[Verginius Rufus]

I read something a while back by a classics professor who is black...she believes Cleopatra is black despite the lack of evidence because her grandmother told her that was true.

Some, but not all, ancient Egyptians would qualify as "black" as the term is used in modern America, but there is no definite evidence that Cleopatra had any Egyptian ancestors...there was an awful lot of inbreeding in the Ptolemaic dyansty (brother-sister marriages imitating the native Egyptian practice).

Then there's Hannibal and St. Augustine, both claimed as black by some Afrocentrists.

[Riverman94610]

I have heard the Hannibal and Saint Augustine theories as well.Both of them were NORTH African and unlikely of Negroid ancestry.However,Hannibal recruited his army from many areas south of Carthage.I think I read many of his archers were from what is now Mauritania.

[rmlew]

Hannibal Barqa? He was a Carthagenian/Phonecian. He would look like a Lebanese Catholic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bust_of_Hannibal.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hannibal.gif

Even if he had some Numedian/Berber blod, this is not black. We are talking about Mediterranian Semites.
The guy spoke a dialect of the same language used in Tyre and the alphabet is the same as in Phoneocian, Canaanite, Ancient Hebrew, and Samaritan. His name means "Graced by Ba'al the Fleet."