What did Romans think of foreigners ?

1. What did Romans think of foreigners?

2. What did the Romans think of foreigners? Would you expect Romans to have had much contact with foreigners? explain… Would you expect Romans to integrate foreigners’ customs into their own ways of doing things? explain… Would you expect Romans to like/dislike foreigners? (strongly/ moderately/ a little / hardly at all) explain… Now write your hypothesis. “What did the Romans think of foreigners?”

3. "And now let me speak at once of the race which is most dear to our rich men, and which I avoid above all others; no shyness shall stand in my way. I cannot abide, Quirites, a Rome of Greeks; and yet what fraction of our dregs comes from Greece? The Syrian Orontes has long since poured into the Tiber, bringing with it its lingo and its manners, its flutes and its slanting harp-strings; bringing too the timbrels of the breed, and the trulls who are bidden ply their trade at the Circus. Out upon you, all ye that delight in foreign strumpets with painted headdresses! Your country clown, Quirinus, now trips to dinner in Greek-fangled slippers, and wears niceterianornaments upon a ceromaticneck! One comes from lofty Sicyon, another from Amydon or Andros, others from Samos, Tralles or Alabanda; all making for the Esquiline, or for the hill that takes its name from osier-beds; all ready to worm their way into the houses of the great and become their masters. Quick of wit and of unbounded impudence, they are as ready of speech as Isaeus, and more torrential. Say, what do you think that fellow there to be? He has brought with him any character you please; grammarian, orator, geometrician; painter, trainer, or rope-dancer; augur, doctor or astrologer:-    'All sciences a fasting monsieur knows,    And bid him go to Hell, to Hell he goes! ' In fine, the man who took to himself wings was not a Moor, nor a Sarmatian, nor a Thracian, but one born in the very heart of Athens! "Quae nuncdivitibus gens acceptissimanostriset quos praecipuefugiam, properabofateri,60 necpudoropstabit. non possum ferre, Quirites, Graecamurbem; quamvis quota potiofaecisAchaei? iampridemSyrus in Tiberimdefluxit Orontes,et linguam et mores et cum tibicinechordasobliquasnec non gentilia tympana secum65 vexit et ad circumiussasprostarepuellas. ite, quibus grata estpictalupabarbaramitra! rusticusilletuussumittrechedipna, Quirine,et ceromaticofertniceteriacollo.hic altaSicyone, ast hic Amydonerelicta,70 hic Andro, illeSamo, hic TrallibusautAlabandisEsquiliasdictumquepetunt a viminecollem,viscera magnarumdomuumdominiquefuturi. ingeniumvelox, audaciaperdita, sermopromptus et Isaeotorrentior: ede quid illum75 esseputes? quemvis hominem secumattulit ad nos: grammaticusrhetorgeometrespictoraliptesaugur schoenobatesmedicus magus: omnianovitGraeculusesuriens; in caelumiusserisibit.in summa non MauruseratnequeSarmatanecThrax80 qui sumpsitpinnas, mediissednatusAthenis. Juvenal, Satire III What does Juvenal think of foreigners?

4. Juvenal, Satire VI And now, behold! in comes the chorus of the frantic Bellona and the mother of the Gods, attended by a giant eunuch to whom his obscene inferiors must do reverence. . . . Before him the howling herd with the timbrels give way; his plebeian cheeks are covered with a Phrygian tiara. With solemn utterance he bids the lady beware the coming of the September Siroccos if she do not purify herself with a hundred eggs, and present him with some old mulberry-coloured garments in order that any great and unforeseen calamity impending may pass into the clothes, and make expiation for the entire year. In winter she will go down to the river of a morning, Break the ice, and plunge three time into the Tiber, dipping her trembling head even in its whirling waters, and crawling out thence naked and shivering, she will creep with bleeding knees right across the field of Tarquin the Proud.  If the white shall so order, she will journey to the confines of Egypt, and fetch water got from hot Meroe with which to sprinkle the Temple of Isis which stands hard by the ancient sheepfold. For she believes that the command was given by the voice of the Goddess herself--a pretty kind of mind and spirit for the Gods to have converse with by night! Hence the chief and highest place of honour is awarded to Anubis, who, with his linen-clad and bald crew, mocks at the weeping of the people as he runs along. He it is that obtains pardon for wives who break the law of purity on days that should be kept holy, and exacts huge penalties when the coverlet has been profaned, or when the silver serpent has been seen to nod his head.   His tears and carefully-studied mutterings make sure that Osiris will not refuse a pardon for the fault, bribed, no doubt, by a fat goose and a slice of sacrificial cake.      No sooner has that fellow departed than a palsied Jewess, leaving her basket and her truss of hay, comes begging to her secret ear; she is an interpreter of the laws of Jerusalem, a high priestess of the tree, a trusty go-between of highest heaven. She, too, fills her palm, but more sparingly, for a Jew will tell you dreams of any kind you please for the minutest of coins.      An Armenian or Commagenian sooth-sayer, after examining the lungs of a dove that is still warm, will promise a youthful lover, or a big bequest from some rich and childless man; he will probe the breast of a chicken, or the entrails of a puppy, sometimes even of a boy; some things he will do with the intention of informing against them himself.      Still more trusted are the Chaldaeans; every word uttered by the astrologer they will believe has come from Hammon's fountain, for now that the Delphian oracles are dumb, man is condemned to darkness as to his future. Chief among these was one1 who was oft in exile, through whose friendship and venal ticket of prophecy the great citizen2 died whom Otho feared.  For nowadays no astrologer has credit unless he have been imprisoned in some distant camp, with chains clanking on either arm; none believe in his powers unless he has been condemned and all but put to death, having just contrived to get deported to a Cyclad, or to escape at last from the diminutive Seriphos.3 What does Juvenal think of foreigners?

5. Plutarch, The Parallel LivesPlutarch is writing about Cato the Elder. Cato was from an ancient Plebeian family who held the offices of Tribune (214 BC), Quaestor (204 BC), Aedile (199 BC), Praetor (198 BC), Consul (195 BC) and finally Censor (184 BC). When he was now well on in years, there came as ambassadors from Athens to Rome, Carneades the Academic, and Diogenes the Stoic philosopher, to beg the reversal of a certain decision against the Athenian people, which imposed upon them a fine of five hundred talents. The people of Oropus had brought the suit, the Athenians had let the case go by default, and the Sicyonians had pronounced judgment against them. Upon the arrival of these philosophers, the most studious of the city's youth hastened to wait upon them, and became their devoted and admiring listeners. The charm of Carneades especially, which had boundless power, and a fame not inferior to its power, won large and sympathetic audiences, and filled the city, like a rushing mighty wind, with the noise of his praises. Report spread far and wide that a Greek of amazing talent, who disarmed all opposition by the magic of his eloquence, had infused a tremendous passion into the youth of the city, in consequence of which they forsook their other pleasures and pursuits and were "possessed" about philosophy. The other Romans were pleased at this, and glad to see their young men lay hold of Greek culture and consort with such admirable men. But Cato, at the very outset, when this zeal for discussion came pouring into the city, was distressed, fearing lest the young men, by giving this direction to their ambition, should come to love a reputation based on mere words more than one achieved by martial deeds. And when the fame of the visiting philosophers rose yet higher in the city, and their first speeches before the Senate were interpreted, at his own instance and request, by so conspicuous a man as Gaius Acilius, Cato determined, on some decent pretext or other, to rid and purge the city of them all. So he rose in the Senate and censured the magistrates for keeping in such long suspense an embassy composed of men who could easily secure anything they wished, so persuasive were they. "We ought," he said, "to make up our minds one way or another, and vote on what the embassy proposes, in order that these men may return to their schools and lecture to the sons of Greece, while the youth of Rome give ear to their laws and magistrates, as heretofore." This he did, not, as some think, out of personal hostility to Carneades, but because he was wholly averse to philosophy, and made mock of all Greek culture and training, out of patriotic zeal. He says, for instance, that Socrates was a mighty prattler, who attempted, as best he could, to be his country's tyrant, by abolishing its customs, and by enticing his fellow citizens into opinions contrary to the laws. He made fun of the school of Isocrates, declaring that his pupils kept on studying with him till they were old men, as if they were to practise their arts and plead their cases before Minos in Hades. And seeking to prejudice his son against Greek culture, he indulges in an utterance all too rash for his years, declaring, in the tone of a prophet or a seer, that Rome would lose her empire when she had become infected with Greek letters. But time has certainly shown the emptiness of this ill-boding speech of his, for while the city was at the zenith of its empire, she made every form of Greek learning and culture her own. It was not only Greek philosophers that he hated, but he was also suspicious of Greeks who practised medicine at Rome. He had heard, it would seem, of Hippocrates' reply when the Great King of Persia consulted him, with the promise of a fee of many talents, namely, that he would never put his skill at the service of Barbarians who were enemies of Greece. He said all Greek physicians had taken a similar oath, and urged his son to beware of them all. He himself, he said, had written a book of recipes, which he followed in the treatment and regimen of any who were sick in his family. He never required his patients to fast, but fed them on greens, on bits of duck, pigeon, or hare. Such a diet, he said, was light and good for sick people, except that it often causes dreams. By following such treatment and regimen he said he had good health himself, and kept his family in good health. What does Cato the Elder think of foreigners according to Plutarch?

