The Hellenistic World and Rome
render them mysterious, if extremely interesting, and their history will not
be pursued here.^51 But it should be noted that the history of this region is
now illuminated by the publication of a new archive of Greek and Syriac
documents from the Middle Euphrates of the s to s.^52
This rapid sketch is intended only as a reminder that, fundamental as
Maurice Sartre’sL’Orient romainis, its programme is dictated by the geo-
graphical shape of the Roman Empire up to ; if its subject had been not
‘‘the Roman Orient’’ but ‘‘the Greek city,’’ it would have been relevant to
explore some more marginal zones of the existence of the ‘‘Greek city’’; per-
haps ‘‘the frontiers of Greek city life’’ might be a topic, another day, for a
different colloquium.
As it is, it is inevitable that if we try to characterise the most salient fea-
tures of the Greek city of the Roman imperial period, we should focus on
the central zone, Greece (Achaea) itself, Macedonia, the province of Asia,
Pontus and Bithynia, Lycia, and to a lesser extent the other provinces of Asia
Minor. Our conceptions are necessarily dependent on the survival of lit-
erature which illuminates these places, the presence of substantial bodies of
inscriptions, and the existence of physical remains. In large and important
areas when substantial numbers of ‘‘Greek cities’’ were to be found, such as
central Asia Minor or the Near East west of the Euphrates (the Roman prov-
inces of Syria, Judaea/Syria Palaestina, and Arabia), these conditions are only
partially present, and historical study is only now beginning to bring some
aspects of social and cultural history into focus.^53
None the less, there is one medium by which the Greek cities of the Ro-
man period, in all areas, expressed their identity, and whose products are
available to us in vast numbers, and independently of the types of evidence
mentioned above. This is of course the coinage of the cities, whose signifi-
cance requires some emphasis. Ramsey MacMullen’s phrase ‘‘the epigraphic
habit’’ has justly established itself as a key element in our perception of the
Roman Empire and its cities.^54 For the sheer scale of communal and indi-
vidual self-expression through the medium of public writing in permanent
. See Jones (n. ), chap. ; F. Millar,The Roman Near East (..–..)(),
part. II, chap. .
. See D. Feissel and J. Gascou, ‘‘Documents d’archives romains inédits du Moyen
Euphrate (IIIes. après J.-C.) I. Les petitions (P.Euphr.à),’’JS: –; ‘‘II. Les actes
de ventes-achat (P.Euphr.à),’’JS: –; ‘‘III. Actes divers et letters (P.Euphr. à
),’’JS: –.
. For central Asia Minor, note S. Mitchell,Anatolia:Land,MenandGodsinCentralAsia
Minor, ..–..I–II (), and for the Near East, Millar (n. ).
. R. MacMullen, ‘‘The Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire,’’AJPh (): .