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Syrian identity in the Greco-Roman world / Nathanael J. Andrade.

By: Andrade, Nathanael JMaterial type: TextTextSeries: Greek culture in the Roman worldPublisher: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2013Description: xxiii, 412 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cmContent type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9781107012059 (hardback); 9781108456531 (paperback)Subject(s): Identity (Psychology) -- Syria -- History -- To 1500 | Group identity -- Syria -- History -- to 1500 | Syria -- History -- 333 B.C.-634 A.D | Syria -- Civilization -- Greek influences | Syria -- Civilization -- Roman influencesDDC classification: 939.4/305 LOC classification: DS96.2 | .A63 2013Online resources: Contributor biographical information | Publisher description | Table of contents only
Contents:
Machine generated contents note: Introduction: signification and cultural performance in Roman imperial Syria; Part I. Greek Poleis and the Syrian Ethnos (2nd century BCE-1st century CE): 1. Antiochus IV and the limits of Greekness under the Seleucids (175-63 BCE); 2. The theater of the frontier: local performance, Roman rulers (63-31 BCE); 3. Converging paths: Syrian Greeks of the Roman Near East (31 BCE-CE 73); Part II. Greek Collectives in Syria (1st-3rd centuries CE): 4. The Syrian Ethnos' Greek cities: dispositions and hegemonies (1st-3rd centuries CE); 5. Cities of imperial frontiers (1st-3rd centuries CE); 6. Hadrian and Palmyra: contrasting visions of Greekness (1st-3rd centuries CE); 7. Dura-Europos: changing paradigms for civic Greekness; Part III. Imitation Greeks: Being Greek and Being Other (2nd and 3rd centuries CE): 8. Greeks write Syria: performance and the signification of Greekness; 9. The theater of empire: Lucian, cultural performance, and Roman rule; 10. Syria writes back: Lucian and On the Syrian Goddess; 11. The ascendency of Syrian Greekness and Romanness; Conclusion.
Summary: "By engaging with recent developments in the study of empires, this book examines how inhabitants of Roman imperial Syria reinvented expressions and experiences of Greek, Roman and Syrian identification. It demonstrates how the organization of Greek communities and a peer polity network extending citizenship to ethnic Syrians generated new semiotic frameworks for the performance of Greekness and Syrianness. Within these, Syria's inhabitants reoriented and interwove idioms of diverse cultural origins, including those from the Near East, to express Greek, Roman and Syrian identifications in innovative and complex ways. While exploring a vast array of written and material sources, the book thus posits that Greekness and Syrianness were constantly shifting and transforming categories, and it critiques many assumptions that govern how scholars of antiquity often conceive of Roman imperial Greek identity, ethnicity and culture in the Roman Near East, and processes of 'hybridity' or similar concepts"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Books The BIAA David H. French Library
Shelf 39 - Main Room
H1b ANDRA 30469 Not for loan BOOKS-000000023376

Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-396) and index.

Machine generated contents note: Introduction: signification and cultural performance in Roman imperial Syria; Part I. Greek Poleis and the Syrian Ethnos (2nd century BCE-1st century CE): 1. Antiochus IV and the limits of Greekness under the Seleucids (175-63 BCE); 2. The theater of the frontier: local performance, Roman rulers (63-31 BCE); 3. Converging paths: Syrian Greeks of the Roman Near East (31 BCE-CE 73); Part II. Greek Collectives in Syria (1st-3rd centuries CE): 4. The Syrian Ethnos' Greek cities: dispositions and hegemonies (1st-3rd centuries CE); 5. Cities of imperial frontiers (1st-3rd centuries CE); 6. Hadrian and Palmyra: contrasting visions of Greekness (1st-3rd centuries CE); 7. Dura-Europos: changing paradigms for civic Greekness; Part III. Imitation Greeks: Being Greek and Being Other (2nd and 3rd centuries CE): 8. Greeks write Syria: performance and the signification of Greekness; 9. The theater of empire: Lucian, cultural performance, and Roman rule; 10. Syria writes back: Lucian and On the Syrian Goddess; 11. The ascendency of Syrian Greekness and Romanness; Conclusion.

"By engaging with recent developments in the study of empires, this book examines how inhabitants of Roman imperial Syria reinvented expressions and experiences of Greek, Roman and Syrian identification. It demonstrates how the organization of Greek communities and a peer polity network extending citizenship to ethnic Syrians generated new semiotic frameworks for the performance of Greekness and Syrianness. Within these, Syria's inhabitants reoriented and interwove idioms of diverse cultural origins, including those from the Near East, to express Greek, Roman and Syrian identifications in innovative and complex ways. While exploring a vast array of written and material sources, the book thus posits that Greekness and Syrianness were constantly shifting and transforming categories, and it critiques many assumptions that govern how scholars of antiquity often conceive of Roman imperial Greek identity, ethnicity and culture in the Roman Near East, and processes of 'hybridity' or similar concepts"-- Provided by publisher.