1
Contents
Contents ............................................................................................ 2
Introduction ....................................................................................... 3
Programme Annual Meeting ............................................................... 4
Abstracts ............................................................................................ 7
Visitors information ......................................................................... 30
Places in the city centre to visit ......................................................... 30
2
Introduction
Welcome to the 5th CRASIS Annual Meeting, themed ‘Hellenism.
Interaction, Translation & Culture Transfer’. We are delighted to have you
here in Groningen, and we hope you will enjoy your stay.
This booklet aims to offer all information you may need for a pleasant
time at our conference. If you have any questions, concerns or remarks,
please do not hesitate to ask us. We are happy to help.
We wish everyone an inspiring conference!
Best wishes on behalf of the organising committee,
Tamara Dijkstra
Sjoukje Kamphorst
Raf Praet
Sam van Dijk
Kristel Fraase Storm
Eelco Glas
Monique Louwes
Caroline van Toor
& the CRASIS board
Lidewijde de Jong
Onno van Nijf
Mladen Popovic
Bettina Reitz-Joosse
3
Programme Annual Meeting
Location
Old Courtroom, Oude Boteringestraat 38 (Faculty of
Theology and Religious Studies)
08:30 – 09:00 Coffee and registration
09:00 – 09:15 Welcome by Lidewijde de Jong & Benjamin Wright
Chair Marieke Dhont
09:15 – 09:45 Alexandros Tsouris – Private Associations in Roman
Macedonia as Brokers of a Hellenic-Macedonian Culture.
Reacting to Rome?
Response: Anne-Lieke Brem
09:45 – 10:15 Caroline van Toor – Elements of Greek and Roman
tradition on funerary monuments in Roman Attica.
Response: Sam Heijnen
10:15 – 10:45 Sam Heijnen – Becoming Greek, Staying Roman:
Anchoring Identity in Early Roman Corinth
Response: Alexandros Tsouris
10:45 – 11:15 Break
4
Chair Antonios Pontoropoulos
11:15 – 11:45 Marieke Dhont – Developing the Jewish-Greek Literary
Polysystem: The Case of OG Job
Response: Benjamin Pedersen
11:45 – 12:15 Lindsey Askin – Balsam, Bitumen, and Soap: The Effects of
Herodian Medicine Production on Jewish-Hellenistic
Cultural Contact
Response: Eelco Glas
12:15 – 12:45 Robert Jones – The ‘Righteous Sage’: Attitudes toward
Hellenism in the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls
Response: Marieke Dhont
12:45 – 13:45 Lunch in the Engelse Zaal, Academy Building
Chair Alexandros Tsouris
13:45 – 14:15 Eelco Glas – The Alexandrian Jews in Josephus’ Against
Apion
Response: Robert Jones
14:15 – 14:45 Benjamin Pedersen – From Fragments to Universal
Historiography: Diodorus, Polybius and Hellenistic
Universal History
Response: Antonios Pontoropoulos
14:45 – 15:15 Antonios Pontoropoulos – Constructing erotic ethnicities:
The case of Philostratus’ Erotic Letters
Response: Caroline van Toor
15:15 – 15:45 Coffee break
5
Chair Caroline van Toor
15:45 – 16:15 AnneAnne-Lieke Brem – Settlement distribution and population
change in Greece during the Hellenistic period: The
influence of the Roman conquest?
Response: Wouter Post
16:15 – 16:45 Milinda Hoo – Hellenism in the face of Eurasian
globalization: a question of means and ends
Response: Lindsey Askin
16:45 – 17:15 Wouter Post – Ptolemy’s oikoumene? Comparing Hellenic
and Bactrian cityscapes in the Hellenistic age
Response: Milinda Hoo
17:15-17:30
Closing remarks by Benjamin Wright
17:30-17:45
Course evaluation
18:00-
Drinks & dinner at ‘de Uurwerker’
6
Abstracts
Hellenic-Private Associations in Roman Macedonia as Brokers of a Hellenic
Macedonian Culture. Reacting to Rome?
Alexandros Tsouris – Research Master student in Classical, Medieval
and Renaissance Studies, University of Groningen
The region of Macedonia in Northern Greece retained a distinct
cultural identity in the Classical and Hellenistic era, even in the Roman
period. This cultural commonality is observable in features such as
religion, coinage, and political institutions. Within such frame, private
associations in Macedonia can be seen as brokers of a HellenicMacedonian culture, since they constructed their identities mainly
under the banners of deities traditionally worshipped in Macedonia.
Could we examine these identities as a turn to a Graeco-Macedonian
culture as a response to the Roman rule?
To approach this question, focus will be drawn to two case
studies, the cities of Thessaloniki and Beroia, both quite representative
examples of Macedonian mentalities. In these two cities, I examine the
ways various civic components and institutions represented themselves
to make a comparison with the associative identities. Did other civil
subdivisions advertise themselves mainly as Graeco-Macedonians or
also as Romans? Were the governing elites more eager in showing their
local and ethnic identities or were they blended with some Romanness?
Answering these questions, and comparing the results with the
associative identities, will determine whether we can see private
associations as mediators of cultural resistance to Rome.
Alexandros Tsouris recently concluded his research master at the
University of Groningen in the CMRS programme, with a specialization
in Graeco-Roman History. His thesis focused on the role and function
of private associations in Roman Macedonia. He is currently working
on writing a PhD proposal regarding matters of civic and regional
cultures and identities during the Roman Imperial period.
