Orientals in Late Antique Italy: Some Observations

Giusto Traina

Orientals in Late Antique Italy: Some Observations

Publication date: 21.10.2022

ELECTRUM, 2022, Volume 29, pp. 249 - 259

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.22.016.15786

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Orientals in Late Antique Italy: Some Observations

Abstract

Some evidence points at the presence of Orientals in late Roman Italy: traders (labelled “Syrians”), petty sellers (the pantapolae in Nov. Val. 5), but also students, professors such as Ammianus Marcellinus, or pilgrims. Although being Roman citizens, nonetheless they were considered foreign individuals, subject to special restrictions. The actual strangers made a different case, especially the Persians. The situation of foreign individuals was quite different. Chauvinistic attitudes are widely attested, and they worsened in critical periods, for example after Adrianople. This may explain the laws of early 397 and June 399, promulgated during Stilicho’s regency, which prohibited the wearing of trousers (bracae) and some fashionable boots called tzangae. Of course, some protégés of the imperial court had the right to enter Italy, as it was the case of the Sassanian prince Hormisdas, who accompanied Constantius II in his visit of Rome in 357.

Keywords

Late Antiquity, Late Roman Italy, Roman Law, Immigration Studies

References

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Information

Information: ELECTRUM, 2022, Volume 29, pp. 249 - 259

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.22.016.15786

Article type: Original article

Authors

Giusto Traina

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7377-0562

UFR d’Histoire – Université Paris-Sorbonne

Published at: 21.10.2022

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Percentage share of authors:

Giusto Traina (Author) - 100%

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