caa a22 4500 388106417 CHVBK 20180307125339.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199911 xx s 000 0 eng 10.2307/632315 doi S0075426900018723 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.2307/632315 Whitmarsh Tim St John's College, Cambridge Greek and Roman in dialogue: the pseudo-Lucianic Nero [Elektronische Daten] [Tim Whitmarsh] The short dialogue entitled Nero or on the digging of the Isthmus, preserved in the manuscripts of Lucian, is an intriguing piece. The contents are quickly summarised. Nero's abandoned attempt to dig through the Isthmus of Corinth is discussed by the two interlocutors, a certain Menecrates and the philosopher Musonius Rufus, who is said to have taken part in the digging (1). The scene is apparently the rugged Aegean island of Gyara to which the historical Musonius was exiled. The discussion broadens out to include Nero's tour of Greece, with a particular focus upon his singing; and it concludes as the news breaks of Nero's death (11). Menecrates' role in the discussion is limited to that of ‘prompter', while Musonius assumes the authoritative, pedagogic role in the dialogue. Is there any unified meaning to this text? And why the dialogue form (given that Menecrates' role in it is so perfunctory)? This paper proposes one set of answers to these questions, by siting the Nero in the context of the cultural history of Greco-Roman relations, an area that has attracted much attention over the years (and has been further reinvigorated in the light of post-colonial theory). Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1999 The Journal of Hellenic Studies Cambridge University Press 119(1999-11), 142-160 0075-4269 119<142 1999 119 JHS https://doi.org/10.2307/632315 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.2307/632315 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Whitmarsh Tim St John's College, Cambridge NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- The Journal of Hellenic Studies Cambridge University Press 119(1999-11), 142-160 0075-4269 119<142 1999 119 JHS CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge