From Hellenism to Islam: Cultural and Linguistic Change in the Roman Near East

Front Cover
Hannah Cotton
Cambridge University Press, 2009 M09 3 - 481 pages
The eight hundred years between the first Roman conquests and the conquest of Islam saw a rich, constantly shifting blend of languages and writing systems, legal structures, religious practices and beliefs in the Near East. While the different ethnic groups and cultural forms often clashed with each other, adaptation was as much a characteristic of the region as conflict. This volume, emphasizing the inscriptions in many languages from the Near East, brings together mutually informative studies by scholars in diverse fields. Together, they reveal how the different languages, peoples and cultures interacted, competed with, tried to ignore or were influenced by each other, and how their relationships evolved over time. It will be of great value to those interested in Greek and Roman history, Jewish history and Near Eastern studies.
 

Contents

documentary evidence social realities
1
The presence role and significance of Latin in
15
Latin in cities of the Roman Near East 43
69
Euergetism in Josephus and the epigraphic culture
75
Legal and social status of threptoz and related categories
93
Languages and religion in second to fourthcentury
177
The epigraphic habit and the Jewish diasporas
203
Religion and language in DuraEuropos
235
Edessene Syriac inscriptions in late antique Syria
289
I2 Samaritan Writing and Writings
303
I3 The Jewish magical tradition from late antique
324
The Nabataean connection of the Benei IIezir
345
Greek inscriptions in transition from the Byzantine
352
Arab kings Arab tribes and the beginnings of Arab
374
Hellenism and Romanitas
447
Index
467

the practice of transcription
257

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About the author (2009)

Hannah Cotton is Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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