Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Volume 2: Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire (Studies in the History of Greece and Rome)

2004·2.66 MB·English

by  Fergus Millar

Rome, the Greek World,
and the East
StudiesintheHistoryofGreeceandRome
RobinOsborne,P.J.Rhodes,andRichardJ.A.Talbert,editors
Rome, the Greek World,
and the East
volume 2
Government, Society, and Culture
in the Roman Empire
Fergus Millar
Edited by Hannah M. Cotton and Guy M. Rogers
TheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPress
ChapelHillandLondon
©2004TheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPress
Allrightsreserved
SetinBembo
byTsengInformationSystems,Inc.
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
(cid:4)Thepaperinthisbookmeetstheguidelines
forpermanenceanddurabilityoftheCommitteeon
ProductionGuidelinesforBookLongevity
oftheCouncilonLibraryResources.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Millar,Fergus.
Rome,theGreekworld,andtheEast/FergusMillar;
editedbyHannahM.CottonandGuyM.Rogers.
p. cm.—(StudiesinthehistoryofGreeceandRome)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Contents:v.2.Government,society,andcultureinthe
RomanEmpire
isbn0-8078-2852-1(cloth:alk.paper)
isbn0-8078-5520-0(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Greece—Civilization. 2.Rome—Civilization.
I.Title. II.Series.
de3.m52 2002
938—dc21 2001027500
Cloth 08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1
Paper 08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface vii
IntroductiontoVolume2,byHannahM.Cotton xi
Abbreviations xix
PartI.TheImperialGovernment
1.EmperorsatWork
3
2.Trajan:GovernmentbyCorrespondence
23
3.TheFiscusintheFirstTwoCenturies
47
4.TheAerariumandItsOfficialsundertheEmpire
73
5.CashDistributionsinRomeandImperialMinting
89
6.EpictetusandtheImperialCourt
105
7.CondemnationtoHardLabourintheRomanEmpire,
fromtheJulio-ClaudianstoConstantine
120
8.TheEquestrianCareerundertheEmpire
151
9.Emperors,Frontiers,andForeignRelations,31b.c.toa.d.378
160
vi Contents
10.GovernmentandDiplomacyintheRomanEmpire
duringtheFirstThreeCenturies
195
11.Emperors,Kings,andSubjects:
ThePoliticsofTwo-LevelSovereignty
229
PartII.SocietyandCultureintheEmpire
12.LocalCulturesintheRomanEmpire:
Libyan,Punic,andLatininRomanAfrica
249
13.P.HerenniusDexippus:TheGreekWorld
andtheThird-CenturyInvasions
265
14.TheImperialCultandthePersecutions
298
15.TheWorldoftheGoldenAss
313
16.EmpireandCity,AugustustoJulian:
Obligations,Excuses,andStatus
336
17.ItalyandtheRomanEmpire:AugustustoConstantine
372
18.StyleAbides
399
19.ANewApproachtotheRomanJurists
417
20.TheGreekEastandRomanLaw:
TheDossierofM.Cn.LiciniusRufinus
435
Index
465
Preface
Fergus Millar, Camden Professor of Ancient History in the University of
Oxford emeritus, is one of the most influential ancient historians of the
twentiethcentury.SincethepublicationofAStudyofCassiusDiobyOxford
University Press in 1964, Millar has published eight books, including two
monumentalstudies,TheEmperorintheRomanWorld(Duckworth,1977)and
TheRomanNearEast,31b.c.–a.d.337(Harvard,1993).Thesebookshavetrans-
formedthestudyofancienthistory.
In his study of the role of the emperor in the Roman world Millar ar-
guedthatthereignofAugustusinauguratedalmostthreecenturiesofrela-
tivelypassiveandinertgovernment,inwhichthecentralpowerpursuedfew
policiesandwaslargelycontenttorespondtopressuresanddemandsfrom
below. After more than twenty years of scholarly reaction, The Emperor in
the RomanWorld is now the dominant scholarly model of how the Roman
Empireworkedinpractice.
Reviewers immediately hailed Millar’s magisterial study of the Roman
Near East as a ‘‘grand book on a grand topic’’ (TLS, 15 April 1994). In this
grandbook,displayinganunrivaledmasteryofancientliterary,epigraphic,
papyrological,andarchaeologicalsourcesinGreek,Latin,Hebrew,Aramaic,
and other Semitic languages, Millar made the indigenous peoples of the
RomanNearEast,especiallytheJews,centraltoourunderstandingof how
and why the three great religions of the book, Rabbinic Judaism, Chris-
tianity,andIslam,evolvedinaculturalcontextthatwasneither‘‘eastern’’nor
‘‘western.’’TherecanbenodoubtthatTheRomanNearEast,31b.c.–a.d.337
willbethestandardworkonthesubjectforalongtimetocome.
More recently, Millar has published two books, The Crowd in Rome in
theLateRepublic(Michigan,1998)andTheRomanRepublicinPoliticalThought
(NewEngland,2002),onthepoliticsoftheRomanRepublicandhowthose
politicshavebeenunderstoodormisunderstoodbypoliticalthinkersfrom
theancientworldtothepresent.Thesebookshavechallengedwidelyheld
vii
viii Preface
notionsaboutthesupposedoligarchicpoliticalcharacteroftheRomanRe-
public.InthefutureMillarintendstoreturntotheRomanNearEastfora
studytobeentitledSocietyandReligionintheRomanNearEastfromConstantine
toMahomet.InthisstudyMillarwillbringthestoryofGreco-Romanculture
intheNearEastfromtheearlyfourthcenturyuptotheIslamicinvasionsof
