Les désignations des Grecs d’Asie à l’époque classique, entre ethnicité et jeux politiques

Abstract

The designations of the Greeks of Asia in classical literature bear witness to a process which has been highlighted in studies on ethnicity (relational character, dynamism, interaction between exogenous and endogenous appellations), but they also prove to be self-interested and contextual, so that there was no linear evolution which would have unanimously led e.g. from «Ionians» to «Greeks of Asia». Far from always either serving a «neutral» description or taking part in the construction of a collective identity, more often than not they testify to political uses of language in specific contexts.