Urban life and local politics in Roman Bithynia : the small world of Dion Chrysostomos / by Tnnes Bekker-Nielsen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bekker-Nielsen, Tnnes.

Series:

Black Sea Studies

Black Sea studies ; 7

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bithynia--History.

Bithynia.

Bithynia--Politics and government.

Dio, Chrysostom.

Dio.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (213 p.)

Place of Publication:

Aarhus ; Oakville, CT : Aarhus University Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

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 Minior form 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 politicia

Contents:

Cover; Title Page; Colophon; Preface; Contents; List of Illustrations; 1. Introduction; Hybris and stasis; Urban rivalries; Formal and informal politics; A tale of three cities; Notes; 2. Before the Romans; Founding fathers; Kings and emperors; Notes; 3. Windows on the Past; Townscapes and landscapes; Literary sources; History; Letters; Speeches; Legal texts; Inscriptions; Coins; Notes; 4. The Urban Environment; Civic self-perceptions; Titles and status; City plan and architecture; Defenses; Notes; 5. Political Institutions; The nature of Roman Law; Roman annexation and the Lex Pompeia

Emperor and senateCivic self-government; Liturgies; Urban revenues and finances; City magistracies; The archons; The agonothete; The agoranomos; Advocates, delegates and ambassadors; Censors; The grammateus and minor officials; The gerousia; The gymnasion; The local level; Regional organisation: the koinon; Archiereus and Bithyniarch; Koinon and governor; Notes; 6. The Political Class; Ethnic composition; Roman citizenship; Social stratification; The local level; Some Bithynian careers at the local level; The urban level; Some Bithynian careers at the urban level; The regional level

Some Bithynian careers at the regional levelThe Domitii of Prusias ad Hypium; The imperial level; Some Bithynian careers at the imperial level; The Cassii of Nikaia; Notes; 7. A Political Biography: Dion Chrysostomos; Family background; From imperial favour to exile; Return; Success abroad; Opposition at home; Homonoia with Apameia; Stasis and katharsis at Prusa; Reconciliation; Flavius Archippos; Resignation and utopianism; Notes; 8. The Bithynian Cities under the Later Empire; Antonines and Severans; Nikomedia's imperial century; Change and crisis in third century Bithynia

Reorganisation, Christianity and a new imperial capitalNotes; 9. Conclusions: Urban Life and Local Politics; Honour; Giving and receiving; A caste society?; A compartmentalized agôn; Status; The koinon; Mutual recognition; Politics and the polis; Notes; Appendix The Dates of Dion's Municipal Orations1; Notes; Abbreviations; Bibliography; Sources; Secondary literature; Geographical Index; Index of Persons; Index Locorum

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-195) and indexes.

ISBN:

9788771247527

8771247521

9788779346727

8779346723

OCLC:

817901175