an inferiority complex toward the Greeks, whose language,
literature, and knowledge of science they considered supe-
rior to their own. Any Roman who could aff ord one wanted
a Greek and not a Roman physician. Romans therefore made
exceptions to their laws when it came to the Greeks. Th is pol-
icy toward the Greeks may have infl uenced how Rome shaped
its laws for other foreigners.
To the Romans any foreigner was a barbarian, and as the
Roman Empire expanded, it absorbed numerous foreign cul-
tures, all of which had their own supposedly barbaric laws
and customs. It seemed unreasonable to the Romans to apply
laws to the barbarians that the barbarians would not under-
stand. For instance, foreigners from cultures in which every-
one communally co-owned the farmland would probably
have trouble understanding a law against planting crops on
someone else’s property. Th e Romans were practical, and Ro-
man magistrates based their interpretations of laws on gen-
eral principles about how people should treat one another;
they saw the need to make humane—rather than merely
legal—decisions when a barbarian ignorant of Roman ways
violated a Roman law.
Still, there were certain behaviors Romans did not toler-
ate from barbarians. One was rebellion. Another was disre-
spect to Roman gods. Romans were willing to allow worship
of foreign gods, but they also expected everyone to follow the
rules regarding Roman gods. When emperors became god-
kings, shrines were established for them in Roman cities, and
everyone was expected to pay proper respect. In regions such
as North Africa this worked out well. Th e North Africans
were content to turn whole temples over to the worship of
Roman emperors because they saw themselves as being pro-
tected by those emperors.
Palestine was diff erent. It took the Romans hundreds of
years to fi gure out why Jews and Christians refused to off er
simple, inexpensive sacrifi ces to the Roman emperors. Aft er
numerous very bloody revolts by Jews, Titus (r. 79–81 c.e.)
the son of the emperor Vespasian (r. 69–79 c.e.), destroyed
Jerusalem in 70 c.e. A sign that the Romans still failed to
understand Jewish religious beliefs was the founding of the
city Aelia Capitolina on the site of the ruined Jerusalem in
130 c.e., something the emperor Hadrian (r. 117–38 c.e.)
expected the local people to greet with happiness. Th e Jews
instead revolted because of the violation of their sacred city,
and the rebellion lasted three years (132–35 c.e.) before the
Romans put it down.
Hadrian had good reason to think Aelia Capitolina
would be successful. Almost everywhere Rome built a city,
people welcomed it, and it fi lled quickly with local people as
well as Romans. Th is the Romans took as evidence that their
way of life was better than everyone else’s. Romans were sure
that being Roman was the best thing any human could ever
be. Romanization—the process of changing the behavior of
barbarians into behavior that matched or at least closely re-
sembled that of Romans themselves—usually succeeded, and
Romans were surprised when it did not.
When Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (r. 211–17 c.e.), nick-
named Caracalla for a style of coat he supposedly designed,
became emperor, the Roman Empire extended throughout
North Africa, east into Mesopotamia, west through Spain,
and north to the Rhine River and even into Britain. Many
people in these areas came to speak like Romans, behave like
Romans, and think of themselves as Romans, but Roman citi-
zens still considered them foreigners. Th en, in 212 c.e., Cara-
calla changed their status by declaring every free man living
in the Roman Empire a Roman citizen. Th is sweeping decree
did not, however, end Roman snobbery. Italian Romans con-
tinued to regard the accents of North Africans and northern
Celts as somewhat primitive. Th ey viewed the Parthians to
the east as self-indulgent and decadent, morally inferior to
“real” Romans. And they considered the Germanic peoples
of northern Europe and Ukraine crude, dirty, and excessively
violent. Th at Germanic tribes eventua lly overran the Western
Roman Empire did not stop Romans from thinking of them
as uncivilized.THE AMERICAS
BY PENELOPE OJEDA DE HUALA
Th e ancient remains of the indigenous people of the Ameri-
cas off er few clues about their attitudes toward strangers and
foreigners. However, archaeological evidence points to a high
level of interaction among the diverse groups that populated
the New World, including a widespread trade network. Long-
distance trade was only one component of the relationships
among foreign and local communities. Along with commod-
ities the varied societies of the New World exchanged ideas,
customs, and beliefs—and sometimes forced them upon one
another. Th ese ancient cultural clashes are diffi cult to deci-
pher, though scholars and scientists have gleaned valuable
knowledge concerning them.
From very early times the indigenous groups of the
Americas depended on local trade for survival. Th e diverse
and sometimes harsh weather and geography of the Ameri-
can continents not only allowed for but indeed almost de-
manded interregional reciprocity. Neighboring groups oft en
depended on one another, and over the course of time espe-
cially through migration and intermarriage, larger social and
economic networks developed.NORTH AMERICA
In the Middle Woodland Period (ca. 300 b.c.e. to 500 c.e.),
Hopewell culture came to encompass a unique cultural
sphere of infl uence. Centered in southern Ohio, the Hopewell
built on the burial practices of their predecessors, the Adena
culture, expanding and disseminating a mortuary ceremoni-
alism throughout the woodland areas of the northeast and as
far away as Illinois. Th is Hopewell interaction sphere (system
of exchange) included wide-ranging interregional interac-
tions and exchanges, where foreign and local traditions and
art forms fl owed freely from place to place. Mound building490 foreigners and barbarians: The Americas