The Greek City in the Roman Period eyes of both themselves and others. Confronted with ‘‘Dionysios theHali-
karnasseus,’’ we invariably write ‘‘DionysiusofHalicarnassus,’’ as if what he
belonged to were a point on the map, but it was not; it was a community of
citizens.
This point is consistently reinforced by the extremely extensive evidence
of communal designations on the coinage ‘‘of cities.’’ Here too, we would
be less liable to confuse ourselves if we called it the coinage of ‘‘communi-
ties.’’ The male genitive plural is by far the most common grammatical form
of identification on the coins: so, to take only some cases from the index of
RomanProvincialCoinageI ‘‘of the Aizanitai,’’ ‘‘of the Alabandeis,’’ ‘‘of the Ami-
soi.’’ There are exceptions, though they are far less common; occasionally we
do find a place-name used to identify the origin of a coin. So, for example,
from the same source ‘‘Amisos,’’ ‘‘Gadara,’’ ‘‘Gerasa,’’ ‘‘Thessalonikē.’’ But the
fact that we now can, at least for the first hundred years of the Empire, read
right across the entire local (or communal) numismatic production of the
provinces is the first great service whichRoman Provincial CoinageI rendered.
In a profound sense, an important means of approach to the communities of
the Empire, and to the ‘‘Greek city’’ above all, has been opened up for the
first time.
I have placed a lot of emphasis on this material, precisely because in this
now organised and intelligible form, it is new. But the Greek city of the Em-
pire has of course revealed itself to us primarily via inscriptions. It is impos-
sible to sum up the wealth of information contained in the tens of thousands
of Greek city inscriptions of the imperial period, which now constitute a
genre of literary expression in themselves. Instead, it may be preferable to
attempt to present, and bring out the significance of, a few choice examples.
The two most revealing both illustrate the mass, collective character of the
life of the Greek city (or community), a point heavily and correctly stressed
by Ramsey MacMullen and Robin Lane Fox in their studies on the paganism
of this period.^67 But they also reflect the way in which the collective ceremo-
nials and observances of Greek communities under the Empire gave a special
place to the figure of the emperor.
The first inscription comes from a relatively little-known corner of the
Greek world, the modest city of Kalindoia in Macedonia.^68 With a certain
. R. MacMullen,PaganismintheRomanEmpire(); R. Lane Fox,PagansandChristians
(), esp. –, ‘‘Pagans and Their Cities.’’
. Edited by K. L. Sismanides inἈρχαιολογικόνδελτίονΜελέτες []: ; see
BE: no. , andSEGXXXV, no. .