Oxford Handbook of Greek Cities in the Roman Empire

This handbook provides the first comprehensive treatment of the Greek cities in the Roman Empire. The poleis are studied here both as urban forms, with a specific organization of space and specific public buildings, and as socio-political entities, with specific institutions and social hierarchies. The contributions cover all the important aspects of civic life and present the on-going debates on the degree of integration and autonomy, uniformization, and diversity of the Greek civic model in the Roman Empire. One of the main guidelines of the handbook is the issue of the impact of Roman rule on the long-lasting Greek model of political, social, and spatial organization.Geographically, the volume covers the whole Roman Empire, with a focus on regions where the Greek polis was the dominant form of organization, such as mainland Greece, the Aegean Islands, Asia Minor, Syria, and the Black Sea region. In addition to that, the Greek cities of Sicily and Egypt as well as more isolated Greek settlements such as Cyrene in North Africa are also considered. The chronological scope of the handbook runs from a community's integration into the Roman Empire (varying depending on the region) until the 3rd c. AD, when the epigraphic documentation strongly decreases and some important changes make way for the transition to Late Antiquity.

List of contents

• Introduction


• 1. Sources and Methods


• 1.1: Angelos Chaniotis: The Epigraphic Culture of the Greek Cities in the Roman East


• 1.2: Antony Hostein: Civic Coinage


• 1.3: Ewen Bowie: Literary Sources for Greek Cities of the Roman Empire


• 1.4: Ursula Quatember: Archaeological Sources and Civic Life


• 1.5: Aitor Blanco-PÃ(c)rez: Onomastics and Prosopography


• 1.6: Emma Dench: The Greek City of the Roman Empire: Questions of Identity


• 2. Civic Institutions


• 2.1: Giovanna D. Merola: The Legal Status of the Greek Poleis in the Roman Empire


• 2.2: Lina Girdvainyte: Greek and Roman Citizenships


• 2.3: Nigel Kennell: Age Groups and Civic Subdivisions


• 2.4: Christina T. Kuhn: The Deliberative Institutions: The Council and Assembly


• 2.5: Nikos Giannakopoulos: Magistracies and Liturgies


• 3. Local Politics


• 3.1: Marcus Chin: Euergetism


• 3.2: Anna Heller: Civic Honours under Roman Rule


• 3.3: Christopher Dickenson: Constructing Public Space: Political and Pragmatic Considerations


• 3.4: Paul Erdkamp: The Urban Economy


• 3.5: Christopher J. Fuhrmann: Security, Military Culture, and Public Order


• 3.6: Arjan Zuiderhoek: Crises and Conflicts


• 3.7: Martin Hallmannsecker: Diplomacy and External Relations


• 3.8: Babett Edelmann-Singer: Cities and Koina


• 4. Civic Societies


• 4.1: Sophia Zoumbaki: Civic Hierarchies


• 4.2: Stephen Mitchell: Civic Countryside and Rural Life


• 4.3: Eftychia Stavrianopoulou: Women in Civic Societies


• 4.4: Benedikt Eckhardt: Clubs and Associations


• 4.5: Julie Bernini: Gymnasia and Baths


• 4.6: Karin Wiedergut: Necropoleis and Civic Funerary Culture


• 4.7: Alberto Dalla Rosa: Slavery and the Polis


• 5. Religion and Culture


• 5.1: Nicole Belayche: The 'Religious Realm' (ta theia) in the Eastern Mediterranean Cities


• 5.2: Manfred Lesgourgues: Oracles and the City


• 5.3: Gabrielle Frija: The Imperial Cults in the Greek Provinces


• 5.4: Naomi Carless Unwin: Festivals and Civic Culture


• 5.5: Krystyna Stebnicka: Intellectual Education and the City


• 6. Cities and Regions


• 6.1: Elena Muñiz-Grijalvo: Athens


• 6.2: Jean-SÃ(c)bastien Balzat: Sparta and the Peloponnese


• 6.3: Christel Mÿller: The Cities of Boeotia


• 6.4: Enora Le QuÃ(c)rÃ(c): The Cyclades


• 6.5: Julien Fournier: Thasos


• 6.6: Henri Fernoux: The Cities of Bithynia


• 6.7: François Kirbihler: Ephesos


• 6.8: Fabrice Delrieux: The Cities of Caria


• 6.9: Oliver Hÿlden: The Cities of Lycia


• 6.10: Sencan Alt¿noluk: The Cities of Lydia


• 6.11: Alister Filippini: The Cities of the Lykos Valley


• 6.12: Maurice Sartre: Greek Cities in Roman Syria


• 6.13: Lorenzo Campagna: The Greek Cities of Sicily


• 6.14: Madalina Dana: The Greek Cities of the Black Sea


• 6.15: François Chevrollier: Cyrene and the Cities of Cyrenaica


• 6.16: Peter van Minnen: The Cities of Egypt


• Epilogue: The End of Polis Culture?

About the author

Martin Hallmannsecker studied Greek Philology and Ancient History at the universities of Munich and Oxford and obtained his doctorate in Ancient History at the University of Oxford in 2019. Until 2023, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Vienna with a specialization in Greek epigraphy and Roman Asia Minor. He is now working as Classics editor for the publishing house C.H.Beck in Munich.

Anna Heller is a former student of the École Normale SupÃ(c)rieure-Paris. After a degree in Classical Philology, she studied epigraphy and ancient history, and completed her PhD at the École Pratique des Hautes Études. She has been Assistant Professor at the universities of Limoges and Tours, before getting a position of Full Professor of Ancient History in Tours in 2015. Her main interest lies in the social and institutional history of the Greek cities under Roman rule, as it emerges from the epigraphical evidence from Asia Minor. She is also interested in quantitative methods applied to historical sources.

Product details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 20.12.2024
• EAN: 9780192870933
• ISBN: 978-0-19-287093-3
• No. of pages: 824
• Series: Oxford Handbooks
• Subjects: Guides > Hobby, home > Collecting, collectors' catalogues; Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity; HISTORY / Ancient / Rome, Ancient Greece, HISTORY / Ancient / Greece, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, Ancient Rome, Ancient History, Archaeology by period / region, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Classical Greek & Roman archaeology