Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on abbreviations
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 The embassies to Gaius and Claudius
- Chapter 3 The Acta Alexandrinorum: Augustus to the Severans
- Chapter 4 The Acta Alexandrinorum: The historical background
- Chapter 5 Between loyalty and dissent: The Acta Alexandrinorum and contemporary literature
- Chapter 6 Conclusion
- Appendix I Editions of the Acta Alexandrinorum and related texts
- Appendix II The status of the Alexandrian Jews
- Appendix III The ‘dubious or unidentified’ fragments
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 5 - Between loyalty and dissent: The Acta Alexandrinorum and contemporary literature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on abbreviations
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 The embassies to Gaius and Claudius
- Chapter 3 The Acta Alexandrinorum: Augustus to the Severans
- Chapter 4 The Acta Alexandrinorum: The historical background
- Chapter 5 Between loyalty and dissent: The Acta Alexandrinorum and contemporary literature
- Chapter 6 Conclusion
- Appendix I Editions of the Acta Alexandrinorum and related texts
- Appendix II The status of the Alexandrian Jews
- Appendix III The ‘dubious or unidentified’ fragments
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
CONTEMPORARY TRIAL LITERATURE
Tales of brave men resisting tyrants feature prominently in the literature of the Principate. In particular there are numerous accounts of men suffering punishments, ranging from torture and death to exile, at the hands of the emperor. Many of these stories contain the elements present in the Acta Alexandrinorum stories: the brave hero is taken before a tyrant; the trial; the threats of death; courageous resistance to the tyrant; torture; execution. I hope to shed light on the character of the Acta Alexandrinorum stories by comparing them with the trial scenes found in the contemporary literature of Rome and its empire, such as the accounts of the trial of Socrates, the narratives of Stoic opposition to Roman emperors, the tales of Greek philosophers confronting Roman rulers, Hellenistic and Rabbinical texts on Jewish figures who stood up to oppressors, the stories of Jesus' trial, and the acts of the Christian martyrs. These texts are recognised as dissident literature and have, as I will argue, numerous similarities with the Acta Alexandrinorum stories. I will also examine the links between the Acta Alexandrinorum literature and the biographies, treatises and novels of the Second Sophistic, and discuss the extent to which these connections set it apart from resistance or dissident literature of the Roman Empire.
The term ‘martyr’ refers to a person who dies an heroic death, preferring to die rather than comply with the demands of the authorities, usually represented by a tyrant figure.
- Type
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- Information
- Loyalty and Dissidence in Roman EgyptThe Case of the Acta Alexandrinorum, pp. 141 - 173Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008