7
Elements of Greek and Roman tradition on funerary monument in
Roman Attica.
Attica. The evidence of iconography and epigraphy
Caroline van Toor – Research Master student in Art History and
Archaeology, University of Groningen
Funerary practices reflect society and can thus provide evidence for
change within that society. In this respect the funerary monuments of
Attica form a particularly interesting set of material. For it is around or
shortly after the time that the relation of the Athenians and the Romans
had become grimly – Sulla sacked Athens in 86 BC – that the city and
its hinterland start erecting larger funerary stelai for their deceased
again, after a stop of their production of almost two centuries. In this
paper, I want to investigate in what form these stelai return, and how
they develop over the years from their return in the 1 st c. BC to their
disappearance shortly after the mid-3rd c. AD. What do the
monuments look like, what is depicted in the reliefs, and what elements
of identity can be found in both the reliefs and in the inscriptions? Can
we identify elements of identity? And when and where do we see a
blend of these elements? Naturally we will come across influences of
the Romans when studying these reliefs, but can we also say something
about the Greeks’ perceived identity in their representation on these
monuments? Can the results be supported with the ideas of either
discrepant identities (Mattingly 2004, Being Roman) or code-switching
(Wallace-Hadrill 2008, Rome’s Cultural Revolution)?
Various studies have been undertaken to make the funerary
material from the Roman period comprehensible, such as Alexander
Conze’s collection of Attic funerary reliefs, and Alice Muehsam’s article
on how to put those from the Roman period in a chronological order
for further study. The inscriptions from this period have mainly been
researched on their form and content (e.g. R. Lattimore (1942) and W.
Peek (1955, 1960)). More recently, all verse inscriptions from the Greek
east have been collected by R. Merkelbach and J. Stauber (1998-2004),
and discussed by A. Le Bris (2001) and R. Tybout (2003). Their focus
lies mainly on the information epigrams offer of Greek views on the
afterlife, not on funerary epigraphy as a source for identity. I have not
yet found a study combining epigraphy and iconography for this
purpose, but, as we will see, their combined study is relevant for the
8
purpose of this paper. Since there are many funerary inscriptions from
the Roman period in Attica, I will restrict myself to the inscriptions
accompanying the monuments in Conze and Muehsam, supported by
secondary literature on its presence and its contents in these centuries.
In analyzing the monuments and the inscriptions, I hope to
discover whether the style of the monuments follows the trends in the
literary world, where writers of the Second Sophistic revive classical
Greek culture (Hellenization of the Greeks), or follow a more
Romanizing trend.
Caroline van Toor started her BA in Classical Studies at the University
of Groningen in 2010, after which she continued in 2013 with the
ReMA Classical Medieval and Renaissance Studies, also in Groningen.
During her MA her interests focused on funerary epigrams. This
September she started a second ReMA in Archaeology in order to
expand her philological skills with a broader understanding of the
material context of the ancient world.
9
Becoming Greek, Staying Roman: Anchoring Identity in Early Roman
Corinth
Sam Heijnen – Research Master student in Historical Studies, Radboud
Universiteit
In recent decades, “Roman Greece” has developed from a relatively
undervalued field of study to a thriving subject for the study of
interaction between Roman and Greek cultures. Scholars have tried to
address the nature of this interaction with concepts such as
Romanization, Hellenization, appropriation, acculturation, and more
recently re-Hellenization (Spawforth 2012). In many Greek cities under
Roman rule, scholars now recognize a revival of Classical styles in the
material culture. This revival is well understood from the Roman
perspective as there was a longstanding Roman admiration for Classical
Greece. It seems less clear what the revival brought to the local
populations in Greece. As a result, not many modern scholars have
analyzed how the use of the past could be employed to strengthen
cultural identities in cities in Roman Greece.
This paper examines the use of the past to shape a new identity
in Roman Corinth. In 146 BCE, the troops of Lucius Mummius sacked
Corinth, and although the destruction seems to have been more
selective than previously assumed, Corinth was no longer a political or
cultural player in Greece. This changed in 44 BCE when Julius Caesar
re-established Corinth as a Roman colony. Colonia Laus Iulia
Corinthiensis had characteristic Roman features such as a consolidated
scheme of urban planning, the predominant use of the Latin language,
and Roman buildings including the Julian Basilica and the Rostra.
However, the colony was not founded from scratch, and the new
settlers seem to have consciously incorporated the pre-existing Greek
buildings into their new city: the new colony did not become a ‘miniRome’. The coexistence of Roman and Greek culture is also apparent
from locally struck coins on which the emperor’s portrait was on the
obverse, and references to Corinth’s most important gods and founding
myths on the reverse. In the same line of thought, the reappearance of
the Isthmian Games in Corinth soon after its re-founding shows that
the new city was represented as the successor of the Greek city.
Through analyzing the architectural, numismatic, and
epigraphic evidence available to us, this paper will argue that the new
settlers consciously incorporated the Greek past of the city as an
expression of a hybrid identity. At the same time, Corinth was a Roman
10
colony and acted ‘Roman’ in many ways. But instead of seeing these
two cultures as contrasting or opposite of one another, it is precisely
this cultural interaction that provided Corinth with a new political and
cultural identity appropriate for a Roman colony within the cultural
milieu of the Greek East.
