Conceptions and Sources
not extracts of Roman legal texts,with their repeated use of ordinary-life
situations,seemmoreaccessibletopupilsthan(forinstance)Ovidwithhis
complexwebofmythologicalallusions?Equally,mightnotpupilsrespond
to Roman architectural or military handbooks? Or to Greek medicine, in
theformoftheHippocraticcorpus?Ortopapyrusletters,forinstance,from
errantsonstoiratefathers?Butaboveall,whydoweexcludefromthestan-
dardconceptionofwhataclassicaleducationisaboutJewishandChristian
textsinGreek,andChristiantextsinLatin?(Tothebestofmyknowledge
thereisnoJewishliteratureinLatinfromantiquity.)Toendthisexclusion
wouldbe,asIsuggestedearlier,tobringtheSeptuagintwithinthecanon
ofGreekliterature,nottospeakofthosetwoimmenselypowerfulnarra-
tives(inGreek)oftheJewishresistancetoHellenisminthesecondcentury
.., namely I and II Maccabees.These texts, convenientlyavailable either
intheCatholicBibleorProtestanteditionsoftheApocrypha(translatedfor
instanceintheNewJerusalemBibleortheNewEnglishBible),arenotonly
immenselypowerfulpiecesofwriting,butbeardirectlyonthenatureand
impactofGreekcultureintheHellenisticperiod.Takeforinstancetheac-
countinIIMaccabeesofhowthehighpriestofthes..‘‘waspleasedto
foundimmediatelybelowtheacropolisagymnasium,andconductedthere
thenoblestoftheephebeswearingthepetasos[aGreeksun-hat].Thatwasthe
momentoftheheightofHellenismosandadvanceofforeigncustoms[allo-
phylismos]throughthepollutionoftheimpiousJason,notruehighpriest,so
muchsothatthepriestswerenolongereagertoconducttheservicesofthe
altar,but,despisingtheTempleandneglectingthesacrifices,theyrushedto
takepartintheexercisesofthepalaistra,whensummonedbythesoundof
thediskos.’’
Ifweallowedourselvesthisangleofvisionontheclassicalworld,wecould
alsoacceptthecentralityoftheworksofJosephus,writteninGreekinRome
inthelaterfirstcentury..,butrepresentingtothepaganworldatradi-
tionandalocalhistorygoingbacktotheCreation.Wemightevenreadin
GreekclassesthosevividviewsofprovincialsocietyintheRomanEmpire
providedbytheGospelsandActs.
Therearefurthermoretwootherimportantreasonsforallowingourselves
toincludeJewishandChristiantextsinourconceptionof ‘‘classics.’’Oneis
that,inthecaseofChristianity,wecanfollowthetransmissionofthenew
faithfromaGreekintoaLatincontext,andwiththatarriveonceagainat
theGraeco-Romanworldoflateantiquity,wherepagancultureandtradi-
tionlivedinuneasyco-existencewithJudaeo-Christianbeliefs,traditions,
andliterature.Weoughttoremindourselvesalsothatitwasprobablyinthe
lateRomanworldof(say)thefourthandfifthcenturies..thatthelargest