Public Political Discourse in Roman Asia Minor
The present thesis provides a historical analysis of public political discourse in the cities of Roman Asia Minor in the period between 30 BC until AD 250. It sheds light on the political, social and cultural contexts in which political speech was embedded (e.g. Roman rule, the power of the urban elite, the Second Sophistic, the philosophical schools) and shows how these contexts shaped and sometimes transfonned the nature, fonn, function, thematic scope and major concerns of political discourse in the imperial period. Starting from a study of the main protagonists and fora of political speech, the thesis examines the possibilities and limitations of political debate in the civic institutions, the function of political discourse as an instrument of exercising control of elite power, the issue of consensus and concord in civic politics, the aims of rhetorical training, the power of persuasion and perfonnance, and the development of an ethics of political communication with parrhesia and moral instruction as its basic features. On the evidence of the literary and epigraphic sources the present study argues that, despite the constraints of Roman rule, there was still a remarkable vitality of public political
Kuhn, Christina T.
Public Political Discourse in Roman Asia Minor. The present thesis provides a historical analysis of public political discourse in the cities of Roman Asia Minor in the period between 30 BC until AD 250. It sheds light on the political, social and cultural contexts in which political speech was embedded (e.g. Roman rule, the power of the urban elite, the Second Sophistic, the philosophical schools) and shows how these contexts shaped and sometimes transfonned the nature, fonn, function, thematic scope and major concerns of political discourse in the imperial period. Starting from a study of the main protagonists and fora of political speech, the thesis examines the possibilities and limitations of political debate in the civic institutions, the function of political discourse as an instrument of exercising control of elite power, the issue of consensus and concord in civic politics, the aims of rhetorical training, the power of persuasion and perfonnance, and the development of an ethics of political communication with parrhesia and moral instruction as its basic features. On the evidence of the literary and epigraphic sources the present study argues that, despite the constraints of Roman rule, there was still a remarkable vitality of public political
public political_discourse roman asia_minor present provide historical_analysis public political_discourse city roman asia_minor period shed_light political_social cultural contexts political_speech embed roman_rule power urban elite second_sophistic philosophical school show context shape sometimes nature function thematic scope major_concern political_discourse imperial period starting study main protagonist fora political_speech examines possibility limitation political debate civic institution function political_discourse instrument exercise control elite power issue consensus civic politics aim rhetorical training power persuasion development ethic political communication moral instruction basic feature evidence literary_epigraphic source present_study argues despite constraint roman_rule still remarkable vitality public political