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The Composition of the Peloponnesian Elites in the Roman period and the Evolution of their Resistance and Approach to the Roman Rulers

Wounded Philopoemen by David d'Angers, 1837, Louvre
Wounded Philopoemen by David d’Angers, 1837, Louvre

The Composition of the Peloponnesian Elites in the Roman period and the Evolution of their Resistance and Approach to the Roman Rulers

Sophia. B. Zoumbaki

Tekmeria: Vol 9 (2008)

Abstract

In 167 B.C. about 1,000 Achaean hostages arrived at Rome accused for their promacedonian stance. Polybios from Megalopolis is to be encountered among them. After that overturning of his life Polybios was embodied into the entourage of young Scipio, son of the victor of Pydna Aemilius Paullus. He was a Graecus captus who had so clearly begun to be identified with his captors, that about twenty years later he was asked by L. Mummius and the ten legati, who worked on the reorganisation of the newly conquered Greece, to help the Greek cities to accept the new politela and legislation. Polybios was the first of a series of cultured Greeks attached to Romans and the first known member of a Peloponnesian elite to have developed such a close connection to the Romans. It was soon clear that the tactics of close connections between the ruling power and local elites encompassed interests of both sides: for Peloponnesian notables in order to strengthen their position within their societies and for Rome as a guarantee for the tranquillity and subversion of the towns. As time went by, the web of links of the elites and the feeling of security they provided were elaborated.



The case of Polybios is cited as a characteristic example of this tendency about two and half centuries later by a well educated Greek of the upper provincial class, who originated from another region of the province Achaia: Plutarch from Chaeronea. In his Precepts of statecraft it is stated that a friend among the men of great power could consolidate the position of a member of the local political elites. However, Plutarch’s attitude to Romans is more level-headed than that of Polybios; it is not Ì„attering, not even strictly positive. Despite his personal relationships with men of power, with emperors and their entourages, despite his previleges owed to these connections, in his works there is room for criticism, even for condemnation. He realises the real role of public figures in the Greek cities of the Roman Empire and focuses on the fact that the ruling group of the poleis had to act in accordance with their capacity as subjects of Rome. Plutarch’s political treatises certainly infuenced the political thought of his contemporary elite, since many members of this elite from various cities, including cities of the Peloponnese, were moreover close friends of his.

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