‘A great emporion of Asia’

Imperial Apamea, a city of deep antiquity and high renown, is in many respects a puzzling place. The civic elite of Apamea was undistinguished. No senators are known, and only a single individual of equestrian rank; holders of provincial office are few. Civic affairs appear to have been dominated to an unusual extent by the community of resident Romans. Already in the late Republican period, Apamea had been one of the most important centres for Roman and Italian businessmen in inland Asia Minor. One of the earliest surviving inscriptions from Apamea is a lavish ex testamento dedication set up for a freedman, C. Vennonius Eros, by his heredes. This man is clearly Cicero's friend C. Vennonius, a negotiator operating in Asia between 50 and 46 bc. Vennonius was a man of means; his will gave rise to a dispute between his heirs, settled only by means of a senatus consultum. A generation later, under Augustus and Tiberius, two Italians, probably also resident businessmen, were responsible for the minting of bronze coinage at Apamea. In ad 45/6 all five of the posts in the archon-college at Apamea were filled by Roman citizens, who proudly declared that this was the first time this had been the case. Four of the five appear to have been Italians, for each of whom descendants at Apamea or, in one instance, the neighbouring city of Sebaste, are attested, indicating that the men were permanently resident at Apamea. It comes as no surprise to find that this large expatriate Italian community was prominent in the city's decision-making process; Apamean honorific decrees and statue-bases are almost invariably set up in the name of ‘the council, the people, and the resident Romans’. By contrast, for a place often described in modern works as ‘the most considerable city of the interior’ and suchlike, the native population of Apamea, and their activities, are oddly elusive.