This paper analyzes how several authors, especially Cicero, used a well-known resour¬ce in rhetorical theory to characterize those considered enemies of the res publica. The identification of the hospitable person as the one that represents the nobilitas social and ethical values, let them portray the inhospitable one as the opposite: cruel, inhumane and politically useless. Keywords: Cicero, Verrinas, hospitium, political propaganda, rhetoric.