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Rome, Asia and Aphrodisias in the Third Century*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
In 1913 J. B. Bury wrote of Diocletian's administrative reforms: ‘It is becoming clear that (Diocletian) was not the initiator, but was only extending and systematizing changes which had already been begun’; and subsequent research in many areas has tended to support this contention. Bury was particularly concerned with the subdivision of the provinces; yet that particular reform has continued to be ascribed almost wholly to Diocletian, on the authority of Lactantius' famous phrase, provinciae quoque in frusta concisae, and in the absence of firm evidence to the contrary. It is the purpose of this article to present new material from Aphrodisias in Caria which seems to indicate that a new imperial province of Phrygia and Caria, whose creation has hitherto been ascribed to Diocletian or his successors, had been separated from proconsular Asia before A.D. 259. If this is so, it may well prove fruitful to re-examine material from other parts of the empire, in order to determine whether similar developments, at such a date, can be identified elsewhere.
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References
1 ‘The Provincial List of Verona’, JRS XIII (1923), 127Google Scholar; for a useful overview of modern work, see Malcus, B., ‘Notes sur la révolution du système administratif au IIIe siècle’, Opusc. Roman. VII (1969), 213–37Google Scholar.
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3 To the publications listed by J. M. R. Cormack in MAMA VIII, 148–60, should be added those mentioned by Robert, L., Hellenica XIII, III n. 2Google Scholar. The corpus of Aphrodisias inscriptions is currently being prepared by J. M. Reynolds and C. Roueché; a separate volume of inscriptions of the late antique and Byzantine periods is being prepared by C. Roueché.
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5 Aphrodisias and Rome, document 25.
6 Caria: Iasos (the younger Valerian, Ann. Ep. (1974), 624), Kidrama (Valerian, J., and Robert, L., La Carie (1954), 365, no. 189Google Scholar) and, on the Carian— Asian border, Nyssa (the younger Valerian—see below, n. 8).
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Lycia-Pamphylia: Combe (Valerian, IGR in, 572) and Side (Gallienus and the house of Valerian— see below, n. 68).
Inscriptions honouring Salonina at Mylasa (BCH XXII (1898), 391, no. 37), Meirus (IGR IV, 593) and Verbe (ABSA XVI (1909–10), 199, no. 12), Gallienus and Salonina at Bubon (Ist. Mitt. XXVII–XXVIII (1977–1978), 292, nos. 9 and 10) and Gallienus and Saloni … at Sagalassus (IGR III, 355) can only be dated between 254 and 268.
7 PIR 2 L 257, PLRE I Valerianus 14.
8 BCH VII (1883), 247, no. 16.
9 The date of Valerian's capture, and of the recognition that his reign had ended, is still debated: M. Christol, in ANRW 11, 2 (1975), 817–21, argues for 260; de Blois, L., The policy of the Emperor Gallienus (1976), 2Google Scholar, favours 259.
10 MAMA VIII, 546, and in an unpublished inscription.
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23 Published by J. M. R. Cormack in ABSA LIX (1964), 20, no. 14, from a copy made in 1893 by Kubitschek. While the name of the games is not fully preserved (beyond ‘Aphrodisian’), there is an apparent reference to their twentieth cycle; the only games at Aphrodisias whose cycle is regularly enumerated are the Aphrodisian Philemoneia, of which we know that the fifteenth cycle was celebrated (LBW 596, CIG 2812). On their institution see Aphrodisias and Rome, Appendix IX.
23 PIR 2 A 1455; see also Stein, A., Die Präfekten von Ägypten (1950), 140–3Google Scholar, and Pflaum, H.-G., Les carrières procuratoriennes équestres (1960), 864–70Google Scholar.
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25 Rehm, A., Didyma II (1958)Google Scholar, no. 156, with the comments assembled at Bull. Ep. (1961), 578.
26 Carratelli, G. Pugliese, ‘Nuovo Supplemento epigrafico di Iasos’, Ann. Sc. Arch. At. XLVII–XLVIII (1969–1970)Google Scholar, no. 11, with Bull. Ep. (1973), 426 and Ann. Ep. (1974), 627.
27 Stein, loc. cit. (n. 23).
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29 See von Premerstein, art. ‘Corrector’ in RE IV, 2, 1646, and H. J. Mason (op. cit., n. 18) s.v.
30 For the most recent list see Oliver, J. H., ‘Imperial commissioners in Achaea’, GRBS XIV (1973), 389–405, esp. 403–5Google Scholar.
