Popular in History

Arts and Humanities

Titus Quinctius Flamininus’ “Italian triumph”

McGill University Michael Fronda

Arts and Humanities

Lincoln and the Jews

Brandeis University Jonathan Sarna

Arts and Humanities

Early Modern Natural Law Theories

University of Copenhagen Knud Haakonssen

Arts and Humanities

The loneliness of leadership

University of Liverpool Elaine Chalus

Arts and Humanities

La Güera Rodríguez

Brandeis University Silvia Arrom

Arts and Humanities

The Myth of Continuity in American Gun Culture

University of California Berkeley Brian DeLay

Arts and Humanities

Malawian Migration to Zimbabwe, 1900–1965: Tracing Machona

University of Leicester Zoe Groves

Phoenicians Among Others: Why Migrants Mattered in the Ancient Mediterranean

View more insights in Arts and Humanities - History - Classics

View more figures from University of California San Diego

View the page of Denise Demetriou

Read the Study

Denise Demetriou discusses the history of Phoenician immigrants in the ancient Mediterranean from the fourth to the first centuries BCE.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 29, 2024

Generating Workspace

Export as PDF

This video outlines the author's journey and motivations for writing a book about the Ians (Phoenicians) and their significant role in the ancient Mediterranean. The author reflects on their previous work, which focused primarily on Greek perspectives, and expresses a desire to highlight the importance of Ians who often lacked substantial historical evidence.

While initially approaching the topic as one of diplomacy among Mediterranean states in the 4th century BCE, the author realized that the narrative was more about the experiences and contributions of migrants. The book emphasizes that migrants made up a considerable percentage of urban populations, detailing their legal restrictions, challenges, and contributions. For example, many migrants were unable to own property or participate directly in government yet created professional associations to circumvent limitations and advocate for their rights.

Zeno, the founder of Stoicism and an immigrant from Cyprus, serves as a case study illustrating these points. Despite facing discrimination, Zeno and other migrants significantly influenced the societies in which they lived, affecting culture, religion, and politics. The author concludes that ancient Greek society was likely shaped by migrants' contributions, challenging traditional views that idealize Greek culture as purely homogenous. This video presents a nuanced understanding of how migration played a critical role in forming diverse and thriving communities in the ancient Mediterranean.

Language:

Export as PDF

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.205 --> 00:02.485
I began thinking about this book when I was

00:02.755 --> 00:04.085
finishing my first book.

00:04.625 --> 00:08.325
Um, in that book I talked about the common people

00:08.385 --> 00:09.725
of the Greek diaspora

00:09.745 --> 00:13.565
who lived in Greek commercial settlements in non-Greek areas

00:13.625 --> 00:14.925
of the ancient Mediterranean.

00:15.785 --> 00:19.565
Um, but that book told primarily a Greek story,

00:19.675 --> 00:20.845
from a Greek perspective.

00:21.665 --> 00:25.885
And I had originally written a chapter on Ian,

00:26.465 --> 00:30.405
on a Ian trading post that I had to cut out from the book.

00:30.545 --> 00:32.885
And that was the right decision for that book.

00:33.225 --> 00:36.005
But it left me with a desire to go back to the Ians

00:36.195 --> 00:38.725
because I thought that they were just as important

00:39.045 --> 00:41.845
as the other Mediterranean populations

00:42.105 --> 00:43.245
who lived at that time.

00:43.945 --> 00:46.925
Um, it's just that they didn't live behind as much evidence.

00:47.545 --> 00:50.765
So I thought that there was more to say about

00:50.905 --> 00:53.445
how the Venetians changed the medi,

00:53.585 --> 00:57.005
the ancient Mediterranean, and not just how the Greeks

00:57.165 --> 00:59.725
or the Romans did, which is mostly

00:59.835 --> 01:02.565
what my field has really focused on.

01:02.825 --> 01:04.805
Um, and there was much more

01:04.805 --> 01:07.485
to say on this topic I discovered.

01:07.865 --> 01:11.925
And so that was, centering the Ians in the history

01:11.925 --> 01:14.765
of the ancient Mediterranean was one of the main motives

01:15.425 --> 01:16.565
for writing this book.

01:17.225 --> 01:19.805
Uh, the other thing that happened when I was finishing the

01:19.805 --> 01:23.725
book was that I kept running into these texts that were

01:24.395 --> 01:28.205
dedications, made by Ian Kings

01:29.185 --> 01:30.685
in Greek sanctuaries.

01:31.065 --> 01:33.725
So Greek temples on the islands of cause

01:34.025 --> 01:36.645
and dealers on India, GNC.

01:37.425 --> 01:40.885
And both of these, I, I discovered two specific ones,

01:40.905 --> 01:44.525
and both of these were, were bilingual.

01:44.545 --> 01:46.485
So they were written both in Greek and Ian.

01:46.915 --> 01:48.525
They both had a religious aspect,

01:49.145 --> 01:52.605
and they both kind of let me wondering why Finnish

01:52.605 --> 01:56.325
and kings were making dedications in Greek sanctuaries in

01:56.325 --> 01:57.765
the fourth century, PCE.

01:58.585 --> 02:02.445
So for a long time, what I thought I was writing about was,

02:03.145 --> 02:04.205
diplomacy

02:04.495 --> 02:06.885
among different states in the ancient Mediterranean in the

02:06.885 --> 02:08.165
fourth century, PCE.

