Urban Life and Local Politics in Roman Bithynia : The Small World of Dion Chrysostomos

by Bekker-Nielsen, Tonnes

• ISBN13: 9788779343504
• ISBN10: 8779343503
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: David Brown Book Co

Summary

Most studies of Roman local administration focus on the formal structures of power: provincial laws, imperial edicts, urban institutions and magistracies. This book explores the interplay of formal politics with informal factors such as social prejudice, parochialism and personal rivalries in the cities of northwestern Asia Minor from the first to the fifth centuries AD. Through a detailed analysis of the municipal speeches and career of the philosopher-politician Dion Chrysostomos, we gain new insights into the petty conflicts and lofty ambitions of an ancient provincial small-town politician and those around him.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 5
List of Illustrations	p. 11
Introduction	p. 13
Hybris and stasis	p. 13
Urban rivalries	p. 15
Formal and informal politics	p. 16
A tale of three cities	p. 18
Before the Romans	p. 21
Founding fathers	p. 21
Kings and emperors	p. 26
Windows on the Past	p. 31
Townscapes and landscapes	p. 31
Literary sources	p. 33
History	p. 33
Letters	p. 34
Speeches	p. 37
Legal texts	p. 39
Inscriptions	p. 40
Coins	p. 41
The Urban Environment	p. 45
Civic self-perceptions	p. 45
Titles and status	p. 47
City plan and architecture	p. 49
Defenses	p. 51
Political Institutions	p. 61
The nature of Roman Law	p. 61
Roman annexation and the Lex Pompeia	p. 62
Emperor and senate	p. 64
Civic self-government	p. 66
Liturgies	p. 69
Urban revenues and finances	p. 70
City magistracies	p. 73
The archons	p. 73
The agonothete	p. 74
The agoranomos	p. 75
Advocates, delegates and ambassadors	p. 77
Censors	p. 77
The grammateus and minor officials	p. 78
The gerousia	p. 79
The gymnasion	p. 80
The local level	p. 80
Regional organisation: the koinon	p. 82
Archiereus and Bithyniarch	p. 83
Koinon and governor	p. 86
The Political Class	p. 97
Ethnic composition	p. 97
Roman citizenship	p. 99
Social stratification	p. 100
The local level	p. 100
Some Bithynian careers at the local level	p. 101
The urban level	p. 101
Some Bithynian careers at the urban level	p. 103
The regional level	p. 104
Some Bithynian careers at the regional level	p. 105
The Domitii of Prusias ad Hypium	p. 107
The imperial level	p. 108
Some Bithynian careers at the imperial level	p. 108
The Cassii of Nikaia	p. 109
A Political Biography: Dion Chrysostomos	p. 119
Family background	p. 119
From imperial favour to exile	p. 120
Return	p. 122
Success abroad	p. 124
Opposition at home	p. 125
Homonoia with Apameia	p. 127
Stasis and katharsis at Prusa	p. 130
Reconciliation	p. 131
Flavius Archippos	p. 133
Resignation and utopianism	p. 136
The Bithynian Cities Under the Later Empire	p. 147
Antonines and Severans	p. 147
Nikomedia's imperial century	p. 150
Change and crisis in third century Bithynia	p. 155
Reorganisation, Christianity and a new imperial capital	p. 159
Conclusions: Urban Life and Local Politics	p. 165
Honour	p. 165
Giving and receiving	p. 166
A caste society?	p. 168
A compartmentalized agôn	p. 169
Status	p. 170
The koinon	p. 171
Mutual recognition	p. 172
Politics and the polis	p. 173
Appendix: The Dates of Dion's Municipal Orations	p. 177
Abbreviations	p. 181
Bibliography	p. 183
Indices	p. 197
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