Introductory description

During the imperial period (first–fifth cent. CE) the panorama of Greek literature was as rich, and fascinating as ever. Declaimers, essayists and writers of fiction contributed to the delopment of new genres by ‘resurrecting’ and repurposing classical models for a new, Roman and imperial age. With their fondness (almost mania) for the literature and figures of classical Greece, imperial authors even helped shape the notion of ‘Classics’. Strikingly, they did so when Greece looked very different (politically and culturally) from classical Greece. What could it mean to reappropriate models from fifth-century BC democratic Athens when Greek freedom depended on Rome and Roman influences spread throughout a cosmopolitan empire? Did imperial writers build a classical fantasy to escape their Roman everyday? Or did classical traditions function as an effective and universal way to express Greek identity – even to convey dissent and resistance to Roman power?

To try and answer these and similar questions, this module takes students on a journey through the work of some of the most important imperial Greek writers, enriching and balancing what they may already know (or be studying) about the Latin side of the empire. Furthermore, reading and reflecting on the cultural strategies of authors like Aelius Aristides or Pausanias, students will be able to think about the meaning(s) of tradition and literature in ‘global’ cultural contexts or when political expression is limited, in antiquity as well as in more recent times.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Outline

Term 2, Week 1 – Who, What, Why: Reconsidering Imperial Greek Literature
Readings: T. Whitmarsh, The Second Sophistic. Oxford 2005; W.A. Johnson and D.S. Richter (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Second Sophistic. Oxford 2017.

Term 2, Week 2 – In Search of Lost Greece I: Pausanias on the Landscape of Roman Athens
Readings: Description of Greece Book 1; selected secondary literature by S. Alcock, W. Hutton.

Term 2, Week 3 – In Search of Lost Greece II: Pausanias on the Landscape of Roman Corinth
Readings: Description of Greece Book 2; selected secondary literature by S. Alcock, W. Hutton.

Term 2, Week 4 – How to Teach an Emperor: Dio and Trajan
Readings: Kingship Orations (1–4); C.P. Jones, The Roman World of Dio Chrysostom. Harvard 1978.

Term 2, Week 5 – Simply the Best: Aelius Aristides’ Dreams of (Classical) Glory
Readings: Sacred Tales (selection), Or. 18; W.V. Harris and B. Holmes (eds.), Aelius Aristides between Greece, Rome and the Gods. Leiden 2008; J. Downie, At the Limits of Art: A Literary Study of Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi.

Term 2, Week 6 – Reading Week

Term 2, Week 7 – Aristides Comes to Town: Classicism for Imperial Communities
Readings: Orr. 18, 24, 46; W.V. Harris and B. Holmes (eds.), Aelius Aristides between Greece, Rome and the Gods. Leiden 2008; J. Downie, At the Limits of Art: A Literary Study of Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi.

Term 2, Week 8 – The Limits of Education: Lucian on Classicism
Readings: On Salaried Posts; The Ignorant Book Collector; selection from T. Whitmarsh, The Politics of Imitation. Oxford 2001; Beyond the Second Sophistic. Berkeley 2013.

Term 2, Week 9 – Just for Fun? Meaning(s) of Lucianic Satire
Readings: Icaromenippus; True History (selection); selection from K. ní Mheallaigh, Reading Fiction with Lucian: Fakes, Freaks and Hyperreality. Cambridge 2014.

Term 2, Week 10 – Hellenism at the Edges: Heliodorus Aetiopian Novel
Readings: Aetiopica (selection); T. Whitmarsh, Narrative and Identity in the Ancient Greek Novel: Returning Romance. Cambridge 2011.

Term 3: Revision/exam preparation

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• A good understanding of imperial Greek literature, its main forms and writers;
• A broad understanding of the interplay between literature, culture and power under Rome;
• A broad understanding of scholarly trends on imperial Greek literature;
• An ability to discuss imperial texts in literary terms and in their historical context;
• Critical skills in the analysis of classical scholarship;
• develop the ability to set their findings into a wider comparative context, drawing in other aspects of the study of the ancient world;
• engage creatively with a wider range of secondary literature.

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Subject specific skills

By the end of the module, students should have:

• A good understanding of imperial Greek literature, its main forms and writers;
• A broad understanding of the interplay between literature, culture and power under Rome;
• A broad understanding of scholarly trends on imperial Greek literature;
• An ability to discuss imperial texts in literary terms and in their historical context;
• Critical skills in the analysis of classical scholarship;
• Developed the ability to set their findings into a wider comparative context, drawing in other aspects of the study of the ancient world;
• Engaged creatively with a wider range of secondary literature.

Transferable skills

• Communication
• Information Literacy
• Critical Thinking