Ethnicity in the ancient world - did it matter? / Erich S. Gruen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gruen, Erich S., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History, Ancient.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2020]

Summary:

This study approaches the topic of ethnicity through the lenses of the ancients themselves rather than through the imposition of modern categories. It takes into account the expressions and attitudes of a wide variety of Greek, Roman, Jewish, and early Christian sources. A central issue guides the course of the work: did ancient writers reflect upon collective identity as determined by common origins or by shared traditions and culture?

Contents:

Introduction

1. Were barbarians barbaric?

2. Herodotus and Greekness

3. The racial judgments of Polybius

4. Rome's multiple identities and tangled perspectives

5. Constructed ethnicities in republican Italy

6. The chosen people and mixed marriages

7. Did hellenistic Jews consider themselves a race or a religion?

8. Philo and Jewish ethnicity

9. The ethnic vocabulary of Josephus

10. The racial reflections of Paul

11. Christians as a "third race"?

12. Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9783110685657

3110685655

OCLC:

1196251682