Race of the Carthagranian Empire?

[caketastydelish]

Statues of Hannibal, who was Carthagranian, looks white. On the other hand, the empire was in North Africa, and in modern times there are very little white people living there. I heard somewhere the people that made of the empire were Phenocian? I'm really not sure, what there race is, and I'm quite curious. Anyone know?

 

[Aramazd]

I assume Hannibal would be Phonecian, who I think are Semitic.

 

[caketastydelish]

I assume Hannibal would be Phonecian, who I think are Semitic.

So they were Jewish? (racially speaking, I know there religion was different)

 

[Aramazd]

So they were Jewish? (racially speaking, I know there religion was different)

They would be related to the Jews and the Arabs.

 

[caketastydelish]

They would be related to the Jews and the Arabs.

This is what I don't understand. Most Jewish people I know, look white. However, I also have some Arabic friends, and they look different. If the Jewish and Arabic people are so genetically simular, why do they look so different? Which would they have been more likely to look like? Jewish, or Arabic? I know Hannibal himself must have been white, because I've seen roman statues of him that make him appear white.

 

[Drewcifer]

He would be a lot like the modern Lebanese who are largely descended from the Phonecians.

 

[SirLamphead]

The Phoenecians lived in the Holy Land and traded the clam (or whatever) that made Purple extensively.
They eventually set sail and made a small colony in modern day Tunisia.
Known to the Romans as Carthage.
That's why the Punic wars are named such.
Punic (I think) means Phoenician in Latin.

 

[Plotinus]

This is what I don't understand. Most Jewish people I know, look white. However, I also have some Arabic friends, and they look different. If the Jewish and Arabic people are so genetically simular, why do they look so different?

That's because Judaism is not a race but a religion (or, perhaps more broadly, a culture). After all, you can become Jewish by marrying one, but you can't change your race. There are Jews of various races - some are white, some are black, and some are semitic. The Hebrews of course are or were semitic, so presumably they would have looked much like the Arabs.

 

[silver 2039]

Their Punic.

 

[Atticus]

Punic (I think) means Phoenician in Latin.

Carthaginian is Poenus in Latin, I'm not sure if Phoenician is just Phoenician or something like that, but Punic is (as far as I know) some twisted version of the latin name. I guess it's similar to English speakers' habit of writing Virgil instead of Vergilius of Horace instead of Horatius and so on. Can some English speaker actually enlighten me, why do you have such habit?

 

[Tee Kay]

Carthaginians were descendants of Phoenician colonists, who came from what is now Lebanon. However, they were a minority in their own empire. Their army, for example, included large number of foreign people such as Celts, Numidians, Iberians, Greeks, etc.

Why did the Romans make him white? Why did European Middle Age artists draw Saladin as a Christian king?

 

[Plotinus]

Carthaginian is Poenus in Latin, I'm not sure if Phoenician is just Phoenician or something like that, but Punic is (as far as I know) some twisted version of the latin name. I guess it's similar to English speakers' habit of writing Virgil instead of Vergilius of Horace instead of Horatius and so on. Can some English speaker actually enlighten me, why do you have such habit?

Every language changes names to suit its own conventions; the Latinisation of Greek names is an obvious example. The Greek Plotinos became the Latin Plotinus, which became the French Plotin, and so on. As this example suggests, English tends to do it less than some other languages do, perhaps in part because in English names don't decline so it doesn't really matter what endings they have. It is usual to anglicise names that actually appear in English - so "Horace" and "Virgil" are both names in English (although you're not likely to encounter anyone called Virgil), so they are conventionally anglicised. No-one in the English-speaking world is called Lactantius or Valentinus, so names like that are not anglicised.

Latin, by contrast, had to alter names to fit its own conventions - Plotinos would have looked like a second declension accusative plural rather than a nominative singular.

 

[Arwon]

Horacio
Platón
Aristótoles
Plotino
Virgilio
César
Tácito

Half the fun hearing these guys' names in history classes in this country has been working out who the hell they're talking about.

 

[caketastydelish]

He would be a lot like the modern Lebanese who are largely descended from the Phonecians.

Modern Lebanese are half french

 

[Squonk]

White. Simply as that. Not scandinavian-like white, but white

 

[Atticus]

Every language changes names to suit its own conventions; the Latinisation of Greek names is an obvious example.

Now that you mentioned, the anglicization I can understand, but that you use at the same time just about always Latin forms of Greek names is just weird.

 

[Plotinus]

Now that you mentioned, the anglicization I can understand, but that you use at the same time just about always Latin forms of Greek names is just weird.

That is just because Latin has always been a more familiar language in the English-speaking world than Greek. Classicists in the past knew Greek authors and others primarily via Latin. Even when it became common for classicists and others to know Greek, the Latin forms of names were still the most familiar, and so it was usual to use them in English. Even today most people who learn ancient Greek will probably have learned Latin first.

There is a strong movement among scholars today to cite Greek names in the Greek form rather than use Latinisations, rather akin to the now-usual practice of using feminine pronouns in preference to male ones when the gender of the individual makes no difference. However, it's not universal, at least not yet. So in contemporary scholarly literature you might find one author talking about "Athanasius" and another talking about "Athanasios". And as is usually the case with scholarly practices, it has yet to filter down to the popular level - not that these topics are particularly popular anyway, of course!

 

[scy12]

Well it goes with out saying which name usage i would support. And it feels better also. Plotinos sounds much better than Plotinus. It seems the popularity of Latinization goes along with the language (English) as that phenomenon is uncommon in Greek witting.

 

[Yoda Power]

Modern Lebanese are half french

I highly doubt that. They weren't under French rule that long.

 

[obliterate]

It has already been said correctly that were were a colony of Phoenicians.