Jews and Others
seems to have written all his works in Sicily or Italy. The hypothesis which
the mundane factual evidence suggests is simply that his cultural and intel-
lectual identity was Greek and that his intellectual career was conducted ‘‘at
Rome’’ (and in Sicily).
This is of course only a hypothesis, or starting point. Nothing said here
could serve to prove that distinctively ‘‘oriental’’ patterns of thought did not
inform the works of all the philosophers writing in Greek who originated
in Roman Syria. Even less do these suggestions explain the significance of
the recourse to perceived elements, or characteristics, of non-Greek cultures
which so marks their writings. Still less again can these brief remarks serve
to confront the major question of whether, not only in the archaic period
(where there is no doubt), but through the Hellenistic and Roman peri-
ods, there had been a genuine engagement within Greek culture with (for
instance) Egyptian, Babylonian, or Iranian thought, religion, and culture.
(That there was such an ongoing engagement with Jewish—and then Chris-
tian—religious tradition and culture is, of course, self-evident.) These much
wider questions remain open. It may, however, prove useful, even in rela-
tion to the major issues, if we learn to approach individual writers without
applying to them unexamined presuppositions as to their ethnic and cultural
identity.