TRA KOSMOS E POLIS: RIPENSANDO AL MEDITERRANEO ANTICO

Abstract

The life of the Mediterranean in the Hellenistic-Roman period was characterized by the presence of several "polis", with the political and national boundaries but not cultural and religious boundaries. It is for this reason that spread a culture of "cosmopolitan", that maintained the "local" culture, but allowed the various "identities" to mingle, without deleting own specificity. Wanting to apply to the ancient world modern categories, we could say that this averted the risk of an unhealthy globalization, that would transform "the" culture to a "mass culture". That was why, for example, a greek citizen - while keeping intact its Greekness - could believe in a foreign god, from Egypt or the Near East, which had a proposal soteriology suits him. He could attend the school of rhetoric of Alexandria, Antioch or Athens without fear of "bribe" the identity of greek, guardian of its Greekness. And so that, particularly since the II BC and for the whole empire, merchants and intellectuals did their "goods" (material and cultural together) an object of exchange, which led the destruction of local boundaries, as happened for example in the case of the cult of a new Hellenized Isis, from Egypt to Athens, from Sicily in Ancient Greece and Rome, and then from there throughout the oikoumene.

Keywords

• Globalization
• Localisation
• Mediterranean
• City
• Isis