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The Plancii in Asia Minor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Stephen Mitchell
Stephen Mitchell
Affiliation:
The University, Bristol
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Extract

In elucidating the history of Asia Minor it has always been profitable to examine the origin, background and influence of the wealthy families of the Greco-Roman cities, and the connections they established between themselves. As more information comes to light it becomes increasingly obvious how complex the relationships between the various families were, and how far the influence of any one family could extend. From this evidence we are beginning to be able to form a convincing, if sketchy, picture of a power structure, based on a close-knit network of dominant families, which produced the ruling élite of the cities, the dynasts of the Hellenistic period, and the senators and consuls who made careers for themselves in the eastern provinces and maintained their family traditions of power and influence within the framework of the Roman Empire. Fresh evidence now allows us to weave more threads into the pattern, linking two important families of the city of Perge on the south coast, one certainly of Italian descent, with the cities and families of the vast Anatolian hinterland, and suggesting an important source for the wealth which enabled members of these families to rise from a mercantile background to become senators in the first and second centuries A.D.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 64 , November 1974 , pp. 27 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Stephen Mitchell 1974. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 For the Italian origins of the Plancii, see Jameson, S., JRS lv (1965), 55Google Scholar.

2 RE Suppl. xii, 119–120 s.v. Attaleia. Confirmation that M. Plancius Varus had connections and influence at Attaleia comes from IGR iii, no. 782, mentioning M. Plancius Plato Calpurnianus Proculus and M. Plancius Plato, who were presumably freedmen. Like the freedmen in south Pisidia (see below), they became local figures of some standing.

3 SEG vi, no. 650.

4 Hist. ii, 63.

5 He is associated by the inscription on the east gate of Nicaea (IGR iii, no. 37) with C. Cassius Chrestus. An inscription on the same gate, to be published in due course by E. L. Bowie, specifically calls him patron of the city and friend of Cassius Chrestus. Contacts such as these probably had their origin during his quaestorship.

6 Groag, E., Die römischen Reichsbeamten von Achaia bis auf Diokletian (1939), 39–40Google Scholar.

7 ibid. 41; Braithwaite, A. W., C. Suetoni Tranquilli Divus Vespasianus (1927), 44–6Google Scholarad c. viii, 4; Jones, C. P., Plutarch and Rome (1971), 18, n. 30.Google Scholar

8 The phrase leg. pro pr. provinciarum Achaiae et Asiae (and its Greek equivalent), in place of the expected leg. pro pr. prov. Achaiae, leg. pro pr. prov. Asiae, is paralleled on the inscriptions of the Trajanic senator M. Arruntius Claudianus from Xanthus in Lycia (TAM ii, no. 282; JOAI xlix (1968–1971)Google Scholar, Beiblatt 6, no. 1; cf. Habicht, Chr., ZPE xiii (1974). 1Google Scholar f.).

9 IGR iii, no. 4 (Nicomedia), and 37 (Nicaea); see n. 5 above.

10 Cl. Bosch, , Die kleinasiatischen Münzen der röm Kaiserzeit, Bithynien (1935), 87Google Scholar.

11 op. cit., 56.

12 e.g. Magie, D., Roman Rule in Asia Minor, vol. ii (Princeton, 1950), app. 1, 1582;Google ScholarPIR 1 iii, 42, P. no. 334; RE xx, 2016 (Hoffmann).

13 Cl. Bosch, op. cit. 87.

14 Senatoren von Vespasian bis Hadrian 231, n. 506. Houston, G. W., TAPA ciii (1972), 167Google Scholar f. attempts to compress the legateship of Asia and the proconsulship of Bithynia into the years 69–71. He suggests that the legateship of Asia was an extraordinary office held vice proconsulis after the departure of Fonteius Capito to Moesia in the autumn of 69 (Tac, ., Hist. iii, 46)Google Scholar. However, A. B. Bosworth has recently argued convincingly that the man responsible for organizing the Flavian cause in Asia after Fonteius Capito had left was C. Rutilius Gallicus, who held an extraordinary legateship vice proconsulis from the autumn of 69 to the autumn of 70, when he returned to Rome and was rewarded with the consulship (Athenaeum li (1973), 1 f.)Google Scholar.

