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Did Romans Have an Ethnic Identity?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2015

Erich S. Gruen
Erich S. Gruen*
Affiliation:
The University of California, Berkeley , gruene@berkeley.edu
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Abstract

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This paper begins with a stark contrast. Whereas the Athenians took great pride in claiming autochthony, a bloodline unsullied by admixture with barbarians or even other Hellenes, Rome's legendary genealogy unhesitatingly encompassed a host of divergent blends and multiple minglings. Greek forbears from Arcadia, Trojan immigrants who merged with Latins, Sabine and Etruscan kings, the fabled intermarriage of Romans and Sabine women – all indicate a firm belief in ethnic mixture at the origins of the nation. This article asks a pointed question: if Romans were perfectly comfortable with multiple identities in their own makeup, how does one account for the numerous slurs, smears and nasty comments addressed by Roman writers against other races and peoples? It examines a variety of such calumnies and stereotypes and argues that they do not fall into the category of ethnic prejudice. Many of the more (ostensibly) hostile remarks have been taken out of context, misunderstood, more humorous than malicious, and outweighed by a host of admiring comments. The collection of quips, jibes and clichés does not amount to ethnic bigotry. Indeed ethnicity, in terms of genetic characteristics that render non-Romans inferior to Romans, plays little or no role in these assessments. A far better indicator of the Roman outlook is the remarkable practice of extending citizenship to manumitted slaves — almost all of whom (or their ancestors) came from abroad. The Romans’ sense of themselves did not require the establishment of ethnic superiority.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 47: Thematic Issue: Culture, Identity and Politics in the Ancient Mediterranean World , 2013, pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2013

Footnotes

1 See e.g. Hdt. 7.161.3; Eur., Ion 589–592; Aristoph., Wasps 1075–1080; Thuc. 1.2.5,2.36.1; Plato, , Men. 245 C-D; Isoc, . Pan. 24. Additional references and discussion in Montanari, E., Il smito dell' autoctonia: linee di una dinamica mitico-politico ateniense (Rome 1981); Loraux, N., The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City (Cambridge MA 1986) 13–27; Isaac, B., The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity (Princeton 2004) 114-24.

2 Liv. 1.1.9. 1.2.4-5: Latinos utramque gentem appellavit … coalescentium in dies magis duorum populorum.

3 Sail, . Cat. 6.1–2.

4 Varro, De Vita p. R. fr. 5, Rip.

5 See, especially, Dion. Hal. 1.9-13, 1.31,1.89.

6 Dion. Hal. 1.61-62.

7 Ibid. 1.9.4, 1.89.

8 ILS 212, col. I, lines 10-19. Livy has similar origins for the early Roman kings: 1.34.1-6.

9 Tac, . Ann. 11.24. On Tacitus’ alterations of the Claudian speech, see Griffin, M.T., “The Lyons Tablet and Tacitean Hindsight’, CQ 32 (1982) 404-18. Claudius’ liberality is parodied in [Seneca], Apocolocyntosis, 3.3.

10 Flor. 2.6.1: populus Romanus Etruscos, Latinos Sabinosque sibi miscuerit et unum ex omnibus sanguinem ducat.

11 Cic, . Rep. 3.25; cf. Liv. 1.8.5.

12 Cf. Moatti, C., Raison de Rome (Paris 1997) 263-73.

13 See Bickerman, E., ‘Origines Gentium’, CP 47 (1952) 65–81. Cf. Gruen, E.S., Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (Princeton 2011) 224-5.

14 See the reconstruction, with extensive bibliography, in Gruen, , Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome (Ithaca 1992) 6–51, and the more recent and fuller treatment by Erskine, A., Troy between Greece and Rome (Oxford 2001) 131–224, with different conclusions.

15 Liv. 1.9-13; see 1.13.4: nec pacem modo sed civitatem unam ex duabus faciunt. Also Cic, . De Rep. 2.13; Dion. Hal. 2.46.1-3; Plut, . Rom. 19–21.

16 Cf. Cornell, T.J., The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC) (London and New York 1995) 75-7, with further bibliography. See the treatment of the tale and its sources by Miles, G.B., Livy: Reconstructing Early Rome (Ithaca, 1995) 179–219, who focuses, however, upon its relevance for the conceptualisation of Roman marriage.

17 Cic, . Balb. 31.

18 Cf. Dench, E., From Barbarians to New Men: Greek, Roman, and Modern Perceptions of Peoples of the Central Apennines (Oxford 1995) 22-24, 253, 343-4.

