I'm not sure I understand. The places listed are all parts of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and the Middle East which were largely white by some definition --

I'm not sure I understand. The places listed are all parts of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and the Middle East which were largely white by some definition -- at least more-so than people from Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia. > but classical Athens was no less cosmopolitan Now this is actually rubbish. The Roman Empire was orders of magnitude more diverse than Ancient Greece ever was. > the gymnosophists were well attested in Alexander the Great's time. Sure, they were -- as people who lived in India. There's a huge gulf between knowing of the existence of the outside world and developing modern conceptions of race. Here's an overly simple example: if I told you there was a race of three-legged Martians would you immediately start defining yourself by your bipedal nature? Probably not. What if a small number of Martians moved to your country and you saw one on the subway one time? Still, probably no. It's not until you're faced with a deeply-connected universal society that includes bipedal, tripedal, and quadrupedal humanoids that you might start thinking that way.