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Marcial

Abstract

Unlike what is usually thought, Martial’s view of the Greeks as ‘the others’ does not share the xenophobia expressed by Juvenal in III 58-125, but is rather much more complex. The reason for this can be found, above all, in that whereas Juvenal’s point of view with respect to the Greeks is one of a strict nationalist born in the heart of the Empire, Martial’s perspective is that of a Roman citizen born on the periphery, for whom romanitas is identified with a universal and multicultural Empire. Thus for him an ethnocentric nationalism that fosters a scornful view of the ‘other’ has no meaning, and therefore Hellenophobia has a negligible presence in his work: it is limited to small flippant attacks on specific individuals, never encompassing the graeca natio as a whole like Juvenal. Key words: View of the ‘other’; nationalism; empire; Martial and Juvenal.