Everything about Roman Greece totally explained
Roman Greece is the period of
Greek history (of the
Greece proper as opposed to the other centers of Hellenism in the Roman world) following the Roman victory over the
Corinthians at the
Battle of Corinth in 146 BC until the reestablishment of the city of
Byzantium and the naming of the city by the Emperor
Constantine as the capital of the
Roman Empire (as
Nova Roma, later
Constantinople) in
330 AD.
The Greek peninsula came under
Roman rule in 146 BC,
Macedonia being a
Roman province, while southern Greece came under the surveillance of
Macedonia's praefect. However, some Greek
poleis managed to maintain a partial independence and avoid taxation. The
Aegean islands were added to this territory in
133 BC.
Athens and other Greek cities revolted in
88 BC, and the peninsula was crushed by the Roman general
Sulla. The Roman civil wars devastated the land even further, until
Augustus organized the peninsula as the province of
Achaea in
27 BC.
Greece was the key eastern province of the
Roman Empire, as the
Roman culture had long been in fact
Greco-Roman. The
Greek language served as a
lingua franca in the
East and in
Italy, and many Greek intellectuals such as
Galen would perform most of their work in
Rome.
Several emperors contributed new buildings to Greek cities, especially in the Athenian
agora, where the Agrippeia of
Marcus Agrippa, the Library of
Pantaenus, and the
Tower of the Winds, among others, were built. Life in Greece continued under the Roman Empire much the same as it had previously. Roman culture was highly influenced by the Greeks; as
Horace said,
Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit. (Translation:
Captive Greece took captive her uncouth conqueror.) The epics of
Homer inspired the
Aeneid of
Virgil, and authors such as
Seneca the younger wrote using Greek styles. The Roman nobles who regarded the Greeks as backwards and petty, were the main political opponents of Roman heroes such as
Scipio Africanus, who tended to study
philosophy and regard Greek culture and science as an example to be followed. Similarly, most Roman emperors tended to be philhellenic. The
emperor Nero visited Greece in
66 AD, and performed at the
Olympic Games, despite the rules against non-Greek participation. He was, of course, honoured with a victory in every contest, and in
67 AD he proclaimed the freedom of the Greeks at the
Isthmian Games in Corinth, just as
Flamininus had over 200 years previously.
Hadrian was also particularly fond of the Greeks; before he became emperor he served as an eponymous
archon of Athens. He also built his
namesake arch there, and had a Greek lover,
Antinous.
At the same time Greece and much of the rest of the Roman east came under the influence of
Christianity. The apostle
Paul of Tarsus had preached in Corinth and Athens, and Greece soon became one of the most highly
Christianized areas of the empire.
Later Roman Empire
During the second and third centuries, Greece was divided into provinces including
Achaea,
Macedonia,
Epirus,
Thrace and
Moesia. During the reign of
Diocletian in the late
3rd century, Moesia was organized as a
diocese, and was ruled by
Galerius. Under Constantine Hellas was part of the
prefectures of Macedonia and Thrace.
Theodosius divided the prefecture of Macedonia into the provinces of
Creta, Achaea,
Thessalia,
Epirus Vetus,
Epirus Nova, and Macedonia. The
Aegean islands formed the province of Insulae in the prefecture of Asiana.
Greece faced invasions from the
Heruli,
Goths, and
Vandals during the reign of Theodosius.
Stilicho, who acted as regent for
Arcadius, evacuated Thessaly when the
Visigoths invaded in the late
4th century. Arcadius'
Chamberlain Eutropius allowed
Alaric to enter Greece, and he looted Athens, Corinth and the
Peloponnese. Stilicho eventually drove him out around
397 and Alaric was made
magister militum in
Illyricum. Eventually, Alaric and the Goths migrated to Italy, sacked Rome in
410, and built the Visigothic Empire in Iberia and southern France, which lasted until
711 with the advent of the Arabs.
Although Greece remained part of the relatively unified eastern half of the empire, the land had still never fully recovered from the Roman occupation almost 500 years earlier. It had become poor and underpopulated, and the focus of the Greek east had moved to Constantinople and
Asia Minor during Constantine's reign. Athens,
Sparta and other cities were ignored, and many of their statues and other art were removed and taken to Constantinople. Nevertheless, the area remained one of the strongest centres of Christianity in the late Roman and early
Byzantine periods.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Roman Greece'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://roman_greece.totallyexplained.com">Roman Greece Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
