Eager to Be Roman: Greek Response to Roman Rule in Pontus and Bithynia PDF
Preview Eager to Be Roman: Greek Response to Roman Rule in Pontus and Bithynia
Eager to be Roman This page intentionally left blank EAGER TO BE ROMAN Greek Response to Roman Rule in Pontus and Bithynia Jesper Majbom Madsen LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in 2009 by Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. © Jesper Majbom Madsen 2009 Jesper Majbom Madsen has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-0-7156-3753-1 ePUB: 978-1-4725-1973-3 ePDF: 978-1-4725-1974-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Contents Preface vii List of illustrations ix Introduction 1 1. A Governor at Work 11 2. Roman Rule in Pontus and Bithynia 27 The Pompeian provincialisation 29 Thepolis constitution in Pontus and Bithynia 34 Emperor-worship: Greek traditions and Roman influence 40 A question of temples 46 Greek autonomy and Roman rule 53 3. Greeks in the Roman World 59 Greek influence on Roman politics 60 In Roman service 64 Roman Greeks 79 4. Turning Roman in Pontus and Bithynia 83 Becoming legally Roman 87 Affiliation to the emperor 90 Roman names, status and identity 96 Roman identity and Greek pragmatism 99 5. Responses to Roman Rule 103 Dio Chrysostom: a bitter patriot 107 L. Flavius Arrianus: a Roman authority and a nostalgic Greek 119 Cassius Dio: a Roman from Bithynia 124 Conclusion 127 Notes 135 Bibliography 149 Index Locorum 159 General Index 163 v To Rikke Preface This book is a rewritten version of my PhD dissertation, completed at Aarhus University (Denmark) in June 2006 under the supervision of Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen, with whom I share an interest in Bithynia. I am grateful for his encouragement and support over the years, both as a doctoral student and later as a colleague at the University of Southern Denmark, where this book was completed. I would like to thank him warmly for many stimulating discussions. I am also grateful to Greg Woolf for welcoming me at St Andrews on several occasions and for reading through earlier drafts of this book. I have benefited enormously from his insightful criticism. I am also extremely grateful for the hospitality I have enjoyed at the School of Classics, St Andrews. I would also like to thank Jesper Carlsen, who willingly read and commented on earlier drafts of this book, for his support as head of department, enabling me to complete this book. I would also like to thank my colleague Cristian Høgel for taking the time to read the entire manuscript. Special thanks must go to my good friend Carsten Hjort Lange, who has always been there for me, ready to discuss, read and offer suggestions on more drafts than he would like to remember. I am very grateful to Roger Rees for proof-reading and commenting on the book and for his and his family’s warm hospitality during my stays in Scotland. I would also like to express my thanks to Eckart Olshausen, Jason König, Kirsten Dige Larsen and Rita Ratenborg for their interest in this project and for reading this book or my dissertation. I am grateful to my students at the University of Southern Denmark: their contributions have had a significant impact on the final result and are greatly appreciated. Thanks are due to the institutions who have supported this project. The dissertation was completed at the Danish Research Centre for Black Sea Studies, and I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to Pia Guldager Bilde, director of the centre, and to Jakob Munk Højte, Jane Hjarl Pedersen, George Hinge and Vladimir Stolba, for three fantastic years. I would like to thank the Danish Institute in Rome and the Danish Institute in Athens for the opportunity to use their facilities and work on the project in a constructive environment. I am also grateful to Ali Vural for his delightful company during a trip to Turkey in 2004, which surely would have been less fruitful had I not benefited from his ability to solve practical and linguistic problems. vii Preface Most of all, I am grateful to my wife Rikke Heilmann Madsen for her unconditional support over the years. Without her encouragement, under- standing and forgiveness this would have been a very different experience. I dedicate the book to her. Odense, April 2009 Jesper Majbom Madsen viii List of illustrations 1. Map of Pontus and Bithynia at the beginning of the second century CE 12 2. The territory of Nicaea (modern Iznik) 19 3. The theatre in Nicaea 20 4. The city of Amastris and its natural harbours 23 5. List of the imperial gentilicia attested in Bithynia 89 6. The eastern gate at Nicaea 91 7. The sarcophagus of C. Cassius Chrestus in Nicaea 92 8. The theatre of Dionysus in Athens 115 ix
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