Provincial Perspectives

Catalog description

Most of the primary sources available to us are commonly taken to reflect the ideology, concepts, and realities of Roman imperial rule through the lenses of the central power. However, a number of sources provide insights into how provincials and imperial subjects perceived the empire and their own status within its political, cultural, and social frameworks. In this seminar, we will focus on how ethnic, religious, cultural, and regional identities were developed, maintained, adapted, and interpreted within and in reaction to the empire in concept and reality. Historiographical and auto-ethnographic works, orations, philosophical, and religious texts reflect different attitudes towards the imperial center, ranging from open hostility and frustrated acceptance to praise and identification. Texts to be discussed include canonical works (Polybius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Second Sophistic) as well as lesser-known texts and authors. Special emphasis will be laid on scholarly approaches, including concepts of identity, hybridization and cultural change, the dynamics of imperial integration, and the (de-)construction of modern narratives of Romanization.