Download Lesson 9_Rome_and_Foreigners (JWO)

Foreign
From the Latin foris,
meaning outside
What did Romans think
of foreigners?
What did the Romans think of foreigners?
1. Would you expect Romans to have had much contact
with foreigners? explain…
2. Would you expect Romans to integrate foreigners’
customs into their own ways of doing things? explain…
3. 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?”
Cicero
Roman writer,
politician and
philosopher.
Republican.
Enemy of
Mark
Anthony.
What shapes
Cicero’s view of
Cleopatra?
(find
quotations)
Sexism
Chauvinism
Fear / feeling
threatened
(belief in national
superiority)
Ignorance
Xenophobia (fear
and dislike of
foreigners)
Personal pride /
vanity
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 socalled learned discussions, a reader of papyrus scrolls, an endower of libraries. In Rome he was blamed for
carousing, but now his drunkenness is for Dionysiac dancing (Romans do not dance even when
inebriated). Oh yes, he is no longer a worshipper of Dionysus, he is Dionysus! And in the East Dionysus is
god, not merely of intoxication, but counterpart to their Aphrodite, the wellspring of life itself, in short,
Antony is become Osiris to Cleopatra'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
Juvenal, Satire III
"Quae nunc divitibus gens acceptissima nostris
et quos praecipue fugiam, properabo fateri,
60 nec pudor opstabit. non possum ferre, Quirites,
Graecam urbem; quamvis quota potio faecis Achaei?
iam pridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes,
et linguam et mores et cum tibicine chordas
obliquas nec non gentilia tympana secum
65 vexit et ad circum iussas prostare puellas.
ite, quibus grata est picta lupa barbara mitra!
rusticus ille tuus sumit trechedipna, Quirine,
et ceromatico fert niceteria collo.
hic alta Sicyone, ast hic Amydone relicta,
70 hic Andro, ille Samo, hic Trallibus aut Alabandis
Esquilias dictumque petunt a vimine collem,
viscera magnarum domuum dominique futuri.
ingenium velox, audacia perdita, sermo
promptus et Isaeo torrentior: ede quid illum
75 esse putes? quemvis hominem secum attulit ad nos:
grammaticus rhetor geometres pictor aliptes
augur schoenobates medicus magus: omnia novit
Graeculus esuriens; in caelum iusseris ibit.
in summa non Maurus erat neque Sarmata nec Thrax
80 qui sumpsit pinnas, mediis sed natus Athenis.
What does Juvenal think of foreigners?
"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 niceterian
ornaments upon a ceromatic neck! 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!
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 mulberrycoloured 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 gobetween 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?
Plutarch, The Parallel Lives
Plutarch 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?
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 socalled learned discussions, a reader of papyrus scrolls, an endower of libraries. In Rome he was blamed for
carousing, but now his drunkenness is for Dionysiac dancing (Romans do not dance even when
inebriated). Oh yes, he is no longer a worshipper of Dionysus, he is Dionysus! And in the East Dionysus is
god, not merely of intoxication, but counterpart to their Aphrodite, the wellspring of life itself, in short,
Antony is become Osiris to Cleopatra'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
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?
What did the Romans think of foreigners?
1. What is Cicero’s opinion of Cleopatra?
2. How does he express this? Try to find at least three
quotations.
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)
HOMEWORK – DUE MONDAY 8 OCTOBER
What did the Romans think of foreigners?
1. What is Cicero’s opinion of Cleopatra?
2. How does he express this? Try to find at least three
quotations.
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)