Citizenship in Roman Greece

This book explores the nature of Roman identitythrough a study of the cultural and ideologicaleffects of Roman citizenship on Greeks living in thefirst three centuries AD. Terms such as culture andidentity are not static ideas, but constructions of aparticular social milieu at any given point in time.Roman citizenship functioned as a kind of ideologicalapparatus that, when given to a non-Roman, questionedthat individual's native identity. Beginning from thehypothesis that the possession of Roman citizenshipprovides solid evidence that a person has at leastsome ideological interest in Rome, the theoreticalbases of Louis Althusser and Pierre Bourdieu are usedas guides in an analysis of four sources: Dionysiusof Halicarnassus, Paul of Tarsus, the jurist Ulpian,and civic coins minted in the Greek east. Thesesources answer the question 'What is a Roman?' indifferent - and often conflicting - ways, in turnshowing that modern terms such as 'Romanization'gloss over all of the diversity within, andplasticity of, the cultures of both the Romans andthose people whom they 'conquered'.

Autorentext

Jamie Nay graduated from Dalhousie University in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in Classics. In 2007 he completed his Master of Arts degree at the University of Victoria''s Department of Greek and Roman Studies. Jamie currently resides and works in British Columbia.

Klappentext
This book explores the nature of Roman identity through a study of the cultural and ideological effects of Roman citizenship on Greeks living in the first three centuries AD. Terms such as culture and identity are not static ideas, but constructions of a particular social milieu at any given point in time. Roman citizenship functioned as a kind of ideological apparatus that, when given to a non-Roman, questioned that individual's native identity. Beginning from the hypothesis that the possession of Roman citizenship provides solid evidence that a person has at least some ideological interest in Rome, the theoretical bases of Louis Althusser and Pierre Bourdieu are used as guides in an analysis of four sources: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Paul of Tarsus, the jurist Ulpian, and civic coins minted in the Greek east. These sources answer the question 'What is a Roman?' in different - and often conflicting - ways, in turn showing that modern terms such as 'Romanization' gloss over all of the diversity within, and plasticity of, the cultures of both the Romans and those people whom they 'conquered'.