Foreigners at Rome

Rome was constantly sustained by immigrants. What happened to them after their arrival? Did they try to keep contact with their homelands? Did they form distinctive communities within Rome? Utilising inscriptions and literature, this book studies the experiences of newcomers to the capital.

'The Tiber has been joined by the Orontes'. So wrote the Roman satirist Juvenal, in a complaint about immigration to the Empire's capital. Rome was constantly sustained by immigrants. Some were voluntary: craftworkers, soldiers, teachers and intellectuals. 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 a systematic study of Rome's foreign-born element. The author uses inscriptions and literature to explore the experiences of newcomers to the capital. The results are compared with the colourful Roman stereotypes of different immigrant groups.