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34 Thus it is not at all clear what the term means when it is used by Vaballathus Athenodorus of Palmyra, or whether it should be seen as a title or a term of praise; see Millar, F. in JRS LXI (1971), 9–10Google Scholar. It appears to be used simply as a term of praise in an unpublished inscription of the early fourth century at Aphrodisias.
35 In ‘The genesis of Diocletian's provincial reorganisation’, JRS XX. (1932), 24–32Google Scholar.
36 From the edition of Judeich, W. in Humann, C. et al. , Altertümer von Hierapolis (Jahrb. Deutsch. Arch. Inst. Ergänzungsheft IV, 1898), 87–8, no. 43Google Scholar, whence IGR IV, 814.
37 From an unpublished copy by Sir William Ramsay.
38 CIL III, 1419182.
39 Aurelius Marcellus (PLRE I Marcellus 9) v.p. praes(es) prov(inciae) Cariae erected a dedication to the tetrarchs at Halicarnassus (ILS 635).
40 I am very grateful to Dr. Martindale for pointing this out. Arnheim, M., The senatorial aristocracy in the later Roman empire (1972), 43Google Scholar, mentions this possibility only to reject it. Priscus is not included in PLRE 1 or in Malcus, B., ‘Die Prokonsuln von Asia von Diokletian bis Theodosius II’, Opusc. Ath. VII (1967), 91–159Google Scholar; nor is the anonymous governor considered by PLRE 1 or Arnheim.
41 He considered that the inscription was ‘reichlich ein Jahrhundert’ earlier than the next mention of a governor of Caria known to him—that is, the inscription over the west gate at Aphrodisias, which is datable to the 350'3 (published most recently as MAMA VIII, 426).
42 In ‘The date and value of the Verona list’, JRS XLIV (1954). 21–9Google Scholar.
43 See PLRE I, Maximus 43.
44 Crawford, M. H. and Reynolds, J. M., ‘The publication of the Prices Edict: a new inscription from Aezani’, JRS LXV (1975), 160–3Google Scholar.
45 PLRE 1, Asticus 1, from a milestone found near Alabanda (CIL III, 480).
46 Crawford and Reynolds, loc. cit. above.
47 Kolbe, H.-G., Die Statthalter Numidiens von Gallien bis Konstantin (1962), 51 and 65 ff.Google Scholar, sets out the evidence.
48 For Syria see the fasti in PLRE I, 1105. Arnheim (op. cit., n. 40, 42–3) discusses and rejects the evidence for senatorial governors in other provinces under Diocletian; but there was still a proconsul in Crete in or after 286—PLRE 1, Aglaus.
49 IGR IV, 731, whence Robert, L., Noms Indigènes (1963), 292–305Google Scholar.
50 MAMA VI, 94, whence J., and Robert, L., La Carte, 199, noGoogle Scholar. 123. Anderson dated Constans under the tetrarchs; Jones (loc. cit. above, and in PLRE 1, Constans 1) proposed a date under Constantine.
51 In Laodicée du Lycos: Le Nymphée, des Gagniers, J. et al. (1969), 338–9, no. 14Google Scholar.
52 A milestone; Ann. Ep. (1890), 108, from BCH XIV (1890), 165.
53 PIR 2 1161.
54 PLRE 1, Celsinus 5.
55 IGR IV, 523.
56 In JHS XVII (1897), 424, no. 22.
57 Another possible governor in Phrygia in 303–4 is mentioned in the Acta S. Menae, see PLRE I, Pyrrhus 1.
58 T. Flavius Festus (PLRE 1, Festus 7), who was proconsul for at least two years, undertook repair work at Didyma (A. Rehm, op. cit., n. 25, no. 159) and dedicated two statues there on behalf of Diocletian and Maximian (op. cit., nos. 89 and 90). It is more difficult to date the Asiarch Macarius, who was active at Miletus in the late third or early fourth century (Milet I, 9, no. 339, whence Robert, L., Hellenica IV, 14, 129, 134Google Scholar).
59 Seston, W., Dioclétien et la tétrarchie (1946), 326Google Scholar.
60 IGR IV. 854, from BCH XI (1887), 352, no. 8.
61 In Hellenica IV, 20, n. 6.
62 Aphrodisias and Rome, document 21.
63 Above, n. 1.
64 See Pflaum, H.-G. in Ann. Éc. Prat. Hautes Études (1973–1974), 271 ff.Google Scholar; the theory requires us to suppose that the two provinces were divided under Septimius Severus, reunited by Alexander Severus, and subsequently divided again, which seems unattractively complicated; but further examination of the evidence may make it possible to propose a simpler scheme.
