The framework of ‘Romanization’ developed by Haverfield in 1905 - that Romans ‘civilized’ their imperial subjects, particularly those in ‘barbarian’ western provinces - remains hegemonic, notwithstanding multiple revisionist attempts. It has been reasserted, rejected, or modified, but still frames the debate. Yet, the postcolonial project to decolonize the production of historical knowledge has prompted some scholars to seek fresh approaches and to rewrite the history of Roman imperialism. This book asks: what is the value of postcolonialism in the discourse on Romanization? How has it influenced the discourse on Romanization thus far? Can postcolonialism move the discourse on Romanization forward? Borrowing Said’s concept of travelling ideas, this book undertakes a comparative study between the point of departure and the point(s) of arrival of travelling ideas of postcolonialism to understand their path and impact in the discourse on Roman imperialism and Romanization.

In the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural fabric of major cities in the post-colonial world, postcolonialism presented fresh possibilities for new history. It allowed Roman historians and archaeologists to reflect upon and break through the imperialist historiography of Roman history and to reach out to the intellectual discourse of the postcolonial age. Three prominent scholars who reoriented Romanization studies in the twenty-first century, Webster, Hingley, and Mattingly, turned their attention to the lower strata of the colonial power structure, the colonized and silent Other outside the hegemonic system of power and knowledge/truth – that is, the subaltern – and presented their alternative paradigms in postcolonialist vocabulary: creolization, globalization, and discrepant experiences, respectively. Pushing epistemological boundaries to the subaltern Other in the Roman Empire, they exposed Romano-centric and Eurocentric epistemologies underlying the paradigm of Romanization itself.

This paper presents results from the Neutron Activation Analysis of 362 samples of Protogeometric and Geometric pottery from the Aegean and the Mediterranean. The focus is on sampled pots whose origin can be located through good reference material such as clays or misfired pottery from kilns. These analysed samples were clustered in already defined geochemical groups, usually named after the first letters of their place of origin (e.g. EuA for Euboea, DelA for Delphi), or in new groups determined through this study (e.g. KlazE for Klazomenai, SinA for Sindos). The geochemical variability of the earliest Greek pottery overseas challenges previous perceptions about the alleged dominance of certain wares such as Euboean and Corinthian in early Greek and Phoenician colonial contexts.

This chapter examines the boundary-breaking spatial and social dynamism of animalian entities embodied within LB I–LB II polychrome murals of Crete and Thera. In these innovative paintings, animalian entities engaged with both painted and lived contexts, taking on novel manners of involvement in Aegean sociocultural spaces; some established new aspects of creaturely identity and relation. We begin with three animalian entities considered – boar’s tusk helmets, ox-hide shields and ikria – examining how their presence in murals further challenged long-standing parameters of two-dimensional representation. Here discussion broadens to consider how renderings of various animals in Minoan frescoes charged and unsettled the fabric of powerful built spaces. Innovations in color, scale and the creation of spatial depth approached the ways animalian bodies were experienced in the round. Simultaneously, details of the frescoes kept the painted creatures, and the spaces they occupied, tautly embroiled in the structured order of the wall. We close by considering how polychrome frescoes could foster radical newness in animals’ identities, focusing on renderings of blue simians. This blueness, regardless of whether originally intended to approximate biological hues, engendered distinct status for simians in the Aegean, with fascinating connections to renderings of young peoples.

The AD 637 Islamic conquest of Antioch has been typically held as the city’s swan song. Conversely, this article shows that the new realities of power ushered in a new phase in the life of the city and lingered on the memory and myth of the city of Seleucus Nicator.

No ancient church of Antioch survives: the cruciform church of Kaoussié, Machouka, Seleucia’s martyrion, and a medieval church in Daphne are the scanty examples of a tradition of rich ecclesiastical architecture that punctuated Antioch’s cityscape. This chapter offers a comprehensive catalogue of ecclesiastical buildings known through the textual sources and piecemeal archaeological evidence.

This chapter examines how movable renderings of animals contributed to sociopolitical experience in Minoan Crete, with close attention to zoomorphic vessels. Beginning in the Prepalatial period, we examine a group of clay body-form vessels that could stand independently. While typically labelled “anthropomorphic,” the vessels’ identities are more complex: their forms do not neatly suggest a particular species, and their affordances as objects are integral to what they are and how they are experienced. Through analysis of their unique corporeal characters and depositional circumstances, I argue that these figures could have been experienced as distinct productive agents, who participated in cultivating community space between Prepalatial tombs and settlements. Next, looking forward, we consider how animalian vessels continued to contribute to Cretan social venues, while subtle changes to how they embodied animals could imply profound shifts in their presence and performance. From the late Protopalatial, we see rhyta rendered as bodiless animal heads, most bovine. Unlike the Prepalatial vessels, these appeared dramatically dependent on living people to become productive, placing emphasis on human action. I contextualize these rhyta with a problematization of palatial-era politico-environmental developments and changes in social performance and “cattle culture.”

Antioch lies on an active fault line; countless earthquakes have impacted the city and its built environment. This article addresses the geomorphology of the region as well as Antioch’s endemic resilience.

This chapter explores the superimposition of Roman law and order on provincial and municipal politics.

The Emperor Julian’s momentous sojourn in Antioch is a key theme in the discourse of Christianity and paganism in the Greek East. This chapter chronicles the events and climate of 362 and 363 CE on the shores of the Orontes, not least highlighting Julian’s utopia of Antioch "city of marble."