Foreigners at Rome: Citizens and Strangers

"The Tiber has been joined by the Orontes," wrote Juvenal in a complaint about immigration to the Empire's capital. Yet Rome's culture and economy were based on immigrants; some were voluntary (craft workers, soldiers, teachers and intellectuals) but countless others came as slaves. What happened to them after their arrival? Did they try to keep contact with their homelands? Did they form distinctive communities within Rome? This book is the first systematic study of Rome's foreign-born element. The author uses inscriptions and literature to explore the experiences of newcomers to the capital. While surveying the whole ethnic tapestry, he concentrates on the uniquely rich corpus of evidence left to us by the city's Jewish community, and discovers major differences in their approach to Roman life.