218 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Cappadocia with a view to studying law ‘at Berytus, that most Roman of
cities, centre of instruction in the law’.^23
Roman culture did make progress in the East. We can cite among relevant
factors the numerous establishments of Italian traders and fi nanciers in
eastern cities from the second half of the second century BC , the presence of
around twenty- fi ve pockets of Italian colonists from the age of Caesar and
Augustus, the existence of Roman educational institutions in those colonies
and to some extent elsewhere, the use of Latin as the offi cial language of the
army and the civil and judicial administration, the institution of the cult of
Rome from the early second century BC and subsequently the spread of the
imperial cult, the popularity of some Roman entertainments, in particular,
gladiatorial games and wild- beast shows (normally linked with the imperial
cult), and the diffusion of Roman- style podium- mounted temples, baths and
theatres, as well as amphitheatres. Occasionally, there was open imitation of
buildings in Rome. The Herodian theatres in Jerusalem, Caesarea and
elsewhere were inspired by the theatre of Pompey in Rome, seen by their
donor within two decades of its construction. Local initiative, the pressing
desire to exploit a city’s special connection with Rome, lay behind the unique
early Tiberian Sebasteion complex in Aphrodisias. This was a processional
way entered through a propylaeum, and leading between three- storied walls
to a temple. It drew on the forum of Augustus at Rome, and, for its extensive
relief decoration, on recent events in Rome, specifi cally, the funerals of
Augustus and Drusus, son of Tiberius.^24
It remains the case that the cultural tradition of the Greeks was much too
powerful to be undermined on home ground, even had successive Roman
governments been inclined to mount a frontal attack. As it was, imperial
governments were inclined to protect and promote Hellenic civic culture at
the expense of local eastern cultures. It was precisely this policy that to the
educated Greek constituted the major benefi t of Roman rule. It also explains
the acceptance by the intellectual and political leadership of a permanent
condition of political subservience, and its attentiveness to particular
Rome- originating directives and initiatives – or, for that matter, changes of
fashion. A production of sarcophagi, beginning in Rome and Ostia in the
early second century in response to a growing preference for inhumation
as opposed to cremation among the Roman upper classes, quickly spread
to the East; but, predictably, the great demand for these sculptured coffi ns
in the East was met by local craftsmen (operating in Athens and several
centres in Asia Minor), and with decorative relief work that was purely
Greek in idiom.^25
There is much more to be said about the mixture of cultures in the eastern
empire in the urban environment, but this properly belongs to a prior
investigation into the limits of Hellenization. The uniqueness and durability
of Jewish and Egyptian cultures, the continuously evolving and infl uential
Oriental cultures, are familiar themes to students of the East and Near East.
The diverse Anatolian cultures largely escape notice until later Christian