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'romanisation' - Coggle Diagram
'romanisation'
modern debate?
what is 'roman'
this term ignores the influence of other cultures, what about hellenisation? assumes a top-down influence
every province is diff, and has own history and culture
literary sources
RGDA
'i founded colonies of soldiers in Africa, Sicily, Macedonia, both Spanish provinces, Achaea, Asia, Syria, Gallia Narbonensis and Pisidia' section 28
'Italy too has twenty-eight colonies founded by my authority, which were densely populated in my lifetime' section 28
'Considerably more than 300,000 of these I have settled in colonies...I allotted pieces of land or else gave them money’ section 3
Gellius, Attic Nights, 16.13
'But the relationship of the “colonies” is a different one…they are as it were transplanted from the State and have all the laws and institutions of the Roman people'
'majesty of the Roman people, of which those colonies seem to be miniatures, as it were, and in a way copies'
inscription about Trajan (c. 100AD)
speaks of Trajan as the 'founder' of the colony
Tacitus, Agricola, 21
'scattered and uneducated population'
'he exhorted individuals and encouraged tribes to construct housing, market-places, and temples'
'praising the prompt, rebuking the idle, such that rivalry for compliments replaced coercion'
the colonies wished to gain the favour of the emperors in return for their ‘rewards’, so not just top-down
agricola introduces 'civilisation' to the province of Britannia
Athens
how athens embraced roman presence
there is evidence of roman tourists, students and residents going back to 2nd Century BC
there was reform of attic standards to foster trade between Athens and Italy
During the Roman period, the city saw construction projects
roman agora
is connected to the ancient agora
c. 10 BC
the gateway has an inscription that mentions that the funds for the marketplace and the gate came from Julius Caesar and Augustus
temple of Augustus and Roma
echoing the age-old Greek tholos architectural form, and axially
aligned with the eastern entrance of the Parthenon
on the acropolis
19BC
strong connections between Athens and the imperial capital, imperial cult
potentially imitating the temple of Vesta in rome
after Augustus
Nero’s restored the east façade of the Parthenon
Claudius’ completion of the monumental staircase leading to the Propylaia
Hadrian's gate and library, he saw himself as the heir to Pericles
in the agora
a Classical temple of Athena was transplanted from Pallene in the Attic countryside, and installed on the northern side of the Agora
rededicated to Ares, presumably making a connection to the Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus in Rome.
conclusion
these largely disrupted the preexisting spaces and topography
BUT, show the collaboration of greek and roman cultures
not 'romanisation' per se, but an embrace of roman presence yes
A cuirass statue of the emperor Hadrian, found in the Athenian Agora, shows the goddess Athena being crowned by two Nikai (Victories), while she stands on the She-wolf, suckling Romulus and Remus
how they rebuked roman presence
there was slowness on part of the athenians to honour individual romans, and slowness to take on roman citizenship, and slowness of roman citizens to take on athenian citizenship, according to Alcock
athens refused to adapt its bronze coinage to roman standards or to stamp it with imperial motifs
Horace, in the Augustan period, proclaimed: “Conquered Greece took captive her savage conqueror and brought her arts into rustic Latium"
i.e. Athenian art and splendour influenced the italian peninsula, not exactly "ROMANisation"
but Dio Cassius tells us that Augustus had prohibited the Athenians from selling citizenship for money
Dio Cassius also tells us 'this statue on the Acropolis, which was placed to face the east, had turned around to the west and spat blood'
there were poor relations between athens and augustus, because the city had sided with Mark Antony
you would think this might cause harsh imposition of roman culture, 'romanisation', but we more so see a collaboration. so even in a place where the emperor was not readily respected, romanisation did not occur
Egypt
From the 160s BC Egypt had been a Ptolemaic kingdom, and had become effectively a client of Rome
annexed after the Battle of Actium by Augustus
political
Rome imposed its own political system onto Egypt, as governance was 'kept in the [imperial] house’ according to Tacitus
Unlike with the earlier Ptolemaic government, there was no royal court in Egypt, and the emperor was not personally present either
Rathbone says that local elites had to adjust themselves to a system of rule, quintessentially Roman, rather than the more personalistic Ptolemaic regime where favour might be curried with important local figures or the royal court itself
example of 'romanisation'
BUT while the Romans disassembled the royal Ptolemaic court, they initially seem to have left much of its administrative apparatus of salaries administrators in place. The division of Egypt into administrative districts – called nomes – was kept
opposite of romanisation
oddly, rome did not incorporate egypt into their currency system
they usually did this with the provinces to physicalise Rome’s power, and to lower transaction costs and encourage economic interaction between provinces
but Egypt maintained the Ptolemaic currency
Waldgirmes, Germania
East of the Rhine, and occupied between 4BC and 9AD
the town covered an area of 7.7 hectares, and follows the typical arrangement of a fort
evidence of some Roman-style residences with open porticos in front, unlike the longhouse-style buildings preferred by the locals
there are also other roman buildings, such as a forum, and a basilica
typical German jewellery found at the site suggests Germans lived here
most impressive find was a bronze horse head found at the bottom of a well, that was covered in gold leaf, and belonged to a larger statue of the emperor Augustus which would have weighed 900 pounds
but walgirmes was abandoned after Clades Variana, because romans living here would have felt threatened
At Waldgirmes nearly 20% of the pottery was Germanic, suggesting that there must have been a substantial German native presence in the town
Leptis Magna or hispania
