destructor i am not "black". and many "arabs" were of dark skin as well as many Europeans in history. for example Dumas (writer of the Three Musketeer was of dark skin) and Pushkin (the Russian writer was also "dark" skin). when one looks at frescos at Pompaii one can observe that skin coloration and "racial" features were not the dominate form of social stratification. What was the dominante form of social stratification was class, gender and familial ties. the concept of "race" in the form of skin tones and other features is relatively new. Geography is not a limitation to skin coloration or hair type. we must remember that the mediterranean was not a barrior to far off lands, but was actually a transportation network for a huge variety of different people coming together in the cosmopolitian cities that sprouted through out the mediterranean and the along the roman road ways. in that jesus could have had an "indo-european" father like Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera of Sidon. Lucius Apuleius was from near Carthage and was actually blond because he was of northern european ancestry that migrated to the roman city that was resettled there.