Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Life. Bibliography: p. 64.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Life. Bibliography: p. 64.

This thesis explores the anxieties and opportunities that attend fame and posterity in the second sophistic and how they play out in both literary and monumental expressions of cultural production. I consider how elite provincials in the Roman empire, who are competitive, bi- or even tri-cultural, status-driven, often politically active, and engaged in cultural production, attempt to construct a future presence for themselves either through the composition of literature that is aimed (at least in part) at the future or through efforts to write themselves into the landscape of their native or adopted cities. I argue that the cultural and temporal perspective of these men drives their multifarious, playful, and self-reflexive approach to the production of literature or monuments. For those men engaged in the ‘second sophistic’, in the narrower, Philostratean definition, there is an ever present tether on their creative efforts, in that for contemporary success they must immerse themselves in the culture of classical Athens; and the prominent practice of epideictic oratory, with its promotion of improvisation and lack of repetition, discourages the kind of literary effort that aims at eternity. At the same time, their attempts to build themselves into the hearts of cities is less restricted, in that those who possess or have access to sufficient wealth can grant elaborate benefactions which essentially stand as monuments to their financer. Nevertheless, their belated position with respect to the Greek literary canon and the heights of political and cultural prestige invested in classical Greece infuses the cultural efforts of the second sophistic with a sense of pathos that acknowledges the impossibility of creating and controlling one’s future reputation regardless of how much effort is applied. At the same time, this impossible position, rather than limiting them, endows these men with a varied, self-ironizing, intertextual, intermedial, and unique approach to cultural production that actively engages with the inescapable and laudable past in order to carve a lasting impression on the literary and physical landscape of the Roman empire.

Os mistérios de Elêusis foram um dos mais prestigiosos cultos pan-helênicos do Mundo Antigo. Com a conquista romana da Grécia, os benefícios e privilégios às iniciações do culto se estenderam também aos cidadãos de todo o Mediterrâneo romano. Assim, sendo inspiração para as elites intelectuais e até mesmo para imperadores como Adriano e Marco Aurélio, o culto em Elêusis se tornou um dos pilares da reorganização da sociedade e da identidade gregas durante o período romano imperial. Dessa forma, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo uma análise do espaço construído dos santuários eleusinos integrados, de Elêusis ao Eleusinion na ágora de Atenas, durante o período romano (séc. II d.C.), buscando compreender o impacto social e cultural da presença romana para os mistérios eleusinos e para a sociedade que se reorganiza em torno do santuário. Nesse sentido, esse estudo procurou não só esboçar um quadro interpretativo para a transformação dos espaços relacionados ao culto eleusino, como também procurou compreender as dinâmicas e particularidades das interações na paisagem eleusina / The Eleusinian Mysteries are one of the most prestigious panhellenic cults in the Ancient World. After the roman conquest of Greece, the benefits and privileges to the cult initiations were also spread to the citizens of all Roman Mediterranean. So, being inspiration to the intellectual elite and even to emperors like Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, the cult at Eleusis became fundamental to the reorganization of the greek society and identity of the greeks during the Roman Imperial Period. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the built space of the Eleusinian Sanctuaries in integrated way, from Eleusis to the City Eleusinion in the Athenian Agora, during the Roman Period (Second Century A.D.), seeking to understand the socio-cultural impact of the roman presence to the Eleusinian Mysteries and to the society reorganized around its sanctuary. Moreover, this dissertation seeks to prepare an interpretative schema to the transformation of the sacred spaces related to the Eleusinian cult as well to comprehend the dynamics and particularities of interactions within the Eleusinian landscape

Os mistérios de Elêusis foram um dos mais prestigiosos cultos pan-helênicos do Mundo Antigo. Com a conquista romana da Grécia, os benefícios e privilégios às iniciações do culto se estenderam também aos cidadãos de todo o Mediterrâneo romano. Assim, sendo inspiração para as elites intelectuais e até mesmo para imperadores como Adriano e Marco Aurélio, o culto em Elêusis se tornou um dos pilares da reorganização da sociedade e da identidade gregas durante o período romano imperial. Dessa forma, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo uma análise do espaço construído dos santuários eleusinos integrados, de Elêusis ao Eleusinion na ágora de Atenas, durante o período romano (séc. II d.C.), buscando compreender o impacto social e cultural da presença romana para os mistérios eleusinos e para a sociedade que se reorganiza em torno do santuário. Nesse sentido, esse estudo procurou não só esboçar um quadro interpretativo para a transformação dos espaços relacionados ao culto eleusino, como também procurou compreender as dinâmicas e particularidades das interações na paisagem eleusina / The Eleusinian Mysteries are one of the most prestigious panhellenic cults in the Ancient World. After the roman conquest of Greece, the benefits and privileges to the cult initiations were also spread to the citizens of all Roman Mediterranean. So, being inspiration to the intellectual elite and even to emperors like Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, the cult at Eleusis became fundamental to the reorganization of the greek society and identity of the greeks during the Roman Imperial Period. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the built space of the Eleusinian Sanctuaries in integrated way, from Eleusis to the City Eleusinion in the Athenian Agora, during the Roman Period (Second Century A.D.), seeking to understand the socio-cultural impact of the roman presence to the Eleusinian Mysteries and to the society reorganized around its sanctuary. Moreover, this dissertation seeks to prepare an interpretative schema to the transformation of the sacred spaces related to the Eleusinian cult as well to comprehend the dynamics and particularities of interactions within the Eleusinian landscape

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In this thesis we explore the period of renewal that Athens experienced during the second century AD. This century saw Athens at the peak of her cultural prominence in the Roman Empire: the city was the centre of the League of the Panhellenion and hosted a vibrant sophistic scene that attracted orators from across the Greek world, developments which were ideologically fuelled by contemporary conceptions of Classical Athens. While this Athenian 'golden age' is a standard feature of scholarship on Greek culture under Rome, my thesis delves further to explore the renewal of the urban and rural landscapes at this time and the relationship between that process and constructions of Athenian identity. We approach the renewal of second-century Athens through four lenses: past and present in the Ilissos area; the rhetoric of the Panhellenion; elite conflict and competition; and the character of the Attic countryside. My central conclusions are as follows: 1. The renewal of Athens was effected chiefly by Hadrian and the Athenian elite and was modelled on an ideal Athenian past, strategically manipulated to suit present purpose; the attractions of the fifth-century golden age for this programme of renewal meant that politically contentious history of radical democracy and aggressive imperialism had to be safely rewritten. 2. Athens and Attica retained their uniquely integrated character in the second century. Rural Attica was the subject of a powerful sacro-idyllic ideology and played a vital role in concepts of Athenian identity, while simultaneously serving as a functional landscape of production and inhabitation. 3. The true socio-economic importance of the Attic countryside as a settled and productive landscape should be investigated without unduly privileging the limited evidence from survey, and by combining all available sources, both literary and documentary, with attention to their content, cultural context and ideological relevance.