Chapter 4 analyses epigrams and objects between 100 ?? and ?? 100, and discusses how objects and texts engage with one another in expressing the idea of carpe diem. Rarely studied Greek epigrams from the Garland of Philip and texts by the Latin authors Martial, Pliny the Elder, and Petronius point to exciting interplay between the textuality of epigrams and the presence of objects. Besides more conventional literary sources, the analysis also includes numerous artworks and inscriptions. Particular attention is paid to cups, such as the well-known Boscoreale cups, as well as to gems. This interdisciplinary chapter makes a strong case for studying literature alongside other forms of cultural production.

Taking its inspiration from the ‘spatial turn’ in the humanities, this paper studies the representation of (imperial) space in the epigrams of the Garland of Philip. It analyses the ways in which geographical space is imagined and depicted in these poetical texts. Distant regions are no longer seen as completely unfamiliar and outlandish, but populate the imaginary map of an ever growing world. Italy and in particular Rome become part of the Greek landscape. The contribution examines different strategies that these texts employ to impose order on this vast world, such as stereotypical connections with myth or ‘classical’ Greek history. In the process, some place names are loaded with cultural significance and become Greek lieux de mémoire (P. Nora). This integration of a huge empire into the ways in which Greeks understood the(ir) world can thus be seen as an important example of an intellectual response to empire.