Interpreting the Roman world: Rhetoric of Otherness, Audience and Greek Culture in the Histories of Polybius

MORENO LEONI, ÁLVARO MATÍAS

Hamburgo

Conferencia; Historische Seminar - Arbeitsbereich Alte Geschichte; 2012

Fakultät für Geisteswissenschaften - Universität Hamburg

Polybius spent seventeen years as a detainee in Rome, enough time to become involved in Latin culture. Because of that Rome and its foreign cultural and social traits could not be for him object of wonder. This statement, however, may be exaggerated. To talk about a supposed identity between Polybius and Rome can distract us from noticing many discursive clues that point to a survival in the Histories of an external reading of the Roman world in a cultural Greek key. Therefore, to recognize that could help us to show in which way Polybius attempted to show his Greek audience the Roman world. It is important here, ultimately, to deal with cultural operations of production, perception and interpretation of meanings that come into play in the Histories.