Πράξεις τε καὶ δωρεαὶ Σεβαστοῦ θεοῦ

Summary This paper discusses a number of linguistic and interpretative aspects of the Greek translation of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti. Linguistically, the text gives a good idea of the development of Koine Greek at the beginning of the 1st century. Even though the translation is clearly aimed at rendering the Latin original as faithful as possible, there are still a considerable number of deviations from the Latin version which enable us to get a glimpse of the translator, the intended audience and their world views. A number of deviations can be explained as attempts by the translator to tailor the text to the knowledge and attitudes of a Greek-speaking eastern audience. Occasional errors in the translation seem to reveal that the translator was not fully acquainted with Roman institutions, which may be an indication that he was based in the Greek East rather than in Rome. A third group of deviations, finally, appear to point to a different, provincial Greek, attitude toward Roman imperialism and Augustus’ status as monarch.

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Fortuna and the Republic

10.1093/oso/9780198786566.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Daniele Miano

Keyword(s):

Focal Points ◽

The Public ◽

Republican Period ◽

Roman Imperialism ◽

The Republic ◽

Greek East

This chapter studies all the public temples of Fortuna at Rome in the Republican period. The main focal points of the chapter are the precise historical circumstances for the vow, construction, and dedication of each temple, and the connection between these circumstances and the epithets attributed to the goddess. One of the main points made by this chapter is that there is a very solid connection between Republican temples of Fortuna and the plebeian aristocracy, which suggests that Fortuna was characterized as a deity closely associated with the plebs. Another point concerns Fortuna Publica, a deity that during the Roman conquest of the Greek East was associated with Roman imperialism through her translation as Tyche, following a debate on the merits of Roman conquest of which we can read traces in Polybius.

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Sing It Like Homer

10.1093/oso/9780198810810.003.0011 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Sophia Papaioannou

Keyword(s):

Military Power ◽

Greek Orthodox ◽

Intended Audience ◽

Greek Translation ◽

Cultural Ideology ◽

The Subject

Eugenios Voulgaris, whose Greek translation of Virgil’s epic is the subject of this chapter, is another example of how translation was used for cultural ideology. Voulgaris, who was invited by Catherine the Great of Russia to serve as archbishop of Cherson and Slaviansk, translated the Aeneid into Homeric Greek. This odd translation also had a pronounced pedagogical mission for an intended audience that was not Russian, but rather belonged to the Greek diaspora. Furthermore, as Papaioannou shows, Voulgaris’s strange undertaking was closely intertwined with Catherine’s political and cultural aspirations: her ‘Greek Project’, which aimed at projecting Russia both as a Western military power in the likeness of Rome and as the heir to Greek Orthodox Byzantium.

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Landed Traders, Trading Agriculturalists? Land in the Economy of the Italian Diaspora in the Greek East

The Journal of Roman Studies ◽

10.1017/s0075435817000776 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 107 ◽

pp. 27-59

Author(s):

Lisa Pilar Eberle ◽

Enora Le Quéré

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Roman Imperialism ◽

End Products ◽

History Of ◽

Greek East ◽

Italian Diaspora

ABSTRACTThis paper revises current understandings of the rôle of land in the economy of the Italian diaspora in the Greek East in the second and first centuriesb.c., arguing that these Italians owned more land than has previously been assumed and that many of these Italian landowners practised a highly commercialized form of agriculture that focused on high-end products. This strategy shaped what empire meant both locally and in Italy and Rome, where the products they marketed fed into the ongoing consumer revolutions of the time. After discussing the evidence for the extent of Italian landholdings and examining their exploitation in three case studies, we conclude by reflecting on the long-term history of such landholdings in the provinces and the implications for our understanding of Roman imperialism more generally.

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