Gem with intaglio head of an African

As this gem attests, contact between the Mediterranean world and the cultures of Africa was extensive, and many Greek artists and authors exhibit a profound curiosity with the peoples of Africa, along with other lands existing beyond the shores of the Mediterranean. During the Hellenistic period, as the Greek-speaking world expanded through imperial conquest and trade, cultural contact and curiosity intensified. Though the Greeks and Romans had no scientific theories of race comparable to those invented to undergird modern racism, they were not above depicting the “other”—whether Gauls, Persians, or Africans—with stereotypes in literature and in art.