Sam Heijnen is a Research Master student of Historical Studies at
Radboud University Nijmegen. His research interests include Roman
Greece, material culture, cultural interaction, the visual representation
of Roman leadership, and hybridity. From August until December
2015, Sam was visiting graduate researcher at Duke University
(Durham, North Carolina). Here he worked on two projects under
supervision of Prof. Mary T. Boatwright, focusing on the use of the past
by the provincial elite and on the representation of Roman leadership
in Roman Greece (first century CE).
11
Settlement
Settlement distribution and population change in Greece during the
Hellenistic period:
period: the
the influence of the Roman conquest
Anne-Lieke Brem – Research Master student in Art History and
Archaeology, University of Groningen
During the Hellenistic period the Roman Empire began to expand its
borders. Not only did the Romans influence the literary and material
record of the countries they conquered, they also influenced settlement
distributions and affected population change in these areas. But what
are the implications? Were settlements abandoned and/or relocated
after the Roman conquest? And how did this affect the conquered
population? Is there even a relation between these changes and the
Roman conquest? Therefore my main question will be: What were the
implications of the Roman expansion on settlement distribution and
population change in Greece during the Hellenistic period?
The research question is linked to the overall theme of
‘Hellenism: Interaction, Translation and Culture Transfer’, because it
showcases yet another factor of the Roman conquest. Not by looking at
literary sources, inscriptions, architecture, etc., but by interpreting
settlement patterns and population trends. Surely, still visible
architecture, like monuments, and literary sources show or maybe even
confirm changes as well. When applicable to this research they will be
included. Because of the theoretical approach, this topic makes use of
the imagination of the readers. The data which is used is not a matter
of public display as with monuments, therefore I will keep in mind not
to focus too much on the theory of methodology, rather how they can
be interpreted in the light of Hellenism.
Concept data. Overall, the book by Hansen (2006) will be used
to give a general background/theory on the Greek settlement
distribution and population trends. Furthermore, this book also
clarifies the change of the Greek polis in this period. For this research
surveys (see below) will produce the main data to gain an insight in the
distribution of settlements and the population trends in Greece. There
are biases (coverage, visibility, etc.) with using this type of data, which
I will adress shortly in the full paper.
The case study of Bintliff (1999) which will be used focusses on
population cycles from the Late Geometric period to the Late Roman
period throughout Greece (see Figure 1, next page). The focus in this
paper will be on the periods from Classical/Early Hellenistic to Late
12
Hellenistic/Early Roman, because these periodss contain the change
between the Greek and the Roman period during the Hellenistic period.
Besides, some parts of Greece will be looked at in more detail. The case
studies by Price on the region of Sphakia (2011) and Alcock, Gates and
Rempel on regional variability
riability (2003) give a more detailed
representation of what happened in the Hellenistic period on Crete.
The latter describes an example of a Minoan house, which was
converted into a Hellenistic shrine (Alcock, Gates and Rempel, 2003, p.
369). This might help me to interpret population trends, and why this
population came back to an older settlement, during the Hellenistic
period. Finally, a case study by Andreou and Kotsakis (1999) explains
the changes for the same period on the Greek mainland. A drop in
settlement sites in the Hellenistic period can be explained by the
introduction of the ‘organized city‘, which made people move from the
rural areas, to (or nearby) an urban center (Andreou and Kotsakis,
1999, p. 42). During the Roman period, this changed again: more
small-scale settlements were established (loc.cit.). This might be a
result of a change in rural activities by the Romans?
Anne-Lieke
Lieke Brem has been a student of the Research Master Art
History and Archaeology at the University of Groningen since
s
the first
of September 2015. She specializes in Classical and Mediterranean
Archaeology and Demography. For the latter, knowledge about survey
data is a must, and she hopes to develop this in her Master
aster studies. The
research done for the CRASIS meetingg is a starting point for developing
these skills.
Figure 1: Population climax phases in Greece from the Late Geometric until
the Late Roman period. Data derived from regional surveys and settlement
data (Bintliff, 1999, p. 29)
13
Developing the JewishJewish-Greek Literary Polysystem: The Case of OG Job
Marieke Dhont – PhD candidate, KU Leuven & Université Catholique
du Louvain
Each text, ancient or modern, is characterized by a certain style. Style is
determined by the abilities and idiosyncracies of the composer of the
text in question, as well as by contemporary notions of "good style".
These notions may change over time. When it comes to translations, a
third factor is involved, namely the source text. I focus on the Old
Greek translation of the book of Job. How can we describe its style? A
popular answer is to describe OG Job as a "free" translation of a
Hebrew source text. Scholarship has been focusing on the differences
between the Hebrew and the Greek and has overlooked the translator's
varied translation approach of "free" and "literal". How may we explain
this variety? Moreover, such a characterization only says something
about the Greek text in relation to a Hebrew text, thus ignoring the
other factors that determine style. When discussing the character of the
Greek text itself, Job is often considered to be "literary" and
"hellenized", but what does this entail? We may not only ask ourselves
what standards we use to describe a translation as literary, but also
revisit the categories Judaism versus Hellenism. In the past, LXX
studies has benefited from the use of Descriptive Translation Studies
(DTS). Yet DTS, a methodology for the study of modern translations, is
not ideal for the study of LXX translations due to our lack of historical
evidence. In addition, scholars tend to overlook the weaknesses of DTS
itself. Rather, I advocate a new approach to the study of OG Job and by
extension of the LXX, namely from the perspective of Polysystem
Theory (PST). PST offers not so much a methodology, rather than a
framework of thinking about texts. According to PST, semiotic
phenomena, such as literature, are more adequately understood "as
systems rather than conglomerates of disparate elements", to be
examined functionally based on an analysis of relations.1 Any semiotic
system is a heterogeneous, dynamic, open structure, consisting of a
complex set of relations. It can in many different ways be related to
other systems.2 Translation is a subsystem of any broader literary
system. The goal of a polysystemic approach is "the detection of the
1
I. Even-Zohar, "Polysystem Theory", Poetics Today 11/1 (1990), 9-26, 9.
2
Idem, 11-15.
