Laudator Temporis Acti

Susanna Morton Braund, ed., Juvenal, Satires, Book I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 183-184 (on 3.58-125):

Umbricius' next complaint is that true Romans have been displaced by foreigners. This section is an extravaganza of xenophobia directed chiefly against the Greeks of the eastern Mediterranean (hence the numerous Greek names and nouns: 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 7 4, 76, 77, 81, 98, 99, 100, 103, 115, 118, 120; cf. sarcastic Graeculus 78), with a side-swipe at Semites (62-6, introduced by Syrus . . . Orontes, developing from the prologue, 13-14). This standard theme in satirical attacks on the city has parallels in Lucilius (e.g. a Syrophoenician 540-1 W, a Syrian 652-3 W, a Hellenomaniac 87-93W), Horace (e.g. Sat. 2.2.11) and Persius (e.g. 1.70, 6.38-40). It should not be taken as evidence for Trajanic/Hadrianic Rome, in which Greeks were much better integrated than some other foreign groups whose arrival was more recent; for a different view, however, from a Greek perspective see Lucian De merc cond. Athenaeus at Deipn. 1.20b-c praises Rome as an epitome of the civilised world: 'Even entire nations are settled there en masse, like the Cappadocians, the Scythians, the Parthians, and more besides.'