I am Associate Professor of Greek Epigraphy at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. After specialising in Classical Archaeology and Greek Epigraphy at the Italian Archaeological School at Athens (MA - 2001-2003), from 2008 to 2015 I have been Researcher at the Institute of Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens. My research activity is focused on the study of the Greek world during the Roman period, with a specific interest for the religious landscape of cities (cultic, social and institutional aspects) and its economic and financial implications. I have studied in depth the Roman imperial cult in Greece, a topic on which I have published various articles and the monograph Theoi Sebastoi. Il culto degli imperatori romani in Grecia (provincia Achaia) nel secondo secolo d.C. (2011). I am also the author of Roma e le poleis. L’intervento di Roma nelle controversie territoriali tra le comunità greche di Grecia e d’Asia Minore nel secondo secolo a.C.: le testimonianze epigrafiche (2009).
F. Camia, F. Guizzi (eds.), Notizie delle epigrafi greche. Ricerche, progetti, prospettive di una disciplina (Atti del Settimo Seminario Avanzato di Epigrafia Greca (SAEG), Sapienza Università di Roma, 26-28 gennaio 2022), Scienze dell’Antichità 29.2 (2023), Roma, 2023
Scrittura epigrafica e sacro in Italia dall’Antichità al Medioevo. Luoghi, oggetti e frequentazioni (Atti del workshop internazionale, Sapienza Università di Roma, 15-17 dicembre 2021), Scienze dell’Antichità 28.2 (2022), 2022
At the beginning of the first century BC Athens was an independent city bound to Rome through a f... more At the beginning of the first century BC Athens was an independent city bound to Rome through a friendship alliance. By the end of the first century AD the city had been incorporated into the Roman province of Achaea. Along with Athenian independence perished the notion of Greek self-rule. The rest of Achaea was ruled by the governor of Macedonia already since 146 BC, but the numerous defections of Greek cities during the first century BC show that Roman rule was not yet viewed as inevitable.
In spite of the definitive loss of self-rule this was not a period of decline. Attica and the Peloponnese were special regions because of their legacy as cultural and religious centres of the Mediterranean. Supported by this legacy communities and individuals engaged actively with the increasing presence of Roman rule and its representatives. The archaeological and epigraphic records attest to the continued economic vitality of the region: buildings, statues, and lavish tombs were still being constructed. There is hence need to counterbalance the traditional discourses of weakness on Roman Greece, and to highlight how acts of remembering were employed as resources in this complex political situation.
The legacy of Greece defined Greek and Roman responses to the changing relationship. Both parties looked to the past in shaping their interactions, but how this was done varied widely. Sulla fashioned himself after the tyrant-slayers Harmodius and Aristogeiton, while Athenian ephebes evoked the sea-battles of the Persian Wars to fashion their valour. This interdisciplinary volume traces strategies of remembering in city building, funerary culture, festival and association, honorific practices, Greek literature, and political ideology. The variety of these strategies attests to the vitality of the region. In times of transition the past cannot be ignored: actors use what came before, in diverse and complex ways, in order to build the present.
What’s New in Roman Greece? Recent Work on the Greek Mainland and the Islands in the Roman Period. Proceedings of a Conference held at Athens, 8-10 October 2015, 2018
Munus Laetitiae. Studi miscellanei offerti a Maria Letizia Lazzarini, a cura di Francesco Camia, Lavinio Del Monaco, Michela Nocita (con la collaborazione di Lucia D'Amore, Paola Grandinetti, Giulio Vallarino), Roma, Sapienza Università Editrice, 2018
Students, colleagues, and friends are delighted to offer to Maria Letizia Lazzarini a Festschrift... more Students, colleagues, and friends are delighted to offer to Maria Letizia Lazzarini a Festschrift on the occasion of her recent retirement from teaching. The two-volume Festschrift includes contributions on numerous topics (new documents, institutional aspects, society and economy, cults, onomastics, etc.) by almost fifty scholars.
Social dynamics under Roman rule. Mobility and status change in the provinces of Achaia and Macedonia. Proceedings of a conference held in Athens, May 30th-31st 2014 (Meletemata 74), Athens, 2017
The 5th century Athenian decree IG I3 7 preserves a Delphic oracle on the cult prerogatives of th... more The 5th century Athenian decree IG I3 7 preserves a Delphic oracle on the cult prerogatives of the genos of the Praxiergidai, who were responsible for the archaic cult statue of Athena Polias on the Acropolis. The response, in prose, prescribes to put the peplos on the statue of Athena, and to make sacrifices to the Moirai, Zeus Moiragetes, and Ge. After a new analysis of the inscription, based on autopsy of the stone, the present paper focuses on the reconstruction (and interpretation) of the oracular response and its epigraphical context.
