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Greece in the Roman era (Greek:Έλλάς,Latin:Graecia) describes the Roman conquest ofancient Greece (roughly, the territory of the modern nation-state ofGreece) as well as that of theGreek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically.[1][2][3] It covers the periods when Greece was dominated first by theRoman Republic and then by theRoman Empire.[4]
In thehistory of Greece, the Roman era began with theCorinthian defeat in theBattle of Corinth in 146 BC. However, before theAchaean War, the Roman Republic had been steadily gaining control ofmainland Greece by defeating theKingdom of Macedon in a series of conflicts known as theMacedonian Wars. TheFourth Macedonian War ended at theBattle of Pydna in 148 BC with the defeat of the Macedonian royal pretenderAndriscus.
The definitive Roman occupation of the Greek world was established after theBattle of Actium (31 BC), in whichAugustus defeatedCleopatra VII, theGreek Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, and the Roman generalMark Antony, and afterwards conqueredAlexandria (30 BC), the last great city ofHellenistic Egypt.[5] The Roman era of Greek history continued with EmperorConstantine the Great's adoption ofByzantium asNova Roma, the capital city of theRoman Empire; in 330 AD, the city was renamedConstantinople. Afterwards, the Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, including Greek and Roman culture.
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TheGreek peninsula fell to theRoman Republic during theBattle of Corinth (146 BC), whenMacedonia became aRoman province. Meanwhile, southern Greece also came under Romanhegemony, but some key Greekpoleis remained partly autonomous and avoided direct Roman taxation.
In 88 BC,Athens and other Greek city-states revolted against Rome and were suppressed by GeneralLucius Cornelius Sulla. During the Roman civil wars, Greece was physically and economically devastated untilAugustus organised the peninsula as the province ofAchaea, in 27 BC. Initially, Rome's conquest of Greece damaged theeconomy, but it readily recovered under Roman administration in the postwar period. Moreover, the Greek cities in Asia Minor recovered from the Roman conquest more rapidly than the cities of peninsular Greece, which had been much damaged in the war with Sulla.
As an empire, Rome invested resources and rebuilt the cities of Roman Greece, and established Corinth as the capital city of the province of Achaea, and Athens prospered as a cultural hub of philosophy, education and learned knowledge.
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Life in Greece continued under the Roman Empire much the same as it had previously.Roman culture was highly influenced by the Greeks; asHorace said,Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit ("Captive Greece captured her rude conqueror").[6] The epics ofHomer inspired theAeneid ofVirgil, and authors such asSeneca the Younger wrote using Greek styles. Some Roman nobles regarded the Greeks as backwards and petty, but many others embracedGreek literature andphilosophy. The Greek language became a favorite of the educated and elite in Rome, such asScipio Africanus, who tended to studyphilosophy and regarded Greek culture and science as an example to be followed.[citation needed]
TheRoman EmperorNero visited Greece in 66 AD, and performed at theAncient Olympic Games, despite the rules against non-Greek participation. He was honoured with a victory in every contest, and in the following year, he proclaimed the freedom of the Greeks at theIsthmian Games in Corinth, just asFlamininus had over 200 years previously.[7]
Many temples and public buildings were built in Greece by emperors and wealthy Roman nobility, especially in Athens.Julius Caesar began construction of theRoman agora in Athens, which was finished byAugustus. The main gate, theGate of Athena Archegetis, was dedicated to the patron goddess of Athens,Athena. TheAgrippeia was built in the centre of theAncient Agora of Athens byMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa. EmperorHadrian was aphilhellene who before he became emperor had served aseponymous archon of Athens. He saw himself as an heir toPericles and made many contributions to Athens. He built theLibrary of Hadrian in the city and completed the construction of theTemple of Olympian Zeus, some 638 years after its construction had been started by Athenian tyrants but ended because of the belief that building on such a scale would causehubris. The Athenians built the Arch of Hadrian to honor Emperor Hadrian. The side of the arch facing the Athenian agora and theAcropolis had an inscription stating, "This is Athens, the ancient city ofTheseus." The side facing the Temple of Zeus and the 'new city' (this was still part of the ancient city; e.g. thePanathenaic Stadium has always been on that side) had an inscription stating, "This is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus". Adrianou (Hadrian Street) exists to this day, leading from the arch to theAncient Agora.[citation needed]
