Hellenism and Empire explores identity, politics, and culture in the Greek world of the first three centuries AD, the period known as the second sophistic. The sources of this identity were the words and deeds of classical Greece, and the emphasis placed on Greekness and Greek heritage was far greater then than at any other time. Yet this period is often seen as a time of happy consensualism between the Greek and Roman halves of the Roman Empire. The first part of the book shows that Greek identity came before any loyalty to Rome (and was indeed partly a reaction to Rome), while the views of the major authors of the period, which are studied in the second part, confirm and restate the prior claims of Hellenism.

"This book is a must for anyone interested in the evolution of Greek culture..."

"A learned social analysis that will interest both specialists and informed readers generally."

"...this book presents thought-provoking treatments of many of the major Greek authors of the second sophistic... [and] is certainly important reading for anyone working on any of the sophists, rhetors, philosophers, intellecturals, novelists or litterati of the first centuries, or more generally on Greek culture under Roman domination. It should also be required reading for anyone who still indulges in that problematic hypenization, "Graeco-Roman."

"...this book presents thought-provoking treatments of many of the major Greek authors of the second sophistic... [and] is certainly important reading for anyone working on any of the sophists, rhetors, philosophers, intellecturals, novelists or litterati of the first centuries, or more generally on Greek culture under Roman domination. It should also be required reading for anyone who still indulges in that problematic hypenization, "Graeco-Roman."

Simon Swain, Warwick Research Fellow, University of Warwick