14
laws governing the diversity and complexity of phenomena rather than
the registration and classification of these phenomena".3 In the present
paper, I theorize a Jewish-Greek literary system, related to the broader
Hellenistic system, in which translations and compositions – each as
individual subsystems relate to and mutually influence one another.
This system includes LXX translations (the translated books of the
LXX) as well as compositions (that is, the non-translated LXX books
and the writings of Jewish-Greek authors such as Demetrius and
Artapanus). The study of any translation should not only focus on the
text, but also on the translator and his literary context – a context
which is determined by historical, social, and ideological factors, each
of which constitute a polysystem of their own. As such, by situating OG
Job within its literary polysystem, I would touch upon topics such as
literature, translation, and identity, while simultaneously explaining the
varied nature of the book's translation approach.
Marieke Dhont holds a Master's in Classical Languages and Cultural
Studies and is currently a doctoral student affiliated with the KU
Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) and the Université catholique de Louvain
(Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium). Her research interests pertain to the
Septuagint and Jewish-Greek literature. She will defend her dissertation
on the style of the Old Greek of Job in Spring 2016.
3
Idem, 9.
15
The Alexandrian Jews in Josephus’ Against Apion
Eelco Glas – Research Master student in Theology and Religious
Studies, University of Groningen / Classics and Ancient Civilizations,
Leiden University
The concept of “Hellenism” is used and abused frequently in
scholarship, and therefore problematic to use. A topic that should
certainly be included, however, concerns the question related to the rise
and development of Jewish identity in the Greco-Roman period. Both
within and outside the boundaries of the homeland Judea Jews had to
relate themselves to the dominant Greco-Roman culture of their time,
whether resulting full accommodation, utter rejection, or something in
between. An excellent example is the case of Flavius Josephus, an ethnic
Judean, raised as priest and Pharisee and general in the Judean army
during the revolt against the Romans. At the same time he was living in
Rome after he surrendered to the Romans and the revolt was crushed.
He was thoroughly educated in Greek and Roman literary tradition,
wrote according to the conventions of these traditions and he expressed
himself in the Greek language. In this paper I intend to investigate the
way in which this Hellenized Jew conceptualized Jewish identity living
in the thoroughly Hellenized city of Alexandria in his work Against
Apion.
What will be challenged is an argument almost universally
accepted in scholarship: that from the second century B.C.E. onwards
the meaning of Ioudaios shifted thoroughly due to several historical
circumstances. According to this branch of scholarship Ioudaios mainly
was a function of birth, geography and affiliation before this period.
However, from the second century B.C.E. onwards the boundaries
changed radically. Ethno-political criteria no longer served as the
parameter to define one’s “Judeanness”. Rather, political and religious
criteria became more important. In most instances Ioudaios no longer
meant “Judean” but “Jew”. The consequences were twofold: 1) gentiles
could become Ioudaioi. 2) Jews living in Diaspora could still be called
Ioudaioi even though they were no longer tied to Judea and thus could
no longer be called Judeans.
I will focus on Josephus’ construction of the latter category in
Apion, more specifically the Ioudaioi in Alexandria. How does Josephus
describe the Alexandrian Ioudaioi in Against Apion (hereafter Apion)
and what is their relation with Ioudaioi from Judea? If the scholarly
narrative as stated above is correct, then there was reason enough to
16
doubt an unambiguous link of the Alexandrian Ioudaioi with Judea
when Josephus was active as writer. By analogy it is to be expected that
this tendency is visible in Apion (written after ca. 94 C.E.). I will argue,
however, that Apion Josephus anticipated the knowledge of his GrecoRoman audience by creating a carefully crafted picture on the
Alexandrian Ioudaioi on the basis of Greco-Roman ethnographic
conventions. “Cultural” and/or “religious” identity markers were
certainly there, but they were only part of the ethnic label that in
Josephus’ view still applied to the Alexandrian Ioudaioi. It will be
advocated that the noun Ioudaios as applied to the Alexandrian Jews in
Apion first and foremost bears an ethno-political meaning.
Eelco Glas is currently following two research master programs:
“Theology and Religious Studies” in Groningen; and “Classics and
Ancient Civilizations” in Leiden. He is interested in historical and
historiographical questions related to Judaism in the Roman period,
especially Josephus and the Great Revolt, and in the linguistic situation
of Roman Palestine.
17
The ‘Righteous Sage’: Attitudes toward Hellenism in the Aramaic Dead
Sea Scrolls
Robert Jones – PhD candidate in Religious Studies at McMaster
University (Ontario, Canada)
This paper explores the ways that the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls (ADSS)
construct a unique Jewish identity in context of the Hellenistic world.
My study analyzes the figure of the “righteous sage” in these texts in
order to discern how this literature interacts with Hellenistic culture
and imperial rule. The distinctive contribution of this project is its
synthetic and comparative approach, which proposes reading each of
the “righteous sages” as part of a broader Jewish tradition from the
Hellenistic period represented by the ADSS.
