Neo-Phoenician Identities in the Roman Empire

2019 ◽  
pp. 683-696
Author(s):  
Anthony Kaldellis
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
The Third ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
The City

By the later empire, Phoenician cultural traits that might have sustained a separate ethnic identity had either disappeared (e.g., language) or been amalgamated into the Greco-Roman mainstream (e.g., the ancient cults). A “Phoenician” was now a person or city from one of the provinces which the Romans labeled Phoenice. Discussion of Phoenician culture by scholars from those provinces (such as Maximos and Porphyry of Tyre) and local constructions of Phoenician identity relied instead on Greek cultural resources—e.g., the tale of Cadmus. The sociological concept of “symbolic ethnicity” is appropriate for these antiquarian constructions, which accommodated the Roman order. Yet perhaps more durable survivals can be detected behind the conventions of classical tropes, for example Philon of Byblos did have access to authentic ancient traditions and Punic survived in the Roman west. In the third century, the city of Emesa became a focal point for discussions of Phoenician culture, especially when the emperor Elabagalus sought to promote its sun-god at Rome. The emperor Julian developed a largely fictitious Phoenician theology based on the creative ethnophilosophy of the Platonist Iamblichus. Finally, Phoenicians feature prominently in the Greek and Latin novels of the Imperial period, prompting questions about the stereotypical traits that made them so suitable for stories about romantic adventures.

The Roman Cult of Hercules

2021 ◽  
pp. 488-506
Author(s):  
Christopher Siwicki
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
The City ◽  
Greek World

This chapter explores the cult of Hercules through an examination of the construction of temples to the god in the city of Rome, from the sixth the century BC to the third century AD. Beginning with the earliest evidence for cult sites to Hercules, the chapter discusses the Great Altar in the Forum Boarium, before going on to consider the importance of the deity to Rome’s triumphators in the second and first centuries BC. The popularity of Hercules among leading Republican politicians is reflected in the erection of a number of significant and architecturally innovative shrines, notably that of Marcus Fulvius Nobilior in the Circus Flamininus, the round temple in the Forum Boarium, and the enormous sanctuary to Hercules Victor at neighboring Tibur. The discussion brings out both Hercules’ relevance as a militaristic figure and the enduring association between his cult in Rome and his cult in the Greek world. There was an apparent dearth of new temples to Hercules built in Rome during the imperial period and the chapter concludes by considering the last of these, the dual temple of Bacchus and Hercules.

Apologetic Literature and Ambassadorial Activities

1989 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Schoedel
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Previous Analysis ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Rhetorical Tradition ◽  
The Third ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The People ◽  
Literary Character

The following study on aspects of the form of apologetic literature in the early church and Judaism grows out of a previous analysis of themes in the apologist Athenagoras that reflect the manner of praising kings in the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition. My argument was that, although Athenagoras'sLegatiois correctly read as apologetic literature, the task of the orator to render the judge well disposed to his cause is carried out by Athenagoras by calling on familiar epideictic strategies known to us primarily from Menander's (or Ps.- Menander's) codification of them in the third century. Meanwhile, Robert M. Grant has reoriented my discussion of Athenagoras by reading it against the background provided by Fergus Millar in the latter's detailed investigation of the activities of the Roman emperors in meeting the appeals and requests of the people of the Roman empire. Here the fact that Athenagoras's apology is entitled “Embassy” is seen as significant in the light of the importance of embassies in presenting appeals and requests to the emperor. It seems natural to look at the kinds of addresses that ambassadors gave in such circumstances for more precise clues to the literary character of the Christian apologies. The following study is intended as a contribution to the inquiry that has been opened up by that suggestion.

