ROMANS IN GREECE. The relationships between Rome and the Greek world in the late Hellenistic age

Abstract

The present study examines the relationships between Rome and the Greek world during a period which, approximately, spans from the sack of Corinth (146 BC) to the first Mithridatic war (89 BC). The objective is to understand the degree to which Roman influence penetrated into the spheres of Greek politics, society and economy, and, at the same time, to address the issue of Greek autonomy. Since Accame’s theory on the provincialization of Greece in 146 BC (Il dominio Romano in Grecia dalla guerra acaica ad Augusto, Rome 1946), the topic of the extent of Rome’s control over Greece after the bellum Achaicum has raised a lively debate among scholars. This work adds a further contribution to the knowledge of the interactions between Greeks and Romans by adopting a different perspective and focussing not simply on the evidence for acts of ‘official’ foreign policy, but, above all, on socio-economic factors. Through the careful analysis of documentary sources (occasionally corroborated by historiographical ones), this work offers a study on the actual presence of Romans in Greece, with the purpose of detecting possible signs of Roman influence on Greek society and, eventually, speculating on the circumstances which might have determined it. The results of this investigation will show that the Greek territory was extremely diverse with regard to the number of Romans living in the areas considered, and that Roman pressure was not exerted as homogeneously and as strongly as one could expect.