My analysis of the “righteous sage” in the ADSS builds upon
two current trends in scholarship on these documents. First, scholars
have observed that the ADSS are strikingly similar in language,
content, and outlook, even to the point of representing a “relatively
homogeneous corpus” (Dimant; see also Wacholder, Machiela,
Tigchelaar). Second, scholars have recognized the Hellenistic
provenance of many of the ADSS, noting that most of these documents
were composed during the Hellenistic period (Machiela, Angel, Collins,
Dimant). These conclusions have opened avenues for new studies,
which explore the ADSS as a corpus of Jewish literature from the
Hellenistic period—one with a particular and complex set of attitudes
toward Hellenism. Some previous studies have dealt with the figures of
Daniel and, to a lesser extent, Enoch in the context of discerning Jewish
attitudes toward Hellenism (Portier-Young, Horsley, SmithChristopher, Valeta, Newsom). Such studies, however, tend to analyze
these figures in isolation and do not tease out the full implications of
their status as members of a distinct corpus of Aramaic Jewish
literature. This paper, on the other hand, situates each of these
“righteous sages” in the context of the ADSS as a corpus—identifying
similarities and common characteristics that contribute to the
construction of a prototypical “righteous sage” who embodies a specific
set of attitudes toward Hellenistic culture and imperial rule.
My project primarily focuses on Enoch, Levi, and Daniel—
—
figures associated with the antediluvian age, the patriarchs of Israel,
and the court of the foreign king, respectively. But, these three figures
will also be discussed in light of other figures who fulfill the role of
“righteous sage” in the ADSS (i.e. Noah, Abram, Tobit, etc.). The
18
contention of this study is that, despite the apparent differences
between each of these figures, when they are analyzed synthetically and
comparatively, a coherent picture of a prototypical figure begins to
emerge. This figure is culturally literate, demonstrating expertise with
regard to both Jewish and foreign wisdom (Ben-Dov, Drawnel,
Popović). He is an international figure who occupies a position of
prestige and honor vis-à-vis foreign rulers and their representatives.
Yet, he maintains a distinct Jewish identity by protecting ethnic and
religious boundary markers and affirming the sovereignty of Israel’s
God over and against the contingency of foreign empires. In this way,
the figure of the “righteous sage” in the ADSS embodies a posture
toward Hellenism that is both complex and ambivalent.
Robert Jones is currently a second-year PhD student in the department
of Religious Studies at McMaster University. His major field of study is
Early Judaism and his minor field of study is Early Christianity. His
research interests include conceptions of wisdom and knowledge in the
Dead Sea Scrolls and related Second Temple texts.
19
From Fragments
Fragments to Universal Historiography: Diodorus, Polybius and
Hellenistic Universal History
Benjamin Pedersen – PhD candidate in History, University of Southern
Denmark
The current revival of universalistic approaches in the study of the past
(e.g. Global History, Transnational History and World History) has
generated increasing scholarly interest in universal historiography. The
roots are to be found in Hellenistic Greece where it constituted one of
the most important historiographical approaches, and included works
on which we rely heavily for our knowledge of ancient history.
Although several studies on universal historians from Ephorus in the
4th century BC to Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC have been
conducted, no one has yet attempted to explain universal history as
part of a wider Hellenistic phenomenon of universalism. By seeing
ancient universal historiography as an expression of a unique
Hellenistic zeitgeist that originated in the 4th century BC, and further
refined itself in line with the period’s changing perception of space and
universal narratives, the aim is thus to examine what the ancients
meant by universalism, and how and why they defined their own
approach as τὰ καθόλου, κοιναὶ πράξεις, κοιναὶ ἱστορίαι, or ἱστορία
καθολική in opposition to monographic historical writing, τὰ κατά
µέρος. Two key questions structure the study:
1.
How can Hellenistic universalism be characterized and defined by
examining the ancient historians, and how is the approach distinct
from other approaches in Greek historiography?
2. What intellectual and historical conditions initiated universalism, and
in what sense did a new understanding of space, time and narrative
influence the writing of world histories?
Being a Greek intellectual under the rule of different Hellenistic kings,
queens and empires, this shared historiographical understanding
represents a fundamental break with the tradition from the 5th century
by creating a new conception of time, space and narrative. The most
challenging aspect of the project is the fact that almost all of the source
material exists only as references, paraphrases, and quotations by later
ancient authors meaning that it reflects the author citing them more
than the characteristics of the lost historian. The universal historians
20
included in the analysis are the best preserved from the Hellenistic age,
and constitute a broad selection in terms of time period covered, ethnic
identity of the author, and the themes of the work itself. These
intellectuals were historians from various regions of the Mediterranean
who used universal history as a vehicle for cultural expression and
identity, and read and related to each other’s work in order to create a
distinctive historiographical gaze upon a wider and more complex
world. My research then examines more broadly those profound
challenges for any civilization that tries to understand and describe the
world in an age of globalization.
Benjamin Pedersen is a first-year PhD fellow at the University of
Southern Denmark. The working title of his PhD thesis is, ‘Universal
Historiography – A Study in the Advent, Nature and Development of
Ancient Universal History'. His research interests include Classical and
Hellenistic historiography, Alexander the Great, the use and value of
ancient textual fragments, and the intellectual identity of Greek
intellectuals under Roman rule.
