Becoming Roman, staying Greek: Culture, identity and the civilizing process in the Roman East

Abstract

The nature, and indeed the reality, of Romanization in the east is controversial. One of the most influential accounts of Romanization in the western provinces notes that ‘by contrast, where Greek was already the language of culture, of government and of inter-regional trade, the Romans carried further the process of Hellenization … in general what was specifically Latin in the common civilization of the empire made little impact in the east’, the exceptions being the influence of Roman law and the popularity of gladiatorial games. That verdict endorsed the view that ‘the emperors made no attempt to romanise the Greek speaking provinces’, which saw the foundation of cities as a continuance of Hellenistic royal practice, and which regarded the establishment of the rare eastern colonies as motivated by practical considerations rather than any attempt at encouraging cultural assimilation. More recently, a fuller survey of exceptions to this general rule nevertheless concluded that ‘On the one hand, the culture and identity of the Greek east remained fundamentally rooted in the Classical past. On the other hand, the visible presence of Rome, outside those zones where the legions were stationed, was extremely slight.’

Glocalization and Religious Communication in the Roman Empire: Two Case Studies to Reconsider the Local and the Global in Religious Material Culture

“…Woolf (1994Woolf ( , 1995Woolf ( , 1997Woolf ( , 2005 already argued that it is not helpful to approach cultural contact in the Roman world by holding up the dichotomy of natives versus Romans. On the question as to why globalization can offer a solution seeking a way forward beyond Romanization, Versluys (2014) makes a strong case by arguing for instance that the Roman world can be seen as one oikumene which is all about increased connectivity between localities culturally and socially interacting within the same (global) group.…”

16 ‘Ein völlig romanisierter Mann’? Identity, Identification, and Integration in the Roman History of Cassius Dio and in Arrian

“…9 Palm (1959, 81); Aalders (1986, 283); Reinhold (1986, 220); Gowing (1992, 1, 10 n. 6). 10 Millett (1990); Terrenato (1998); Woolf (1998); Mattingly (2002);Id. (2004);Id.…”

Poder e religião na Ásia Menor: o culto imperial

“…Identidades não são exclusivas, mas combinatórias (Cf. WOOLF, 1994;1997). Como ressalta Maurice Sartre (2007), em numerosas cidades da Ásia Menor, a identidade grega já era dupla: as cidades se tomam ao mesmo tempo por gregas e por gálatas, lídias, lícias, frígias etc.…”