The Roman Preference for Dark Eyes

The Roman Preference for Dark Eyes

T. Maccius Plautus, 3rd=2nd c. BC, Poenulus describing the appearance of a beautiful (venusta) woman:

Specie venusta, óre atque oculis pernigris. Of agreable form, with a small mouth, and very dark eyes.

P. Terentius Afer, 2nd c. BC, Heautontimorumenos. A father proposes to give a red-haired light-eyed (caesiam) and convex-nosed girl to his son, who protests.

So. Gnate mi, ego pol tibi dabo illam lepidam quam tu facile ames; Filiam Phanocratae nostri. Cl. Rufamne illam virginem, Caesiam, sparso ore, adunco naso? non possum, pater. SOSTRATA My son, upon my honor I'll give you that charming girl, whom you may soon become attached to, the daughter of our neighbor Phanocrata. CLITIPHO What! that red-haired girl, with cat's eyes, freckled face, and hooked nose? I can not, father.

C. Valerius Catullus, 1st c. BC, Carmina, 43 compares a girl that does not have various beautiful features, including not dark eyes, to his Lesbia:

Salve, nec minimo puella naso nec bello pede nec nigris ocellis nec longis digitis nec ore sicco nec sane nimis elegante lingua decoctoris amica Formiani. ten provincia narrat esse bellam? tecum Lesbia nostra comparatur? o saeclum insapiens et infacetum! Greetings, girl with a nose not the shortest, feet not so lovely, eyes not of the darkest, fingers not slender, mouth never healed, and a not excessively charming tongue, bankrupt Formianus’s ‘little friend’. And the Province pronounces you beautiful? To be compared to my Lesbia? O witless and ignorant age!

Sextus Propertius, 1st c. BC, Elegiae, II, 12

quam si perdideris, quis erit qui talia cantet, (haec mea Musa levis gloria magna tua est), qui caput et digitos et lumina nigra puellae, et canat ut soleant molliter ire pedes? If you destroy me, who will there be to sing like this? (This slender Muse of mine, is your great glory.) Who will sing the face, the hands, or the dark eyes of my girl, or how sweetly her footsteps are accustomed to fall.

Sources for the texts is the Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum
Update: Finally the Latin physiognomist Loxus (cf. "Loxus, Physician and Physiognomist," Geneva Misener, Classical Philology, Vol. 18, No. 1. (Jan., 1923), pp. 1-22.) believed that the ideal woman ought to have a fair complexion, brown hair and dark eyes.
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[ΑΥΤΗ ΑΚΡΙΒΩΣ  ΕΙΝΑΙ Η  ΚΛΑΣΣΙΚΗ/ΜΕΣΟΓΕΙΑΚΗ ΟΜΟΡΦΙΑ:ΑΝΟΙΚΤΟΧΡΩΜΗ ΟΨΙΣ (ΛΕΥΚΟ ΔΕΡΜΑ), ΚΑΣΤΑΝΑ ΜΑΛΛΙΑ, ΣΚΟΥΡΑ ΚΑΣΤΑΝΑ ΜΑΤΙΑ (fair complexion, brown hair and dark eyes.)!!!]