Volume 107, Issue 2

In a passage that uses a Homeric formula to invest the events with epic significance, Herodotus identified the moment Athenian ships participated in the sack of Sardis as “the beginning of evils for Greeks and Barbarians.” Behind that reference lies a complex web of past events involving human and metahuman actors, legible in different fashion from Greek and Persian perspectives. Focus on the latter brings to light religious aspects of imperial ideology, including Truth as the basis of cosmic order, the sacred nature of treaty commitments, and the palingenetic significance of the gifts of earth and water demanded by and presented to the Achaemenid King.

This paper sheds light on the structure and composition of Cypriot courts during the Classical period by analyzing a fragment of Clearchus of Soli on flattery (Athenaeus Deipn. 6.255–6.257 = Clearch. fr. 19 Wehrli). This passage attests to the existence of a body of ‘secret agents’ – referred to by Clearchus as Gerginoi and Promalanges – whom he describes as court flatterers ( kolakes ). These individuals mingled among Cypriot citizens in markets and public squares, reporting their opinions to the anaktes , members of the elite and royal families. A comparable, albeit less covert, group of ‘agents’ may be referenced in a Phoenician dedication discovered in Kition (KAI 34), further supporting the argument that Clearchus’ account reflects a real court apparatus. His credibility is reinforced by his direct involvement in Solian elite circles, suggesting that such a system may have been widespread across Cypriot polities. Furthermore, this research aims to demonstrate that Clearchus’ choice of vocabulary – particularly the term Gerginoi – was deliberate, reflecting both the heterogeneous composition of the courts and an etiological interpretation of the island’s diverse communities. The Gerginoi may allude to the presence of Eteocypriots, an indigenous Cypriot population of uncertain origins, whose language is well attested in the Classical period, especially in the city-kingdom of Amathus, who may have intermingled with Phoenicians and Greeks over the centuries and served in the island’s royal palaces.

Zusammenfassung Das gewaltige Erdbeben, das in den späten 220er Jahren Rhodos heimsuchte und dort u. a. den berühmten Koloß zum Einsturz brachte, hat auch auf dem gegenüberliegenden Festland Schaden angerichtet. Das läßt sich aufgrund einer neuen Epidosisliste für das Asklepieion in Syrna im Zentrum der Karischen Chersonesos erschließen. Dort scheint das eingestürzte Dach die Kultstatue, dessen Kranz und den Eingang zum Tempel beschädigt zu haben. Größeren Schaden erlitt auch der Altar vor dem Tempel. Die kleine Gemeinde hat für den Wiederaufbau des Heiligtums mehrmals zu Epidosisaktionen aufgerufen. Der Aufruf und die Spender wurden auf mehreren Blöcken des Tempels festgehalten. Der bereits seit dem ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert bekannte Block enthält den Präambel der Epidosis, die anscheinend der Errichtung des eingestürzten Daches galt. Der zweite Block, der auf zwei Kolumnen c. 70 Spenden verzeichnet, scheint die Fortsetzung des ersten Blockes zu sein. Die stark verwitterte Inschrift wurde von Fraser und Bean nur zu einem Drittel wiedergewonnen. Einige der dort unvollständig überlieferten Namen lassen sich auf der Grundlage des dritten, hier erstmals veröffentlichten Blockes wiederherstellen. Die neue Inschrift erwähnt Subskriptionen, die u. a. für Reparaturarbeiten an der Kultstatue und am Altar verwendet wurden. Dort finden sich auch die Namen der Euagis, die im Jahre 220 für die Übertragung eines Grundstücks sowie einiger Epidosisbeiträge für Wiederaufbauarbeiten im Temenos geehrt wurde, sowie des Antragstellers der Ehrung. Dadurch wird der Zusammenhang mit dem großen Erdbeben klar. Unter den Spendern findet man neben Syrniern (Demotikon ausgelassen) auch Personen aus anderen Gemeinden der Peninsula (Amos, Kryassos) sowie einen Insel-Rhodier und mehrere ortsansässige Fremde. Es werden im Anschluß Argumente für die Lokalisation des Asklepieion bei der Moschee von Bayır nahe der Wasserquelle Kızlar Çeşmesi gebracht.

Riassunto Attraverso alcuni casi di studio (Xanthos, Samo, Mylasa) concernenti la politica economica delle città ellenistiche, il presente contributo propone alcune riflessioni sulle strategie e i meccanismi amministrativi e giuridici attraverso i quali il demos , in quanto espressione istituzionale della collettività civica, regolava la collaborazione economica fra istituzioni e capitali privati. Νel corso dell’età ellenistica, tali meccanismi furono sottoposti a crisi e a ripetute fasi di logoramento. Favorendo l’ascesa di gruppi sempre più ristretti di cittadini/benefattori, tali momenti di ‘shock’, determinati da cause antropiche o naturali, finirono per favorire l’affermazione di sistemi caratterizzati da una crescente gerarchizzazione ed elitizzazione dell’accesso al potere politico-economico.