65 See PLRE I, Atianus.
66 Suggested by Bury on the basis of CIL XIII, 412.
67 Filov, B., ‘Die Teilung des aurelianischen Dakiens’, Klio XII (1912), 234–9Google Scholar.
68 See Chastagnol, A., Historia XII (1963), 350Google Scholar.
69 Published by Bean, G. E. in The Inscriptions of Side (1965), 65, no. 183Google Scholar, whence Ann. Ep. (1966), 460, on which see Bull. Ep. (1968), 545.
70 Bean considered, probably rightly, that th e linelengths imposed the restoration of Germanicus in Gallienus' titulature, indicating a date in 255 or 256 (see PIR 2 L 197); he had not yet held his third consulate (257). As published, the inscription honours Gallienus [ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας τῆς τ]οῦ κυρίου [ἡμῶ]ν Οὐαλεριανοῦ Σ[ε|βαστοῦ καὶ τοῦ σύμπαντο]ς οἴκον [αὐτοῡ], which seems a surprising formulation, especially in Valerian's ‘half’ of the empire; but, for the importance of Gallienus and his family during the joint reign, see for example, nos. 1 and 2 above, and the inscriptions listed at n. 6.
71 The family rose to prominence with the jurist Ulpius Marcellus under Antoninus Pius (RE 2 XVII. I. 570, no. 2), probably the father of L. Ulpius Marcellus, governor of Britain in c. 184 (RE Suppl. x. 1031, no. 4a; cf. also Aphrodisias and Rome, document 16). In the next generation another Ulpius Marcellus governed in Britain (see Davies, R. W., Chiron VI (1976), 367–71Google Scholar, for a date of 211/12); the governor of Lycia-Pamphylia may represent the fourth generation of this family.
72 For the proconsuls, see Magie, D., Roman Rule in Asia Minor (1950) II, 1532–3Google Scholar. n. 7, and 1599–60; for the equestrian Terentius Marcianus see Bersanetti, G. M., ‘Un governatore equestre delle Licia-Panfilia’, Aevum XIX (1945), 384–90Google Scholar, and Peterson, H., ‘Senatorial and equestrian governors in the third century A.D.’, JRS XLV (1955), 49Google Scholar with nn. 27–8.
73 H. J. Mason, op. cit. (n. 18) 162 ff., and especially 172.
74 On William Sherard and his copies of inscriptions at Aphrodisias made in 1705 and 1716, see now Aphrodisias and Rome, Appendix II.
75 It is also difficult to believe that Sherard would have miscopied the name Nicomachus, since he had just been copying several inscriptions (CIG 2760–62, and 2799, which appear on ff. 126–7V of his notebook) which mention a Nicomachus.
76 Andronicus might perhaps be identified with M. Ant. Popilius Andronicus Flavianus, in an apparently third century text published by Th. Reinach in REG XIX (1906), 139, no. 71.
77 For ἔθνος with the sense of provincia see H. J. Mason, op. cit. (n. 18), 136.
78 On the frumentarii see, most recently, Clauss, M., Untersuchungen zu den Principales des römischen Heeres (1973), especially 82–115Google Scholar; see also M. Rostovtzeff, SEHRE2 II, 741, n. 26.
79 See Robert, L., ‘Sur un papyrus de Bruxelles’, Rev. Phil. XVII (1943), 111–19Google Scholar ( = OMS I, 364–372); Herrmann, P., Neue Inschriften zur historischen Landeskunde von Lydien (Denkschr. Akad. Wien 77.1, 1959), 11–13Google Scholar, and Ergebnisse einer Reise in Nordostlydien (Denkschr. Akad. Wien 80, 1962), 26–7Google Scholar; and a useful republication of the texts by G. Mihailov in his edition of the complaints of the people of Scaptopara in Thrace, IGBulg. IV (1966), no. 2236. Publication of a similar document from Phrygia is promised by Drew-Bear, T. in Chiron VII (1977), 363 n. 46Google Scholar.
