ABSTRACT
Cicero’s comments about foreigners are notoriously disparaging. They are regularly cited as exemplary of Roman attitudes toward Asian peoples like Phoenicians, Syrians, Jews, Phrygians, Carians, Cappadocians, Egyptians, Carthaginians, Gauls, Spaniards and Africans. Did Cicero regularly denigrate non-Romans, find foreigners offensive and degenerate, or, worse, construct them as barbaric aliens in order to call attention to the Romans’ own identity and their superiority? This paper scrutinizes the circumstances of Cicero’s pronouncements on “barbarians” and discloses a more shifting, ambiguous and variable quality, often dictated by requirements in the speeches and philosophical treatises. Cicero believes in the superiority of Rome over other nations, but not a superiority founded on ethnic difference. Cicero argues that the Romans excel rather in piety and acquiescence in divine governance.
