ROMANA
The Roman Turn among
Jews, Greek Pagans, and Christians
Courtesy of Tel Dor Archaeological Project, Photographer: Gabi Laron
About ROMANA
ROMANA aims to unveil the ubiquitous presence of Rome in Jewish, Greek-Pagan and Christian texts and to expose the strategies of cultural interaction between imperialist forces and a range of minority groups. It will explore how intellectual discourses that have defined the West, namely those of Greek elites, Christian groups, as well as Hellenistic and rabbinic Judaism, were constructed through a series of contested, hidden, and disavowed interactions with the dominant force of empire. The project will redraw the traditional map of the Roman Empire to challenge its sharp dichotomy between Rome and the provinces and demonstrate the deep entanglements of each group of “provincial” elites despite their claim to cultural purity.
The starting point is first-century Hellenistic Judaism, as its main representatives—Philo and Josephus—became active in Rome as prolific authors writing in Greek, who combined philosophical, literary and legal interests with a keen appeal to Roman audiences. Their modes of acculturation will serve as a compass to unlock similar cultural entanglements in the Second Sophistic, early Christianity and rabbinic literature.
The project objectives entail a focused study of three trajectories, philosophical, literary and legal, to be exposed as doubly entangled, namely with each other and with Roman discourses. The method will be a close, comparative and culturally aware reading of whole corpora of texts in Greek, Hebrew/Aramaic and Latin, based on the available manuscripts, moving through Greek-Christian writing into Rabbinic Judaism and the texts that contest the space between them. We will reach insights of a new order in fields which have thus far been overwhelmingly studied in double isolation or on the limited basis of digital searches of keywords.
philosophy, law, and literature
Due to the expansive scope and innovative approach of this project, its objectives will be achieved by pursuing three distinct trajectories. The project embraces the high-stakes challenge of rigorous interdisciplinary research, crossing linguistic, literary, and religious boundaries to gain new and transformative insights. If successful, this research will reshape the traditional understanding of the Roman Empire, moving beyond the sharp division between center and periphery, and demonstrating that philosophical, literary, and legal discourses in Greek and Hebrew/Aramaic were not only intertwined but integral to ROMANA. In this context, Rome will be revealed as a network that included its "provincials." The emergence of Christianity, the Second Sophistic, and rabbinic literature will be recognized as active, dynamic engagements with Roman intellectual traditions.
The project will investigate three key trajectories: philosophical, literary, and legal. Although these strands are presented separately for clarity, they are deeply interconnected, and a primary goal of the project will be to explore how these themes interact. A strict adherence to the chronological progression of sources will be maintained, ensuring that earlier texts are thoroughly analyzed before connecting them to later ones. Particular attention will be given to the first century CE, a period for which we have an exceptionally rich and diverse corpus of philosophical, literary, and legal writings.
