Originally Posted by Guest

Actually, there were black Africans in Rome at about 287 BC. Hannibal came from Africa up through what is now Spain and cross the Alps to confront the Roman Empire.

In fact this is the reason that most southern Italians have dark skin and curly hair. Hannibal and his men settled into southern Italy and inter married with Italian women.

Contrary to your description of Africans they had a pretty sophisticated society at that time. Enough to be able to avoid Roman naval and land forces and execute this sneak attack from the north.