02:08.585 --> 02:09.645
But as I read

02:09.745 --> 02:12.765
and I interpreted the sources, I realized

02:12.765 --> 02:15.085
that I was really writing a book about migrants.

02:15.565 --> 02:20.405
Migrants is a demographic that is not often paid attention

02:20.465 --> 02:21.965
to in my, in my field.

02:22.505 --> 02:24.965
Uh, but the reality is that immigrants made up a,

02:25.085 --> 02:28.605
a high percentage of any cities resident population.

02:29.185 --> 02:31.925
Um, if we take the example of Athens, for instance,

02:31.955 --> 02:36.845
ancient Athens, we estimate that between 16 to 20%

02:36.945 --> 02:39.605
of the population was an immigrant population,

02:40.105 --> 02:43.325
and that figure is actually lower than it was in reality

02:43.325 --> 02:47.845
because it doesn't, include the enslaved population

02:47.925 --> 02:50.045
of Athens, all of whom were foreign born,

02:50.545 --> 02:53.165
and it doesn't include people who didn't register

02:53.185 --> 02:54.245
as resident aliens.

02:54.245 --> 02:57.045
So these estimates that we have include only that,

02:57.415 --> 02:59.205
population, which I should also add.

02:59.505 --> 03:03.845
We are talking about just the free male, population of,

03:04.985 --> 03:08.805
so we are talking about a significant portion

03:09.185 --> 03:11.405
of a state's residents.

03:11.985 --> 03:15.485
And so I started to wonder why are we not paying attention

03:15.485 --> 03:18.685
to it, first of all, but also,

03:18.995 --> 03:21.685
what can migrants tell us about their experiences?

03:22.305 --> 03:25.285
How did their identities change because they were migrants?

03:25.905 --> 03:29.725
Um, what was their relationship with their host state,

03:29.905 --> 03:31.485
or their home state that they left?

03:32.225 --> 03:36.855
And how did their presence in this new societies changed

03:36.855 --> 03:39.015
these societies that they j that they joined?

03:39.875 --> 03:44.495
And I also, that that kind of led me to the,

03:44.975 --> 03:46.655
question that really motivated the book,

03:47.345 --> 03:50.135
which is did migrants matter and how,

03:50.475 --> 03:53.495
and eventually this became the book's subtitle,

03:53.505 --> 03:57.655
which is why migrants mattered in the Ancient Mediterranean.

03:57.995 --> 04:01.495
My first step was actually to learn biblical Hebrew so

04:01.495 --> 04:03.895
that I could learn to read Ian,

04:03.895 --> 04:06.975
because I was trained as a historian

04:06.995 --> 04:09.295
of ancient Greece in a classics department.

04:09.765 --> 04:11.815
Usually classics department teach,

04:12.185 --> 04:15.095
teach the departments teach Greek and Latin.

04:15.715 --> 04:17.975
Um, they don't usually teach Semitic languages.

04:17.975 --> 04:20.175
Those are usually covered in near Eastern

04:20.175 --> 04:21.335
studies departments.

04:22.115 --> 04:26.255
Um, so I had no background in any Semitic languages.

04:26.555 --> 04:29.575
And I also thought, you know, if I'm going to study,

04:29.735 --> 04:33.135
a group that spoken, wrote, I think as a language,

04:33.255 --> 04:35.535
I should really be able to read the sources in the original.

04:35.795 --> 04:37.175
That's what historians do.

04:37.275 --> 04:38.655
You have to be able to understand the

04:38.685 --> 04:39.775
nuances of the language.

04:40.075 --> 04:41.775
And so I was committed to doing that.

04:42.275 --> 04:43.735
Um, and this was also important

04:43.735 --> 04:46.335
because, you know, these disciplinary boundaries

04:46.335 --> 04:49.415
that we have don't allow us to study together people

04:49.675 --> 04:50.775
who lived together.

04:51.115 --> 04:54.295
So, that was an important thing for me to do.

04:54.835 --> 04:57.615
And very few universities teach Ian,

04:57.895 --> 04:59.255
although that seems to be take

04:59.575 --> 05:00.735
changing a little bit right now.

05:01.315 --> 05:03.495
Um, so I had to start with biblical Hebrew.

05:03.645 --> 05:06.455
They both, both languages belong to the same subgroup

05:06.455 --> 05:07.695
of Semitic languages.

05:07.795 --> 05:11.695
So my, the easiest thing for me to do was to,

05:12.325 --> 05:14.975
take an intensive summer course in biblical Hebrew.

05:15.355 --> 05:20.295
And then I, moved to the University

05:20.295 --> 05:22.815
of California in San Diego from my previous job,

05:22.815 --> 05:24.455
which was at Michigan State University.

05:24.995 --> 05:29.775
And I, worked here with one of my colleagues, bill Prop,

05:30.155 --> 05:34.215
who helped me transition from biblical Hebrew to Ian.

05:34.955 --> 05:38.735
Uh, so that was the first step, had to retool a little bit.

05:39.115 --> 05:43.335
And then, once I was able to read Finian, then I started

05:43.335 --> 05:47.975
to collect and study, the sources that,

05:48.005 --> 05:51.695
were about Ians living in Greek communities.

