Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity

Cambridge University Press, 9/23/2021
EAN 9781108479455, ISBN10: 1108479456

Hardcover, 424 pages, 24.8 x 17.8 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

The center of gravity in Roman studies has shifted far from the upper echelons of government and administration in Rome or the Emperor's court to the provinces and the individual. The multi-disciplinary studies presented in this volume reflect the turn in Roman history to the identities of ethnic groups and even single individuals who lived in Rome's vast multinational empire. The purpose is less to discover another element in the Roman Empire's “success” in governance than to illuminate the variety of individual experience in its own terms. The chapters here, reflecting a wide spectrum of professional expertise, range across the many cultures, languages, religions and literatures of the Roman Empire, with a special focus on the Jews as a test-case for the larger issues.

List of figures
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Ethnicity and Identity in the Roman Empire
1. From Rome to Constantinople Benjamin Isaac
2. The imperial senate
center of a multinational empire Werner Eck
3. Ethnic types and stereotypes in Ancient Latin idioms Daniela Dueck
4. Keti, son of Masawalat
ethnicity and empire Brent D. Shaw
Part II. Ethnicity and Identity in the Roman Empire
5. Roman reception of the Trojan war Margalit Finkelberg
6. Claiming Roman origins
Greek cities and the Roman colonial pattern Cédric Brélaz
7. Roman theologies in the cities of Italy and the provinces John Scheid
8. The involvement of provincial cities in the administration of school teaching Ido Israelowich
9. Many nations, one night? Historical aspects of the night in the Roman Empire Angelos Chaniotis
Part III. Ethnicity and Identity in the Roman Empire
the Case of the Jews
10. Religious pluralism in the Roman Empire
did Judaism test the limits of Roman tolerance? Erich S. Gruen
11. Rome's attitude to Jews and Judaea after the great rebellion – beyond raison d'état? Alexander Yakobson
12. Between ethnos and populus
the boundaries of being a Jew Youval Rotman
13. Local identities of synagogue communities in the Roman Empire Jonathan J. Price
14. The good the bad and the middling
Roman emperors in Talmudic literature Yuval Shahar
15. The severans and rabbi Judah ha-Nasi Aharon Oppenheimer
Part IV. Iudaea/Palaestina
16. The Roman legionary base in Legio-Kefar 'Othnay' – the evidence from the small finds Yotam Tepper
17. The camp of the legion X Fretensis and the emergence of Aelia capitolina Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah
Bibliography
Indexes.