15 BMC Phrygia 95, nos. 150–151.

16 ibid. 94, nos. 143 and 147.

17 op. cit. 58.

18 Hitherto, like Plancius Varus, they have usually been regarded as proconsuls of Asia. See, e.g., Magie, op. cit. app. 1, 1582. For further inconclusive speculation on the occasion of the coin issue at Apameia, see Houston, op. cit. 173 f.

19 Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor (Oxford, 1967), app. 3, 158–9Google Scholar.

20 Ist. Mitt. xviii (1968), 233Google Scholar.

21 TAD vi (1956), 32;Google ScholarAS xxii (1972), 218Google Scholar.

22 In the same appendix (see n. 19) Levick discussed the foundation of Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Ninica in Cilicia Tracheia, and also attributed it to Domitian. Although the evidence for this date is somewhat stronger than that for Germa, its identical titles argue very strongly that it too was Augustan. For the most recent discussion of the problem, and a possible Augustan coin of Ninica, see Seyrig, H., Rev. Num., vie série, xi (1969), 50–52Google Scholar.

23 AS xxii (1972), 218–9Google Scholar.

24 v, 4. 7.

25 CIL iii, no. 318. For the site of Germa see Starr, S. Frederick, Archaeology 16, no. 3 (1963), 167–9;Google ScholarIllustrated London News, 23rd Nov. 1963, 859; Ancient Roads of Asia Minor 38–43; von Aulock, H., Ist. Mitt. xviii (1968), 222–230Google Scholar. The remains still in situ lie on the south side of the main Ankara-Eskişehir highway, opposite the village of Babadat. They consist of a wide scatter of ruins focused on a central mound of prehistoric origin. Three circular structures, possibly tombs, can still be traced on the edge of the site, but little else stands above ground.

26 Formerly Hortu köy, but recently renamed after the popular sage of folk legend who was born there.

27 Anderson, J. G. C., ‘Exploration in Galatia cis Halym’, JHS xix (1899), 75, no. 30Google Scholar.

28 op. cit. 55 with n. 12.

29 Beyköy has also produced a second Latin inscription, the gravestone of C. Clitius C.f. Vel. Granius, who died aged four (JHS xix (1899), 74, no. 29)Google Scholar. An estate owned by Plancius Varus would help to explain why this too was inscribed in Latin.

30 Anderson, op. cit. 84, no. 59.

31 Anderson, , JRS xxvii (1937), 18–21Google Scholar.

32 Most of the evidence for these estates is collected in MAMA vols. i and vii. It is discussed very briefly by Calder, MAMA i, xiii f., and by Broughton, T. R. S., TAPA lxv (1934), 233–4Google Scholar. There has been some detailed discussion, notably of the property of the Sergii Paulli: Ramsay, W. M., JRS xvi (1926), 324Google Scholar f., and Calder, W. M., Klio xxiv (1930/1931), 59–62Google Scholar.

33 JRS xxvii (1937), 18;Google ScholarJHS xix (1899), 75;Google ScholarABSA iv (1897/1898), 69Google Scholar.

34 There is some uncertainty about the precise origins of the Italian settlers on the Pamphylian coast. There is evidence for deliberate colonial settlement at Attaleia, as well as for negotiatores. This has been discussed and rejected by Levick, B. and Jameson, S., JRS liv (1964), 101–2Google Scholar. It seems to me that a much stronger case can be made out for colonial settlement at Attaleia than they were prepared to admit. However, whatever the situation at Attaleia, there is no evidence for a colonial settlement at Perge, whose Italian inhabitants had certainly been attracted by the commercial possibilities.

35 Sayce, A. H., JHS viii (1888), 254, nos. 35 and 36;Google Scholar cf. Bean, G. E., AS x (1960), 71, no. 123aGoogle Scholar.

36 Ramsay, W. M., AJA iv (1888), 14, no. 6Google Scholar.

37 ibid. no. 5.

