General Notes

Died 39 BC
In the reign of Domitian (81-96 CE) the capital was overrun, in theopinion of
some commentators, by non-Roman immigrants, almost swamping the oldItalian
element. The courtly poet Martial seizes the fact to pay a compliment tothe Emperor.

Martial (40-103/4 CE): Epigrams, IX.3:

What race is so distant from us, what race is so barbarous, O Caesar,that from it no spectator is present in your city! The cultivator ofRhodope [in Thrace] is here from Haemus, sacred to Orpheus. The Scythianwho drinks the blood of his horses is here; he, too, who quaffs thewaters of the Nile nearest their springing; and he also whose shore islaved by the most distant ocean. The Arabian has hastened hither; theSabaeans have hastened; and here the Cilicians have anointed themselveswith their own native perfume. Here come the Sicambrians with their hairall twisted into a knot, and here the frizzled Ethiopians. Yet thoughtheir speech is all so different, they all speak together hailing you, OEmperor, as the true father of your country.
Source:
From: William Stearns Davis, ed., Readings in Ancient History:Illustrative Extracts from the Sources, 2 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon,1912-13), Vol. II: Rome and the West, pp. ??