Note 91 — Chapter III · ORIGIN AND LANDSCAPE (C) THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CULTURES

It is difficult to describe this class in a few words. Roughly, they (and the “Junian Latins,” so called, who were excepted with them) represented a stratum of Roman society, largely composed of “undesirables,” which was only just not servile. In the older legislation they were necessarily lumped with the outer world as peregrins, but when Caracalla made this outer world “Roman,” there were obvious reasons against bringing these people into the fold as well. In somewhat the same way the word “outsider” is used in colloquial English with the dual meaning of a foreigner or non-member, and a socially undesirable person.—Tr.