1st century Rome was filled with dark haired and dark eyed people. The world was a far smaller place back then.
That would have been most common, but they varied more than you're giving them credit for. Sulla had strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. Cato the Elder was "red-haired, snapper and biter, his grey eyes flashing defiance." After the first century AD most Roman emperors weren't even Italian.
While there is a fair amount of guesswork involved, we know enough from ancient sources to say they ran the gamut.
Augustus: "His eyes were bright and piercing" "his hair a little curled, and inclining to a yellow colour" -
Suetonius
Tiberius: Unknown, probably brown
Caligula: Unknown, probably brown
Claudius: "white hair" is all we have
Nero: "his hair inclined to yellow; his features were agreeable rather than handsome; his eyes grey and dull" -
Suetonius
Galba: "blue eyes, and an aquiline nose" -
Suetonius
Otho thru Domitian: all unknown, but probably brown
Nerva: "grey haired", but probably brown in his youth
Trajan: "grey hair" again
Hadrian: Unknown, probably brown
Antonius Pius: Unknown, probably brown
Lucius Verus: "He took such pride in his yellow hair, it is said, that he used to sift gold dust on his head in order that his hair, thus brightened, might seem even yellower." -Historiae Augustae
Commodus: Probably naturally brown but was "always dyed and made lustrous by the use of gold dust." -Historiae Augustae
The list goes on. There are other people who have done similar reconstructions similar to the youtube video. It's interesting stuff.
27 BC–68 AD: The Julio-Claudian dynasty
voshart.medium.com
