UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Philostratus, Perceptions of Foreign Ethnicity, and Severan Cultural Geography Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7j2862k0 Author Bingley, Christopher Stephen Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Philostratus, Perceptions of Foreign Ethnicity, and Severan Cultural Geography A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Christopher Stephen Bingley 2019 © Copyright by Christopher Stephen Bingley 2019 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Philostratus, Perceptions of Foreign Ethnicity, And Severan Cultural Geography by Christopher Stephen Bingley Doctor of Philosophy in History University of CaliforniA, Los Angeles, 2019 Professor DAvid DAniel Phillips, Chair During the first two centuries C.E., provinciAl Greek elites reActed to their new stAtus as denizens of the RomAn Empire in part with the literature they produced, often grouped under the heAding of the Second Sophistic. The tAil end of this period, in which a new dynasty of emperors ruled And underwent a crisis of legitimAcy (193-235 C.E.), wAs mArkedly different in the identity of the imperiAl family and as a result the composition of Greek literature. This distinction, however, has not been part of the scholArly approach to the study of this period’s literature, which insteAd focuses on the traits that it shares with eArlier sophistic literature. During this lAter period, the debate over what constituted proper “RomAnness” acquired renewed cultural importAnce especiAlly becAuse of the Severan imperiAl family’s outsider stAtus, SyriAn and AfricAn background, and decree of universAl citizenship in 212 C.E. As An intimAte of the imperiAl family And prominent Greek intellectual in Rome, Philostratus witnessed these changes firsthand. By ii reAding the diverse works of Philostratus together, I argue that the corpus reActs to contemporary cultural change by portraying foreign identity as disruptively ambiguous. My analysis illuminates the distinctive feAtures of this period, including the cultural stAtus of Greece and Hellenism, the incorporation of outsiders, and the nature of RomAn identity in times of politicAl change, if not outright crisis. iii The dissertAtion of Christopher Stephen Bingley is approved. Ra’anan S. BoustAn ElizAbeth Digeser Robert A. Gurval Amy Ellen Richlin DAvid DAniel Phillips, Committee Chair University of CaliforniA, Los Angeles 2019 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Philostratus the RomAn Sophist 24 Chapter 2: The Portrayal of Foreignness in the Letters And Heroikos 77 Chapter 3: The NAture of Foreign Identity in the Life of Apollonius And the Lives of the Sophists 125 Chapter 4: Athens in PhilostrateAn Geography 171 Conclusion 206 Bibliography 212 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to my friends, family, colleAgues, and teAchers, all of whom have offered guidance And support in seeing this dissertAtion completed. vi VITA Christopher Stephen Bingley EDUCATION M.A., History, University of CaliforniA, Los Angeles, 2014 Post-BaccAlAureAte Program in ClAssicAl Studies, University of PennsylvaniA, 2011 B.A., Anthropology and ClAssicAl CivilizAtions, University of CaliforniA, Berkeley, 2010 HONORS & FELLOWSHIPS Hortense Fishbaugh MemoriAl ScholArship, UCLA AffiliAtes, 2018-2019 UCLA Graduate ReseArch Mentorship, 2014-2015 MediterraneAn Seminar Travel AwArd, 2014 UCLA Graduate Summer ReseArch Mentorship Program, 2013 & 2014 Olken Travel Fellowship, UCLA History Department, 2013 & 2015 PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Member, Society for ClAssicAl Studies, 2015-present Member, Women’s ClAssicAl Caucus, 2015-present vii INTRODUCTION Lucius Flavius Philostratus (c.170s-late 240s C.E.)1 lived during what is commonly considered a period of resurgence in Greek literature. Philostratus himself coined the term “Second Sophistic” in his Lives of the Sophists (Βίοι Σοφιστῶν/Vitae Sophistarum, henceforth VS) to describe a period of intellectual activity that was distinct from but also a continuation of classical Greek rhetoric and sophistry.2 The first through early third centuries C.E. indeed witnessed a resurgence in Greek writing, rhetoric, and education. In contrast to cultural trends of the classical Greek world, however, Second Sophistic Hellenism manifested in the cultural production of Greek-speaking Roman citizens. Their literary output simultaneously looked to the classical Greek past as worthy of praise and to the Roman present; Rome was often a source of ambivalence for Greek imperial literature as these authors sought to understand the empire and their place in it. The Philostratean corpus ought to be studied through this dual lens. Yet, particularly