DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0179
ATHENS UNDER THE ROMANS.
The utterances of such a person, with such an object, should of
course he used with caution in drawing inferences regarding the earlier
condition of Athens under the Eoman dominion. At the same time
what he brings forward are matters of fact which must have been noto-
rious to all his audienc.e, so that the most passionate advocate, the most
unscrupulous impostor, could hardly have ventured to falsify them.
And we must recollect that we have Poseidonius, a most respectable
philosopher, and a contemporary, as a voucher for the speech. We are
aware, indeed, that Strabo says' that the Eomans left the Athenians
their laws and liberty; by which, however, he perhaps only means that
they became what the Eomans called a ' Libera Civitas;' that is, they
were allowed their own municipal government. For only at the end
of the preceding page he had observed that the Athenians, after the
expulsion of the Thirty Tyrants, preserved their democracy down to the
time of the Eoman domination, and that though they were sometimes
unjustly treated by the Macedonian kings, in order to compel their
obedience, yet they preserved under them their form of government
untouched.2 The fact seems to be, that, under the Eomans, they re-
tained their magistrates and their customary laws, only with the vital
exception that their public assemblies were abolished. This agrees
with the statement of Aristion about the people being deprived of the
Pnyx. The ecclesia had lost its imperial functions, and with regard to
state policy, the Athenians were no longer autonomous. The Mysteries,
though afterwards revived, may at first have been temporarily suppressed
by the Eomans from their hatred of midnight and secret meetings;
but we can adduce no evidence in support of the statement of Aristion.
It was about the same time that the secret Bacchanalian societies were
suppressed in Italy.
temple of the Dioscuri; but the preceding
allusion to lacchus indicates ihe true mean-
ing, and the temple of the Svancs was
hardly important enough to be introduced
into an'appeal such as this.
1 p. 398.
2 €<f)v\a£av de rrfv dr]p.0KpaTiav pixpi Tys
fPojjxaL(ov f-inKpaTeias. <at yap €i ri putpbv
V7TO tujv MaKedoi'tKoiv fitMrtKftnv 7rapc\v7rr]-
Orjaav, qmt® VTraKovetv avraiv dvayKaaOrjvai,
tov ye oXoaxfprj rvnov ttjs TrokiTflas tov
ai>Tov hieTijpovv.—p. 3-'7, fin.
M
The utterances of such a person, with such an object, should of
course he used with caution in drawing inferences regarding the earlier
condition of Athens under the Eoman dominion. At the same time
what he brings forward are matters of fact which must have been noto-
rious to all his audienc.e, so that the most passionate advocate, the most
unscrupulous impostor, could hardly have ventured to falsify them.
And we must recollect that we have Poseidonius, a most respectable
philosopher, and a contemporary, as a voucher for the speech. We are
aware, indeed, that Strabo says' that the Eomans left the Athenians
their laws and liberty; by which, however, he perhaps only means that
they became what the Eomans called a ' Libera Civitas;' that is, they
were allowed their own municipal government. For only at the end
of the preceding page he had observed that the Athenians, after the
expulsion of the Thirty Tyrants, preserved their democracy down to the
time of the Eoman domination, and that though they were sometimes
unjustly treated by the Macedonian kings, in order to compel their
obedience, yet they preserved under them their form of government
untouched.2 The fact seems to be, that, under the Eomans, they re-
tained their magistrates and their customary laws, only with the vital
exception that their public assemblies were abolished. This agrees
with the statement of Aristion about the people being deprived of the
Pnyx. The ecclesia had lost its imperial functions, and with regard to
state policy, the Athenians were no longer autonomous. The Mysteries,
though afterwards revived, may at first have been temporarily suppressed
by the Eomans from their hatred of midnight and secret meetings;
but we can adduce no evidence in support of the statement of Aristion.
It was about the same time that the secret Bacchanalian societies were
suppressed in Italy.
temple of the Dioscuri; but the preceding
allusion to lacchus indicates ihe true mean-
ing, and the temple of the Svancs was
hardly important enough to be introduced
into an'appeal such as this.
1 p. 398.
2 €<f)v\a£av de rrfv dr]p.0KpaTiav pixpi Tys
fPojjxaL(ov f-inKpaTeias. <at yap €i ri putpbv
V7TO tujv MaKedoi'tKoiv fitMrtKftnv 7rapc\v7rr]-
Orjaav, qmt® VTraKovetv avraiv dvayKaaOrjvai,
tov ye oXoaxfprj rvnov ttjs TrokiTflas tov
ai>Tov hieTijpovv.—p. 3-'7, fin.
M