Loyalty and dissidence in Roman Egypt : the case of the Acta Alexandrinorum / Andrew Harker.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-250) and index.

Introduction -- The embassies to Gaius and Claudius -- The Acta Alexandrinorum : Augustus to the Severans -- The Acta Alexandrinorum : the historical background -- Between loyalty and dissent : the Acta Alexandrinorum and contemporary literature -- Conclusion.

"The Acta Alexandrinorum are a fascinating collection of texts, dealing with relations between the Alexandrians and the Roman emperors in the first century AD. This was a turbulent time in the life of the capital city of the new province of Egypt, not least because of tensions between the Greek and Jewish sections of the population. Dr. Harker has written the first in-depth study of these texts since their first edition half a century ago, and examines them in the context of other similar contemporary literary forms, both from Roman Egypt and from the wider Roman Empire. This study of the Acta Alexandrinorum literature, which, as this book demonstrates, was genuinely popular in Roman Egypt, offers a more complex perspective on provincial mentalities towards imperial Rome than that offered by the study of the mainstream elite literature of the Principate. It will be of interest to classicists and ancient historians, but also to those interested in Jewish and New Testament studies."--Jacket.