WHAT'S IN A NAME? Source: Blacks in Antiquity
Greek and Roman Descriptions of Ethiopians or Blacks
generally:
aethiops, melas, melanochoros, niger, ater,
aquilus, exustus, furvus, fuscus, percotus. (p. 3)
Additional Greco-Roman ethnonyms of Blacks:
Afer (African), Indus/Indi (India), Maurus(Moor)
(p. 11)
Greco-Roman toponyms of--national, regional, continental:
Libya: derived from ancient Egyptian
word lebu, given to the people who inhbited the lands west of the Nile.
India: in the ancient mind, Africa
and continental India were linked; Indians were often called the eastern Ethiopians.
Ethiopia: An early Greek name, meaning
"sunburnt," for the African countries and regions to the south and west of Egypt. The term Ethiopia was interchangeable
with Libya, India, Nubia, and Africa.
Nubia: Latin term, derived from Egyptian
word nub meaning "gold" referring to the southern fifth of Egypt plus the northern fifth of the Sudan.
Africa or Afer: Latin term which
came to be, and remains, the name for the entire continent.
