In the Greek world, they really just lay them loose day in and day out, at least with the Greeks in the Roman empire. They just went off on anybody. But this was thing in Hellenic and Hellenistic days too

Yes, there is Martial and Juvenal, but they just sort of tap them on the wrist. But in the Greek world, everybody mocks everybody, I mean folks just have this culture of arguing with each other.

I do see how Cicero can be pretty offensive to religious people but he always tries to play off as prudent and gentlemanly, borrowing many things from the Academy.

People mock Lucullus, Caesar, Cicero, even the imperial family of the Julio-Claudians. But I hardly see them mocking the old heroes.

I mean it was certainly shocking to mock Achilles and all of Homeric heroes, but many of them just did it anyways, many mocked Hercules and Theseus, I mean even Statius gives this a try, and he was Greek and Latin. But never the old Roman heroes.

I also mean to bring up criticize as well. Plutarch is an example of one of these Roman Greeks who's always wagging his fingers at people's morals. Favorinus spoke Latin and Greek and he was very cheeky but he never really insulted the old heroes, I do think that Plutarch does give Cato a little tap on the wrist. But he is also very gentlemanly and Academic so that's that.

Even when we get to Julian who makes fun of all the emperors in his favorite comedy, he doesn't really poke fun at the old Scipios and Macedonicus, and Cato and so forth.

Was it always a bit taboo to criticize them?

Would Livy even count? He doesn't seem to me as critical of the old heroes the way Herodotus and Thucydides were.