The Politics of Posterity

Abstract

AbstractThis brief concluding chapter draws together and summarizes the major themes of the book. It argues that the temporally expansive outlook adopted by elite Roman-era Greeks enables them to subordinate reception in the Roman present to that in the future. The chapter thus reiterates the book’s central contribution in establishing that imperial Greek embroilment in the Classical past does not limit its cultural output but rather allows its positioning as worthy of canonicity in its own right. The primary strategies used by imperial Greeks to fashion a place in future consciousness are resurveyed, including the forging of a movable temporal perspective that enables the rescaling of time, competitive imitation, and originality. This stake in the future, moreover, reveals elite imperial Greeks as a genuine threat to the smooth running of the empire that, through the example of Herodes Attikos’ trial for tyranny before Marcus Aurelius, clearly registered with imperial power. Finally, the integral synergy of topography, texts, and monuments in the imperial Greek revisioning of time is reviewed.