The Aegean Imaginarium: Selected Stereotypes and Associations Connected with the Aegean Sea and Its Islands in Roman Literature in the Period of the Principate

Abstract

This article is devoted to the rarely addressed problem of Roman stereotypes and associations connected with the Aegean Sea and its islands in the works of Roman authors in the first three centuries of the Empire. The image of the Aegean islands in the Roman literature was somewhat incongruously compressed into contradictory visions: islands of plenty, desolate prisons, always located far from Italy, surrounded by the terrifying marine element. The positive associations stemmed from previous cultural contacts between the Aegean and Rome: the Romans admired the supposedly more developed Greek civilisation (their awe sometimes underpinned by ostensible disparagement), whereas their elites enjoyed their Aegean tours and reminisced about past glories of Rhodes and Athens. The negative associations came from the islands’desolation and insignificance; the imperial authors, associating the Aegean islets with exile spots, borrowed such motifs from classical and Hellenistic Greek predecessors. The Aegean Sea, ever-present in the rich Greek mythical imaginarium, inspired writers interested in myth and folklore; other writers associated islands with excellent crops and products, renowned and valued across the Empire.