19 Cato F2.22 (Beck and Walter): Cato autem et Gellius a Sabo Lacedaemonio trahere eos originem referunt. Porro Lacedaemonios durissimos fuisse omnis lectio docet. Sabinorum etiam mores populum Romanum secutum idem Cato dicit = Serv. on Aen. 8.638. A variant version of Cato's remark appears in Dion. Hal. 2.49.2. See Poucet, J., ‘Les origins mythiques des Sabins’, in Études Étrusco-Italiques (Louvain 1963) 157-69; Letta, C., ‘I mores dei Romani e l'origine dei sabini in Catone’, in Riposati, B., Preistoria, storia e civiltà dei Sabini (Rieti 1985), 29–34; Musti, D., Strabene e la Magna Grecia (Padua 1988) 253-7; Dench, , From Barbarians to New Men (η. 18) 86-7; Farney, G., Ethnie Identity and Aristocratic Competition in Republican Rome (Cambridge 2007) 101.

20 Serv. on Aen. 8.638; cf. Sil. Ital. 8.414-415; Poucet, , ‘Origins mythiques des Sabins’ (n. 19) 203-13.

21 The genealogical connection appears in a wide assemblage of sources: e.g. Polyb. 6.11a.7; Cic, . Rep. 2.34–35; Strabo, 5.2.2; Liv. 1.34; Dion. Hal. 3.46-47.

22 The appearance of Etruscans in Greek myth goes back at least as far as Hesiod, who has the offspring of Odysseus and Circe become rulers over the Tyrrhenians: Hes, . Theog. 1011–1016. Cf. West, M.L., Hesiod's Theogony (Oxford 1966) 435-6. And Etruscan interest in Hellenic mythology was no mere passive receptivity of Greek vases: cf. Spivey, N. and Stoddart, S., Etruscan Italy (London, 1990) 97–106.

23 ILS, 212, col. I, lines 10-19.

24 Serv.on Aen. 1.380, 3.170, 7.205-248. Cf. Farney, , Ethnic Identity (n. 19) 141-4.

25 Cf. Gruen, , Culture and National Identity (n. 14) 6–51; Erskine, , Troy between Greece and Rome (n. 14) 131-56.

26 Gruen, , Culture and National Identity (n. 14) 26-9; Erskine, , Troy between Greece and Rome (n. 14) 143–148.

27 Pictor, F1-2 (Beck and Walter); Diod. Sic. 7.5.4-5; Dion. Hal. 1.74.1; Plut, . Rom. 3.1–3.

28 Serv. on Aen. 1.273.

29 Cato, F1.1.4-15; 2.26 (Beck and Walter); Dion. Hal. 1.11.1,1.13.2.

30 Dion. Hal. 1.10-13, 1.89.1-2. Hall, J.M., ‘Arcades His Oris: Greek Projections on the Italian Ethnoscape?’, in Gruen, (ed.), Cultural Borrowings and Ethnic Appropriations in Antiquity (Stuttgart 2005) 265-71, questions the ascription to fifth century writers.

31 Dion. Hal. 1.31, 1.89.22; Strabo, 5.3.3.

32 Dion. Hal. 1.34.1, 1.41-44.

33 Polyb. in Dion. Hal. 1.32.1.

34 He did, however, read Roman historians on the origins of Rome as well: Dion. Hal. 1.73.1-3.

35 Pictor F2 (Beck and Walter).

36 Cato F1.19 (Beck and Walter): cf.F2.26 (Beck and Walter).

37 Liv. 1.5.1-2, 1.7.3-15.

38 Dion. Hal. 1.49.1-2; Strabo, 13.1.53; cf. Erskine, , Troy between Greece and Rome (n. 14) 119–121.

39 Serv, . on Aen. 3.167, 7.207.

40 See Fabre-Serris, J., Rome, l'Arcadie et la mer des Argonautes (Villeneuve d'Ascq 2008) 13–30.

41 See especially Balsdon, J.P.V.D., Romans and Aliens (London 1979) 30-4, 59–70; Dauge, Y.A., Le Barbare (Brussels 1981) 57–280; Isaac, , The Invention of Racism (n. 1) 381–491.

42 Plaut, . Bach. 742-743, 812–813; Most. 20-24, 64-65, 958-960; Poen. 600-603; Truc. 86-87. Cf. Moore, T.J., The Theater of Plautus (Austin 1998) 50–66.

