ABSTRACT
The am.biguity of Dledieval iDlages of blacks The shock of the European encounter with the savages of the New World, the initial European response and the subsequent course of European speculations and images have been exhaustively documented. By contrast, blacks had been known in Europe since antiquity, but information as to how they were regarded during the Middle Ages remains largely fragmentary and often seemingly contradictory. There has been a tendency to make overly simple generalizations about what is an exceedingly complex issue. What seems certain is that in GrecoRoman antiquity there was little or no prejudice against blacks as such (Snowden 1970). Like the light-skinned Scythians (nomadic people from north of the Black Seal they were often slaves, but were also employed as mercenaries or travelled to Greece or Rome for commercial or diplomatie reasons; intermarriage occurred and was accepted. The Greeks knew about savages further in the interior of Mrica (Baldry 1965), but this did not affect their attitude to the blacks among them. Moreover, until the latter part ofthe Roman period, blacks were not linked to any of the monstrous races. Black soldiers fought in the Roman armies, and in 149 Be, after the Carthagenian wars, North Mrica became part ofthe Roman Empire as 'provincia Aftica'. The Romans must have had some contacts with the Mrican interior, since the mosaics in Pompeü contain pictures of pygmies.