The Transformation of Cities in Late Antiquity within the Provinces of Macedonia and Epirus

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-P. SODINI
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
General Situation ◽  
Local Production ◽  
The Third ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
The City

The provinces of Epirus and Macedonia, although divided into distinct regions by their mountains, were important for the Roman Empire, particularly because they were crossed by the via Egnatia which snaked its way eastwards, serving as the vital link between Rome and Constantinople at a time when insecurity was increasing along the Danubian frontier. From the middle of the third century, cities in this part of the Empire were under threat and their fortifications were reinforced in the fifth (Thessalonika) and sixth centuries (Byllis under Justininian). There was prosperity in the fourth century and beginning of the fifth. During the fifth century, the houses of Philippi were partly transformed into workshops. The sixth century was difficult and the second half was especially bleak. However, contacts between east and west were still maintained, along with local production. From 540–550, however, barbarian invasions and plague worsened the general situation. Graves appeared inside the city walls. Archaeology (Slav pottery and fibulae) and texts (Miracula Sancti Demetrii) all demonstrate how hard times were from the 580s to the 630s.

The Head-Capitals of Sardis

1967 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 12-22
Author(s):  
Nancy L. Hirschland
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Third ◽  
Independent Unit ◽  
The Rich ◽  
On The Road ◽  
The City ◽  
Roman East

Sardis, most famous as the capital of Lydia in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., was also a major Roman city under the Roman empire. The wealth of Croesus had dissipated, but the Roman inhabitants of Sardis again had the good fortune to live in a prosperous time. The fertility of the Hermus plain and its strategic inland position on the road to the Roman east stood the city in good stead. Nowhere among the ruins of Sardis is the opulence of the third century better to be seen than in the rich and elaborate Marble Court of the Roman gymnasium.The Marble Court was first built, along with the gymnasium proper, under Lucius Verus in A.D. 165. At that time it served as an independent unit which was connected with—but did not lead directly into—the gymnasium. It was architecturally a part of the palaestra in front. Then in the early third century (212–213) elaborate additions were made : pavilions adorned three sides of the court, a monumental pedimented gate led into the gymnasium, and on the fourth side a screen colonnade was erected between the Marble Court and the palaestra. From this colonnade have come most of the head-capitals at Sardis (fig. 1).

Environmental Change, the Acts of John, and Shifting Cultic Landscapes in Late Antique Ephesus

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-215
Author(s):  
Travis Proctor
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Cultural Shift ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The City

The city of Ephesus experienced a marked civic transformation in Late Antiquity. After having centered its settlements and economic fortunes on its proximity to a deep-water harbor for over a millenium, late antique Ephesus gradually shifted to an inland, fortified settlement on Ayasoluk Hill. While several factors undoubtedly informed this civic reorientation, the most commonly cited impetus for Ephesus’s late antique reorientation was the infilling of its deep-water harbor. This article argues that, in addition to this environmental cause, an important cultural shift correspondingly informed Ephesus’s late antique reconfigurations. Namely, the emergence and development of the tomb of John on Ayasoluk Hill, informed by an array of literary legends associating the apostle with the city, increasingly positioned this site as a cultic and economic focal point in Late Antiquity. This article argues that an important early strand in this cultural fabric was the Acts of John, a collection of apocryphal tales that narrate John’s exploits in Ephesus. Significantly, the Acts of John articulates a “counter-cartography” that disassociates Christian identity from prominent Ephesian cultic sites and accentuates the importance of spaces “outside the city” of Ephesus, including and especially the tomb of John. Through its own circulation as well as its influence on later Johannine narratives, the early Acts of John helped inform a shift in the cultural cartographies of Ephesus, where Greco-Roman polytheistic spaces were gradually devalued in favor of Christian sites, the tomb of John on Ayasoluk chief among them.

Comparisons of Cities

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dora P. Crouch
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Water System ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Related Factor ◽  
Physical Constraints ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Third ◽  
Aesthetic Sense ◽  
The Hill ◽  
The City

