Local and Imperial Culture in the Roman Provinces

Through the use of case studies from across the Roman world, this book investigates the cultural interaction and local traditions of provincial communities under the control of imperial Rome. By drawing its theoretical approach from the anthropology of agrarian societies in South Asia, it sets out the framework for a novel cultural history capturing both sides of Roman imperialism: the abundance of contacts between cultures and also the hierarchy in which they existed. It encompasses sources from throughout the empire and across a variety of types from Rhineland grave portraiture, to Egyptian temples, pottery finds in Britain and, lastly, inscriptions in local languages across the Mediterranean. With this focus on the influence of prestige tradition in particular Graeco-Latin societies, this book demonstrates that in spite of recent attempts to interpret the Roman world as uniquely interconnected for its time, it was in fact no exception to pre-modern conditions. The establishment of the Roman Empire produced a significant cultural interaction throughout the affected communities, and interaction with Greek and Latin traditions affected local cultures deeply, at times even transforming them. However, full participation in the culture of the ruling elite was only possible for a small segment of the provincial populations, and therefore the encounter with the Roman elite tradition did not lead to the demise of the local cultural world.