Laudator Temporis Acti

J.P.V.D. Balsdon, Romans and Aliens (London: Duckworth, 1979), pp. 98-99, with notes on p. 276:

There were two occasions when, to our knowledge, foreigners were expelled at the outbreak of war. In 171 BC war had not in fact been declared against Macedon, and Macedonian envoys were in Rome trying to dispel the Senate's suspicion of king Perseus of Macedon, particularly its suspicion that Perseus had engineered the recent unsuccessful attempt on the Pergamene king Eumenes' life at Delphi. They had no success. They were ordered to leave Rome before night and to be out of Italy within thirty days; and the order was extended to cover all Macedonian residents in Rome, of whom, surprisingly, there seems to have been a number. Appian gives a graphic account of their dilemma. How were they to collect their possessions in the time? How were they to find transport? 'Some threw themselves on the ground at the city gates with their wives and children.'⁷

In AD 9 there was hysteria in Rome on the news of the annihilation of three Roman legions under Varus in the Teutoberg forest in Germany. The emperor's German bodyguard was disbanded and its members removed to the islands (from which they were recalled before very long to resume their duties); 'Gauls and Celts' living or staying in Rome were ordered out of the city.⁸

7. P. 27, 6; L. 42, 48, 3; App., Mac. 11, 9.

8. CD 56, 23, 4; Suet., DA 49, 1 (but cf. TA 1, 24, 3). The German imperial guard was eventually disbanded by Galba, Suet., Galb. 12, 2.

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