Greek Migrant Literature in the Early Roman Empire

Casper C De Jonge

doi:10.1163/1568525x-bja10132

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that the concept of migrant literature, developed in postcolonial studies, is a useful tool for analysing Greek literature of the Early Roman Empire (27 BC-AD 68). The city of Rome attracted huge numbers of migrants from across the Mediterranean. Among them were many writers from Hellenized provinces like Egypt, Syria and Asia, who wrote in Greek. Leaving their native regions and travelling to Rome, they moved between cultures, responding in Greek to the new world order. Early imperial Greek writers include Strabo of Amasia, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Nicolaus of Damascus, Timagenes of Alexandria, Crinagoras of Mytilene, Philo of Alexandria and Paul of Tarsus. What connects these authors of very different origins, styles, beliefs, and literary genres is migrancy. They are migrant writers whose works are characterized by in-betweenness, ambivalence and polyphony.

Highlights

The Early Roman Empire (27 bc-ad 68) was an age of migration
This article argues that the concept of migrant literature, developed in postcolonial studies, is a useful tool for analysing Greek literature of the Early Roman Empire (27 bc-ad 68)
This article proposes a research agenda that aims to change the debate on Greek Literature in the Roman World in two ways: (a) it reads Greek literature of the Early Roman Empire no longer as ‘Greek literature’, but as ‘migrant literature’; and (b) it shifts the attention from the so-called Second Sophistic to the earliest period of the Roman Empire (27 bc-ad 68)

Summary

Introduction

The Early Roman Empire (27 bc-ad 68) was an age of migration. The city of Rome attracted huge numbers of migrants from across the Mediterranean. Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire.[4] These studies are not just interested in Greek texts that engage in explicit praise or criticism of Rome, but draw attention to more subtle discursive strategies They rightly argue that the Greek identity of the authors of Greek imperial literature is a cultural identity, which is not to be confused with ethnic identity.[5] Imperial authors deliberately adopted Greek styles, associating themselves with classical Greek language, literature and ideas.[6] Despite this important insight, most of the essays in Being Greek under Rome do not sufficiently address the local identities of the Greek authors of the Roman world.[7] The title of the volume itself still suggests a binary opposition between Rome and Greece, ignoring the crucial differences between places like Chaeronea, Prusa, or Samosata.[8].

A New Approach

A Postcolonial Approach

Geography

Conclusion