Fashioning the Future in Roman Greece: Memory, Monuments, Texts

Fashioning the Future in Roman Greece: Memory, Monuments, and Texts explores the complex relationship of elite Greeks to time during the Roman imperial period, challenging conventional views of imperial Greek temporality and the Second Sophistic. It emphasizes the value of interdisciplinary analysis and showcases how elites like Herodes Atticus, Arrian, Aelius Aristides, Lucian, Dio Chrysostom, Polemon, Pausanias, and Philostratus used literature and material culture to shape their commemorative strategies and navigate the tensions between the past and the future.

Format: Hardback
Length: 400 pages
Publication date: 09 February 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Fashioning the Future in Roman Greece: Memory, Monuments, Texts delves into the intricate relationship between the elite Greeks of the Roman imperial period and time, employing a diverse range of literary sources, inscriptions, art, and architecture to challenge prevailing notions about the temporal positioning of imperial Greece and the so-called Second Sophistic. This comprehensive work unveils the multifaceted nature of imperial Greek temporality, highlighting how contemporary cultural output strategically utilized the past to establish its place within tradition while also crafting its messages to resonate with the future. At the same time, it underscores the significance of interdisciplinary analysis in understanding elite culture in Roman Greece, as abundant evidence suggests that the purveyors of this culture were frequently involved in the production of both literature and material culture. Through a detailed examination of the works of influential figures such as Herodes Atticus, Arrian, Aelius Aristides, Lucian, Dio Chrysostom, Polemon, Pausanias, and Philostratus, the book reveals a shared rhetoric oriented toward posterity and informed by a heightened awareness of the fragility of cultural and personal memory across significant spans of time. By providing a sophisticated analysis of the tensions, anxieties, and opportunities inherent in the fashioning of commemorative strategies within the context of the Second Sophistic and the Roman empire, the book sheds light on the consequences of engaging with futurity on our understanding of the cultural and political concerns of elite imperial Greeks.

Weight: 1024g
Dimension: 253 x 198 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192866103