Deals with the popular topics of cultural identity, multiculturalism, and imperialism

Uses up-to-date literary and cultural theory to offer new readings of classical texts

Innovative cultural-historical argument

Greek Literature and the Roman Empire uses up-to-date literary and cultural theory to make a major and original contribution to the appreciation of Greek literature written under the Roman Empire during the second century CE (the so-called `Second Sophistic`). This literature should not be dismissed as unoriginal and mediocre. Rather, its central preoccupations, especially mimesis and paideia, provide significant insights into the definition of Greek identity during the period. Focusing upon a series of key texts by important authors (including Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch, Philostratus, Lucian, Favorinus, and the novelists), Whitmarsh argues that narratives telling of educated Greeks` philosophical advice to empowered Romans (including emperors) offer a crucial point of entry into the complex and often ambivalent relationships between Roman conquerors and Greek subjects. Their authors` rich and complex engagement with the literary past articulates an ingenious and sophisticated response to their present socio-political circumstances.

Contents
Introduction
Part One: The Politics of Imitation

1. Repetition: The Crisis of Posterity
2. Education: Strategies of Self-making
Part Two: Greece and Rome

3. Rome Uncivilized: Exile and the Kingdom
4. Civilizing Rome: Greek Pedagogy and the Roman Emperor
5. Satirizing Rome: Lucian
Conclusion
Appendix One: Translation of Favorinus, `On Exile`
Appendix Two: The Performative Context of Dio`s `Kingships`
Bibliography