TY - JOUR
TI - Orientals in Late Antique Italy: Some Observations
AU - Traina, Giusto
TI - Orientals in Late Antique Italy: Some Observations
AB - 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.
VL - 2022
IS - Volume 29
PY - 2022
SN - 1897-3426
C1 - 2084-3909
SP - 249
EP - 259
DO - 10.4467/20800909EL.22.016.15786
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/electrum/article/orientals-in-late-antique-italy-some-observations
KW - Late Antiquity
KW - Late Roman Italy
KW - Roman Law
KW - Immigration Studies