8 - The Lindian Chronicle and Local Identity

Summary

This chapter explores how the local and the general dimensions of ancient Greek religion come together on the Greek island of Rhodes in the south-eastern Aegean during the late Classical and Hellenistic periods. McInerney puts the focus squarely on the role of the Lindos Chronicle as a powerful tool to reassert older local identities within a new (pan-Rhodian) context. Through a careful study of the claims and assertions made in different sections of the Chronicle, McInerney visualises different kinds of negotiations between local and general identities at work. In his contribution, the federal city of Rhodes features once as the larger dimension in interaction with which the Lindians sought to maintain their local identity, and once as the local dimension itself that sought to assert its place in negotiation with even larger entities and identities (such as Rome). This shift in focus confirms that the local and the general are ultimately relational categories, the meaning of which changes according to what level of Greek society we look at.