Skin Color

D.R. Shackleton Bailey (1917-2005), Propertiana (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1956), p. 16 (on Propertius 1.4.13 ingenuus color; footnote omitted): Propertius only wants to say that Cynthia had the fair complexion associated with free birth (cf. 2.3.10 lilia non domina sint magis alba mea). From Cic. Pis. 1 commendatione fumosarum imaginum quorum simile habes nihil praeter colorem it appears that Piso was swarthy; and a few sentences previously his complexion is called slavish (color iste seruilis). If fuscus=seruilis where skins are concerned then ingenuus=albus.