Beyond Comparison? Literary Appropriation and Its Effects on (Post-)Augustan Greco-Roman Text Production

Abstract

This article centers, first, on the Roman reception of earlier Greek literature, which is considered less a simple “receiving” of foreign influence and rather an active “taking” and act of appropriation, and, second, on the effects that this process had on Imperial Greek Literature. Thus, it deals with the question whether Greek literature—at least in part—during the Imperial Period can be considered an autonomous, cosmopolitan, and many-centered phenomenon in its own right and impetus, with its independent production centers that constructed and defined their particular identity. Or, alternatively, whether in the Imperial Age up to the second century CE we encounter a dominating perspective in literary texts, which contributed to strengthen and redefine the Roman viewpoint and the center’s identity from the periphery. The Greek texts which are discussed in this essay invite the interpretation that the Post-Augustan Age, despite its locally diverse and multi-ethnical setup, monopolized a perspective, which encouraged the Greek elite to join the Imperial project, thus resulting in a Greco-Roman literature that appears to be beyond comparison.