Contra os bárbaros

 Arquias  pede  a cidadania romana . É estrangeiro apesar de ter nascido na  Lucânia. Há um problema burocrático.

 Cícero transforma  o estrangeiro em  doméstico  e a  poesia na língua universal:

("...) but these studies are the food of youth, the delight of old age; the ornament of prosperity, the refuge and comfort of adversity; a delight at home, and no hindrance abroad; they are companions by night, and in travel, and in the country".

e depois:

 
"The Colophonians say that Homer was their citizen; the Chians claim him as theirs; the Salaminians assert their right to him; but the men of Smyrna loudly assert him to be a citizen of Smyrna, and they have even raised a temple to him in their city. Many other places also fight with one another for the honour of being his birth-place.
     They, then, claim a stranger, even after his death, because he was a poet; shall we reject this man while he is alive, a man who by his own inclination and by our laws does actually belong to us?".

(Cícero, Pro Archia Poeta, trad. C.D.Young)