Bardaisan’s Disciples and Ethnographic Knowledge in the Roman EmpireSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/HND6Y7GH/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Nathanael JohnAndradeBardaisan’s Disciples and Ethnographic Knowledge in the Roman Empirehttp://syriaca.org/cbss/HND6Y7GHhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/HND6Y7GHhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/HND6Y7GHAliceKönigRebeccaLanglandsJamesUdenLiterature and Culture in the Roman Empire, 96–235: Cross-Cultural InteractionsCambridgeCambridge University Press2020291-308What were the sources for the ethnographic knowledge of Bardaisan of Edessa (active c. 200 CE) and his literary circle? This chapter maintains that such ethnographic knowledge, as exhibited by Bardaisan’s surviving historical fragments and the Syriac <i>Book of the Laws of the Countries</i>, was much more indebted to intertextual engagements with Greek and Latin material available to a contemporary Roman readership than to information collected from ‘eastern’ contacts and connections, as scholars sometimes surmise. Roman imperial networks in fact enabled the circulation of ethnographic information that served the authorial strategies of Bardaisan’s literary circle. Yet, Bardaisan’s circle attributed such knowledge, whether implicitly or explicitly, to eastern literary and oral sources and thus framed themselves as ‘eastern’ experts for both local Edessene and broader Roman audiences. In this way, they navigated the intricate space between ‘Roman’ and ‘Other’.
Andrade, Nathanael John. “Bardaisan’s Disciples and Ethnographic Knowledge in the Roman Empire.” In Literature and Culture in the Roman Empire, 96–235: Cross-Cultural Interactions, edited by Alice König, Rebecca Langlands, and James Uden, 291–308. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Nathanael John Andrade, Bardaisan’s Disciples and Ethnographic Knowledge in the Roman Empire, in Literature and Culture in the Roman Empire, 96–235: Cross-Cultural Interactions, ed. Alice König, Rebecca Langlands, and James Uden (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 291–308.BardesanI-III CEIII CEethnicityethnographyidentity