because he casts himself as the endpoint of this Greek intellectual tradition, scholarship has tended to discuss Philostratus as the final figure of the Second Sophistic. as a result, Philostratus’ corpus is framed as continuous with the Greek literature of the century prior, with emphasis placed on its various classicizing or “sophistic” features, and the content of Philostratus’ works is often inadequately situated within its particular historical context. Scholars have variously examined Philostratus’ works as looking backward in the way that they fit into 1 The Suda states that Philostratus flourished during the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus (193-211) and died during the reign of Philip the arab (244-249). Suda s.v. Φιλόστρατος, φ 421 adler. 2 See below and the Chapter 1 section, “The Classical Ideal: Sophists and Foreign Despots,” for the differences between the First and Second Sophistics in Philostratus’ imagining. In this dissertation, I use the term “classical” to denote how Philostratus and other imperial Greek writers use the ancient Greek past to distinguish it from more recent imperial history, a definition that does not always overlap with the Classical Period of Greek history as it is conventionally considered (480-323 B.C.E.). 1 long-standing literary traditions or represent the past. This scholarly emphasis comes at the expense of attention to the more immediate socio-political environment in which Philostratus wrote. Too often, scholars have studied Philostratus in a historical vacuum, and the resulting conclusions tend to overlook differences in context between Philostratus at the beginning of the third century and earlier authors of the Second Sophistic. as a corrective to this excessive focus on Philostratus’ place within the so-called Second Sophistic, this dissertation draws connections between the corpus and its contemporary cultural and political worlds. I argue that Philostratus was a product of a period that differed in important respects from the preceding two centuries. Specifically, the Severan dynasty (193-235 C.E.) brought profound cultural change not only in the identity of the imperial family itself but also in the policies and ideologies of the Roman administration.3 The Philostratean corpus reflects and reacts to a number of the important cultural developments of the early third century. Both the direct and indirect influences of the Severan context on the corpus suggest new avenues for its analysis. This dissertation illuminates some of the connections between Severan culture and the content of Philostratus’ work, in particular highlighting the heightened significance of ethnic and cultural identity. Politics at the imperial center created a culture of discontent and uncertainty. The identity of the imperial family – ethnically Phoenician, African, and Syrian – as well as its fascination with Hellenic and Near Eastern cultures provided a new and distinct context for the composition of Philostratus’ works. The power exercised by Syrian women within the imperial 3 See anthony R. Birley, Septimius Severus: The African Emperor (London: Routledge, 2002), for how the african identity of Severus, a native of Leptis Magna in North Africa, influenced some of his policies. See Michael Grant, The Severans: The Changed Roman Empire (London: Routledge, 1996); Clare Rowan, Under Divine Auspices: Divine Ideology and the Visualisation of Imperial Power in the Severan Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), for an overview of this period and the major historiographical issues. 2 family during this period may have been especially influential in shaping Philostratus’ geographical conceptions of the Severan Roman Empire and the place of Greece – particularly athens – within it.4 Furthermore, Caracalla’s edict of 212 extending Roman citizenship to every free man across the empire contributed to a crisis over cultural identities. These features of the Severan period, moreover, have influenced the ways in which its literature has been interpreted. Scholars such as Maud Gleason and Adam Kemezis have focused on historical works written in Greek under the Severan regime and how they reflect anxieties about political change.5 Building on this scholarly interest in how Severan politics affected contemporary literature, this dissertation explores the identity of the Severan family as well as wider cultural trends at this time. In this way, the Philostratean corpus illuminates not only contemporary feelings about the imperial regime but also about ethnic and cultural identities. Overall, the works of Philostratus represent the changing nature of ethnic identity in the wake of Severan policy and the dynasty’s administration.