Local Knowledge and Microidentities in the Imperial Greek World

by Tim Whitmarsh

Overview

This volume explores the proposition that the absorption of the Greek world into the Roman empire created a new emphasis upon local identities, much as globalisation in the modern world has done. Localism became the focal point for complex debates: in some cases, it was complementary with imperial objectives, but in others tension can be discerned. The volume as a whole seeks to add texture and nuance to the existing literature on Greek identity, which has tended in recent years to emphasise the umbrella category of the Greek, to the detriment of specific polis and regional identities. It also contributes to the growing literature on the Romanisation of provinces, by emphasising the dialogue between a region's self-identification as a distinct space and its self-awareness as a component of the centrally-governed empire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521761468
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/22/2010
Series:	Greek Culture in the Roman World
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tim Whitmarsh is fellow, tutor and E. P. Warren Praelector at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. A specialist in Greek literature and culture of the Roman period, he has written over 50 books and articles on the topic, including Greek Literature and the Roman Empire: The Politics of Imitation (Oxford University Press, 2001) and The Second Sophistic (Cambridge University Press, 2005). He has lectured all over the world, appeared on BBC radio, and written for the Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations vii

Notes on the contributors viii

Editor's note x

List of abbreviations xi

1 Thinking local Tim Whitmarsh 1

2 Imperial identities Clifford Ando 17

3 What is local identity? The politics of cultural mapping Simon Goldhill 46

4 Europa's sons: Roman perceptions of Cretan identity Ilaria Romeo 69

5 The Ionians of Paphlagonia Stephen Mitchell 86

6 Ancestry and identity in the Roman empire Christopher Jones 111

7 Making space for bicultural identity: Herodes Atticus commemorates Regilla Maud Gleason 125

8 Being Termessian: local knowledge and identity politics in a Pisidian city Onno van Nijf 163

9 Afterword: the local and the global in the Graeco-Roman east Greg Woolf 189

References 201

Index 225

Editorial Reviews

"The nine chapters, whose authors represent an all-star cast of thinkers about this period, are all innovative and well-written."
Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"… an interesting volume on an interesting subject."
Arctos

From the Publisher