05:52.315 --> 05:56.695
And eventually I expanded that to include, sources by

05:56.955 --> 06:00.045
Ians or about Ians who lived in Egypt

06:00.345 --> 06:04.005
and Carthage in North Africa, the islands

06:04.025 --> 06:07.005
and the islands of Malta, Sicilian, Sardinia,

06:07.015 --> 06:09.565
where there was also a significant Ian migrant,

06:10.425 --> 06:11.845
population.

06:12.665 --> 06:15.885
So what these sources are, are usually texts

06:16.005 --> 06:18.485
that are inscribed on stone,

06:19.225 --> 06:21.165
or sometimes also other materials.

06:22.145 --> 06:25.045
And some were bilingual in Ian

06:25.045 --> 06:28.005
and Greek, others bilingual in Ian and Egyptian.

06:28.635 --> 06:30.365
Some just infinian, some just in Greek,

06:30.365 --> 06:32.205
some just Infinian, in Egyptian.

06:33.025 --> 06:36.365
And most of these texts, this, this is basically most

06:36.365 --> 06:37.605
of the Ian texts

06:37.605 --> 06:39.325
that we have from the ancient Mediterranean.

06:39.585 --> 06:42.485
And most of them are tombstones,

06:42.585 --> 06:44.045
are inscribed on tombstones.

06:44.435 --> 06:45.565
They are dedications

06:45.675 --> 06:49.045
that were given in sanctuaries, religious sanctuaries.

06:49.465 --> 06:51.325
Uh, some of them are state produced

06:51.465 --> 06:53.525
administrative texts as well.

06:54.145 --> 06:55.845
Uh, and they're usually very short.

06:55.845 --> 06:58.845
They're 2, 2, 4 lines long each about.

06:59.425 --> 07:02.925
Uh, but as I, was, as I kept looking at them

07:03.025 --> 07:05.085
and reading them and interpreting them, you know,

07:05.085 --> 07:07.325
they became revelatory to me

07:07.325 --> 07:10.245
because they really uncovered the social

07:10.385 --> 07:15.285
and cultural world of migrants that we don't usually look

07:15.345 --> 07:16.805
for or, or see.

07:17.745 --> 07:19.165
Um, and the other thing

07:19.165 --> 07:20.685
that I did in the very initial stages

07:20.785 --> 07:24.325
of my research was actually visit, spend some time on Delos,

07:24.825 --> 07:27.005
because there was a significant population

07:27.005 --> 07:28.045
of Ians there.

07:28.505 --> 07:32.565
Um, and then also sometime in museums in Italy and France

07:32.825 --> 07:35.205
and Greece to look at some of the material,

07:35.235 --> 07:36.845
like the tombstones, for instance,

07:36.845 --> 07:40.245
that I talk about in the book, immigrants, all immigrants,

07:40.245 --> 07:43.045
including definitions faced,

07:43.195 --> 07:47.205
some very practical problems, as immigrants

07:47.205 --> 07:49.525
that stemmed from their legal, legal status

07:49.625 --> 07:50.805
as immigrants, basically.

07:51.105 --> 07:55.005
So first of all, immigrants had to

07:56.605 --> 07:58.485
register once they arrived in their destination,

07:58.585 --> 08:01.805
if they stayed there longer than a prescribed amount

08:01.805 --> 08:04.085
of time, which we think was about a month in

08:04.085 --> 08:05.165
the Greek states.

08:06.225 --> 08:08.165
Um, and they had to pay an immigrant tax.

08:09.355 --> 08:12.375
Um, second, they faced many legal restrictions.

08:13.005 --> 08:16.015
They didn't have the right to own property, for example.

08:16.195 --> 08:17.895
So they couldn't, this meant

08:17.895 --> 08:20.055
that they couldn't be buried in public cemeteries

08:20.055 --> 08:23.015
because you had to own the plot of land for your grave.

08:23.325 --> 08:24.935
They couldn't build houses.

08:25.165 --> 08:28.895
They also couldn't build temples for their own gods.

08:29.715 --> 08:31.895
Um, they didn't have the right

08:31.955 --> 08:35.575
to participate in government directly.

08:35.675 --> 08:38.215
So they had very little say over the

08:38.215 --> 08:39.615
conditions in which they lived.

08:40.195 --> 08:42.855
And their status as immigrants were, was inheritable.

08:42.955 --> 08:45.175
So if immigrants have children,

08:45.185 --> 08:46.855
their children were, were immigrants.

08:46.855 --> 08:49.575
If those children had children, they too,

08:49.575 --> 08:51.455
their children too would be immigrants.

08:52.155 --> 08:55.175
Um, these are not the only legal restrictions

08:55.250 --> 08:56.845
that they face, but there are probably some

08:56.845 --> 08:57.885
of the more clear

08:57.985 --> 09:00.405
and important limitations that immigrants,

09:00.405 --> 09:03.125
that were imposed on immigrants in at least the Greek world.

09:04.015 --> 09:06.555
And there were other problems as well,

09:06.555 --> 09:10.395
like facing prejudice and discrimination or xenophobia.

09:11.095 --> 09:15.755
Um, for example, we have some ancient texts from Athens

09:16.505 --> 09:21.235
that suggest that some sectors of the Aian society thought

09:21.235 --> 09:23.075
that immigrants were a concern.

