In the second installment of Gladiator, Denzel Washington plays the Roman Emperor Macrinus. And while some balk at the thought of a Black man running the Roman Empire, Macrinus was one of Rome’s four Black emperors.
Macrinus, or Caesar Marcus Opellius Severus Macrinus Augustus, was born in modern-day Algeria in North Africa. While the Romans didn’t necessarily racialize people, Macrinus was a Black African. He isn’t presented as Black because European historians have written African Romans out of history. However Rome and Africa were connected through trade routes.
Macrinus started his career as a lawyer, and his skills moved him up the political ladder. He was the first emperor who hadn’t been a senator; he was in charge of the imperial guards. The military brought him to power after the emperor was assassinated. However, a war with Syria and cuts to soldiers’ pay made Macrinus unpopular, especially with the army. He was overthrown and executed in 218.
Macrinus was only one of many Black Romans. Africans in ancient Rome were artists, poets, soldiers, traders, dramatists, philosophers, and theologians. And four of them ruled Rome.
Blackness has always been a powerful and crucial part of world history. How can we reimagine the history of the globe with ourselves as leaders rather than slaves or servants?