Blacks as Roman Generals?

[Legio Comitatenses!]

Hey Guys

now I know this might sound a little irrelevant at this time, but if I remember right, we had black people as Roman generals and state dignitaries in Rome 1 barbarian invasion. This showed exactly how immense and Multi-Cultural the Roman Empire was at that time frame,
so
it would be correct and realistic, if we would have "Romans" of different ethnic backgrounds in this new installment. What do you guys think?

[lilalex20]

I would personally like it, though I doubt many would or that it will be implemented. A multi cultural empire would be pretty cool like when you capture a province and 10 years later you raise a dignitary or general he would look like a local.

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

Exactly. The Romans were not an ethnicity, they were a status of citizenship.

[Humble Warrior]

Strange, I don't ever remember a black General in BI.

[Halie Satanus]

I don't recall either black generals or dignitaries of any faction and I modded pretty much every image in RTW.. Definitely not Roman in any case...

[Theo]

Exactly. The Romans were not an ethnicity, they were a status of citizenship.

Especially at this point in history. I'd love to see Greeks, Pannonians, Celts, Syrians, Africans, and Germans in the Roman armies, or at least as generals/possible faction leaders (emperors). I know CA will probably opt to streamline the Romans like they did in BI, but it would be so cool if the game showed how diverse the empire was.

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Were there historically any black Roman generals?

[Fanest]

not this again - this was already discussed on RTW2 subsection and we came ( to my knowledge majority) to conclusion that that 1% black ppl even for the sake of political correctness doesn't justify including them into the roman legions...

[Theo]

Were there historically any black Roman generals?

Many Roman generals came from the senate. And the senate was made up of rulers from all over the empire, many of whom were celts, africans, greeks, syrians, etc etc. So it's not impossible that someone with a darker skin color made it into the senate, and possible the roman army.

There is a lot of speculation (but no real evidence) that the roman emperor Septimius Severus was black. Regardless of what his skin color was, he was certainly African. The emperor Elagabalus was a Syrian. Emperor Diocletian was Pannonian. By this point in history most emperors of the Roman Empire were not actually Roman, or even Italian.

not this again - this was already discussed on RTW2 subsection and we came ( to my knowledge majority) to conclusion that that 1% black ppl even for the sake of political correctness doesn't justify including them into the roman legions...

Maybe not the legions, but it would be entirely reasonable to include them as possible generals.

[wulfgar610]

It had always been possible for anybody with talent to rise high in the Imperial bureaucracy, even freed slaves.

By this period it seems a person of any background could rise in the army. The regular point of contact with sub Saharan Africans was Sudan and Ethiopia. Tribes from these regions produced capable archers and cavalry and hence would have been seen in the Roman ranks. But rising in the ranks was benefited by being of Latin culture, so might require a second or third generation. After that the patronage of a senior commander was required.

[Garbarsardar]

The OP is based on an assertion (Black Roman Generals in RTW) which does not correspond to reality. Furthermore this topic has been extensively discussed (here and again here) and I frankly don't see the purpose of rehashing the same argument. In case anyone disagrees please PM me.