Emperors, Benefaction and Honorific Practice in the Roman Imperial Greek Polis

doi:10.1017/9781108895859.009

Chapter 8 - Emperors, Benefaction and Honorific Practice in the Roman Imperial Greek Polis

from Part IV - Benefactors and the Polis under Rome

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 January 2021

Carlos Noreña

Edited by

Marc Domingo Gygax and

Arjan Zuiderhoek

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Marc Domingo Gygax: Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey
Arjan Zuiderhoek: Affiliation:
Universiteit Gent, Belgium

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Summary

This chapter investigates the dynamics of material and symbolic exchange between Roman emperors and Greek cities, and the role of the emperor in the ideology and practice of civic euergetism in the Greek East, in the middle Roman empire (c. 98–180 CE). It begins by documenting the absence of demonstrable correlations between (1) an imperial visit and an imperial benefaction to a city and (2) an imperial visit and the erection of an honorific statue for the reigning emperor. On this basis it is argued that an imperial visit was not the critical moment for generating reciprocal exchanges between emperor and city, as is normally thought, and that local honours for the emperor were not usually triggered by the provision or even the prospect of specific imperial benefactions to the city. The bulk of the chapter then draws out the implications – both ideological and practical – of this peculiar form of ‘abstract reciprocity’ between Roman emperors and Greek cities, arguing that this type of idealized benefaction and local honorific practice defines this phase in the long history of civic euergetism in the Greek polis.

Keywords

Roman Empire emperors Hadrian imperial ideology virtues generosity honorific practice statues local elites

Type: Chapter
Information: Benefactors and the Polis
The Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the Homeric World to Late Antiquity
, pp. 201 - 221

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108895859.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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Chapter 8 - Emperors, Benefaction and Honorific Practice in the Roman Imperial Greek Polis

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