ancient descriptions of roman buildings/landmarks in greek literatur

Greek Koine and Biblical and Medieval Greek
1

I am needing to compose something on a description of imperial Rome written in Koine Greek. Does anyone know of any Greek literature from this period that can give me terminology.for how they tqlked about everything: e.g., colosseum, forum, etc.

2

For what it’s worth, I have so far found the following:

Aelius Aristidies, Oration 26: The Roman Oration (extracts)

3

Chapter 9 of “Aelius Aristides between Greece, Rome, and the Gods (Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition) by W. V. Harris, Brooke Holmes and W. V. Harris”. Might be helpful. Also although mainly dealing with Roman sources “Writing Rome: : Textual Approaches to the City Catharine Edwards Cambridge University Press, 10 Oct 1996” is useful for theoretical ideas.

Isnt Aelius Aristides a second sophistic writer? I am not sure to what extent he might be regarded as a koine writer as opposed to an atticising one. I am no expert and haven’t read any so perhaps others will answer this question.

Is it worth looking at Pausanias guide to Greece? Its full of architectural detail, but not of course about Rome, if you are simple looking at “terminology”.

I think you might have to be quite creative in your use of sources. Its a pity that the new Loeb seems only to consist of one Volume of Aelius Aristides and it doesn’t look very helpful for your needs.

4

I’m not sure there is any specifically Koine treatise which brings all these things together. However, if you are looking mainly for the Greek equivalents of Latin terminology, Plutarch has tons. His Greek is Atticistic, of course, but the vocabulary items are likely to be the common Greek words for the Roman items you seem to want.

5

I’d check Procopius’ On Buildings (περὶ κτισμάτων)

6

Thanks, everyone, this is helpful!

That is the most crucial aspect of what I’m looking for. As some posters have already mentioned, there are places I can go for general architectural terms, but what I am finding a hard time finding is Greek references to specific buildings in Rome: i.e., colosseum, forum, etc. Anything that help with these specific names would be helpful.

Did you have anything in mind in Plutarch or just looking for any narratives that took place in Rome and combing through for these terms?

7

I found a lot of such vocabulary in Plutarch’s Cicero, (along with the lovely “chick-pea” story, which I didn’t realize until that point had an ancient pedigree). I kept finding myself saying “Oh, that’s how you say that in Greek!”

8

Very helpful. Thank you. Fortunately, I had the Loeb of this right on my shelf :slight_smile:

For what it’s worth, Loeb takes Plutarch’s ἀγορά as ‘forum’ at least in IV.3 in Plutarch’s Cicero. Though I will have to keep looking to see what else it might be called.

9

A few notes:

  1. Procopius “On Buildings” - I don’t think you’d find much about Roman buildings in here if I remember right. It’s about Byzantium really
  2. Aristides “Roman Oration” - again don’t remember this having much about the actual buildings or architecture. (Regarding the language: Aristides is by far the most Atticizing writer of the Second Sophistic to survive. But not sure why that would make any difference here, since the terminology for Roman buildings will of course be post-Attic wherever you find it.)
  3. I think Barry’s suggestion is along the right lines. Basically look for koine histories (including biographical writing etc.) about Rome or famous Romans. Obviously with regard to the time - you wouldn’t look in Dionysius for the word for Colosseum.