(2022) Insularity and imperial politics: Hadrian on the Greek islands (original) (raw)
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Hispania Graeca. Hadrian as a champion of Hellenic culture in the West.
Kouremenos, A. (ed). The Province of Achaea in the 2nd Century CE. The Past Present, 2022
The core argument of this chapter is that a fertile and reciprocal relationship existed between Hispania Graeca and Hadrian, the Graeculus emperor. As I argue, some of the seeds of Hadrian’s love for Greece are to be found in Hispania. Furthermore, once in power, he accelerated the cultural integration of the Empire’s regions thanks to the strengthening of Greek culture. While Greek influence on private lives may be visible in Tarraco, it is especially in Italica that the effects of the emperor’s active Hellenism are highly noticeable. Consequently, I highlight an important point: using modes and forms proper to the Second Sophistic, Hadrian portrayed himself as a somewhat universalizing emperor. After an arduous investigation into his family origins Hadrian presented himself as Hispanic and Italic, but also as Greek. The past became a means for him to portray himself as a living synthesis of the Empire he ruled.
An issue containing six articles on how various Greek-language authors of the first-to-third centuries CE present themes of contemporary politics and Roman imperialism in their works. Contents: Patrick P. Hogan and Adam M. Kemezis - "Introduction: The Empire's Second Language?" Daniel W. Leon - The Face of the Emperor in Philo’s Embassy to Gaius Dana Fields - Chained Animals and Human Liberty Adam M. Kemezis - Inglorius Labor? The Rhetoric of Glory and Utility in Plutarch’s Precepts and Tacitus’ Agricola Janet Downie - The Geography of Empire in Dionysius’ Periegesis: A View from the Aegean Patrick P. Hogan - Pausanias Politicus: Reflections on Theseus, Themistocles, and Athenian Democracy in Book 1 of the Periegesis Jared Secord - Julius Africanus, Origen, and the Politics of Intellectual Life under the Severans
HADRIAN THE TRAVELER: Motifs and Expressions of Roman Imperial Power in the Vita Hadriani
História (São Paulo), 2016
This paper explores the links between travel and power that the journeys of Hadrian in the Vita Hadriani reveal, and suggests that these links have broader implications for our interpretation of the Historia Augusta as a whole, and of its author's literary skill and political awareness. It offers a close reading of the contexts in which Hadrian is depicted traveling in the Vita Hadriani, and argues that they may be interpreted as part of an internal dialog over alternate strategies for expressing and legitimating imperial power. It suggests that it is the moments when Hadrian is in the act of traveling that provide the clearest clues as to our author's attitude towards appropriate behavior by an emperor.