AFTERWORD LOOKING FORWARD

The conventional date for the end of the Hellenistic Period is 30 BC, the year in which Ptolemaic rule in
Egypt came to an end and Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire. The end of the Ptolemaic
kingdom, the last of the Hellenistic monarchies to fall to Rome, came as a result of the battle of Actium, a
town on the west coast of mainland Greece, in the previous year. The last Ptolemaic ruler, the fascinating
Queen Cleopatra VII, was among those who suffered defeat at Actium, but the battle was primarily a
contest between two Roman leaders, Octavian (who later adopted the name Augustus) and Cleopatra's
lover Marc Antony. This was the culmination of a series of civil wars that had for decades embroiled the
Roman state, the effects of which were often felt directly in the cities and the countryside of Greece and
other areas in the east that had formerly been controlled by the Hellenistic kingdoms. The city of Athens,
for example, at various times in the first century BC found itself under the control of the Roman generals
Sulla, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Brutus, and Marc Antony. Nor was the battle of Actium the only engagement
between opposing forces in the Roman civil wars to take place on Greek soil.

By the time the Roman province of Achaia was created in 27 BC, the province that comprised most of
mainland Greece and many of the Aegean islands, the Greeks had had ample opportunity to acquaint
themselves with the Romans and to accept their seemingly inevitable role as rulers of the world. In
addition, because of the political developments that had taken place during the Hellenistic Period, the
cities of Greece had become accustomed to being part of a larger political entity. During the Hellenistic
Period that entity had been one of a number of kingdoms ruled by Greek-speaking Macedonians, whom the
Greeks were willing to acknowledge as being at least in some sense Greek. While these Macedonian
kingspossessed considerable power and were, indeed, recipients of divine honors from their Greek
subjects, they were clearly fallible, particularly when confronted with the relentless might of their Roman
conquerors. The Romans were able to bring to the cities of Greece what the Hellenistic monarchs could
never achieve, namely lasting peace and a general sense of security. Thus, the Roman emperor was felt to
be even more deserving of divine honors than the Antigonid or Ptolemaic rulers because he ruled over a
vastly more extensive territory and because he was nearly invisible. Like Olympian Zeus, the emperor in
Rome appeared only occasionally to his worshippers in Greece. In the first century after Christ, Nero
visited Greece, and in the second century Hadrian did the same, on more than one occasion. But these
were unusual emperors, who were unusually fond of Greek culture, and their special attention to their
Greek subjects was warmly appreciated. For the most part, however, the Greeks came in contact with
their Roman rulers in the form of the itinerant provincial governor (or proconsul), who was appointed by
the Roman senate for a one-year term of office, and his staff. Roman administration naturally brought with
it an obligation to pay taxes to the central government, but it was an obligation felt by only a small
percentage of the population and, in any event, it may have been felt worth paying the price for the
security that Roman rule both promised and was capable of delivering.