[dragonwriter]

> We have pretty good clarity that Septimius Severus wasn't racially African.

No one was racially African, because race, in the sense the term is used today, is an age of imperialism social construct.

[JumpCrisscross]

> No one was racially African, because race, in the sense the term is used today, is an age of imperialism social construct

Why wouldn't imperial social constructs apply to a literal emperor?

[dragonwriter]

I didn't say ”imperial concept”, its an “age of imperialism” concept (though, in retrospect, “age of exploration” is when it started, it just really gained salience in the age of imperialism; though whether it was ~1300 or ~1600 years too late to apply to him isn’t a big difference.)

[JumpCrisscross]

> its an “age of imperialism” concept

At least in the late Roman Republic, there was absolutely a concept of race that unified e.g. the various Gallic tribes, or differentiated the peoples of the Roman East. It's always been a sociopolitcal concept. But the Romans were aware of e.g. North Africans versus dark-skinned Africans.