Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 1 - The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution

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State and Subject:

The Impact of Monarchy

*

In  or .., as a new Greek inscription records, a citizen of Ephesus
wasresponsiblefor‘‘thesettingupoftheSebastosandthededicationofthe
sanctuary.’’^1 Thereferenceappearsquitecasuallyinalistofholdersofpriest-
hoods;buttheverycasualnessoftheallusionhasalottotellusabouthow
peopleinaGreekcitysawtheworldinthes..Sebastoswasofcourse
tobetheestablishedGreekequivalentforAugustusandwastoreappearon
thousands of inscriptions throughout the imperial period. But when this
statuewas erected it was onlyone or twoyears since the name Augustus,
neverbeforeusedforapersonalname,hadbeenthoughtupinRome,and
solemnlyvotedbySenateandPeoplein;voted,thatis,asthenewaddi-
tionalnameofthethirty-five-year-oldvictorofthecivilwars,‘‘Imperator
Caesardivifilius,’’whomwecallOctavian.Thevictoryitself,thebattleof
ActiuminwhichtheforcesofAntoniusandCleopatrahadfled,wasonlyfive
orsixyearsinthepast.AntoniushimselfhadbeeninEphesusinthewinter
of/..andagainin/;andononeoftheseoccasionsoneoftheother
sixmennamedinthelistofpriestshadactedasambassadortohim.^2 Then,
immediatelyafterthebattle,OctavianalsohadarrivedinEphesus.Chance
haspreservedtheletterwhichhethenhadoccasiontowritetothealmost
totallyinsignificantcityofRhososonthecoastofSyria.Hiswordsreflecta

*FirstpublishedinF.MillarandE.Segal,eds.,Caesar Augustus: Seven Aspects(),–
.IamverygratefultoMichaelCrawfordandSimonPriceforcorrectionsandcomments.

.SEGXXVI,;AE,;nowI.K.Eph.III,.
.I.K.Eph.III,,ll.–:‘‘PeriklessonofHerakleis,bybirthCharopinos,’’certainly
tobeidentifiedwiththeCharopinosofEphesusofR.K.Sherk,Roman Documents from the
Greek East(),no..

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