Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (2011 Gruen), book

Erich S. Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011).

Abstract

"Prevalent among classicists today is the notion that Greeks, Romans, and Jews enhanced their own self-perception by contrasting themselves with the so-called Other--Egyptians, Phoenicians, Ethiopians, Gauls, and other foreigners--frequently through hostile stereotypes, distortions, and caricature. Erich Gruen demonstrates how the ancients found connections rather than contrasts, how they expressed admiration for the achievements and principles of other societies, and how they discerned--and even invented--kinship relations and shared roots with diverse peoples."--Publisher description.

Contents

Part I. Impressions of the "other". Persia in the Greek perception : Aeschylus and Herodotus ; Persia in the Greek perception : Xenophon and Alexander ; Egypt in the classical imagination ; Punica fides ; Caesar on the Gauls ; Tacitus on the Germans ; Tacitus and the defamation of the Jews ; People of color -- Part II. Connections with the "other". Foundation legends ; Fictitious kinships : Greeks and others ; Fictitious kinships : Jews and others ; Cultural interlockings and overlappings.