Following the life cycle of modern paradigms applied to the Classical world, the term ‘identity’ – particularly in vogue around the millennium – has lately come under increased scrutiny in Classical scholarship. This volume's preface advocates for concentrating on securely distinguishable individuals and their own voices when studying ‘identity’ in the ancient world. ‘Identity’ in studies of the Roman world is often coterminous with ‘ethnicity’ or even ‘culture’. However, as flagged by G. in the preface, this volume aligns the term with the process that scholars often term ‘self-fashioning’ or what the volume more commonly refers to as ‘self-presentation’ in order to put less stress on the deliberateness of the process. The chapters offer case studies drawn from a range of evidence, from literature, primarily in Latin (Chapters 1–6, 12); to archaeology (7–8); and to epigraphy (9–11). In these chapters, sometimes the presentation of an individual involves ethnic and cultural markers, and, at other times, it involves more individualistic aspirations to a particular literary legacy or alignment with a particular political ideology or social institution. Therefore, while the contributions take a broad view of the adjectives (e.g. ethnic, political, social, literary etc.) that we can insert before ‘identity’, they commonly pinpoint moments when we can perceive individuals projecting and often making choices regarding a public self.
The literature chapters, following the volume's individual impetus, revolve around one author. The first contribution, N.W. Bernstein's, is the exception, since it focuses on texts addressing Roman declamation, primarily the pseudo-Quintilianic Minor Declamations and writings of Seneca the Elder. While the chapter demonstrates the relative freedom to invent in declamatory contexts, it also nicely recognises that there are still limits placed on fictional presentations of a ‘self’ in Roman declamation.
The next five chapters address individual prose authors and poets and often one specific work. The chapters are arranged chronologically, which also groups them by genre, except for S. Tzounakas's chapter on Pliny's epistolary self-presentation, which could be productively juxtaposed with C. Scheidegger Lämmle's earlier chapter on Cicero. The latter approaches four of Cicero's later philosophical dialogues (De republica, De oratore, De senectute and De amicitia) as last words or ‘swan songs’ that present Cicero as an eminent statesman and set up his literary legacy. Cicero's success is demonstrated when Tzounakas provides a close reading of Pliny's epistle 9.23 to delineate Pliny's presentation of himself among the literary elite, including how Pliny compares himself to Cicero, in addition to Demosthenes, in establishing his literary reputation. Whereas regarding Pliny the volume offers one case study of a specific instance of his self-presented literary persona, for Cicero we find a second case study that helps demonstrate how difficult it is to separate his authorial self-presentation from his role as a statesman. S.T. Roselaar interrogates how Cicero negotiates Roman and variegated Italian identities in speeches and how his presentation of these groups intersects with related discourses, particularly regarding elite and sub-elite status and old versus new nobility within electoral politics.
Chapters 4 and 5 transition from prose to poetry but retain the political bent established in Roselaar's chapter. E. Greene considers how shifting gender roles and subverted generic ideals in Propertius 2.7 intersect with the narrator's relationship to imperial ideology. Greene challenges overly rigid dichotomies that have been applied to political interpretations of elegy and concludes that the poem is not so much anti-Augustan but pro-poetry: political ideologies may change but poetry persists. B. Kayachev similarly opens up our understanding of politics as an object of poetic discourse by examining the opposition of negotium and otium in the sphragis of Virgil's Georgics. Drawing on intertexts of Philodemus, Cicero and Catullus, Kayachev demonstrates how Virgil engages in a broader dialogue about how real-life affairs, or politics, and literary pursuits ought to be reconciled. Politics, therefore, does not necessarily have to mean Octavian's imperial activities but can more generally revolve around how the poet identifies with or relates to civic society.
The next chapters move from literary to material case studies addressing particular communities in the Roman provinces during the first century ad. C. Schmidt Heidenreich draws on soldiers’ tombstones from the Rhineland to examine the extent to which a tombstone's iconography reflects personal choice. Analysis focuses particularly on association with the military and when a military connection plays more (pre-Flavian) or less (Flavian–third century ad) of a role in tombstone iconography. D. Dzino presents an archaeological case study from a region not often addressed in English-language scholarship – the Iapodes of north-western Dalmatia under Rome. Dzino ties patterns of reuse, reinvention and reinterpretation of local Iron Age stone cinerary urns in burial practices of the first century ad to the emergence of a stable local elite that strove to express its status and power.
The volume then moves into the realm of prosopography and onomastics. R. Varga establishes a distinct epigraphic habit for funerary monuments of a relatively militarised district of Dacia, Dacia Porolissensis. The analysis predominantly revolves around the relationship between the deceased and the dedicator and downplays the role of individuality in local funerary epigraphy. The next two chapters focus more directly on onomastics, particularly moments when we can perceive choice in the name recorded. G. accesses these moments through graffiti and stamps of terra sigillata potters in southern, central and eastern Gaul, while K. Stoev analyses patterns in Greek and Roman naming practices in funerary inscriptions of Moesia Inferior. In line with epigraphic work on other regions, both chapters downplay the role citizenship status had in dictating naming practices and instead consider attitudes to the ‘pressure’ of Roman power in different situations, such as commercial markets or changes between generations.
D. Benétos closes the volume with a case study looking at a later period. The chapter is ostensibly about how Constantine adapted traditional imperial titles to a new Christian identity, but it is most illuminating regarding how the emperor's self-presentation reacted to the rise of the bishop of Rome and how individuals and later documents presented this position's relative status.
The volume often presents itself as a collection of essays rather than a cohesive whole. The preface fits its title, as it is not a full introduction and does not delve much into the now abundant literature on identity in the ancient world, and a conclusion is lacking. The volume should be applauded for integrating chapters on sets of evidence that often belong to disciplinary silos, however, it could be more programmatic about the connections that emerge across the volume and how these connections contribute to previous conversations about identity, individuality and self-fashioning. Discussion of what we learn by juxtaposing these case studies, for example chapters on a self-promoted literary reputation with chapters on social or cultural fashioning in inscriptions, would be illuminating. For instance, several chapters demonstrate how self-presentation does not happen in a vacuum but in reaction to other individuals or societal factors that affect or even limit self-presentation. They consider the possibilities and limits imposed by reception, past exempla’s authority, the influence of commercial forces or the rise of a new imperial power structure. Moreover, several chapters’ methodologies encapsulate the element of choice – whether conscious, unconscious or even semi-conscious – in determining self-presentation. However, readers must largely draw these connections for themselves. Therefore, those interested in broader theoretical and methodological discussions of the topic will want to read around before turning to this volume. Meanwhile, readers interested in particular authorial voices or traces of individuality in patterned epigraphic practices (to name just two possibilities) will find relevant chapters very approachable and thought-provoking.
