Integration & Acculturation: Different identities in the multicultural Roman Empire

Abstract

Integration & Acculturation: Different identities in the multicultural Roman Empire In this piece, Dr Felix K Maier, Professor for Ancient History at University of Zurich, analyzes intercultural dynamics in the Roman Empire. He explores how the acculturation to Roman culture by the inhabitants of the provinces often desired and promoted by the hegemonic power, was paradoxically ambivalent because it undermined the important dichotomy between ‘victors’ and ‘vanquished’ with which the hegemonic position was legitimized. Whilst exploring this topic, Dr Maier also provides a short case study of Hadrian and Roman subjects and the differences between his rule and previous emperors of the Roman Empire.