Research introductions by Robin van Vliet
Papers by Robin van Vliet
Agents of Change around the Valley of the Muses., 2023
van Vliet, R. and O. van Nijf (2023). Agents of Change around the Valley of the Muses. in: S. Cas... more van Vliet, R. and O. van Nijf (2023). Agents of Change around the Valley of the Muses. in: S. Castelli and I. Sluiter, Agents of Change in the Greco-Roman and Early Modern Periods: Ten Case Studies in Agency in Innovation. Leiden : 70-90.
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
TMA – Tijdschrift voor Mediterrane Archeologie, 2019
Conference presentations by Robin van Vliet
18-19 October 2019 – 11th OIKOS Anchoring Innovation Expert Meeting, 2019
When Rome became the dominant power in the Eastern Mediterranean, it also anchored its hegemony i... more When Rome became the dominant power in the Eastern Mediterranean, it also anchored its hegemony in the pre-existing cultural and religious traditions that already connected the Hellenistic world. By now it is commonplace that cults and festivals continued to play an important role in this process of connectivity, the imperial cult being the most familiar example.
It is striking however that until now this phenomenon has predominantly been viewed from the imperial period, with an emphasis on the imperial cult. This does not fully take into account the long-term patterns in which the Empire took root. From the moment Roman conquerors set foot on Greek soil onwards (ca. 200-27 BCE), they found themselves entangled in a web of cult- and festival connections that over time increasingly geared towards Rome. In some cases this was used to their own advantage, as when Titus Flamininus famously capitalised the Isthmian games to declare the freedom of the Greeks. In other cases, this worked the other way around, when Greek communities incorporated Rome into pre-existing cult- and festival practices.
My research project specifically sets out to go back to these early cult- and festival interactions between Roman agents and Greek communities, and investigates the role they played (as both a cultural and a political force) in the context of early empire formation. I hereby understand the coming of Rome as an ‘innovation’ and cults and festivals as the ‘anchors’, meaning the traditional practises through which Greek and Roman agents found a shared field of experience to connect the new developments with familiar frameworks. One of the hypotheses is that the anchors formed potential networks of ritual and political communication facilitating the rapid spread of Roman rule, eventually culminating in the imperial cults and thereby anchoring one of the most significant foundations of the Roman Empire.
Historicidagen, Groningen (August 22-24, 2019), 2019, 2019
Cults and festivals formed an important link in legitimising and disseminating Roman power, not o... more Cults and festivals formed an important link in legitimising and disseminating Roman power, not only culturally but also as a political tool. In times of political transition, cults and festivals were used as diplomatic means to redefine common ground. This was a continuous process that often needed redefinition.
This paper examines how both Pergamon and Rome used the familiar language of cults and festivals time and again to experiment with their relationship with each other, whereby they increasingly became connected. This connection manifested itself on different scales. Locally, as cults and festivals formed a key ingredient in consolidating local elite status, in turn facilitating the anchoring of Roman power. Regionally, as Rome had a direct hand in instigating provincial festivals, tying the world of Hellenistic cities (further) together. Globally, as Rome became more and more visible in a plethora of places producing an upscaling of the festival network - facilitating more global connections in a traditionally more regionally based society. The individual festival network of the Pergamene athlete Gaius Poplius could possibly indicate such an increase in large-scale connections.
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Research introductions by Robin van Vliet
Papers by Robin van Vliet
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
Conference presentations by Robin van Vliet
It is striking however that until now this phenomenon has predominantly been viewed from the imperial period, with an emphasis on the imperial cult. This does not fully take into account the long-term patterns in which the Empire took root. From the moment Roman conquerors set foot on Greek soil onwards (ca. 200-27 BCE), they found themselves entangled in a web of cult- and festival connections that over time increasingly geared towards Rome. In some cases this was used to their own advantage, as when Titus Flamininus famously capitalised the Isthmian games to declare the freedom of the Greeks. In other cases, this worked the other way around, when Greek communities incorporated Rome into pre-existing cult- and festival practices.
My research project specifically sets out to go back to these early cult- and festival interactions between Roman agents and Greek communities, and investigates the role they played (as both a cultural and a political force) in the context of early empire formation. I hereby understand the coming of Rome as an ‘innovation’ and cults and festivals as the ‘anchors’, meaning the traditional practises through which Greek and Roman agents found a shared field of experience to connect the new developments with familiar frameworks. One of the hypotheses is that the anchors formed potential networks of ritual and political communication facilitating the rapid spread of Roman rule, eventually culminating in the imperial cults and thereby anchoring one of the most significant foundations of the Roman Empire.
This paper examines how both Pergamon and Rome used the familiar language of cults and festivals time and again to experiment with their relationship with each other, whereby they increasingly became connected. This connection manifested itself on different scales. Locally, as cults and festivals formed a key ingredient in consolidating local elite status, in turn facilitating the anchoring of Roman power. Regionally, as Rome had a direct hand in instigating provincial festivals, tying the world of Hellenistic cities (further) together. Globally, as Rome became more and more visible in a plethora of places producing an upscaling of the festival network - facilitating more global connections in a traditionally more regionally based society. The individual festival network of the Pergamene athlete Gaius Poplius could possibly indicate such an increase in large-scale connections.
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
It is striking however that until now this phenomenon has predominantly been viewed from the imperial period, with an emphasis on the imperial cult. This does not fully take into account the long-term patterns in which the Empire took root. From the moment Roman conquerors set foot on Greek soil onwards (ca. 200-27 BCE), they found themselves entangled in a web of cult- and festival connections that over time increasingly geared towards Rome. In some cases this was used to their own advantage, as when Titus Flamininus famously capitalised the Isthmian games to declare the freedom of the Greeks. In other cases, this worked the other way around, when Greek communities incorporated Rome into pre-existing cult- and festival practices.
My research project specifically sets out to go back to these early cult- and festival interactions between Roman agents and Greek communities, and investigates the role they played (as both a cultural and a political force) in the context of early empire formation. I hereby understand the coming of Rome as an ‘innovation’ and cults and festivals as the ‘anchors’, meaning the traditional practises through which Greek and Roman agents found a shared field of experience to connect the new developments with familiar frameworks. One of the hypotheses is that the anchors formed potential networks of ritual and political communication facilitating the rapid spread of Roman rule, eventually culminating in the imperial cults and thereby anchoring one of the most significant foundations of the Roman Empire.
This paper examines how both Pergamon and Rome used the familiar language of cults and festivals time and again to experiment with their relationship with each other, whereby they increasingly became connected. This connection manifested itself on different scales. Locally, as cults and festivals formed a key ingredient in consolidating local elite status, in turn facilitating the anchoring of Roman power. Regionally, as Rome had a direct hand in instigating provincial festivals, tying the world of Hellenistic cities (further) together. Globally, as Rome became more and more visible in a plethora of places producing an upscaling of the festival network - facilitating more global connections in a traditionally more regionally based society. The individual festival network of the Pergamene athlete Gaius Poplius could possibly indicate such an increase in large-scale connections.