F. Camia, L. Del Monaco, “Verso Occidente …”: da Paros a Delfi a Pharos (SEG 23, 489)”, in M. Giangiulio, G. Proietti (eds.), Oracoli delfici e storia greca (Quaderni 16), Trento 2023, 179-210., 2023
Between the end of the 3rd and the early 2nd century BC the Pharians sent ambassadors to their mo... more Between the end of the 3rd and the early 2nd century BC the Pharians sent ambassadors to their motherland Paros, asking for help. The Parians decreed publicly to consult the Delphic oracle. The response, of which only three extremely fragmentary verses are preserved, was inscribed together with the Pharian and the Parian decrees on a stele which was set up in the Dalmatian island of Hvar (ancient Pharos). After providing a hypothetical reconstruction of the content (and meaning) of this metrical response, the present article offers a historical contextualization for it and tries to locate it within the extant Delphic oracular production.
M. Papini (ed.), Opus imperfectum. Monumenti e testi incompiuti del mondo greco e romano (Sapienza Università di Roma, 14-15 marzo 2019), Scienze dell’Antichità 25.3 (2019), 179-190
M. Bentz, M. Heinzelmann (eds.), Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology Cologne/Bonn, 22 – 26 May 2018 Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World. Volume 55: Sessions 6 – 8 – Single Contributions, Heidelberg 2023, 2023
General introduction to the volume, offering an overview of the different aspects (rural and urba... more General introduction to the volume, offering an overview of the different aspects (rural and urban landscape, society, economy, religion, visual culture, reception of Roman Greece) involved in the interpretation of Greece during the Roman Perio
D. Grigoropoulos, V. Di Napoli, V. Evangelidis, F. Camia, D. Rogers, S. Vlizos, “Roman Greece and the ‘Mnemonic Turn’. Some Critical Remarks”, in T.M. Dijkstra, I.N.I. Kuin, M. Moser, D. Weidgenannt (eds.), Strategies of remembering in Greece under Rome (100 BC - 100 AD), Leiden, 21-35, 2017
Since E.L. Bowie's seminal article on the Greeks and their past in the Second Sophistic, the stud... more Since E.L. Bowie's seminal article on the Greeks and their past in the Second Sophistic, the study of Greece in the Roman Empire has been experiencing what has been described in other areas of social sciences and the humanities as a 'mnemonic turn'. The purpose of this article is to rethink the role and scope of these approaches by revisiting some of their assumptions and by posing a series of related questions: was the Roman conquest a catalyst for the emergence of phenomena of mobilization of the past in Greek societies? If such phenomena articulated conscious local responses to the imperial situation, how uniform were these responses across the Greek mainland? Were Greeks unique in this respect compared to other provincial societies across the empire? Did every use and representation of the past always have an ideological significance that can be read from the available textual and material evidence? Can we classify and describe all these phenomena by using the 'language of memory'? By examining these issues, we wish to highlight the complex nature of the evidence and the need to take into account its potential and its limitations when making inferences about remembering as a social and cultural strategy.
A. Kouremenos (ed.), The Province of Achaea in the 2nd Century CE. The Past Present, London and New York 2022, 2022
In the multitude of testimonies pertaining to the cults and honors for Hadrian that can be connec... more In the multitude of testimonies pertaining to the cults and honors for Hadrian that can be connected to the physical presence of the “restless emperor”, the case of Greece is rather anomalous if one compares the sheer number and importance of cultic (and honorific) attestations for him with the relative scarcity of the evidence on imperial cult in the province of Achaea. In this chapter I argue that the abundance of evidence that “old Greece” provides for the worship of Hadrian can be linked to the philhellene emperor’s personal inclination toward this region. I will concentrate primarily on the ways Hadrian’s proverbial philhellenism is reflected in the worship that he received in Greece. I will focus on Athens, not only because this city has yielded most of the evidence on the cult of Hadrian in the province of Achaea, but also because one can argue that his worship in Athens reveals a direct expression of the emperor’s privileged link with the city. Indeed, the sheer number and types of testimonies of the cult of Hadrian in Athens may be seen as a direct reflection of the city’s pivotal role in the emperor’s Panhellenic program. Athens’ connection with its glorious past as well as its ongoing cultural primacy in Roman Greece and the Graeco-Roman Empire in general played a central role in the realization of the new imperial policy. After presenting an overview of the available evidence from cult places, festivals, and priesthoods, I shed light on the main features of this imperial cult against the background of key concepts of Hadrian’s relationship with the Greek world.