A brief reprise of the geological aspects, organization, physical constraints, and appearance of each city will remind us of their common and unique features. Then we can compare them by groups linked by research questions. Agrigento is built on two ridges of 120 and 320–390 m, setting generous limits not yet filled by the modern city. A plain extends from the lower ridge south to the sea. Vistas were provided along contours and across elevations. Grouping the public buildings on stony ridges, with temples above and below and government structures along the west side, made economic and aesthetic sense. Landslides provide important clues to the nature of the hill the city is built on, and they correlate with occupation of various parts of the site. Additionally, the water system shows unexpected correlation with the families of discontinuities in the stone rather than the surface grid of the streets (Ercoli and Crouch 1998; Crouch 1989). Morgantina stretches along a ridge about 600 m in elevation. The agora most clearly reveals the interface of urban design and geology. Sanctuaries and fountains were the focus during the fifth century B. C. E. In the third century, modest but elegant new architecture (theater, great steps, flanking stoas, fountains, sanctuary) combined with pragmatic engineering as framework and connector between points of observation. Morgantina had one aqueduct, from the springs that later supplied Aidone. The site has numerous springs although some are now dry or give less than 1 l/s. Yet, during the third century B. C. E. when the population was at its maximum, the aquifer was also at maximum, and higher springs were fed from it more amply than at present. Improper management of water resources likely hastened the demise of the town after the Roman conquest. At the turn of the era, the shift from small rural towns to great landed estates as centers of population affected Morgantina strongly. Deforestation of the hills and mountains for fuel and building materials could have resulted in desiccation, with climate change a related factor. Occupation by the Hispanii (Spanish veterans) who replaced the Hellenized Sicilians after 211 B. C. E. coincided with a negative water balance.

Pergamum as Paradigm

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Weisser
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Other ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Solid Base ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
Geographical Mobility ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Imperial Family ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

The Editors of this Book Requested a study of an individual city to contrast with the broader regional surveys. This contribution attempts to demonstrate the advantages of a fuller exploration of the specific context of a civic coinage by focusing on selected issues from the coinage of Pergamum— alongside Ephesus and Smyrna one of the three largest cities in the Western part of Asia Minor. In the Julio-Claudian period Pergamum’s coin designs were dominated by the imperial succession and the city’s first neocorate temple (17 BC–AD 59). In AD 59 Pergamum’s coinage stopped for more than two decades. When it resumed under Domitian (AD 83) new topics were continuously introduced until the reign of Caracalla (AD 211–17). These included gods, cults, heroes, personifications, architecture, sculpture, games, and civic titles. After Caracalla the city concentrated on a few key images, such as Asclepius or the emperor. At the same time, coin legends— especially civic titles—gained greater importance. This trend continued until the city’s coinage came to an end under Gallienus (AD 253–68). The overall range of Pergamum’s coin iconography was broadly similar to that of other cities in the East of the Roman empire. Coins of Pergamum from the imperial period fall into (at least) sixty-four issues, the most diverse of which employed twenty different coin types. In all, around 340 different types are currently known. They provide a solid base from which to explore various relationships. These include the relationship between coin obverses and reverses, as well as the place of an individual coin type within its own issue, and within the city’s coinage as a whole. Coin designs could allude to objects and events within Pergamum itself, or focus on the city’s connections with the outside world: with small neighbouring cities, with the other great cities within the province of Asia, or with Rome and the imperial family. Communication via the medium of civic coinage was in the first instance presumably directed towards the citizens of Pergamum. At the same time coinage also reflected developments outside the city. Social and geographical mobility was encouraged by an imperial system which allowed distinguished members of local elites access to the highest military and administrative posts.

The so-called “Magazzini Repubblicani” near the Porta Romana at Ostia

1935 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 77-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick H. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Building Activity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Region Ii ◽  
Eastern Half

The building with which this study is concerned occupies the eastern half of Region ii, 2, just inside the city gate at Ostia. Two specific statements have been made concerning it, that it commenced as magazzini or horrea in the republican era, and that it was converted into baths in the late third century A.D.; these were the suggestions of the excavators, and have never yet been questioned. They are points of considerable importance, because this building would thus be the only example of republican horrea yet discovered in Ostia, and the conversion of horrea into baths or shops, which the theory implies, would be important for the economic history of Ostia, whether the reason for the change was the concentration of horrea elsewhere or merely the decline of the city. The second statement, too, would point to building activity in Ostia at a time when no other big building was being put up. This paper is an attempt to prove that at no time was the building used as horrea, and that the conversion to baths is to be placed not in the third, but in the late first, or very early second century A.D. Five main periods will be distinguished, of which the appended table gives a summary.

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