Being Greek under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire

by Simon Goldhill (Editor)

These especially commissioned essays open up a fascinating and novel perspective on a crucial era of Western culture. In the second century CE the Roman empire dominated the Mediterranean, but Greek culture maintained its huge prestige. At the same time, Christianity and Judaism were vying for followers against the lures of such an elite cultural life. This book looks at how writers in Greek from all areas of Empire society responded to their political position, to intellectual authority, to religious and social pressures.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

404 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 2001

About the author

Simon David Goldhil is Professor in Greek literature and culture and fellow and Director of Studies in Classics at King's College, Cambridge. He was previously Director of Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge, succeeding Mary Jacobus in October 2011. He is best known for his work on Greek tragedy.
In 2009, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010, he was appointed as the John Harvard Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at Cambridge, a research position held concurrently with his chair in Greek.
In 2016, he became a fellow of the British Academy. He is a member of the Council of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Board of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes, and is President of the European Institutes for Advanced Study (NetIAS).
Goldhill is a well-known lecturer and broadcaster and has appeared on television and radio in England, Australia, the United States and Canada. His books have been translated into ten languages, and he has been profiled by newspapers in Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent set of essays dealing with cultural identity in the context of the perennial tensions between Hellenism and Romanization. Like most selection, some of the essays contained in this volume are easier to follow than others and this book does expect acquaintance with the sources (not that my acquaintance is that deep, but I'm, at least, aware of them). The topic isn't necessarily the most popular, but I wonder if this period doesn't have a lot to say to we late-moderns, especially in that sense that everything has been said that needs to be said. That may explain our revival of interest in the period.