38 Ramsay, , Ath. Mitt. x (1885), 338Google Scholar (= IGR iii, no. 417).

39 AS x (1960), 66, no. 118Google Scholar.

40 cf. de Planhol, Xavier, De la plaine pamphylienne aux lacs pisidiens (Paris, 1958), 413;Google Scholar ‘Les villages s'y cantonnent déjà presque toujours au piedmont des collines … l'économie reste essentiellement céréalière, organisée de plus en plus par i'assolement du terroir et le parcours de troupeaux communal.’

41 Rostovtzeff, M. I., JOAI iv (1901)Google Scholar, Beiblatt 38–46 ( = IGR iii no. 409); Bean, G. E., AS x (1960), 59, no. 104Google Scholar.

42 De Planhol, loc. cit.: ‘Le régime de la grande propriété a longtemps prédominé, en relation avec le noyeau urbain de Korkuteli et l'estivage des riches habitants d'Antalya.’

Another link between this part of Pisidia and Perge is found in the numismatic evidence for the cult of Artemis of Perge. Artemis Pergaea is a regular reverse type on coins of Pogla, Andeda, Isinda and Ariassus. Other Artemis types are known at Sibidunda and Verbe. A ready explanation for the spread of the cult is the relative proximity of these cities to Perge, and the close connections which have always existed between the Pamphylian coast and the Pisidian uplands (see de Planhol, op. cit. passim). However, it would not be surprising if the freedmen of M. Plancius Varus had helped to spread the cult by building temples, endowing priesthoods and other means.

43 Bosch, E., Quellen zur Geschichte der Stadt Ankara im Altertum (Ankara, 1967)Google Scholar, no. 73.

44 ibid. no. 75.

46 No. 100.

46 No. 103.

47 Nos. 105–8.

48 No. 117.

49 PIR 2 iv, 277–8, I no. 573.

50 Bosch, op. cit. nos. 107–8; PIR 2 ii, 260, C no. 1072.

51 Bosch, op. cit. nos. 105–6.

52 West, A. B., Excavations at Corinth, viii, 2;Google ScholarThe Latin Inscriptions (1938), 38, no. 56.

53 PIR 2 iv, 278–9, I no. 574.

54 The article on C. Iulius Severus in PIR 2 notes, ‘filia fortasse Iulia C.f. Severa archiereus (sic) Augustorum duorum MAMA 6, 263.’ However, as the article on Iulia Severa herself correctly recognizes (PIR 2 iv, 323, I no. 701) she was ‘ἀρΧιέρεια και ἀγωνοθέτις domus totius deorum Augustorum’ at Acmonia, certainly identical with the Iulia Severa known from Neronian coins of Acmonia and an ancestor of C. Iulius Severus.

55 Jameson, op. cit. 55–6.

56 ibid. 54.

57 Syme, R., Historia xviii (1969), 365–6Google Scholar.

58 See section III. The coin attributed to Germa (Ist. Mitt. xviii (1968), 236, no. 17)Google Scholar which carries the head of Iulia Aquilia Severa Augusta (PIR 2 iv, 306, I no. 648), the second wife of Elagabalus, who was certainly a descendant of C. Iulius Severus (see PIR 2 iv, 279), cannot be used as evidence for a family connection with the colony since it has recently been re-attributed to Aelia Capitolina in Palestine. See von Aulock, H., Jb. Num. xxi (1971), 23Google Scholar.

59 The name Tertullus was introduced by the Trajanic consular, Varus belonged to the Plancian branch.

60 Domaszewski, op. cit. 123.

61 The closest are the honorific inscriptions of Cl. Caecilius Hermianus (Bosch, nos. 287–8), which were set up at Ancyra after Ancyra had become β′νεωκόρος in the reign of Valerian and Gallienus. The second of the inscriptions of Tertullus Varus has, in fact, been incorrectly attributed to Cl. Caecilius Hermianus. See Stein, A., Die röm. Ritterstand (Munich, 1927), 295,Google Scholar n. 4.

62 Tertullus Varus was πατέρα κὲ π[άππον |συνκλη–] τικῶν, if the restoration suggested by Domaszewski and adopted by all subsequent editors is correct.