Germanico Cesare a un passo dall'Impero, a cura di M. Barbanera, 2020
Germanico, pur senza essere stato un principe, gode, nella documentazione epigrafica in lingua la... more Germanico, pur senza essere stato un principe, gode, nella documentazione epigrafica in lingua latina e greca, almeno per tutta l’età giulio-claudia, di una presenza costante e superiore perfino a quella di alcuni dei primi imperatori, non solo per la buona memoria che egli lasciò di sé, ma anche perché tutti e tre i successori di Tiberio – Caligola, Claudio e Nerone – discendevano direttamente da lui (in quanto rispettivamente figlio, fratello e nipote di Germanico) ed ebbero loro stessi ogni interesse a perpetuarne il ricordo. Ancora al tempo di Severo Alessandro, del resto, almeno presso gli accampamenti militari il suo dies natalis era festeggiato con una supplicatio, caso isolato in un contesto che vedeva festeggiamenti solo per Divi e Divae e per le ricorrenze legate all’imperatore vivente.
F. Camia, F. Guizzi (eds.), Notizie delle epigrafi greche. Ricerche, progetti, prospettive di una disciplina (Atti del Settimo Seminario Avanzato di Epigrafia Greca (SAEG), Sapienza Università di Roma, 26-28 gennaio 2022), Scienze dell’Antichità 29.2 (2023), Roma, 2023
Scrittura epigrafica e sacro in Italia dall’Antichità al Medioevo. Luoghi, oggetti e frequentazioni (Atti del workshop internazionale, Sapienza Università di Roma, 15-17 dicembre 2021), Scienze dell’Antichità 28.2 (2022), 2022
At the beginning of the first century BC Athens was an independent city bound to Rome through a f... more At the beginning of the first century BC Athens was an independent city bound to Rome through a friendship alliance. By the end of the first century AD the city had been incorporated into the Roman province of Achaea. Along with Athenian independence perished the notion of Greek self-rule. The rest of Achaea was ruled by the governor of Macedonia already since 146 BC, but the numerous defections of Greek cities during the first century BC show that Roman rule was not yet viewed as inevitable.
In spite of the definitive loss of self-rule this was not a period of decline. Attica and the Peloponnese were special regions because of their legacy as cultural and religious centres of the Mediterranean. Supported by this legacy communities and individuals engaged actively with the increasing presence of Roman rule and its representatives. The archaeological and epigraphic records attest to the continued economic vitality of the region: buildings, statues, and lavish tombs were still being constructed. There is hence need to counterbalance the traditional discourses of weakness on Roman Greece, and to highlight how acts of remembering were employed as resources in this complex political situation.
The legacy of Greece defined Greek and Roman responses to the changing relationship. Both parties looked to the past in shaping their interactions, but how this was done varied widely. Sulla fashioned himself after the tyrant-slayers Harmodius and Aristogeiton, while Athenian ephebes evoked the sea-battles of the Persian Wars to fashion their valour. This interdisciplinary volume traces strategies of remembering in city building, funerary culture, festival and association, honorific practices, Greek literature, and political ideology. The variety of these strategies attests to the vitality of the region. In times of transition the past cannot be ignored: actors use what came before, in diverse and complex ways, in order to build the present.
What’s New in Roman Greece? Recent Work on the Greek Mainland and the Islands in the Roman Period. Proceedings of a Conference held at Athens, 8-10 October 2015, 2018
Munus Laetitiae. Studi miscellanei offerti a Maria Letizia Lazzarini, a cura di Francesco Camia, Lavinio Del Monaco, Michela Nocita (con la collaborazione di Lucia D'Amore, Paola Grandinetti, Giulio Vallarino), Roma, Sapienza Università Editrice, 2018
Students, colleagues, and friends are delighted to offer to Maria Letizia Lazzarini a Festschrift... more Students, colleagues, and friends are delighted to offer to Maria Letizia Lazzarini a Festschrift on the occasion of her recent retirement from teaching. The two-volume Festschrift includes contributions on numerous topics (new documents, institutional aspects, society and economy, cults, onomastics, etc.) by almost fifty scholars.
Social dynamics under Roman rule. Mobility and status change in the provinces of Achaia and Macedonia. Proceedings of a conference held in Athens, May 30th-31st 2014 (Meletemata 74), Athens, 2017
The 5th century Athenian decree IG I3 7 preserves a Delphic oracle on the cult prerogatives of th... more The 5th century Athenian decree IG I3 7 preserves a Delphic oracle on the cult prerogatives of the genos of the Praxiergidai, who were responsible for the archaic cult statue of Athena Polias on the Acropolis. The response, in prose, prescribes to put the peplos on the statue of Athena, and to make sacrifices to the Moirai, Zeus Moiragetes, and Ge. After a new analysis of the inscription, based on autopsy of the stone, the present paper focuses on the reconstruction (and interpretation) of the oracular response and its epigraphical context.