80 So Clauss, op. cit. above, 98–104, citing this quotation from the second of the two documents published by Herrmann.
81 On stationarii see Robert, L., Études Anatoliennes, 98–9Google Scholar, and Hellenica x, 174 ff.; on regionarii see Clauss, op. cit. above, 100 with n. 130. The fundamental work on policing under the Romans remains Hirschfeld, O., ‘Die Sicherheitspolizei im römischen Kaiserzeit’, Kleine Schriften (1913), 577–612Google Scholar; for a useful modern review see Macmullen, R., Soldier and civilian in the later Roman Empire (1963), 50–65Google Scholar.
82 Sterret, J. S., ‘The Wolfe Expedition’, Papers of the American School at Athens III (1884–1885), no. 73Google Scholar.
83 Thus, in the inscription at Termessus Minor mentioned below (n. 87), the commander is praised for having spent twelve days in the town with his troops μετὰ πάσης εὐκοσμίας; this good behaviour deserved a special mention.
84 Professor Robert has pointed out that one should never disregard references to ἀνδρεία, which indicates ‘surtout le courage militaire’, Ant. Class. XXXV (1966), 429Google Scholar.
85 IGR IV, 301, from Sterret, J. S., ‘An Epigraphical Journey’, Papers of the American School at Athens II (1883–1884), nos. 92 and 93Google Scholar; the text was seen again, and improvements published, by Calder, W. M. in JRS II (1912), 80Google Scholar. We do not know the size of the regio of a regionarius; but it is of some interest that Aurelius Dionysius' name would fit very well into the missing first line of no. 8.
86 See Robert, L., Études Anatoliennes, 96 ffGoogle Scholar. and 103, and in Laodicée du Lycos, 346 ff., and J., and Robert, L., La Carie, 41 ffGoogle Scholar.
87 IGR II, 481, and ILS 8870.
88 TAM III, 1, nos. 80 and 82. Heberdey assumed a tetrarchic date for no. 82, on the basis of deciphering the name of one of the praepositi on a very battered milestone (no. 943) which might be tetrarchic; but all of this is very uncertain.
89 ‘Un due dans une inscription de Termessos (Pisidie)’, Chiron VIII (1978), 529–40Google Scholar, re-editing TAM III, 1, no. 88.
90 I am grateful to Professor Harrison for permission to refer to this new inscription; he will shortly be publishing it, together with other important material from Ovacik, near Elmali, which he has copied during his survey work in the area in the last few years.
91 Christol thinks not before the end of the reign of Gallienus (p. 538 with n. 34), but this does not appear to be inevitable from the evidence. It might be tempting to identify L. Aurelius Marcianus with the Marcianus attested as protector et tribunus praetorianorum in Thrace at the end of Gallienus' reign (PLRE 1 Marcianus 2, and Gerov, B. in Athenaeum XLIII (1965), 333–54Google Scholar). Gerov suggested that the title of dux which Marcianus also bears refers to an earlier stage in his career—perhaps service in Pisidia earlier in the reign of Gallienus?
92 H. J. Mason, op. cit. (n. 18), 170.
93 CIL II, 4103; CIL II, 4102, whence ILS 599, is almost identical. For the man's career, see PLRE I, Valentinianus 6.
94 op. cit. (n. 40), 35–6.
95 The highlands of Phrygia (1971), 163 ff.
96 Meirus: see above, p. III. Tymandus: see ILS 6090.
97 Aelius Aglaus, vir egregius (PIR2 A 133) was acting for the proconsul in Lydia apparently in the first half of the third century: Keil, J. and Premerstein, A., Bericht über eine dritte Reise in Lydien (Denkschr. Akad. Wien 57.1, 1014), no. 55Google Scholar. C. Furius Aquila Timesitheus (PIR2 F 581) was proc. prov. Asiae, ibi vice xx et xxxx, itemq. vice procos. during the same period: Pflaum, H.-G., Le Marbre de Thorigny (1948), 57–9Google Scholar. The presence of such a particularly eminent bureaucrat perhaps suggests serious problems.
98 Almost all the subdivisions of proconsular Asia—Asia, Caria, Phrygia, Hellespont and the Islands—bear names which are attested in the procuratorial administration of the ratio privata and the patrimonium; for examples see, most recently, H.-G. Pflaum in ZPE XVIII (1975), 11–12, and Eck, W. in Chiron VII (1977), 367, n. 54Google Scholar; for a procurator of the ratio privata provinciae Asia[e et Phrygi]ae et Cariae see Inschriften von Ephesos III, 647. Seston, op. cit. (n. 59), 321, n. 6, rejected the idea that the subdivision of the provinces was based on pre-existing administrations, but it might repay further examination.
