Ethnicity issues with the Roman Empire

[Calvo]

Roman society placed great emphasis on whether its inhabitants were Roman citizens, foreigners, or slaves. While contemporary sources often made ethnic classifications of their enemies and non-Romans, little mention has been made about ethnic difference between Roman citizens.
Yet even from republican times, Roman citizens had always consisted of people of different ethnicities, as citizenship was often granted to entire tribes or cities who had shown their loyalty to Rome. Just by the fact that they were given a paper that stated that they were Roman citizens, it wouldn't necessarily mean that they would automatically forget their ancestral identities as Samnites, Oscans, Etruscans, Celts, Celti-Iberians, Lybians, Britons or Illyrians, considering that many of these peoples were culturally very distinct with deep-rooted traditions.

However, unlike the multi-ethnic empires of the 19th and 20th centuries such as the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian empires where ethnic differences often threatened the division of the empire, all ethnicities with Roman citizenship seemed more or less united, with the only differences arising perhaps the Greek-speaking East and the Latin-speaking West.

Have there been any records of ethnic conflicts among people already awarded with Roman citizenship?

[Epictetus]

How would you define "ethnic conflict"?

[Paul Elliott]

How would you define "ethnic conflict"?

Hate crimes? Racial persecution? Wholesale slaughter of a minority community?

[Calvo]

"Ethnic conflicts" mean exactly the same issue as in the 19th-20th century context: of lynching and gang fights in ethnically-mixed areas, or one ethnicity claiming to be the more legitimate residents of a certain territory, uprisings, pogroms...., or Roman citizens of Italian origin claiming to be "more Roman" than someone of Celtic, Libyan or Iberian stock.
The only example I can think of are the anti-Jewish riots in Alexandria.

[Nathan Ross]

The only example I can think of are the anti-Jewish riots in Alexandria.

That's the only thing that springs to mind. Although the actual ethnicity of 'Greeks' and 'Jews' in the melting pot of Alexandria may not have been as clear as the sources make out - the conflict was more on cultural and religious lines. However, there were also anti-Jewish riots in the cities of Syria and elsewhere; quite possibly the more deeply-rooted ethnic diversity of the east, coupled perhaps with the proximity of Parthia/Persia, made such differences more noticeable and potentially more dangerous.

Roman citizens of Italian origin claiming to be "more Roman" than someone of Celtic, Libyan or Iberian stock.

There was certainly ethnic antagonism, particularly between those of longstanding Roman status and more recent arrivals - this runs from slurs against citizens from Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) in the late republic, to Juvenal complaining that the 'dregs' of the Greek-speaking east are flooding Rome 'ready to worm their way into the houses of the great and become their masters', through to Septimius Severus having a superstitious aversion to black people (which is ironic, considering he was from North Africa!)

But whether any of this casual xenophobia spilled over into actual violence is hard to say. It seems not, or if it did then the ethnic aspect is obscured in the sources that might record it. Violence seem to have been more common between rival towns and cities than rival ethnic groups - the amphitheatre riot between the citizens of Pompeii and Nuceria in AD59, for example, mentioned by Tacitus and celebrated by a wall painting in Pompeii itself (the Pompeiians won, apparently!)

[Gaius Colletti]

After Vespasian took power wasn't there a legion and auxiliary unit stationed in the same town in northern Italy? They antagonized each other before the legionaries massacred several auxiliaries and then set part of the town on fire before they were restationed?

[Epictetus]

The Alexandrian riots would be a good example, but I believe Desmond was interested in such conflict between Roman citizens. At the time of the riots I doubt if many (or any) people taking part would have had citizenship. Later, when citizenship had been granted to most free-born males, there might be some ethnic incidents. However, some might argue by that time the benefits of citizenship and its aspects of 'civic binding' had been devalued.

There was certainly ethnic tension between citizens - the Greek Herodes Atticus' feuds with the Italians comes to mind, and he specifically blames ethnic issues - but I can't think of actual violence between different ethnic groups who had the citizenship.

[Nathan Ross]

wasn't there a legion and auxiliary unit stationed in the same town in northern Italy? They antagonized each other before the legionaries massacred several auxiliaries and then set part of the town on fire before they were restationed?

That was during the civil war of AD69 - following the battle of Cremona, Legio XIV (who had fought for Otho) and several cohorts of Batavians (who had been on Vitellius's side) were stationed in Turin and fell to fighting. Part of the town was indeed burned. Whether this rivalry was based on their part in the recent battle, or perhaps a longer-standing antagonism dating from service together in Britain, or was connected in some way with the Batavian revolt that flared up later that same year, we don't know. The Batavians, in any case, would not have been citizens.

[Calvo]

After Vespasian took power wasn't there a legion and auxiliary unit stationed in the same town in northern Italy? They antagonized each other before the legionaries massacred several auxiliaries and then set part of the town on fire before they were restationed?

Were they punished for this? As I'm sure that killing fellow soldiers during peacetime would be a crime