21
Constructing erotic ethnicities: The case of Philostratus’ Erotic Letters
Antonios Pontoropoulos – PhD candidate in Greek literature, Uppsala
University
The so-called Erotic Letters (ἐπιστολαὶ ἐρωτικαί) is a group of seventythree letters, which have come down to us under the name of
Philostratus. The letters have male as well as female addressees, but
they remain unnamed, which means that they are differentiated only by
grammatical gender. A seductive language, explicit references to sexual
acts, and an extended use of previous literature characterize
Philostratus’ letters.
The aim of this paper is to present how the Philostratean Erotic Letters
construct and problematize erotic ethnicities: What is Hellenic eros and
what is barbarian eros, and which type of eros does the first speaker of
these two letters long for? These are all questions, which I am going to
address in the current paper. Especially letters five and forty-seven
seem to construct and problematize erotic ethnicities-both within and
across the marker of Greekness.
Letter five is addressed to a young eromenos in a conversationlike manner: The epistolary I’s address to the eromenos introduces a
long catalogue which numbers different erotic ethnicities, both Greek
and non-Greek alike: Sparta, Thessaly, Athens, Ionia, Crete and finally
Scythia. The first speaker brings out various local erotic ethnicities and
their corresponding virtues: Spartan eros fuels war. Thessalian and
Athenian eros leads to democracy. Ionian and Cretan eros leads to the
cult of Apollo and Eros himself. All of a sudden, this catalogue of Greek
eros is rejected in shake of a Scythian eros, which surpasses all the
previous ones. All these Greek versions of eros are redundant, as they
are not able to fulfill the epistolary I’s desire. Hence, he chooses a
primitive eros, which can only be practiced by a barbarian eromenos.
His longing for an erotic wound could thus be fulfilled.
Letter forty-seven is addressed to a woman. The first speaker of
the letter discusses her ethnicity in a manner, which is similar to letter
five: It constructs a series of local erotic ethnicities- Greek and nonGreek alike- and their respective feminine virtues: Spartan eros is
beautiful, Corinthian and Athenian eros is entertaining. Boetian and
Thespian eros is divinely revered. Now Thracian and Sidonian eros is
also presented as a barbarian alternative. The catalogue of all these
erotic ethnicities leads to a barbarian eros, which is intense and capable
of inflicting pain to the epistolary I of the letter: a daughter of Danaus,
22
who would not dare to slay her lover. Hence, the first person concludes
by choosing the barbarian eros, for yet another time.
Conclusively, these two letters offer an interesting case, where erotic
ethnicities are stretched over a continuum from the very civilized to the
very wild: The Hellenic civilized eros is thus juxtaposed to a barbarian
different and, more or less primitive eros. Interestingly enough, the
epistolary I, in both cases, rejects the Hellenic version of eros for the
sake of a barbarian one, which is unstrained by the bonds of Hellenic
culture. In this way, the first speaker’s longing for a primitive and even
cruel eros is fulfilled through the barbarian descent of his beloveds.
Antonios Pontoropoulos is a PhD candidate in Greek literature, in the
Department of Linguistics and Philology at Uppsala University. His
particular research interests refer to Imperial Greek literature and the
Second Sophistic. To be more specific, they concern the so-called erotic
letters, a corpus attributed to Philostratus. His project considers the
articulation of the erotic language of these letters.
23
Balsam, Bitumen, and Soap: The Effects of Herodian Medicine
Production on Jewish
Jewishsh-Hellenistic Cultural Contact
Lindsey Askin – PhD awarded in December, University of Cambridge
(UK)
This paper explores how evidence of the production and trade of
medical ingredients in the Dead Sea region during the Herodian period
(40 BCE – 70 CE) sheds light on Jewish-Hellenistic cultural contact. As
shown in recent scholarship (Zohar Amar, Joan E. Taylor, Asaf Oron)
during the first century BCE, the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea basin
became a lucrative spot for the largescale production and trade of
ingredients such as balsam, bitumen, and soap (atriplex halimus and
salt), among many others; many of these ingredients also had luxury
(perfume, makeup) and funerary uses. The saline water also took on a
reputation for positive health effects. The politically astute Herod the
Great is largely responsible for the increase of trade, the economic
effects of which I will place within the context of Roman trade with the
East. The medical reputation of the Dead Sea is mentioned in classical
sources such as Theophrastus, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder, as well as
Josephus. At present there is still a large gap in scholarship on ancient
Jewish medicine. Ben Sira’s poem on the physician (Sir 38:1-15) is often
seen as evidence that contemporary Jews of his time rejected
medicine—but we must challenge this assumption by looking at
Ancient Israelite and post-Exilic Jewish medicine in historical context.4
This paper will investigate what effects Dead Sea production had on
Herodian economic prosperity, with emphasis on Herod the Great. We
will investigate to what extent Herod’s occupation of Masada and his
palaces at Jericho and Caesarea was affected by Dead Sea trade, and
similarly the building of Qumran by the Dead Sea Scrolls community.
We will explore whether medicine production affected non-Jewish
and/or Jewish perspectives on medicine and Judaea as an exporter. It
will be argued that the building projects of Herod the Great increased
and facilitated the production and export of medical ingredients, and I
will investigate whether there are any links between Herod’s Temple
and cultic demand for ingredients—or whether most ingredients were
4
Building on research done in my doctoral thesis, Lindsey A. Askin, “Scribal Culture in
Ben Sira (Sir 38:1-15; 41:1-15; 43:11-19; 44-50),” PhD Thesis (University of
Cambridge, defended 17 Dec 2015).