F. Camia, L. Del Monaco, “Verso Occidente …”: da Paros a Delfi a Pharos (SEG 23, 489)”, in M. Giangiulio, G. Proietti (eds.), Oracoli delfici e storia greca (Quaderni 16), Trento 2023, 179-210., 2023
Between the end of the 3rd and the early 2nd century BC the Pharians sent ambassadors to their mo... more Between the end of the 3rd and the early 2nd century BC the Pharians sent ambassadors to their motherland Paros, asking for help. The Parians decreed publicly to consult the Delphic oracle. The response, of which only three extremely fragmentary verses are preserved, was inscribed together with the Pharian and the Parian decrees on a stele which was set up in the Dalmatian island of Hvar (ancient Pharos). After providing a hypothetical reconstruction of the content (and meaning) of this metrical response, the present article offers a historical contextualization for it and tries to locate it within the extant Delphic oracular production.
M. Papini (ed.), Opus imperfectum. Monumenti e testi incompiuti del mondo greco e romano (Sapienza Università di Roma, 14-15 marzo 2019), Scienze dell’Antichità 25.3 (2019), 179-190
M. Bentz, M. Heinzelmann (eds.), Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology Cologne/Bonn, 22 – 26 May 2018 Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World. Volume 55: Sessions 6 – 8 – Single Contributions, Heidelberg 2023, 2023
General introduction to the volume, offering an overview of the different aspects (rural and urba... more General introduction to the volume, offering an overview of the different aspects (rural and urban landscape, society, economy, religion, visual culture, reception of Roman Greece) involved in the interpretation of Greece during the Roman Perio
D. Grigoropoulos, V. Di Napoli, V. Evangelidis, F. Camia, D. Rogers, S. Vlizos, “Roman Greece and the ‘Mnemonic Turn’. Some Critical Remarks”, in T.M. Dijkstra, I.N.I. Kuin, M. Moser, D. Weidgenannt (eds.), Strategies of remembering in Greece under Rome (100 BC - 100 AD), Leiden, 21-35, 2017
Since E.L. Bowie's seminal article on the Greeks and their past in the Second Sophistic, the stud... more Since E.L. Bowie's seminal article on the Greeks and their past in the Second Sophistic, the study of Greece in the Roman Empire has been experiencing what has been described in other areas of social sciences and the humanities as a 'mnemonic turn'. The purpose of this article is to rethink the role and scope of these approaches by revisiting some of their assumptions and by posing a series of related questions: was the Roman conquest a catalyst for the emergence of phenomena of mobilization of the past in Greek societies? If such phenomena articulated conscious local responses to the imperial situation, how uniform were these responses across the Greek mainland? Were Greeks unique in this respect compared to other provincial societies across the empire? Did every use and representation of the past always have an ideological significance that can be read from the available textual and material evidence? Can we classify and describe all these phenomena by using the 'language of memory'? By examining these issues, we wish to highlight the complex nature of the evidence and the need to take into account its potential and its limitations when making inferences about remembering as a social and cultural strategy.
A. Kouremenos (ed.), The Province of Achaea in the 2nd Century CE. The Past Present, London and New York 2022, 2022
In the multitude of testimonies pertaining to the cults and honors for Hadrian that can be connec... more In the multitude of testimonies pertaining to the cults and honors for Hadrian that can be connected to the physical presence of the “restless emperor”, the case of Greece is rather anomalous if one compares the sheer number and importance of cultic (and honorific) attestations for him with the relative scarcity of the evidence on imperial cult in the province of Achaea. In this chapter I argue that the abundance of evidence that “old Greece” provides for the worship of Hadrian can be linked to the philhellene emperor’s personal inclination toward this region. I will concentrate primarily on the ways Hadrian’s proverbial philhellenism is reflected in the worship that he received in Greece. I will focus on Athens, not only because this city has yielded most of the evidence on the cult of Hadrian in the province of Achaea, but also because one can argue that his worship in Athens reveals a direct expression of the emperor’s privileged link with the city. Indeed, the sheer number and types of testimonies of the cult of Hadrian in Athens may be seen as a direct reflection of the city’s pivotal role in the emperor’s Panhellenic program. Athens’ connection with its glorious past as well as its ongoing cultural primacy in Roman Greece and the Graeco-Roman Empire in general played a central role in the realization of the new imperial policy. After presenting an overview of the available evidence from cult places, festivals, and priesthoods, I shed light on the main features of this imperial cult against the background of key concepts of Hadrian’s relationship with the Greek world.