Résumé En 2011, nous avions mis en exergue que le ‘district’ macédonien était une hypothèse qui remontait au milieu du XIX e siècle. Selon nous, l’examen des données – notamment épigraphiques, conduisait à revenir de cette hypothèse. Or, en 2020, Hatzopoulos affirma que des découvertes archéologiques assureraient, a contrario , l’indubitable existence de cette structure administrative de la Macédoine hellénistique. La reprise de détail de ces données de terrain montrera que, bien au contraire, celles-ci ne livrent absolument aucun argument pouvant soutenir l’hypothèse traditionnelle. Ledit ‘district’ macédonien demeure donc un fantôme dont il semble bien vain de défendre la réalité historique.

Riassunto L’articolo intende indagare le conseguenze che la fine del terzo conflitto macedonico ebbe sui rapporti tra Roma e Atene, in particolare riferimento alle concessioni che il senato di Roma riconobbe in favore di Atene per il ruolo che quest’ultima rivestì nella guerra contro Perseo. Più nello specifico, ci si concentrerà sul caso di Delo, analizzato sin a partire dai primi rapporti che l’isola intrattenne con Roma nel secondo secolo a.C. e poi in comparazione con il coevo caso di Lemno. Si giungerà infine a proporre alcune riflessioni relativamente alla struttura che Roma dette all’area dell’Egeo orientale in conseguenza della caduta del regno di Macedonia.

Resumen El presente artículo se centra en la institución local del duunvirato, título asociado habitualmente al desempeño de la magistratura superior en las comunidades cívicas romanas, cuya principal función era la administración de la justicia. Así se observa claramente en las últimas décadas de la República y lo largo del Imperio; no obstante, las inscripciones de duoviri de las colonias romanas y latinas en el periodo anterior al Bellum Sociale parecen revelar una realidad bien diferente que, sin embargo, no ha sido bien estudiada porque estos testimonios han sido interpretados habitualmente a partir de una extrapolación de la situación conocida en época imperial. El objetivo de este artículo es precisamente deconstruir esta interpretación y mostrar la gran diversidad de cargos y funciones que podía encerrar el título duovir antes del 90 a.C.

The year 88 was a turning point in Roman republican history. The Social War was yet to finish, Mithradates VI of Pontus invaded Roman Asia, and Rome eventually descended into its first full-fledged civil war resulting from insurmountable differences between conservatives and reformists centered on the suffrage rights of the newly enfranchised Latin and Italian allies and who was to pursue of the Mithradatic War. Against this volatile backdrop, this paper represents the first dedicated study of the Sulpician Law on the suffrage of the freedmen, perhaps the least understood of the divisive centerpieces of the renegade tribune of the plebs P. Sulpicius’ legislative program. After first establishing the overall parameters of the issue of freedmen suffrage in the Roman Republic from the late 4 th century BCE onwards, the paper suggests that Roman freedmen did not make for a potentially overwhelming ‘patronless’ urban proletariat but instead formed an aspiring constituency closely tied to Rome’s non-senatorial elites. Shifting the focus then to the circumstances, particulars, and objectives of the lex Sulpicia de libertinorum suffragiis and factoring in both priors and posteriors, it will be argued that this law (associated with, though distinct from, the concurrent law on the suffrage of the newly enfranchised freeborn Latin and Italian allies) instead sought to enlist the critical support of the equestrian and first census /property class citizens, including the Italian domi nobiles , in order to ensure the passage of the highly divisive Sulpician bill transferring the lucrative command against Mithradates VI from a sitting consul (L. Cornelius Sulla) to a private citizen (C. Marius).

The literary/cultural phenomenon of the ‘Second Sophistic’ has provided an enduring and highly influential lens through which to approach Greek culture under the Roman empire. Older and recent studies have understood the ideal of the glamorous public performer/epideictic rhetor as the dominant option for expressing a deeply-held Hellenic identity in the Roman Imperial era. Second and third-century A.D. sophisticated portraits of private individuals from the Graeco-Roman East have been a lynchpin in associating this claim with visual culture. This article argues that a distinctively philosophical, unassuming style was an equally, if not more, popular option for expressing elite identity and status in real life and sculpture. Focusing on portraits of private individuals, literary testimonia, and public honorific inscriptions, I investigate the co-optation of the philosophical modus vivendi into ambitious elite visual agendas in the wake of a radical re-assessment of Greek philosophical values by Roman imperial authority at the turn of the first century A.D.