24
exported. Three examples of ingredients (balsam, bitumen, and soap)
shall be explored in particular. We will investigate whether Greeks and
Romans recognized Judaea as an exporter of medicine, and if this
reputation added any economic or political value to Judea. It is argued
that the industrial-scale production of medical ingredients in the Dead
Sea region had a significant and underappreciated role in Jewish
cultural contact with the Hellenistic and Roman world.
Lindsey Askin recently defended her PhD thesis, ‘Scribal Culture in Ben
Sira’ with the University of Cambridge, UK. She will be a Polonsky
Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow (April-June 2016) at the Oxford Centre for
Hebrew and Jewish Studies, on the Seminar project Israel in
Egypt/Egypt in Israel, where she will begin work on a new monograph.
25
Hellenism in the face of Eurasian globalization: a question of means
and ends
Milinda Hoo - PhD Candidate in Ancient History, University of Kiel
The modern world is often defined as a globalized world. The globe is
seen and experienced as an interconnected space, marked by processes
of international integration, economic and political interdependence,
advancing telecommunication, and long-distance transportation – all of
which facilitate and expedite transnational flows of information.
Commonplace experiences with such globalization processes have
impacted, and in many ways defined scholarly trends of today. In the
social sciences and increasingly in the field of humanities, shared
interests in globalizing reciprocal networks, transnational
interconnectivity, and cultural fluidity have galvanised new perspectives
in debates on cultural interaction. This has resulted in the emergence of
what we may call a ‘global turn’ since the 1990s. Rooted Area Studies
views of closed unitary cultures with clear ethno-geographic boundaries
are increasingly replaced by more critical perspectives that theorize
cultural interactions as encounters of dynamic interrelated systems,
which are continuously formed and reinvented through human
practices of adoption, adaptation, and reuse of foreign cultural objects,
styles, and elements.
My PhD project builds upon these critical perspectives and
takes up globalization theory as a heuristic tool to understand cultural
interaction in ancient Central Asia from the fourth century BCE to the
first century CE – a period in which Hellenism played an important
role. Although dynamic approaches to and ‘globalizing’ perspectives on
cultures and cultural interactions have permeated studies of the ancient
world, many scholars, especially those working on cultural encounters
in areas outside the Mediterranean core of the classical ancient world,
tend to fall back in traditional culture-historical patterns of reasoning –
whether knowingly or not. One such area is Central Asia, studies on
which explain the influence of Greek culture on non-Greek cultures
mainly in the ideological context of Alexander the Great and the
colonial endeavours of his successors in Asia. Such approaches
effectively maintain an Orientalist visionary of the spread of ‘Western’
culture into an indigenous cultural receptacle, while upholding the
static idea of cultures as civilizational geographically bounded entities
with similar homogeneous output. While Hellenism may be a
persuasive concept to pinpoint what happened culturally “over there”,
26
in the “Far East”, it begs the question how Greek culture was perceived
socially on the ground. What did Greek culture mean and uphold for
local populations in Central Asia, and how is exactly is Hellenism to be
defined against accelerating processes of Eurasian connectivity that
were brought in motion since the late Achaemenid period?
The proposed paper will explore these queries by looking at
Central Asia’s material culture. Central to both the paper and the
doctoral thesis, is the question if and how Central Asia’s populations
reacted to tendencies of Eurasian ‘globalization’ by reorganizing
cultural norms and forms. In doing so, I will touch upon the pitfalls
and promises of the concept of Hellenism to explain cultural interaction
in ancient Central Asia in the face of accelerating ‘globalizing’ processes
that made Eurasia a smaller world. What is the nature of Hellenism,
and what are the implications for our understanding when we use the
term to describe cultural processes in “the Far East”? The paper will
discuss material culture, theory, and identity, illustrated by one or two
case studies.
Milinda Hoo is a second-year PhD candidate in Ancient History at the
University of Kiel (Germany) within the Graduate School Human
Development in Landscapes. Her research project focuses on cultural
interaction and material culture in ancient Central Asia (4th ct. BCE –
1st ct. CE) from a globalisation approach.
27
Ptolemy’s oikoumene? Comparing Hellenic and Bactrian cityscapes
cityscapes in
the Hellenistic age
Wouter Post – Research Master student in Archaeology, University of
Amsterdam
Progress of our understanding of the poleis of ancient Greeks has been
evident in the last 50 years and came mainly via improved
archaeological methodology. Nevertheless, thorough studies of spatial
configurations of cityscapes are few, since there are few sites with
extensively excavated city areas, such as Olynthos, Ostia and Pompeii,
from one period. The recently well-studied of these archaeological sites
are - in overwhelming majority - situated in the European Union, since
clear administrative and judicial structures as well as guarantees of safe
on-site research are not continuously found in other regions of the
Antique world. This creates through economic and political
circumstances an academic bias to material sources from the E.U.5 in
research. For example, articles in the American Journal of Archaeology
as published in the last few years deal mostly with only a few very well
documented contexts.6 By researching Eastern Hellenistic material
records, I intend to reflect on and modestly contribute to correcting an
understandable bias, hopefully improving chances of a scientific
community - that is archaeologists of Hellenism - for reaching
academic ‘entropy’.