theseventhcenturya.d.
During the same period when he has produced these ground-breaking
books, Millar also has published over seventy essays on aspects of Greco-
Romanhistory,fromtheHellenisticperioduntilthemiddleofthefifthcen-
turya.d.Theseessayshavelaidthefoundationsfororsupplementedtheideas
andargumentspresentedinMillar’sverywellknownbooks.Someofthese
essays,suchas‘‘TheEmperor,theSenateandtheProvinces’’(JournalofRoman
Studies 56 [1966]: 156–66), or ‘‘Emperors, Frontiers and Foreign Relations,
31b.c.–a.d.378’’(Britannia13[1982]:1–23),haveappearedinhithertoacces-
siblejournalsandarewidelyregardedasclassicsofscholarship.Butotherout-
standingessays,suchasMillar’sstudy,‘‘PolybiusbetweenGreeceandRome’’
(published in Greek Connections: Essays on Culture and Diplomacy [1987], 1–
18),havebeenmoredifficulttolocate,evenforprofessionalhistoriansdoing
researchinthefield.
Therefore,theprimarygoalofourcollection,Rome,theGreekWorld,and
theEast,istobringtogetherintothreevolumesthemostsignificantofMil-
lar’sessayspublishedsince1961forthewidestaudiencepossible.Thecollec-
tionincludesmanyarticlesthatclearlywillbeofgreatintellectualinterest
andpedagogicalusetoscholarsdoingresearchandteachinginthedifferent
fieldsofthevolumeheadings:Volume1,TheRomanRepublicandtheAugustan
Revolution; Volume 2, Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire;
andVolume3,TheGreekWorld,theJews,andtheEast.
Atthesametime,wehaveconceivedandorganizedthethreevolumesof
Rome,theGreekWorld,andtheEastespeciallyinordertomakeMillar’smost
significantarticlesreadilyavailabletoanewgenerationofstudents,whoin-
creasinglymaynothaveaccesstothespecialtyjournalsoreditedvolumesin
whichmanyofMillar’smorerecentarticleshaveappeared.
Theprincipleofarrangementoftheessaysineachofthethreevolumes
isbroadlychronologicalbysubjectmattertreatedwithintheancientworld.
Webelievethatthischronologicalarrangementofessays(ratherthanbypub-
licationdateoftheessays)givesintellectualcoherencetoeachvolumeonits
ownandtothecollectionasawhole.Overall,asMillarhimselfhasdefined
it,thesubjectofthiscollectionis‘‘thecommunalcultureandcivilgovern-
ment of the Graeco-Roman world, essentially from the Hellenistic period
tothefifthcenturya.d.’’(‘‘Author’sPrologue,’’volume1,p.11).
Preface ix
Publication of a three-volume collection of essays, drawn from a wide
varietyofjournalsandeditedvolumes,overnearlyfourdecadesofscholarly
production,presentseditorswithsomemajorstylisticchallenges.Ourcol-
lectioncontainsmorethanfiftyessays.Mostoftheseessaysoriginallywere
published in learned journals or books, each of which had its own house
style. Some learned journals also have changed their house styles over the
timewhenMillarhaspublishedinthem.Forthesereasonswehavenotat-
tempted to bring all of the citations in the texts or notes of the articles in
thecollectionintoperfectstylisticconformity.Conformityforthesakeof
conformity makes no sense; moreover, to achieve such conformity would
delaypublicationofthecollectionforyears.
Rather, the stylistic goal of our collection has been to inform readers
clearlyandconsistentlywheretheycanfindthesourcescitedbyMillarinhis
essays.Tohelpachievethatgoalwehaveincludedalistoffrequentlycited
works(withabbreviationsforthoseworks)atthebeginningofeachvolume.
Thus, in the text or notes of the essays, readers will find abbreviations for
frequently cited journals or books, which are fully cited in our lists at the
beginningofeachvolume.Forexample,referencesinthenotestotheabbre-
viationJRSrefertotheJournalofRomanStudies.Fortheabbreviationsthem-
selveswehaverelieduponthestandardlistprovidedinL’AnnéePhilologique.
In certain cases,where there have been individual citations in the original
textsornotestomoreobscurecollectionsofinscriptionsorpapyri,wehave
expanded the citations themselves in situ, rather than endlesslyexpanding
ourlistoffrequentlycitedworks.
InaccordancewithFergusMillar’swishes,forthesakeofreaderswhodo
notknowLatinorGreek,wehaveprovidedEnglishtranslationsofmostof
theextendedGreekandLatinpassagesandsomeofthetechnicaltermscited
byMillarinthetextandnotesoftheoriginalessays.Indoingso,wehavefol-
lowedthepracticeFergusMillarhimselfadoptedinTheEmperorintheRoman
Worldin1977.Webelievethatprovidingthesetranslationswillhelptomake
Millar’sessaysmorewidelyaccessible,whichistheessentialgoalofthecol-
lection.ReaderswhowishtoconsulttheoriginalGreekandLatinpassages
ortechnicaltermsthatwehavetranslatedinthecollectioncanlookupthose
passagesortechnicaltermsintheoriginal,publishedversionsoftheessays.
Theeditorswouldliketothankthemanyfriendsandcolleagueswhohave
helped us in the process of collecting these essays and preparing them for
publication.WeareindebtedfirstofalltoLewisBateman,formerlysenior
editorattheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPress,whosuggestedthebasicar-
rangement of the essays into threevolumes.We are also grateful to David
Perry, editor-in-chief, and Pamela Upton, assistant managing editorat the