Were there black legionaries and auxiliaries?

Surely there must have been some blacks coming from what is now Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya through the Sinai Peninsula?

Black sub-saharans, probably not. There was very little population movements across the sahara, some black africans certainly made it and a handful probably served as legionaries, but they would have been statistically nonexistent.

On the other hand, black east africans certainly served, there was a legion based in Egypt that was majority Nubian and ethiopians likely served on an individual basis.

The Sudan was filled with Nubians, who were noted for their bamf cavalry.

There's a giant highway called "the Nile" that is a more likely route for black east africans, who certainly served and in non-trivial numbers, but of course east africans have dark skin but they're not what Americans mean by "black", which really refers to the negroid peoples of west and souther africa.

The Roman Empire bordered the Kingdom of Kush for most of its existence, so Nubians and even Ethiopians being in the empire as slaves, merchants, or soldiers is a definite possibility. There probably weren't a lot, but there definitely could have been a few in Egypt and North Africa.

Who the fuck knows, nerd.

In all probability maybe, if they came from the southern Egyptian province.

>..and most likely some of them became legionaires

Legions were raised by regions and sometimes merged when two or more became severely depleted, so I doubt they had sub-saharan blacks in their ranks considering no roman territory had a native population of that kind.

This
If there were legions raised in Aegyptus, then there definitely would've been some Nubians and maybe some Ethiopians as well.

No. Classical Latin literally doesn't have a word for black people. They were totally unknown to the Roman world.

user they literally fought a war against the Nubians. Even Homer knew about the existence of Ethiopians.

>either of those groups
>black
lol

the Nile is one of the few areas where it was possible to travel past the Sahara so there were a minority of "blacks" in the Nile area.

Those are Hamites son.

>the definition of black changes when I need it to
Please stop user. You're just embarrassing yourself. Nubian is a Nilo-Saharan language, and they look like this.

>First result for Ethiopian
looks black to me

Anyway, nobody is trying to claim that "dem ebin africainz wuz legions n shit and they beat the Germanic tribesmen when they wuz still in mud huts n shit", but it seems pretty likely that at some point in the 5+ centuries when Rome had land in Egypt or the better part of 8 centuries off and on in North Africa that some black person wandered north and decided to join a legion.

> but it seems pretty likely that at some point in the 5+ centuries when Rome had land in Egypt or the better part of 8 centuries off and on in North Africa that some black person wandered north and decided to join a legion.

Egyptians weren't Black. Nor were any native Africans north of the Sahara.

Since Blacks aren't known for their ambition I doubt any traveled up to Rome unless they were brought up as a human oddity.

Egyptians weren't black, but there were black people in Egypt. In fact, there wuz a black dynasty of Egyptian kangz
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Dynasty_of_Egypt
There was a lot of trade, travel, and warring done between the north and south of Africa

a very small number perhaps

second

"Wandered north"

The Nubian Kingdom of Kush, who were mostly blacks had contact with Rome and at one point they might have become a client kingdom, so it's possible that some of them also served in the Roman army. Not as legionaries though (legions came from provinces), but maybe as auxiliaries.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Kush

This. Niggers weren't common, and there probably wasn't any sub-Saharan subhumans in there, but there was definitely Berbers (Moors) and others.

>but there was definitely Berbers (Moors) and others.

No doubt

This thread is full of racist retards.

East Africa is full of blacks, proper blacks, who were known across the ancient world. Even Xerxes had blacks fighting in his armies well before the Romans.

Source on Xerxes having black people in his army?

>but they're not what Americans mean by "black", which really refers to the negroid peoples of west and souther africa.
Specifications like that are completely meaningless.

Haven't you watch 300 ? It's all there !