The ‘far’ East bears one relatively well-excavated city-site
influenced by Greeks, in the form of the settlement of Ai-Khanoum,
located in Northern Afghanistan. This large settlement (±170 ha, city
proper), which was probably founded by either of the Seleucid kings
Seleucos I or Antiochos I (exact date unknown), saw continuous
habitation for little more than a century and was then abandoned,
possibly due to Nomadic tribes raiding the city.7 This left
archaeologists with a cityscape clearly representing a short period of
occupation. Especially buildings dating to the reign of the GrecoBactrian king Eucratides (170 - 145 BCE) are well-represented in the
results of conducted excavations (Martinez-Seve 2014). The potential of
research of this period of the site is hence large, but the singularity of
5
European Union
6
I.a. Ostia, Pompeii, Olynthos.
7
Martinez-Seve 2014, 271 - 272.
28
the city as a polis in the far East of Central Asia renders a local
comparative perspective with other poleis impossible. This naturally
leaves archaeologists looking West, where comparable contemporary
examples of poleis (e.g. Priene, Demetrias, Pergamon) are well
documented. In my exploratory essay, I would compare the cityscape
and housing of Ai-Khanoum with that of Hellenistic cities from the
same period in the Mediterranean, in an attempt to elucidate the
difference between lives of such citizens in the far East and soconceptualized Hellenistic citizens proper. Indeed, emphasis in research
of Ai-Khanoum has always been on the hypothetical ‘royal’ stature of
the city, whereas any rôle of its citizenry has never been taken for
defined or researched as fundamentally. My proposal is to commence
research explicitly in the East, analysing the role of the citizenry in AiKhanoum through the understanding of the household and city
configuration in space, and only subsequently compare Western poleis
to this Eastern example, attempting to understand if and then where
Eastern influence possibly affects in the West. 4 Such an approach may
also emancipate the current local Afghan population, potentially
explaining partially whether such an approach to heritage can
accentuate, or even increase the entanglement5 of the present populace
of former Bactria, the Western world, and possibly act as a bridge via
Hellenistic material archaeologica as those archaeologica participate in
these worlds.
Wouter Post is a student of the Research Master in Archaeology at the
University of Amsterdam. He has participated in excavations at Halos,
Zakynthos and Marsiliana d’Albegna. He is also an active member of
Stichting Zenobia; his main purpose throughout his studies has been to
become an all-round archaeologist.
29
Visitors information
Emergency call
Doctor Service Groningen
Police
Public transport
Taxi Groningen
112
0900 9229
0900 8844
www.9292.nl/en
(+31) (0)50 541 8452
University of Groningen
Academy building, Broerstraat 5,
9712 CP Groningen,
(+31) (0)50 363 5250
Places in the city centre to visit
What to do in your spare time when you are in Groningen? The city has a lot
to offer. We list a few possibilities here. You may also ask one of the
coordinators for advice.
Restaurants
Mr Mofongo, Oude Boteringestraat 26
The place to go to for excellent dishes from all over the world for agreeable
prices (€15-€25,-) and a dish of the day for €10,-. The restaurant also has a nice
cocktail bar upstairs, and is located right around the corner of the Academy
building.
Het Pannenkoekschip, Schuitendiep 1017
For something traditionally Dutch, try one of the tasteful pancakes at the
‘Pancake ship’, located on an actual ship. Don’t fear seasickness though – the
ship is still on the water, but is placed on a giant block of stone and does not
bob on the waves. Prices around €8-12,-.
De Uurwerker, Uurwerkersgang 24
This is the only restaurant in town that bakes its pizzas in a stone oven, which
makes them smell and taste deliciously. Not a fan of pizzas? Try a salad or one
of the dishes on the menu. Many locals spend the evening here enjoying a cold
drink in the atmospheric yard. NB: ordering is self service. Go to the bar/pay
desk.
Cafés
De Drie Gezusters, Grote Markt 36/39
30
On a sunny day, the famously crowded sidewalk cafe of the Drie Gezusters is
impossible to overlook. Of course, it has a perfect location in the city centre,
with a view on Grote Markt, the old city hall and of course the Martini tower.
Café-Restaurant Het Goudkantoor
Waagplein 1
A somewhat smaller café is located in a beautiful 400-year-old building in the
centre of Groningen, near the Grote Markt. Apart from coffee and cake, they
also have a rather chic menu.
See also De Uurwerker and Mr Mofongo (above)
Museums
Martini tower, Martinikerkhof 1
Although not so much of a museum, its view makes the Martini tower definitely
worth climbing. Buy your tickets to climb the 97 meters of the tower, also called
‘Olle grieze’ (‘old grey one’), at the colourful building that houses the tourist
office on the Grote Markt, right across the street. €3,- (you can also buy a
combination ticket to visit the Martini church as well).
Groninger Museum, Museumeiland 1
Towering out of the water in front of Groningen Central Station is a beautiful
building housing the Groninger Museum. At the moment, there is an exhibition
on David Bowie (‘David Bowie is’) and a collection of works by the experimental
Dutch designer and artist Joris Laarman (‘Joris Laarman Lab’). Adults €13,-,
students €10,-.
University Museum Groningen, Oude Kijk in ‘t Jatstraat 7A
Currently, the University Museum has an exhibition entitled ‘Copying the
World’, with plaster art from 1860-1960. Furthermore you can find here a series
of objects showing the University’s 400-year-existence and Aletta Jacobs’s
consulting room. She was the first female academic graduate, the first woman to
obtain a PhD and the first female doctor in the Netherlands. No entrance fee.
Tourist information office
Grote Markt 29, http://toerisme.groningen.nl/en/
A good place for more information on restaurants, cafés and museums, but also
on city walks, some beautiful places to visit, and souvenirs.
31