99 The tide ‘metropolis’ is used of Aphrodisias in a text dated to 170–80, at Claros (L. Robert in REG LXX (1957), 370, n. 4); but it does not appear in the inscriptions of Aphrodisias itself until the fourth century. Stratonicea is more widely attested as metropolis—see Magie, op. cit. (n. 72), 636, and SEG IV, 263—had played a more important part in the history of Caria, and is more centrally located in the province.
100 See Erim, K. T. and Reynolds, J. M., in JRS LX (1970), 120 ff., and LXIII (1973), 99 ff.Google Scholar; Erim, K. T., Reynolds, J. M. and Crawford, M. H. in JRS LXI (1971). 171 ffGoogle Scholar.
101 K. T. Erim, AJA LXXXII (1978), 324–5; and see Robert, L., A travers l'Asie Mineure (1980), 332–34, 409Google Scholar.
102 See Steph. Byz., s.v. Νινόη.
103 The Carian hero Chrysaor and Chrysaor the brother of Pegasus were sometimes, but not always, identified ( RE III, 2, 2488); the identification presumably explains the frequent representations of Pegasus on the coins of Carian cities—see BMC Caria, Index s.v., and, at Aphrodisias, Imhoof-Blumer, Kleinasiatische Münzen, 115, no. 13; SNG Cop. 94; Inv. Waddington 2189.
104 RE VII, 2, 1590 ff. Although Gordios appears as representing Gordiouteichos on the frieze at Lagina (Robert, L., Études Anatoliennes, 552–5Google Scholar), his prominence as one of the few named figures on the frieze at Aphrodisias suggests a more important role here.
105 CJG 2763.
106 CIG 2764.
107 MAMA VIII, 512.
108 CIG 2765; J., and Robert, L.La Carie, 115, no. 23Google Scholar.
109 CIG 2761; J. and L. Robert, op. cit., 232, no. 147.
110 CIG 2762; J. and L. Robert, op. cit., 202, no. 131.
111 MAMA VIII, 451.
112 CIG 2760; 2799.
113 Thus Nicomachus Blastus is described in CIG 2799 as ἄρξαντα τρὶς τὴν πρώτην ἀρχήν.
114 In Rev. Num. XXXIX (1936), 247–8 ( = OMS II, 1032–3), Études Anatoliennes, 119–23, and in Dupont-Sommer, A. and Robert, L., La déesse de Hiérapolis-Castabala (1964), 90Google Scholar.
115 Moretti, L., Iscrizioni agonistiche greche (1953), no. 90Google Scholar.
116 Liermann, O., Analecta epigraphica et agonistica (1880), 160Google Scholar, points out that Eclectus listed the most prestigious contests first, and then followed the ‘simplex terrarum ordo’. But, after listing games in Asia Minor, he goes on to Syria and Phoenice, and only thereafter mentions Aphrodisias, which does therefore look like a recent addition.
117 e.g., BMC Caria, 47, nos. 128, 129; SNG von Aulock 2463, 2464; SNG Cop. 125 (where the legend on the table rim, described by the editor, cannot be seen in the photograph).
118 SNG von Aulock 8066, Hunterian collection II, 421, no. 5.
119 e.g. Weber 6412; BMC Caria, Kleinasiatische Münzen, 115, nos. 14, 15.
120 It is not yet clear whether the coins of Gallienus at Aphrodisias must all be ascribed to his sole reign, or whether some date from the 250's.
121 See Bull. Ep. (1972), 612; Laodicée du Lycos, 291, n. 2; and the article cited below, n. 128.
122 So Robert, L., Études Epigraphiques et Philologiques (1938), 60–1Google Scholar.
123 Apollo appears for the only time on the datable coinage of Aphrodisias on a coin of Tranquillina, Mionnet III, 329, no. 154.
124 See J., and Robert, L., La Carie, 146Google Scholar: Ὀλύμπια Πύθια on a coin of Salonina.
125 On the later assembly see Roueché, C., ‘A new inscription from Aphrodisias’, GRBS xx (1979), 174–5Google Scholar, with n. 9.
126 Keil, J. and Gschnitzer, F., Anz. Oest. Akad. XCIII (1956), 226–9Google Scholar, with Bull. Ep. (1958), 438, and C. P. Jones, ZPE XIV (1974), 294.
127 L. Robert in BCH CI (1977), 64–77.
128 In Rev. Num. XIX (1977), 10–13, especially 12.
129 In ANRW II, 2 (1975), 572.
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