Other Tertulli are known from the epigraphy of Ancyra: Cl. Tertullus, priest of Sarapis in 177/8 (Bosch, nos. 184–5); Aur. Tertullus of Heracleia Pontica (Bosch, no. 246); and Ti. Cl. Tertullus (Arch. Anz. 1932, 250, no. 1, an inscription omitted by Bosch and wrongly classified as Byzantine by its editor). The first and last of these (who could be identical) imply a separate Ancyran family, which had acquired the citizenship under the Julio-Claudians. We also know of two Ancyran Plancii, Πλάνκιος κρατεῖνος who set up a votive altar to Tavian Zeus (Bosch, no. 212), and C. Planc[ius––], a native of Ancyra who was duumvir quinquennalis at Troesmis in Moesia in 163/4 (Bosch, no. 170). These may well be connected in some way with the family of Perge.

63 The title ήρωίς could only be conferred after death. See RE viii, 1137–8, s.v. Heros (Eitrem).

64 Linton, A. W. and Tod, M. N., Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology iv (1912), 38, no. 11Google Scholar.

65 Bosch, no. 158.

66 CIL iii, no. 6868 (bilingual), and Eph. Ep. v, 584, no. 1381. Of the three texts of the Res Gestae found in Galatia, only the Apollonian version was inscribed in Greek alone.

67 Grant, M., Num. Chron., 6th series, vi (1949), 150–156Google Scholar.

68 ibid.

69 MAMA iv no. 163. Grant identifies him with the Tiberian εὐεργέτμς. However, the double cogomen points to a slightly later period.

70 MAMA vi, 94 f.

71 MAMA iv, no. 154.

72 IGR iii, no. 785.

73 This parentage for L. Servenius Cornutus is generally accepted. See W. M. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia 638 f., 647 f., 673 f.; RE x, 947 (Groag); PIR 1 S no. 104; PIR 2 iv, 324, I no. 701; Levick, Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor 106; RE Ia, 1757–8 (Fluss); notes on MAMA iv, no. 139 and vi, no. 254.

74 MAMA vi, no. 254 and iv, no. 139. The latter text implies that she predeceased her father and grandmother, and did not marry. She cannot therefore be the polyonymous Servenia Cornuta Cornelia Calpurnia Valeria Secunda Cotia Procilla Porcia Luculla Domna, honoured on an inscription of Ancyra (Bosch, no. 103). The multiplicity of names points to the second century, and she appears to have been married to P. Calpurnius Proculus, governor of Dacia in the 160's.

75 See n. 58 above.

76 The road is today represented by the highway from Antalya to Burdur. See Levick, op. cit. 15, with her map: ‘The only road in this region which ran north-south is represented to-day by the Antalya Burdur highway, which cuts giddily over the grain of the mountains and over the Çubuk Boǧaz. The ancient road climbed by way of Döşeme and Ariassus across the plain of Kestel Göl to Sagalassus, thus connecting Pamphylia directly with Baris and Seleuceia Sidera, and eventually with Apameia and Apollonia.’ See also X. de Planhol, op. cit. 25, with his carte d'orientation: ‘La plus active (route) de tous temps fut certes celle qui profitant des grandes surfaces aplanies des fonds de Poljés et des surfaces fluvio-karstiques qui s'échelonnent d'Antalya à Burdur, est aujourd’hui la grande voie carrossable, la route de Çubuk boǧazi …’.

77 Head, HN 2 706; SNG Copenhagen, Pisidia, no. 102 (Caracalla or Severus Alexander).

78 The best parallel for such connections is furnished, of course, by the earlier link between the family of C. Iulius Severus and the Servenii of Acmonia. See notes 54, 58 and 73.

79 cf. Habicht, Chr., Ist. Mitt. ix (1959), 122–5Google Scholar.

80 Suetonius, Aug. 48: ‘Reges socios etiam inter semet ipsos necessitudinibus mutuis iunxit, prompissimus affinitatis cuiusque atque amicitiae conciliator et fautor.’