09:24.015 --> 09:28.475
Um, one specific treaties complains that,

09:29.015 --> 09:30.955
privileged immigrants

09:31.095 --> 09:35.875
and enslaved persons were practically indistinguishable from

09:37.035 --> 09:40.395
citizens in the way that they dressed or they, look

09:40.695 --> 09:42.315
or the rights that they had.

09:42.855 --> 09:45.795
So in other words, the person is complaining

09:45.865 --> 09:49.675
that immigrants passed as citizens, and this was the problem

09:49.675 --> 09:53.275
because it eroded the notion of citizenship

09:53.275 --> 09:55.155
that this person wanted to maintain.

09:55.375 --> 09:58.795
I'm sure this sounds familiar. So we know that this existed.

09:59.095 --> 10:02.275
And in addition to this, these kinds of attitudes existed.

10:02.455 --> 10:04.515
And in addition to these, IANS

10:05.495 --> 10:08.635
or rather, Greeks had a lot of stereotypes about Ians.

10:09.505 --> 10:12.875
They describe them as crafty and deceitful.

10:13.415 --> 10:16.395
Um, the only professions we hear about

10:16.575 --> 10:17.755
are they were traders.

10:17.755 --> 10:19.955
They are for crafty and deceitful or bankers.

10:19.955 --> 10:21.555
They are for crafty and deceitful.

10:22.095 --> 10:25.755
So immigrants also had to deal with these kinds of,

10:25.845 --> 10:28.155
prejudices and these types of challenges.

10:29.075 --> 10:33.705
I think there's a good story, the story of Xeno, the founder

10:33.765 --> 10:37.185
of the Philosophical School of Stoicism,

10:37.375 --> 10:40.145
that illustrates I think some of these problems really well.

10:40.805 --> 10:44.945
Uh, stoicism was one of the most influential schools,

10:45.015 --> 10:47.265
philosophical schools in antiquity.

10:47.645 --> 10:50.865
And also it's widely regarded today as one

10:50.865 --> 10:53.105
of the major contributions of the ancient Greeks.

10:53.645 --> 10:56.705
But Zeno, the founder of this school, was not Greek.

10:56.885 --> 10:58.265
He was actually Ian.

10:58.765 --> 11:02.625
He was a Ian immigrant in Athens from the city state

11:02.625 --> 11:05.905
of Kiton, which is on the island of Cyprus.

11:05.905 --> 11:07.545
Modern day, Larnaca

11:08.535 --> 11:12.115
and Zeno became an immigrant in Athens,

11:12.135 --> 11:15.835
and he established his school in the very heart of Athens.

11:16.535 --> 11:18.555
It was actually really publicly accessible

11:18.555 --> 11:19.835
because it was in the marketplace.

11:20.535 --> 11:25.075
And then stoicism flourished, in Xenos time,

11:25.135 --> 11:30.115
but also among the Romans winning over people like the

11:30.315 --> 11:32.955
Emperor Marco Aurelius among its adherence.

11:33.535 --> 11:36.795
And also it continues to enjoy a lot of popularity today,

11:37.415 --> 11:39.515
because we have things like stoic week

11:39.525 --> 11:43.115
where people choose to live as stoics, for a week,

11:43.545 --> 11:47.275
corporate gurus who talk to corporations like Google about

11:47.275 --> 11:50.195
how stoicism can increase their profitability.

11:51.095 --> 11:55.685
Um, so, the important thing here is

11:55.685 --> 11:58.685
to recognize that without migration

11:58.705 --> 12:02.285
and mobility, racism may not have developed into one

12:02.285 --> 12:04.965
of the most influential schools of antiquity

12:05.065 --> 12:06.925
or have taken the form that it did.

12:07.895 --> 12:10.355
And Xeno, the founder, this Finnish

12:10.355 --> 12:12.355
and immigrant in Athens, clearly was

12:12.435 --> 12:13.835
upwardly socially mobile.

12:14.855 --> 12:17.875
Um, but he also faced a lot of discrimination.

12:18.735 --> 12:21.315
So, for example, his Greek teacher

12:21.975 --> 12:23.875
called him little Ian,

12:23.885 --> 12:26.595
which was a demeaning term of endearment.

12:27.215 --> 12:29.995
One of our ancient sources calls him stingy

12:29.995 --> 12:31.315
because he was a foreigner.

12:32.175 --> 12:35.595
Um, another philosopher accused him of plagiarism,

12:36.015 --> 12:38.155
and he said that Zino stole his ideas

12:38.295 --> 12:40.315
and dressed them in Ian style.

12:41.215 --> 12:44.075
And we all even have some poetry from some of Zino students

12:44.135 --> 12:45.595
who tried to downplay the fact

12:45.595 --> 12:47.955
that he was a finian immigrant, right?

12:47.975 --> 12:52.435
So in addition to the legal restrictions that came with

12:52.965 --> 12:56.195
being an immigrant, immigrants had this sense

12:56.195 --> 12:59.035
of otherness imposed on them by their host communities.

13:00.095 --> 13:02.075
But even in the face of discrimination,

13:02.105 --> 13:05.075
they profoundly changed the societies in which they lived.

13:05.135 --> 13:06.875
So I think Zeno's story is a good,

13:07.535 --> 13:08.795
you know, example of this.

