Comparing Roman Hellenisms In Italy

Examines in detail the local, historical, and material circumstances that distinguish different types of Roman Hellenism

The story of Roman Hellenism—defined as the imitation or adoption of something Greek by those subject to or operating under Roman power—begins not with Roman incursions into the Greek mainland, but in Italy, where our most plentiful and spectacular surviving evidence is concentrated. Think of the architecture of the Roman capital, the Campanian towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum buried by Vesuvius, and the Hellenic culture of the Etruscans. Perhaps “everybody knows” that Rome adapted Greek culture in a steadily more “sophisticated” way as its prosperity and might increased. This volume, however, argues that the assumption of smooth continuity, let alone steady “improvement,” in any aspect of Roman Hellenism can blind us to important aspects of what Roman Hellenism really is and how it functions in a given context. As the first book to focus on the comparison of Roman Hellenisms per se, Comparing Roman Hellenisms in Italy shows that such comparison is especially valuable in revealing how any singular instance of the phenomenon is situated and specific, and has its own life, trajectory, circumstances, and afterlife. Roman Hellenism is always a work in progress, is often strategic, often falls prey to being forgotten, decontextualized, or reread in later periods, and thus is in important senses contingent. Further, what we may broadly identify as a Roman Hellenism need not imply Rome as the only center of influence. Roman Hellenism is often decentralized, and depends strongly on local agents, aesthetics, and materials. With this in mind, the essays concentrate geographically on Italy to lend both focus and breadth to our topic, as well as to emphasize the complex interrelation of Hellenism at Rome with Rome’s surroundings. Because Hellenism, whether as practiced by Romans or Rome’s subjects, is in fact widely diffused across far-flung geographical regions, the final part of the collection gestures to this broader context.

This book explores Roman love elegy from postcolonial perspectives, arguing that the tropes, conventions, and discourses of the Augustan genre serve to reinforce the imperial identity of its elite, metropolitan audience. Love elegy presents the phenomena and discourses of Roman imperialism—in terms of visual spectacle (the military triumph), literary genre (epic in relation to elegy), material culture (art and luxury goods), and geographic space—as intersecting with ancient norms of gender and sexuality in a way that reinforces Rome’s dominance in the Mediterranean. The introductory chapter lays out the postcolonial frame, drawing from the work of Edward Said among other theorists, and situates love elegy in relation to Roman Hellenism and the varied Roman responses to Greece and its cultural influences. Four of the six subsequent chapters focus on the rhetorical ambivalence that characterizes love elegy’s treatment of Greek influence: the representation of the domina or mistress as simultaneously a figure for ‘captive Greece’ and a trope for Roman imperialism; the motif of the elegiac triumph, with varying figures playing the triumphator, as suggestive of Greco-Roman cultural rivalry; Rome’s competing visions of an Attic and an Asiatic Hellenism. The second and the final chapter focus on the figures of Osiris and Isis, respectively, as emblematic of Rome’s colonialist and ambivalent representation of Egypt, with the conclusion offering a deconstructive reading of elegy’s rhetoric of orientalism.

Ovid's Fasti comments on Augustan religion by means of ambivalent aetiologies, elegiac jokes and subtle allusions to the religious self-fashioning of the imperial family. Darja Sterbenc Erker carefully reconstructs Ovid's subtle unmasking of religious fundaments of Augustus' principate.

This book demonstrates that the carefully chosen Greek words in Persius’ programmatic passages play a significant role in the context of his literary criticism: they allow him to express his objection to the Graecizing poetic compositions of his day more convincingly, while facilitating intertextual dialogues with many writers. Greek words that occur in programmatic passages throw into relief various pathologies of poetry which Persius disapproves of and which contribute effectively to a justification of his rejection. However, this practice, which does not continue into the rest of his work, where Greek words are incorporated into the satirist’s thought more harmoniously, appears to serve specific expediencies and should not be considered characteristic of Persius’ attitude towards Greek culture in general. Besides, the satiric persona adopts a positive stance regarding Greek philosophy or comedy and criticizes the ignorant critics of Greek culture, while many aspects of Greek thought enrich his own poetry in several passages. Thus, despite the intensity with which he turns against the Graecizing compositions of his day, generalizations regarding an anti-Hellenic stance on Persius’ part should be deemed unfounded.

