11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Zoom
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“Greek rhetoric and Roman power in the mid-fourth century”
Abstract: This paper explores how a central concern of scholarship on the second sophistic played out in Greek prose literature beyond the period usually ascribed to the second sophistic itself – namely Greek culture’s relationship with Roman power. I begin by sketching out how the reforms of the Constantinian empire in the fourth century changed the face and locus of Roman power in the Greek east, before examining in detail how one of Constantinople’s first senators – the philosopher Themistius – negotiated his twin identities as Greek philosopher and Roman politician at the moment of his adlection in 355CE.
Moderated by John Ma (Columbia University)
Responses by Adam Kemezis (University of Alberta) & Geoff Harmsworth (Columbia University)