ThePax Romana was the longest period of peace in Greek history, and Greece became a major crossroads of maritime trade between Rome and the Greek speaking eastern half of the empire. TheGreek language served as alingua franca in the eastern provinces and inItaly, and many Greek intellectuals such asGalen would perform most of their work inRome.[citation needed]
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During this time, Greece and much of the rest of the Roman east came under the influence ofEarly Christianity. The apostlePaulof Tarsus preached inPhilippi, Corinth and Athens, andThessalonica soon became one of the most highly Christianized areas of the empire.[citation needed]
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During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Greece was divided into provinces includingAchaea,Macedonia,Epirus andThrace. During the reign ofDiocletian in the late 3rd century,Moesia was organized as adiocese, and was ruled byGalerius. Under Constantine (who professed Christianity) Greece was part of theprefectures of Macedonia and Thrace.Theodosius divided the prefecture of Macedonia into the provinces ofCreta,Achaea,Thessalia,Epirus Vetus,Epirus Nova, and Macedonia. TheAegean islands formed the province ofInsulae in theDiocese of Asia.[citation needed]
Greece faced invasions from theHeruli,Goths, andVandals during the reign ofRomulus Augustulus.Stilicho, who pretended he was a regent forArcadius, evacuated Thessaly when theVisigoths invaded in the late 4th century. Arcadius' chief advisorEutropius allowedAlaric to enter Greece, and he looted Athens, Corinth and thePeloponnese.[citation needed] Stilicho eventually drove him out around 397 AD and Alaric was mademagister militum inIllyricum. Eventually, Alaric and the Goths migrated to Italy, sacked Rome in 410, and built theVisigothic Kingdom inIberia, which lasted until 711 with theadvent of the Arabs.Greece remained part of and became the center of the remaining relatively cohesive and robust eastern half of the Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire (now historiographically referred to as theByzantine Empire), for nearly a thousand more years after theFall of Rome, the city which once conquered it.[citation needed]
Contrary to outdated visions oflate antiquity, the Greek peninsula was most likely one of the most prosperous regions of the Roman Empire.[citation needed] Older scenarios of poverty, depopulation, barbarian destruction, and civil decay have been revised in light of recent archaeological discoveries.[8] In fact, thepolis, as an institution, appears to have remained prosperous until at least the 6th century. Contemporary texts such as Hierocles'Syndekmos affirm that late antique Greece was highly urbanised and contained approximately eighty cities.[8] This view of extreme prosperity is widely accepted today, and it is assumed between the 4th and 7th centuries AD, Greece may have been one of the most economically active regions in the easternMediterranean.[8]
The Roman emperorHeraclius in the early 7th century changed the empire’s official language from Latin to Greek. As the eastern half of the Mediterranean has always been predominantly Greek, the eastern half of the Roman Empire gradually became Hellenized following thefall of the Latin western half. Over the course of the following centuries, mainland Greece was mainly contested between the Roman and Bulgarian Empires, and suffered from invasions by Slavic tribes and Normans. Crete and Cyprus were contested between the Romans and Arabs and were later taken by the Crusaders who, following theSack of Constantinople in 1204, established the Latin Empire in Thrace and Greece. The Romans retook Constantinople and re-established control in most of the Greek peninsula, although Epirus would remain an independent splinter state until the early 14th century when Roman control was re-established. As a civil war raged within the empire, the Serbian Empire took the opportunity to conquer most of mainland Greece, while a resurgent Bulgarian Empire invaded from the north. In the century that followed, theOttoman Empire would establish its dominance in the region, annexing all three empires and finishing its conquest of Greece with the fall of the Morea in 1460.[citation needed]
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