13:09.075 --> 13:12.275
Migrants were pretty resourceful in trying to deal

13:12.275 --> 13:14.875
with the legal limitations that were imposed upon them

13:14.875 --> 13:16.355
and the discrimination that they faced.

13:17.695 --> 13:19.555
One strategy that they adopted

13:19.985 --> 13:22.195
that perhaps facilitated their status

13:22.255 --> 13:26.115
as immigrants was name changing, which has been

13:27.235 --> 13:28.515
familiar, a familiar practice

13:28.515 --> 13:29.915
among immigrants for a long time.

13:30.775 --> 13:33.355
Um, I live in the us so we can think of stories

13:33.415 --> 13:36.435
of immigrants arriving at Ellis Islands, right?

13:36.535 --> 13:39.195
And adopting English sounding names

13:39.375 --> 13:42.035
or being given English names.

13:43.485 --> 13:46.255
Many Ian migrants in ancient Greek communities

13:46.555 --> 13:49.615
and also in Egypt too, seem to have done the same

13:49.715 --> 13:54.015
and voluntarily changed their names to Greek sound ones,

13:54.155 --> 13:57.455
or even just Greek names, even at they adopted Greek names.

13:58.815 --> 14:02.715
Uh, one thing to note is that even

14:02.855 --> 14:06.595
as they did this, they never hid their origins.

14:07.415 --> 14:10.675
So in various tombstones that I study in the book,

14:10.735 --> 14:13.875
for example, they mentioned their Greek name,

14:14.815 --> 14:16.715
but they also give us their Ian name.

14:17.225 --> 14:19.755
They also tell us which Ian city they came from.

14:20.695 --> 14:23.435
And, they write this infinian as well.

14:23.615 --> 14:26.635
So by changing their names, they were not trying to

14:27.345 --> 14:28.955
hide their foreign origin,

14:29.975 --> 14:33.955
but name changing as a practice might have helped them.

14:34.875 --> 14:38.235
Ians, in this case, Ian immigrants acquire more class

14:38.595 --> 14:41.635
mobility, create stronger professional networks,

14:42.255 --> 14:45.035
lessen the prejudice that they encountered.

14:46.005 --> 14:50.785
So that's one strategy. Um, another one that I

14:51.295 --> 14:56.045
Think is important is that they found a way to bypass

14:57.065 --> 15:00.365
the legal restrictions that host imposed on immigrants.

15:01.225 --> 15:04.765
Um, and this was the creation of professional associations.

15:05.645 --> 15:09.015
Usually in the case, most of the professional associations

15:09.015 --> 15:11.575
that we know of are of traders.

15:13.415 --> 15:16.075
Um, these institutions,

15:16.075 --> 15:20.075
these associations were basically like expat communities

15:20.535 --> 15:23.475
or cultural organizations that we have today,

15:23.475 --> 15:25.275
like the National Helen Society,

15:25.415 --> 15:28.595
or maybe the Alliance Francis, some, something like that.

15:28.655 --> 15:30.075
Not, not, doesn't quite overlap,

15:30.135 --> 15:35.075
but similar, as a, you know, what, without,

15:35.225 --> 15:36.835
without the right to own land,

15:37.345 --> 15:41.155
like migrants couldn't build their own temples without the

15:41.155 --> 15:42.915
right to participate directly in government,

15:43.185 --> 15:46.115
they didn't really have political say.

15:47.465 --> 15:51.995
Wealthy migrants found ways to circumvent these limitations

15:52.655 --> 15:56.595
as individuals, but for the rest of the migrant communities

15:57.265 --> 16:00.975
community, organizing into groups

16:01.515 --> 16:03.375
and working as a collective meant

16:03.375 --> 16:05.295
that they had more bargaining power.

16:06.845 --> 16:08.025
And this allowed them

16:08.205 --> 16:11.065
to basically almost lobby their host state.

16:11.095 --> 16:15.065
They could petition the host state for privileges

16:15.065 --> 16:16.145
for individual members

16:16.565 --> 16:19.465
or the right to own land, specifically so

16:19.465 --> 16:22.825
that they could build a temple to their ancestral gods.

16:23.325 --> 16:26.665
And we have several examples of such petitions

16:26.665 --> 16:27.865
that we are successful.

16:28.085 --> 16:32.505
And so the, the, these associations were granted these,

16:32.785 --> 16:34.105
requests that they made.

16:34.615 --> 16:36.665
This meant that migrants were able

16:36.725 --> 16:39.265
to worship their own gods in their own temples.

16:40.135 --> 16:42.545
Also, that they were able to introduce the worship

16:42.725 --> 16:46.465
of foreign divinities into their host states as well.

16:48.365 --> 16:52.865
And even though they did not have direct political stay in

16:52.865 --> 16:57.035
their host state, they were still able to

16:57.905 --> 17:02.865
influence it and influence its policies through these

17:03.885 --> 17:07.985
semi-autonomous quasi-state almost associations.

17:09.285 --> 17:13.105
Uh, the associations themselves mimicked,

17:13.725 --> 17:17.145
or the organization of the associations mimicked,

17:17.205 --> 17:18.785
the organization of a state.

