Bryn Mawr Classical Review Dana

8/2/2019 Bryn Mawr Classical Review Dana

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Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.04.04

Madalina Dana, Culture et mobilit dans le Pont-Euxin. Scriptaantiqua, 37. Bordeaux: ditions Ausonius, 2011. Pp. 608.ISBN 97823561304952. 25.00 (pb).

Reviewed by Kostas Vlassopoulos, University of Nottingham([email protected])

The study of Greek culture and identity has always been a favourite subject

among ancient historians, but it has acquired new momentum in the last two

decades as scholars have tried to put aside essentialist assumptions and examinethe processes that created Greek culture and identity as well as their multiformity

and variability.1 At the same time, social and economic historians, dissatisfied

with the limitations of polis-based approaches, have been searching for alternativemethodologies and analytical tools; the concept of the network and the study of

mobility have become increasingly popular in recent years.2 It is therefore

particularly welcome that the study of Greek culture and identity and the study ofnetworks and patterns of mobility have recently been brought together in a

number of works: 2011 saw the publication of Irad MalkinsA Small Greek

World: Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean3 and the present work by

Madalina Dana.

What is important about these works, and especially applicable to the book under

review, is the challenge they put to traditional attitudes among Greek historians.

The studies that constitute paradigm changes and define the field in Greek historyalmost always focus on the centre, normally Athens and/or the Aegean. Books

about the periphery, the wider Greek world, are written by specialists and read

by specialists: the Black Sea, the periphery par excellence, has suffered in

particular from this widespread attitude. This brilliant book puts the lie to suchattitudes and should set a new trend.

Its subject might sound traditional: the study of the practices and institutions

which constitute the cultural life of the Greek communities of the Black Sea; whatthe Greeks defined aspaideia. The book covers the full range of practices thatconstituted Greekpaideia, from athletics, religious and dramatic performances to

education, philosophy and art, as well as the institutions that maintained these

practices, such as gymnasia, schools and festivals. The comprehensive characterof this examination is already a great achievement. Its utilisation of the full range

of literary, epigraphical, archaeological and numismatic sources follows in an

exemplary manner the tradition established by Louis Robert, while its
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chronological coverage, stretching from the archaic period to the third centuryAD, is truly impressive. We do not have any comparable study of any other

region of the Greek world, and this book should form a model of how such

studies should be written.

But what makes the book even more important is the insertion of the Greekculture of the Black Sea communities within the networks of mobility that created

the unity of the Greek world. Black Sea communities attracted artists, teachers,

actors and athletes from outside the Black Sea; in the opposite direction, BlackSea communities created and maintained links with the Panhellenic sanctuaries of

the Aegean, or with cultural centres like Athens, while many Black Sea

intellectuals, professionals or more generallypepaideumenoi were trained orpursued their careers outside the Black Sea. The detail with which Dana studies

the interconnection between the formation of Greek culture in the Black Sea and

the networks of mobility into and out of the region is captivating.

The book consists of eight chapters, a long bibliography and detailed indexes ofsources, personal names and place names; thirteen maps illustrate the spatial

extent of the phenomena examined, such as the distributions of theatres and

gymnasia. Chapter One (23-54) is devoted to the practices and institutions ofGreek education in the Black Sea. It examines the evidence for schools and the

teaching of literacy, as well as the organisation of the gymnasia and the athletic

and religious practices associated with them. Particularly interesting is the

exploration of the evidence for the voyages of the Black Sea youth to educationalcentres outside their community. These centres ranged from the great educational

centres with Panhellenic attraction like Athens, to centres closer to the Black Sea

and with primarily local attraction, like Cyzicus.

Chapter Two (55-85) examines the cultural life of the Black Sea cities throughtheir festivals and other public performances. Dana discusses the dramatic and

musical performances associated with the theatre and the evidence for the

importance of the theatre in Black Sea communities, alongside the culturalsignificance of the religious festivals.

Chapter Three (87-144) provides an excellent illustration of the networks of

mobility that maintained the cultural life of the Black Sea communities and their

connection with the wider Greek world. The first part examines the relationship

of Black Sea communities with Panhellenic sanctuaries like Delphi and Olympia,as well as with other important sanctuaries and oracular centres of Aegean

Greece, like Samothrace and Epidaurus. These relationships included dedications,theoric participation and the consultation of oracles. The second part examines

the relationship of the Black Sea to the networks of mobility that maintained the

athletic circuit of the Greek world. Black Sea athletes participated in local athleticfestivals, of course, but the chapter also explores the participation of outsiders in


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those local Black Sea competitions, as well as the participation of Black Seaathletes in the athletic festivals of the wider Greek world.

Chapter Four (145-72) examines the evidence for the importance of culture and

education in the self-presentation of the Black Sea Greeks. The chapter examinesthe references to cultural activities in funerary epigrams and the iconographicrepertoire of Black-Sea funerary monuments which illustrate such activities. It

discusses the extent to which the depiction of papyri rolls and people in the act of

reading should be seen as evidence of the professional activities of the deceasedas teachers or authors, or should be rather seen as a more general illustration of

the cultural achievements and pretensions of the deceased.

