"Severus has been acclaimed as 'the black emperor'. The fact that Severus was African has been cited as evidence that Rome was colourblind, free of racism a genuinely multicultural commonwealth. Septimius Severus was no more 'black' than Julius Caesar. Politically, culturally and racially, he was part of the broad Mediterranean elite that ruled the Roman Empire. Just as the blood of Etruscans and Samnites flowed in the veins of Italian nobles (like Augustus or Vespasian), and that of Celts and Iberians in those of Spanish ones (like Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus), so did the blood of Berbers and Carthaginians flow in the veins of an African noble like Severus."
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Neil Faulkner, in Rome: empire of the eagles, Pearson Education, 2008, p. 244
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Septimius_Severus
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Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (11 April 145 – 4 February 211), commonly known as Septimius Severus or "Severus", was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211.
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