17:18.845 --> 17:22.345
So it had its own governing bodies, it had its own officers,

17:22.725 --> 17:24.145
it made its own decisions.

17:24.485 --> 17:26.985
And eventually what we see is that over time,

17:27.395 --> 17:32.345
these associations were incorporated into

17:33.405 --> 17:36.385
the, political apparatus of the host state.

17:37.495 --> 17:38.675
So in a way,

17:38.675 --> 17:40.795
even though they didn't have direct political say,

17:40.825 --> 17:45.315
they could actually affect policy in the new society

17:45.345 --> 17:48.155
that they had joined, these,

17:49.145 --> 17:51.205
Uh, phenomenon I didn't mention,

17:51.345 --> 17:53.965
but it's specifically a Ian phenomenon on the fourth

17:53.965 --> 17:55.165
century, BCE.

17:55.185 --> 17:59.325
So it's one of the strategies that helped, migrants

18:00.265 --> 18:04.205
become active members of their, of the society that they,

18:04.675 --> 18:05.765
that they lived in.

18:06.105 --> 18:09.845
And over time, we have to imagine that, you know, tombstones

18:09.955 --> 18:13.245
with foreign alphabets, inscribed on them,

18:13.385 --> 18:15.645
and temples dedicated to foreign gods

18:15.645 --> 18:17.925
and names of individuals that sounded Greek,

18:18.345 --> 18:21.205
but were actually Venetian, that all

18:21.205 --> 18:23.525
of these things became integrated into the fabric

18:23.545 --> 18:27.285
of society, and they changed how cities looked.

18:27.955 --> 18:30.765
They altered the daily sounds of communities.

18:31.185 --> 18:33.845
And at the end of the day, I think we can say that

18:34.605 --> 18:36.925
migrants helped create states whose

18:37.735 --> 18:40.965
civic bodies were made up of diverse populations

18:41.355 --> 18:44.125
with different religions and different languages

18:44.125 --> 18:45.525
and different institutions.

18:46.225 --> 18:47.605
And both immigrants

18:47.985 --> 18:52.005
and migrants were, integral members

18:52.025 --> 18:55.045
of these communities who contributed to, and maintained

18:55.045 --> 19:00.005
and belonged, in the societies of their, new homes.

19:00.655 --> 19:05.325
Greek societies were profoundly altered by the presence

19:05.465 --> 19:08.045
of immigrants and of Ian immigrants.

19:08.045 --> 19:12.005
In the case of my book, have intellectuals like Zeno,

19:12.025 --> 19:13.925
for example, introduced new ideas.

19:14.825 --> 19:18.165
Um, Finnish and traders created these associations,

19:18.385 --> 19:21.285
new institutions, basically that became part

19:21.525 --> 19:24.205
of a state's political economy.

19:25.405 --> 19:30.205
Migrants collectively helped form these multi-ethnic diverse

19:30.635 --> 19:33.525
societies that thrived throughout the Mediterranean

19:33.825 --> 19:37.205
and even made notions of citizenship more fluid.

19:38.305 --> 19:43.005
So traditionally we have idealized ancient

19:43.055 --> 19:46.205
Greek thought and politics and art.

19:47.065 --> 19:51.405
And what I hope is that my research shows that it's unlikely

19:51.555 --> 19:54.445
that Greek thought and politics

19:54.545 --> 19:58.165
and art would have taken the form they did without the

19:58.525 --> 19:59.565
contribution of migrants.

00:00 - I began thinking about this book when I was finishing my first book. in that book I talked about the common people of the Greek diaspora who lived in Greek commercial settlements in non-Greek areas of the ancient Mediterranean.

00:15 - but that book told primarily a Greek story, from a Greek perspective. And I had originally written a chapter on Ian, on a Ian trading post that I had to cut out from the book. And that was the right decision for that book. But it left me with a desire to go back to the Ians because I thought that they were just as important as the other Mediterranean populations who lived at that time. it's just that they didn't live behind as much evidence.

00:47 - So I thought that there was more to say about how the Venetians changed the medi, the ancient Mediterranean, and not just how the Greeks or the Romans did, which is mostly what my field has really focused on. and there was much more to say on this topic I discovered. And so that was, centering the Ians in the history of the ancient Mediterranean was one of the main motives for writing this book.

01:17 - the other thing that happened when I was finishing the book was that I kept running into these texts that were dedications, made by Ian Kings in Greek sanctuaries. So Greek temples on the islands of cause and dealers on India, GNC. And both of these, I, I discovered two specific ones, and both of these were, were bilingual. So they were written both in Greek and Ian. They both had a religious aspect,

01:49 - and they both kind of let me wondering why Finnish and kings were making dedications in Greek sanctuaries in the fourth century, PCE. So for a long time, what I thought I was writing about was, diplomacy among different states in the ancient Mediterranean in the fourth century, PCE. But as I read and I interpreted the sources, I realized that I was really writing a book about migrants.

02:15 - Migrants is a demographic that is not often paid attention to in my, in my field. but the reality is that immigrants made up a, a high percentage of any cities resident population. if we take the example of Athens, for instance, ancient Athens, we estimate that between 16 to 20% of the population was an immigrant population, and that figure is actually lower than it was in reality because it doesn't, include the enslaved population of Athens, all of whom were foreign born,

02:50 - and it doesn't include people who didn't register as resident aliens. So these estimates that we have include only that, population, which I should also add. We are talking about just the free male, population of, so we are talking about a significant portion of a state's residents. And so I started to wonder why are we not paying attention to it, first of all, but also, what can migrants tell us about their experiences?