Chapter Five (173-218) explores the groups of professionals on which the cultural

life of Greek cities depended and their mobility. The chapter examines theprofessionals who provided education and training; the professionals employed

for their know-how, such as doctors and architects; and artists, such as sculptorsand painters. Chapter Six (219-61) examines the evidence for the careers ofintellectuals originating from the Black Sea. Alongside the evidence for poets,

orators, grammarians, mathematicians and philosophers, the chapter examines the

considerable information for the writing of local history and its practitioners, anddiscusses the participation of Black Sea notables and orators in the Second

Sophistic movement.

Chapter Seven (263-338) turns its attention to the mobility of Black Sea

intellectuals and their presence and role in the wider Greek world. The culturalcentre of Athens long attracted intellectuals from the Black Sea, and particular

attention is given to the participation of Black Sea thinkers in the philosophicalschools that flourished in Athens for centuries. Equally interesting is the presence

of Black Sea intellectuals in royal courts and other centres of the Hellenisticworld, while the chapter also examines the patronage offered to intellectuals by

Black Sea rulers, from the Bosporan kingdom and Thracian kings in the north to

tyrants like Clearchus of Sinope and Mithridates Eupator in the south.

Finally, Chapter Eight (339-93) examines the variegated ways in which a regional

cultural identity was constructed. Dana discusses the stereotypes attributed to

people from the Black Sea by external observers from the classical period to the

third century AD, and she explores the identities constructed and assumed by the

people living in the Black Sea, from their kinship relationships with their Greekmetropoleis to their changing relationships with the non- Greek populations. The

chapter concludes with a discussion of the extent to which regional unity andregional identity took hold among the Black Sea communities.

Reading this book raises a large number of questions and future desiderata. We

now possess a comprehensive documentation of the mobility of artists, artisans,


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athletes and other professionals into and out of the Black Sea. This leads to thequestion of the effects of that mobility on the particular forms that Greek culture

and identity took over time in the Black Sea. Can we link this mobility to

particular artistic or cultural changes? Can we link the spread of artistic styles or

the adoption and modification of cultural practices to the presence of Greeks fromoutside the region or to the experiences of local artists and professionals from

their travels outside the Black Sea? Danas study of the diffusion across the westcoast of the Black Sea of the iconography of the funerary monuments of

Byzantion, depicting the deceased holding a papyrus roll, is a good example (162-

9), but more work will need to be done in this direction.

A second important question concerns the particularity of the Black Sea regionand the explanation of the patterns that emerge. It is striking to observe the almost

complete lack of evidence for dedications and theoriai by Black Sea communities

in Panhellenic centres like Delphi and Olympia during the archaic and classical

periods. Why is it only in the Hellenistic periods that one starts to find suchevidence, and still only to a limited extent? This phenomenon becomes even more

striking if one considers the heavy investment of Greek colonies from the western

Mediterranean at Delphi and Olympia. Perhaps one might think that distanceprovides an explanation, but given the strong interconnection that existed in the

classical period between the Black Sea and Athens,4 this does not seem so

convincing; after all, Massalia was not closer to Delphi than many of the BlackSea cities were, but while there was a Massaliot treasury at Delphi, no Black Sea

community ever built one.

The same applies to the origins of Black Sea intellectuals and professionals: there

is a patent asymmetry between the overwhelming preponderance of communitiesfrom the southern coast and the limited numbers from those of the north. How is

one to explain this pattern? Is it created by the nature of our sources, or does it

reflect a real phenomenon? Even more, one gets the impression that the overallnumber of poets, philosophers or athletes originating from the Black Sea is small,

and that the relevant numbers from, for example, Macedonia would be

significantly higher. Until we have equivalent studies for other areas of the Greek

world nobody will be able to give a precise answer. But if this impression iscorrect, should we perhaps accept as relatively accurate the external stereotype

examined by Dana, that the Black Sea was a peripheral and rather backwater

area? Should we see the Black Sea as an area where economic profit or survival

in a hostile environment was more important than the prestige acquired byerecting a treasury at Delphi or winning a race in Olympia (i.e., were Black Sea

communities akin in this respect to Caribbean colonies in the eighteenth century)?Perhaps we should differentiate between different periods: in fact, there is a long

tradition of differentiation between the prosperity of the south and the travails of

the north Black Sea during the early empire. While the author is very attentive toregional and chronological variations in discussing particular issues, the absence


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of an overall diachronic discussion makes it more difficult to give an answer; thecomments in the short Conclusion (395-9) are certainly helpful, but more study

will need to be done.

But these are all questions that will occupy us for a long time to come, and thisimportant work has provided a solid and stimulating foundation. A final wordabout the series in which it appears: the Scripta Antiqua have published a large

number of very important studies over the last decade, some also relating to the

Black Sea. While they are well-known and respected among specialists, theydeserve the attention of the wider Anglo-Saxon audience.

Notes:

1. See e.g. C. Dougherty and L. Kurke, eds., The Cultures within Ancient Greek

Culture: Contact, Conflict, Collaboration, Cambridge, 2003; T. Whitmarsh, ed.,Local Knowledge and Microidentities in the Imperial Greek World, Cambridge,

2010.2. See e.g. I. Malkin, C. Constantakopoulou and K. Panagopoulou, eds., Greek

and Roman Networks in the Mediterranean, London and New York, 2009.

3. Oxford, 2011.4. A. Moreno,Feeding the Democracy: The Athenian Grain Supply in the Fifth

and Fourth Centuries BC, Oxford, 2007, 144-208.

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Bryn Mawr Classical Review Dana