Alfensus Senecio, Clodius Albinus, L. Aemilius Salvianus and L. Minthonius Tertullus. Slavery existed in ancient Rome, but both whites and blacks were traded as slaves. "Slavery was an economic fact of life and was separate from racial prejudice," said Allason-Jones, who explained that people praised black Nubian slaves for their majestic appearance just as they valued blonde, blue-eyed Greek slaves.
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