Greece and the Augustan Cultural Revolution

An examination of the reflections of the Augustan cultural revolution in the cities and sanctuaries of Roman Greece.

A. J. S. Spawforth (Author)

9781107525788, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 May 2015

328 pages, 6 b/w illus.
23 x 15.5 x 1.8 cm, 0.49 kg

"It is a skillful, provocative, beautifully flawed work that annoyed and delighted in equal measure, and is essential reading for anyone working on Roman Greece or issues of cultural interaction more broadly. Spawforth will be at our backs for some time to come." --BMCR

This book examines the impact of the Roman cultural revolution under Augustus on the Roman province of Greece. It argues that the transformation of Roman Greece into a classicizing 'museum' was a specific response of the provincial Greek elites to the cultural politics of the Roman imperial monarchy. Against a background of Roman debates about Greek culture and Roman decadence, Augustus promoted the ideal of a Roman debt to a 'classical' Greece rooted in Europe and morally opposed to a stereotyped Asia. In Greece the regime signalled its admiration for Athens, Sparta, Olympia and Plataea as symbols of these past Greek glories. Cued by the Augustan monarchy, provincial Greek notables expressed their Roman orientation by competitive cultural work (revival of ritual; restoration of buildings) aimed at further emphasising Greece's 'classical' legacy. Reprised by Hadrian, the Augustan construction of 'classical' Greece helped to promote the archaism typifying Greek culture under the principate.

1. Introduction: Greece and the Augustan age
2. Athenian eloquence and Spartan arms
3. The noblest actions of the Greeks
4. The gifts of the gods
5. Constructed beauty
6. Hadrian and the legacy of Augustus
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]