43 Gell, . NA 13.8.1–5.

44 Cato, in Plin, . NH 29.7.14.

45 Plut, . Cato 12.5; cf. Liv. 8.22.8.

46 Cic. Sest. 141.

47 Cic. De Or. 2.265.

48 Ibid. 1.47, 1.102-103.

49 Cic. Prov. Cons. 10: tradidit in servitutem Iudaeis et Syris, nationibus natis servituti.

50 Cato, F4.9 (Beck and Walter).

51 Liv. 23.5.12: natura et moribus inmitem ferumque.

52 Cic, . Q.Fr. 1.1.27.

53 Cic, . Font. 30,43-44,49.

54 Ibid. 26-27.

55 Cic, . Scaur. 42.

56 Strabo, 7.1.4; Manilius, 1.896-903; Vell. Pat. 2.118: in summa feritate versutissimi natumque mendacio genus.

57 Sen, . De Ira, 2.15.

58 Cic, . Nat. Deor. 1.43; Rep. 3.14; Tusc. Disp. 5.78.

59 Juv, . Sat. 15.1–7.

60 Ibid. 1.26-29.

61 Cic, . Flacc. 67.

62 Seneca, in Augustine, , CD 6.11: sceleratissima gens.

63 Tac, . Hist. 5.3.1,5.5.1-2, 5.5.5, 5.8.2.

64 Seneca, in Augustine, , CD 6.11.

65 Petronius, fr. 37.

66 Martial, 11.94.

67 Juv, . Sat. 14.104.

68 Cic, . Font. 30.

69 Cic. Sull. 17.

70 Cic, . Nat. Disp. 1.43; Tusc. Disp. 5.78.; cf. Cat. 4.5,4.10.

71 See Gruen, ‘Cicero and the Alien’ (forthcoming).

72 For this interpretation of Cato and Hellenism, see Gruen, , Culture and National Identity (n. 14) 52–83.

73 On Punica fides, see Gruen, , Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (n. 13) 115-40.

74 Ibid. 141-58.

75 Cato, Orig. F2.3 (Beck and Walter).

76 Gruen, , Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (n. 13) 159-78.

77 Cic, . Nat. Deor. 1.81–82.

78 Ibid.

79 See Witt, R.E., Isis in the Greco-Roman World (London 1971); Malaise, M., Les conditions de pénétration et de diffusion des cultes égyptiens découverts en Italie (Leiden 1972); Takâcz, S., Isis and Sarapis in the Roman World (Leiden 1995).

80 Juv, . Sat. 15.4–6; Gruen, , Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (n. 13) 110-11.

81 Epictetus, in Arr, . Epict. diss. 1.22.4.

82 Varrò, , in August. De Consensu Evangelistarum, 1.30.

83 Vano, , in August. CD, 4.31.

84 Seneca, , in August. CD, 6.11.

85 Tac, . Hist. 5.2–13.

86 See Gruen, , Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (n. 13) 187-96.

87 Tac, . Hist. 5.4.2, 5.5.4.

88 Ibid. 5.5.1-2.

89 Cicero's claim that Syrians and Jews were ‘bom to be slaves’ (Prov. Cons. 10) refers to their vulnerability in armed might and their proneness to conquest and enslavement. Livy, like Cicero, reckons Asians as fit to be slaves (35.49.8, 36.17.4-50). But the statements are set in the mouths of Roman generals exhorting troops against the enemy, and are not a reflection of Livian views or of considered opinion. The same holds for Livy's assertion that Carthaginians were cruel and ferocious, both by custom and by nature (23.5.2), also uttered by a Roman commander, this time after the battle of Cannae. Velleius’ claim that Germans were liars by birth (2.118.1) comes in the context, unsurprisingly, of their ambush of Varas.

90 SIG 543.

91 Dion. Hal. 1.9.4.

92 Treggiari, S., Roman Freedmen during the Late Republic (Oxford 1969) 11–20; Bradley, K.R., Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire: A Study in Social Control (Brussels 1984) 81–112; Gardner, J., Being a Roman Citizen (London 1993) 7–51; Bradley, , Slavery and Society at Rome (Cambridge 1994) 162-5; Mouritsen, H., The Freedman in the Roman World (Cambridge 2011) 66–119. For skepticism on the frequency of manumission, see Wiedemann, T.E.J., ‘The Regularity of Manumission at Rome’, CQ 35 (1985) 162-75.

93 Demonstrations: Cic, . Flacc. 67; grain distributions: Philo, , Legatio, 158.

94 Athenaeus, 1.20b-c.

95 Martial, 8.61.5. On foreign groups in Rome generally, see the valuable study of Noy, D., Foreigners at Rome: Citizens and Strangers (London 2000) esp. 205-84.

96 Juv, . Sat. 3.58-60, 68–71.

97 Cic, . Nat. Deor. 2.8.