"The question of identity is one that has been central to the study of the Roman Empire in particular, for at least the last century. The now academically abandoned paradigm of "Romanization" posited the idea that the subjects of the Roman Empire eventually saw themselves as Romans, thus creating a homogenous culture. While scholars such as Brun and Millett effectively deconstructed that model at the end of the 20th century, the last 20 years has seen a new paradigm emerge in the works of Woolf and Mattingly, allowing for a kind of heterogenous discussion of cultural values that incorporated the elite of several societies. The work of Prag and Quinn in particular has also seen the expansion of this discussion into the Hellenistic period of empires prior to the Roman expansion. The themes, setting, time period, and ideas presented in this volume thus serve as a perfect amalgamation of where the broader topic of identity and community currently sits in |