Anti-Greek sentiment

Anti-Greek sentiment, also known as Hellenophobia (Greek: ελληνοφοβία, romanized: ellinophobía), anti-Hellenism (Greek: ανθελληνισμός, romanized: anthellinismós), mishellenism (Greek: μισελληνισμός, romanized: misellinismós), or Greek-bashing, refers to negative attitudes, dislike, hatred, derision, racism, prejudice, stereotypes, or discrimination towards Greeks, the Hellenic Republic, or Greek culture. Hellenophobia is the opposite of philhellenism.

In the mid–Republican period, Roman intellectuals, both phil-Hellenic and anti-Hellenic, were involved in a conflict over Greek influence. One author explains, "the relationship of Romans to Greek culture was frequently ambiguous: they admired it as superior and adopted its criteria, while they remained skeptical of some aspects; hence they adapted it selectively according to their own purposes." An anti-Hellenic movement emerged in reaction to the primacy of Greek, led by the conservative and reactionary statesman Cato the Elder (234–149 BC), who was the first to write a Roman history in Latin and was prominent for his anti-Hellenic views. He considered Hellenism as a threat to Roman culture; however, his views did not receive widespread public approval, especially amongst the upper class of Roman society. However, Erich S. Gruen argued that Cato's "anti-Greek 'pronouncements' reflect deliberate posturing and do not represent 'the core of Catonian thought'." The prominent philosopher and politician Cicero (106–43 BC) was "highly ambivalent" about Greeks, and practiced "anti-Greek slur." The first-second century poet Juvenal was another major anti-Hellenic figure.

In the aftermath of the East–West Schism of 1054, anti-Greek sentiments gained widespread traction in the Latin West (dominated by the Roman Catholic Church). It reached its climax during the Fourth Crusade, most notably, with the 1204 sack of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, by the Crusader and Venetian forces, and the subsequent establishment of the Latin Empire by the Crusaders.

In East Sicily, Calabria, and Malta, Christian Greeks were persecuted by Arabs during the period of the Emirate of Sicily. Later on, Latin-speaking Catholics persecuted the Orthodox Greeks in Eastern Sicily, and Arabic-speaking Catholics persecuted the Orthodox Greeks in Malta.

During the interwar period (1918–1939), the Albanian government closed down many Greek schools as part of its forced assimilation policies.

During the Communist rule in Albania (1944–1992), the Albanian communist government severely restricted the use of the Greek language and Greek names by the country's Greek minority in an attempt at its forced assimilation. During the Greek Civil War, anti-Greek sentiments were alarmingly widespread in the country, especially in the circle of Enver Hoxha, the communist leader of Albania. These negative attitudes towards Greeks continued, at the very least, until 1985, when Hoxha passed away.

In post-Communist Albania, "there are no significant explicitly racist or chauvinist political parties", although, according to James Pettifer, "there are many individual politicians who adhere to very strong anti-Greek views, which in turn affects the orientation of virtually all ethnic Albanian political parties." In a 2013 poll in Albania, Greece topped the list of countries perceived to be a threat to Albania (18.5%), although the plurality of respondents (46.4%) agreed with the statement "No country is a threat to Albania."

Greeks in Australia have been subject to discrimination. During World War I, due to King Constantine I's pro-German sympathies, Greek immigrants were viewed with hostility and suspicion. Anti-Greek riots occurred in Sydney in 1915, Perth in 1915, and in Kalgoorlie in 1916.