Abstract: Already in the Praefatio of Livy's work the metaphor of the importation of foreign influence is apparent. Livy chooses the annalistic narrative style as the most Roman form possible and a self-construction as an author who valorizes traditional Roman values. These authorial decisions on the modality of the narrative are intimately linked to tropology and the manufacturing of the metaphors and ironies that frame Livy's text in books 31-45. Roman control in Thessaly is asserted by manufacturing communities in its image. These collapse miserably when the guiding Roman metaphors are questioned. The failure of Roman institutions is depicted as evidence of the restless nature of the Thessalians. A representative image of Thessaly is given in the character of Theoxena, a Thessalian exile who kills herself at a festival of Aeneas. Her story allows Romans to form an emotional bond with the Thessalians, although it maintains their essential alterity. The Galatian campaign of Manlius Vulso shows the dangers of Rome's encounter with Hellenism. The Galatians are presented as Gallic-Greek hybrids who are no longer the great Gallic warriors of the past. Manlius defeats them, but the anecdotes of extortion and rape show that the Roman general is corrupted by his encounter with Asia. In the end, his methods are indistinguishable from those of his Galatian opponents. These themes are emphasized in the speech of the Commissioners against Manlius' request for a triumph. The Bacchanalia shows Hellenism as a contamination that spreads through Italy and infects Rome. Throughout the narrative, Hellenism is depicted as a virus that threatens Rome. Its source is an ignoble Greek, and it eventually infects the Roman nobles. Eventually the consul reasserts Roman control in Italy through a bloody purge. The story shows the close connection of home and abroad or city and empire. Similar themes of infectious Hellenism are described in the story of Cato's censorship and the discovery of Numa's books on the Janiculum. These metaphors of Hellenism as an infectious hybridity culminate in the Macedonian ironies of book 40. The description of Perseus and Demetrius involves an implicit contrast to the rivalry of Romulus and Remus. Their antagonism is placed in a ritual context that invites comparison to Roman customs. The story conveys differences between Rome and Macedon, as if to dissolve the hybridities that threaten Roman purity. These are particularly shown as a threat to empire in the career of Marcus Philippus, whose deceptive foreign policy is depicted as embodying Hellenistic rather than Roman values. This reading shows the unity of Livy's narrative of the Macedonian wars. Its theoretical use is shown in an examination of a Livy's story about a lunar eclipse before the battle of Pydna and the defeat of Macedonia.

In this revisionist study of Roman imperialism in the Greek world, Gruen considers the Hellenistic context within which Roman expansion took place. The evidence discloses a preponderance of Greek rather than Roman ideas: a noteworthy readiness on the part of Roman policymakers to adjust to Hellenistic practices rather than to impose a system of their own.

A collection of articles from a seminar on Hellenism in Italy, held in Copenhagen in 1993. They cover a wide spectrum of topics and reflect an interdisciplinary collaboration.Pia Guldager Bilde, Inge Nielsen & Marjatta Nielsen: IntroductionJesper Carlsen: Le città della Magna Grecia e loro sviluppo in età ellenisticaLars Karlsson: Did the Romans Allow the Sicilian Greeks to Fortify Their Cities in the Third Century BC?Tobias Fischer-Hansen: Apulia and Etruria in the Early Hellenistic period. A SurveyKarina Mitens: Theatre Architecture in Central Italy: Reception and ResistanceIngrid Strøm: Pontecagnano- Picentia: A Hellenistic Town in the Former Etruscan CampaniaLise Bek: From Eye-Sight to View-Planning: The Notion of Greek Philosophy and Hellenistic Optics as a Trend in Roman Aesthetics and Building PracticePia Guldager Bilde: The International Style: Aspects of Pompeian First Style and Its Eastern EquivalentsFlemming Gorm Andersen: Roman Figural Painting in the Hellenistic AgeSimon Laursen: Greek Intelectuals in Rome- Some ExamplesBenedicte Mygind: The Hellenization of the Latin VocabularyMette Moltesen: Lapis albanus: A Group of Hellenistic Sculptures in PeperinoJacob Isager: The Hellenization of Rome. Luxuria or liberalitas?Christian Høgel: The Poetic I in Hellenistic and Augustan PoetryHelle Salskov Roberts: The Creation of a Religious Iconography in Etruria in the Hellenistic PeriodMarjatta Nielsen: Cultural Orientations in Etruria in the Hellenistic Period: Greek Myths and Local Motifs on Volterran Urn ReliefsJohn Lund: Rhodian Amphorae as Evidence for the Relations between Late Punic Carthage and Rhodes

Explores the rise of nationalism among the Greeks at the time of the Roman Empire, and their claims to cultural superiority over the Romans. This work offers a reassessment of the traditional picture of Roman political and cultural domination.

The Central Apennine peoples, represented alternately as decadent and dangerous snake-charming barbarians or as personifications of manly wisdom and virtue, as austere and worthy "new men", were important figures in Greek and Roman ideology. Concentrating on the period between the later fourth century BC and the aftermath of the Social War, this book considers the ways in which Greek and Roman perceptions of these peoples developed, reflecting both the shifting needs of Greek and Roman societies and the character of interaction between the various cultures of ancient Italy. Most importantly, it illuminates the development of a specifically Roman identity, through the creation of an ideology of incorporation. The book is also about the interface between these attitudes and the dynamics of the perception of local communities in Italy of themselves, illuminated by both literary and archaeological evidence. An important new contribution to modern debates on Greek and Roman perceptions of other peoples, the book argues that the closely interactive conditions of ancient Italy helped to produce far less distanced and exotic images than those of the barbarians in fifth-century Athenian thought.