Eager to be Roman Greek Response to Roman Rule in Pontus and Bithynia

Eager to be Roman is a study of how the population of Pontus and Bithynia, a Greek province in the northwestern part of Asia Minor, engaged culturally with the Roman Empire. Scholars have long presented Greek provincials as highly attached to their Hellenic background and less affected by Rome's influence than Spaniards, Gauls or Britons. More recent studies have acknowledged that some elements of Roman culture and civic life found their way into Greek communities and that members of the Greek elite obtained Roman citizen rights and posts in the imperial administration, though for purely pragmatic reasons. Drawing on a detailed investigation of literary works and epigraphic evidence, Jesper Madsen demonstrates that Greek intellectuals and members of the local elite in this province were in fact keen to identify themselves as Roman, and that imperial connections and Roman culture were prestigious in the eyes of their Greek readers and fellow-citizens.

Jesper Majbom Madsen is Assistant Professor at the Institute of History and Civilization, University of Southern Denmark, Odense.