03:22 - How did their identities change because they were migrants? what was their relationship with their host state, or their home state that they left? And how did their presence in this new societies changed these societies that they j that they joined? And I also, that that kind of led me to the, question that really motivated the book, which is did migrants matter and how, and eventually this became the book's subtitle, which is why migrants mattered in the Ancient Mediterranean.

03:57 - My first step was actually to learn biblical Hebrew so that I could learn to read Ian, because I was trained as a historian of ancient Greece in a classics department. Usually classics department teach, teach the departments teach Greek and Latin. they don't usually teach Semitic languages. Those are usually covered in near Eastern studies departments. so I had no background in any Semitic languages.

04:26 - And I also thought, you know, if I'm going to study, a group that spoken, wrote, I think as a language, I should really be able to read the sources in the original. That's what historians do. You have to be able to understand the nuances of the language. And so I was committed to doing that. and this was also important because, you know, these disciplinary boundaries that we have don't allow us to study together people

04:49 - who lived together. So, that was an important thing for me to do. And very few universities teach Ian, although that seems to be take changing a little bit right now. so I had to start with biblical Hebrew. They both, both languages belong to the same subgroup of Semitic languages. So my, the easiest thing for me to do was to, take an intensive summer course in biblical Hebrew.

05:15 - And then I, moved to the University of California in San Diego from my previous job, which was at Michigan State University. And I, worked here with one of my colleagues, bill Prop, who helped me transition from biblical Hebrew to Ian. so that was the first step, had to retool a little bit. And then, once I was able to read Finian, then I started to collect and study, the sources that, were about Ians living in Greek communities. And eventually I expanded that to include, sources by

05:56 - Ians or about Ians who lived in Egypt and Carthage in North Africa, the islands and the islands of Malta, Sicilian, Sardinia, where there was also a significant Ian migrant, population. So what these sources are, are usually texts that are inscribed on stone, or sometimes also other materials. And some were bilingual in Ian and Greek, others bilingual in Ian and Egyptian.

06:28 - Some just infinian, some just in Greek, some just Infinian, in Egyptian. And most of these texts, this, this is basically most of the Ian texts that we have from the ancient Mediterranean. And most of them are tombstones, are inscribed on tombstones. They are dedications that were given in sanctuaries, religious sanctuaries. some of them are state produced

06:51 - administrative texts as well. and they're usually very short. They're 2, 2, 4 lines long each about. but as I, was, as I kept looking at them and reading them and interpreting them, you know, they became revelatory to me because they really uncovered the social and cultural world of migrants that we don't usually look for or, or see. and the other thing

07:19 - that I did in the very initial stages of my research was actually visit, spend some time on Delos, because there was a significant population of Ians there. and then also sometime in museums in Italy and France and Greece to look at some of the material, like the tombstones, for instance, that I talk about in the book, immigrants, all immigrants, including definitions faced, some very practical problems, as immigrants

07:47 - that stemmed from their legal, legal status as immigrants, basically. So first of all, immigrants had to register once they arrived in their destination, if they stayed there longer than a prescribed amount of time, which we think was about a month in the Greek states. and they had to pay an immigrant tax. second, they faced many legal restrictions. They didn't have the right to own property, for example.

08:16 - So they couldn't, this meant that they couldn't be buried in public cemeteries because you had to own the plot of land for your grave. They couldn't build houses. They also couldn't build temples for their own gods. they didn't have the right to participate in government directly. So they had very little say over the conditions in which they lived. And their status as immigrants were, was inheritable.

08:42 - So if immigrants have children, their children were, were immigrants. If those children had children, they too, their children too would be immigrants. these are not the only legal restrictions that they face, but there are probably some of the more clear and important limitations that immigrants, that were imposed on immigrants in at least the Greek world. And there were other problems as well,

09:06 - like facing prejudice and discrimination or xenophobia. for example, we have some ancient texts from Athens that suggest that some sectors of the Aian society thought that immigrants were a concern. one specific treaties complains that, privileged immigrants and enslaved persons were practically indistinguishable from citizens in the way that they dressed or they, look or the rights that they had. So in other words, the person is complaining

09:45 - that immigrants passed as citizens, and this was the problem because it eroded the notion of citizenship that this person wanted to maintain. I'm sure this sounds familiar. So we know that this existed. And in addition to this, these kinds of attitudes existed. And in addition to these, IANS or rather, Greeks had a lot of stereotypes about Ians. They describe them as crafty and deceitful. the only professions we hear about are they were traders.

10:17 - They are for crafty and deceitful or bankers. They are for crafty and deceitful. So immigrants also had to deal with these kinds of, prejudices and these types of challenges. I think there's a good story, the story of Xeno, the founder of the Philosophical School of Stoicism, that illustrates I think some of these problems really well. stoicism was one of the most influential schools, philosophical schools in antiquity. And also it's widely regarded today as one

10:50 - of the major contributions of the ancient Greeks. But Zeno, the founder of this school, was not Greek. He was actually Ian. He was a Ian immigrant in Athens from the city state of Kiton, which is on the island of Cyprus. Modern day, Larnaca and Zeno became an immigrant in Athens, and he established his school in the very heart of Athens. It was actually really publicly accessible because it was in the marketplace.