6. Marcus Tullius, Greetings and good health!        I do not wish to be unfair to the graecula(‘the Greek’ – used in a derogatory way).  She is clever beyond words, no denying it.  You may understand my impatience with her if I remind you that, although she chatters on in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Greek of course, Parthian, Median, Egyptian (she is said to be the first Ptolemy to master that), Ethiopian, and Trogodyte, all with marvelous fluency so they say, she was unable to receive me in Latin!  Or claimed to be unable to do so, so that right here in the city I was compelled to converse in Greek.  It is no different with her vaunted drive, energy and ambition:  they were not enough to motivate her to cultivate the most important Roman senator.  And of  her fabled treasure:  although her aides had promised a purely literary acknowledgment of my merits, I came and went empty handed.         I will not even touch upon her unfathomable impertinence.  She seemed intent upon challenging my own undeserved reputation for caustic humor, while I was at pains to be most gracious, even condescending toward her.  Out of kindness, I will pass over this galling personal experience and substitute an example from the last days of the Republic (which I was spared).  --Antony's friends, being much concerned about Roman opinion of him, dispatched to Athens one Gaius Geminius as envoy to caution Antony not to risk bringing his hetaera to Italy.  Cleopatra seated this distinguished visitor at the far end of their table, commissioned all sorts of practical jokes to be played on him, and forestalled any private audience by calling upon Geminius to state his business there on the spot (Antony being in his cups, of course).  When Geminius confessed he was there to say that all might go well in Rome if Cleopatra might return to Egypt, the harlot laughed,  "You have done well, Geminius, to confess the truth without being put to torture."        This to a citizen of Rome!  This to a guest in her house!  This to a distinguished statesman!  And from a woman!  She is, by the way, a beauty in no way, shape, manner, or form.  Her figure is anything other than voluptuous, and her face is marred not merely by the inbred Ptolemy hooked nose, but by a strong chin and hard features which detract from the sweetness and gentleness we prize in our women. Caesar, being exactly twice her age when she came to him in Alexandria, was perhaps less vulnerable than that hot bull Antony.   I am not a superstitious man, but if this is the famed seductress of those two great Romans--and who knows of  how many others--then her means are witchcraft and vile Egyptian potions.  For she knows not how to behave like a woman in any of the ways that matter.        Lest you deem my judgment somewhat harsh, I remind you that, having devoted my life to literature and statesmanship, I have acquired a strong bias in favor of the Queen's policy.  Am I not the foremost advocate of Greek philosophy and learning among Romans?  Have I not struggled for harmony and consensus among all the classes and constituencies of the Republic?  Precisely such an integration--she calls it homonoia--is what her defenders claim was her purpose these ten years with Antony in her bed.  Then they argue from the cultural and political necessities imposed upon Rome by our eastern provinces.  Indeed, from your vantage point their contention may seem to hold.  But the wisdom of hindsight is granted, happily, only to history writers.        Let me tell you what we have seen before our very eyes.  Mark Antony, a follower to be sure of Caesar, but after Caesar's demise our best hope for survival of the Republic, comes from the oldest Roman nobility.  He may be rough, bluff, boisterous, and blunt, but such is the nature of the warrior.  The legions admire his physical prowess and endurance, his ability to reward merit.  They will follow him anywhere--or I should say, would have followed him anywhere.  But what do they now behold?  A fellow who costumes himself after the manner of Greek officialdom in order to go out among the schools and temples, into so-called learned discussions, a reader of papyrus scrolls, an endower of libraries.  In Rome he was blamed for carousing, but now his drunkenness is for Dionysiacdancing (Romans do not dance even when inebriated).  Oh yes, he is no longer a worshipper of Dionysus, he is Dionysus!  And in the EastDionysus is god, not merely of intoxication, but counterpart to their Aphrodite, the wellspring of  life itself, in short, Antony is become Osiris toCleopatra's Isis!      So you see, their chief defense of this so-called Queen of  Kings is that she would restore the ancient Ptolemaic Empire and rule it as chief  lawgiver from Rome, never mind that Roman virtue must, with Rome, be sacrificed to her grand and noble end.                                                                    With best wishes, Tullius Cicero

7. What did the Romans think of foreigners? Your hypothesis. “What did the Romans think of foreigners?” How have these attitudes come about? • Conquest by Romans? • Seen as inferior? • Culturally different? • Seen as a threat? • Religious influences?

8. What did the Romans think of foreigners? • What is Cicero’s opinion of Cleopatra? • How does he express this? Try to find at least threequotations. • Now return to your hypothesis. • What did the Romans think of foreigners? • What would you change? Why? • Can you support your changes with quotations? (in green)

9. HOMEWORK – DUE MONDAY 8 OCTOBER What did the Romans think of foreigners? • What is Cicero’s opinion of Cleopatra? • How does he express this? Try to find at least threequotations. • Now return to your hypothesis. • What did the Romans think of foreigners? • What would you change? Why? • Can you support your changes with quotations? (in a different colour if possible)