Descripción

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - sehr guter Zustand / very good condition - The Sacred Identity of Ephesos offers an interpretation of one of the largest and most important bequests from the Classical world: that made to the towncouncil and assembly of Ephesos in AD 104 by a wealthy Roman equestrian, C. Vibius Salutaris. Set against the background of the city life of Ephesos and the Roman province of Asia, this interpretation shows how the civic rituals created by the foundation symbolised a contemporary social hierarchy and one version of the history of the city. These representations were grounded in the stories of the Ionian foundation of Ephesos and the birth of the goddess Artemis in a grove above the city. During the Roman empire, the assembly of Ephesos used these foundation myths as a tangible source of power, to be wielded over new citizens, new founders, and new gods. This conclusion about the use of the past at Ephesos, one of the largest and most important cities in the Roman empire, challenges some of the basic assumptions historians have made about the Greeks during the Greek cultural renaissance of the second century AD, and especially suggests that pagan piety was far from being in decline at that time. Guy M. Rogers� explication of this extraordinary inscription thus provides a powerful new framework for understanding how second-century Greeks defined their historical, social, and religious identities in relation to Romans, Christians, and Jews. ISBN 9780415055307