11:20 - And then stoicism flourished, in Xenos time, but also among the Romans winning over people like the Emperor Marco Aurelius among its adherence. And also it continues to enjoy a lot of popularity today, because we have things like stoic week where people choose to live as stoics, for a week, corporate gurus who talk to corporations like Google about how stoicism can increase their profitability. so, the important thing here is to recognize that without migration

11:58 - and mobility, racism may not have developed into one of the most influential schools of antiquity or have taken the form that it did. And Xeno, the founder, this Finnish and immigrant in Athens, clearly was upwardly socially mobile. but he also faced a lot of discrimination. So, for example, his Greek teacher called him little Ian, which was a demeaning term of endearment.

12:27 - One of our ancient sources calls him stingy because he was a foreigner. another philosopher accused him of plagiarism, and he said that Zino stole his ideas and dressed them in Ian style. And we all even have some poetry from some of Zino students who tried to downplay the fact that he was a finian immigrant, right? So in addition to the legal restrictions that came with being an immigrant, immigrants had this sense

12:56 - of otherness imposed on them by their host communities. But even in the face of discrimination, they profoundly changed the societies in which they lived. So I think Zeno's story is a good, you know, example of this. Migrants were pretty resourceful in trying to deal with the legal limitations that were imposed upon them and the discrimination that they faced. One strategy that they adopted that perhaps facilitated their status

13:22 - as immigrants was name changing, which has been familiar, a familiar practice among immigrants for a long time. I live in the us so we can think of stories of immigrants arriving at Ellis Islands, right? And adopting English sounding names or being given English names. Many Ian migrants in ancient Greek communities and also in Egypt too, seem to have done the same and voluntarily changed their names to Greek sound ones,

13:54 - or even just Greek names, even at they adopted Greek names. one thing to note is that even as they did this, they never hid their origins. So in various tombstones that I study in the book, for example, they mentioned their Greek name, but they also give us their Ian name. They also tell us which Ian city they came from. And, they write this infinian as well. So by changing their names, they were not trying to hide their foreign origin,

14:29 - but name changing as a practice might have helped them. Ians, in this case, Ian immigrants acquire more class mobility, create stronger professional networks, lessen the prejudice that they encountered. So that's one strategy. another one that I Think is important is that they found a way to bypass the legal restrictions that host imposed on immigrants. and this was the creation of professional associations. Usually in the case, most of the professional associations that we know of are of traders.

15:13 - these institutions, these associations were basically like expat communities or cultural organizations that we have today, like the National Helen Society, or maybe the Alliance Francis, some, something like that. Not, not, doesn't quite overlap, but similar, as a, you know, what, without, without the right to own land, like migrants couldn't build their own temples without the right to participate directly in government,

15:43 - they didn't really have political say. Wealthy migrants found ways to circumvent these limitations as individuals, but for the rest of the migrant communities community, organizing into groups and working as a collective meant that they had more bargaining power. And this allowed them to basically almost lobby their host state. They could petition the host state for privileges for individual members

16:16 - or the right to own land, specifically so that they could build a temple to their ancestral gods. And we have several examples of such petitions that we are successful. And so the, the, these associations were granted these, requests that they made. This meant that migrants were able to worship their own gods in their own temples. Also, that they were able to introduce the worship of foreign divinities into their host states as well.

16:48 - And even though they did not have direct political stay in their host state, they were still able to influence it and influence its policies through these semi-autonomous quasi-state almost associations. the associations themselves mimicked, or the organization of the associations mimicked, the organization of a state. So it had its own governing bodies, it had its own officers, it made its own decisions. And eventually what we see is that over time,

17:27 - these associations were incorporated into the, political apparatus of the host state. So in a way, even though they didn't have direct political say, they could actually affect policy in the new society that they had joined, these, phenomenon I didn't mention, but it's specifically a Ian phenomenon on the fourth century, BCE. So it's one of the strategies that helped, migrants

18:00 - become active members of their, of the society that they, that they lived in. And over time, we have to imagine that, you know, tombstones with foreign alphabets, inscribed on them, and temples dedicated to foreign gods and names of individuals that sounded Greek, but were actually Venetian, that all of these things became integrated into the fabric of society, and they changed how cities looked. They altered the daily sounds of communities.

18:31 - And at the end of the day, I think we can say that migrants helped create states whose civic bodies were made up of diverse populations with different religions and different languages and different institutions. And both immigrants and migrants were, integral members of these communities who contributed to, and maintained and belonged, in the societies of their, new homes. Greek societies were profoundly altered by the presence

19:05 - of immigrants and of Ian immigrants. In the case of my book, have intellectuals like Zeno, for example, introduced new ideas. Finnish and traders created these associations, new institutions, basically that became part of a state's political economy. Migrants collectively helped form these multi-ethnic diverse societies that thrived throughout the Mediterranean and even made notions of citizenship more fluid. So traditionally we have idealized ancient

19:43 - Greek thought and politics and art. And what I hope is that my research shows that it's unlikely that Greek thought and politics and art would have taken the form they did without the contribution of migrants.

Faculti AI can make mistakes