A Community Set in Stone? Monumental Decrees as Instruments of Greek Interactions
-
Sjoukje M. Kamphorst
Abstract
This chapter evaluates civic inscriptions in Greek cities as media for coordinating cooperation during the late Hellenistic and early Imperial periods. J.L. Austin’s notion of “speech act theory” and Michael Chwe’s concept of “rational rituals” serve as foils to Ferraris’s understanding of documents as the material representations of social acts. The prevalence of inscribed civic documents to record inter-city relations suggests their role in documenting and performing community-building in Hellenistic and Roman Greece. In the transition to Empire, civil decrees may have lost their agency to foster diplomacy between poleis, but nonetheless remained “informational beacons” within communities about their relationship with Rome.
Abstract
This chapter evaluates civic inscriptions in Greek cities as media for coordinating cooperation during the late Hellenistic and early Imperial periods. J.L. Austin’s notion of “speech act theory” and Michael Chwe’s concept of “rational rituals” serve as foils to Ferraris’s understanding of documents as the material representations of social acts. The prevalence of inscribed civic documents to record inter-city relations suggests their role in documenting and performing community-building in Hellenistic and Roman Greece. In the transition to Empire, civil decrees may have lost their agency to foster diplomacy between poleis, but nonetheless remained “informational beacons” within communities about their relationship with Rome.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Abbreviations IX
- List of Figures XI
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Approaches to Ancient Documentality
- Documenting Identity in the Early Roman Empire 35
- Copying the Canon: Imperial School Texts as Documentary Traces 57
- Documenting Wonderland: Lucian’s True Stories and the Documentary imaginaire 79
-
Part II: Documentary Communities and Landscapes
- Cities Full of Words: Illiteracy and Epigraphy in Lucian of Samosata 107
- Documenting the oikoumenê: What “Documents” Supported the Description of the Inhabited World in the Hellenistic and Early Imperial Periods? 133
- A Community Set in Stone? Monumental Decrees as Instruments of Greek Interactions 153
-
Part III: Between Documents and Literature
- Dead Letters, Documentality, and the Noctes Atticae of Aulus Gellius 181
- The Relationship between Documents and Literature in Late Antiquity: The Case of the Petition, between Document, Adaptation and Literary Creation 209
- When the Letter Speaks Up: Living and Lifeless Letters 233
-
Epilogue
- The Ancient Historian and His Documents: Reader, Interpreter, and/or Author? 253
- List of Contributors 279
- Index Locorum 281
- Index Rerum 285
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Abbreviations IX
- List of Figures XI
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Approaches to Ancient Documentality
- Documenting Identity in the Early Roman Empire 35
- Copying the Canon: Imperial School Texts as Documentary Traces 57
- Documenting Wonderland: Lucian’s True Stories and the Documentary imaginaire 79
-
Part II: Documentary Communities and Landscapes
- Cities Full of Words: Illiteracy and Epigraphy in Lucian of Samosata 107
- Documenting the oikoumenê: What “Documents” Supported the Description of the Inhabited World in the Hellenistic and Early Imperial Periods? 133
- A Community Set in Stone? Monumental Decrees as Instruments of Greek Interactions 153
-
Part III: Between Documents and Literature
- Dead Letters, Documentality, and the Noctes Atticae of Aulus Gellius 181
- The Relationship between Documents and Literature in Late Antiquity: The Case of the Petition, between Document, Adaptation and Literary Creation 209
- When the Letter Speaks Up: Living and Lifeless Letters 233
-
Epilogue
- The Ancient Historian and His Documents: Reader, Interpreter, and/or Author? 253
- List of Contributors 279
- Index Locorum 281
- Index Rerum 285