Germanico Cesare a un passo dall'Impero, a cura di M. Barbanera, 2020
Germanico, pur senza essere stato un principe, gode, nella documentazione epigrafica in lingua la... more Germanico, pur senza essere stato un principe, gode, nella documentazione epigrafica in lingua latina e greca, almeno per tutta l’età giulio-claudia, di una presenza costante e superiore perfino a quella di alcuni dei primi imperatori, non solo per la buona memoria che egli lasciò di sé, ma anche perché tutti e tre i successori di Tiberio – Caligola, Claudio e Nerone – discendevano direttamente da lui (in quanto rispettivamente figlio, fratello e nipote di Germanico) ed ebbero loro stessi ogni interesse a perpetuarne il ricordo. Ancora al tempo di Severo Alessandro, del resto, almeno presso gli accampamenti militari il suo dies natalis era festeggiato con una supplicatio, caso isolato in un contesto che vedeva festeggiamenti solo per Divi e Divae e per le ricorrenze legate all’imperatore vivente.
E. Mackil, N. Papazarkadas (eds.), Greek Epigraphy and Religion: Papers in Memory of Sara B. Aleshire from the Second North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, Leiden-Boston 2021, 2021
A. Lo Monaco (ed.), Spending on the gods. Economy, financial resources and management in the sanctuaries in Greece (ASAtene Supplemento7), Firenze, 2020
In the budget of Greek cities reserved for religion a special place was held by the costs connect... more In the budget of Greek cities reserved for religion a special place was held by the costs connected with the organization of festivals. This paper deals with the financing of festivals and agones, with particular reference to the cities of mainland Greece during the Hellenistic and Imperial periods. The funding of these celebrations was secured by a combination of public funds, also including the so-called “sacred funds” and the revenues from the “agonistic endowments” usually administered by public officials, and private munificence, i.e. liberal acts both by magistrates (in primis the agonothetes) and private individuals. Although the epigraphic texts mention more often the latter (evergetic) form of financing, the contribution of civic finances must have played a decisive role.
A. Inglese (ed.), Epigrammata 5. Dinamiche politiche e istituzionali nell’epigrafia delle Cicladi. Atti del convegno di Roma (Roma, 31 gennaio - 1 febbraio 2019), Tivoli, 2020
This paper deals with the Thracian population of Rome. It focuses on the identification in the ep... more This paper deals with the Thracian population of Rome. It focuses on the identification in the epigraphic evidence of individuals of Thracian origin and the analysis and presentation of the main socio-legal categories of Thraces attested in Rome, who were mainly soldiers and freedmen-slaves. Most of the Thraces known to have sojourned at least for a period in Rome are soldiers enrolled in the Imperial guard (praetorians and equites singulares Augusti), whose number grew exponentially during the third c. AD, along with a similar increase attested for the legionary troops.
In the Greek world Roman emperors were often linked with traditional gods. Verbal and iconographi... more In the Greek world Roman emperors were often linked with traditional gods. Verbal and iconographical assimilations on inscriptions, coins and statues, integration into pre-existing sacred structures and festivals, and joint priesthoods were three different means of establishing a relationship between the old gods of the Greek pantheon and the new divinized masters of the Empire. The ideological valency of this proceeding was strong, as it permitted the Greek elites both to establish a subtle hierarchy between emperors and gods and to cope with the new imperial power through traditional tools (and according to Greeks’ cultural horizon). As is generally the case with the “imperial cult” as a whole, however, the assimilation of emperors to the traditional Greek gods had also significant cultic implications, since ritual ceremonies were performed for the emperors. In this context priests of the imperial cult played an important role. The present paper deals with these aspects in the cities of mainland Greece.
V. Di Napoli, F. Camia, V. Evangelidis, D. Grigoropoulos, D. Rogers, S. Vlizos (eds.), What’s New in Roman Greece? Recent Work on the Greek Mainland and the Islands in the Roman Period. Proceedings of a Conference held at Athens, 8-10 October 2015 (Meletemata 80), Athens, 2018
A. Kolb, M. Vitale (eds.), Kaiserkult in den Provinzen des Römischen Reiches. Organisation, Kommunikation und Repräsentation, Berlin – Boston, 2016
Cults for the Roman emperors in Greece were widespread. Their focus was the living emperor, yet t... more Cults for the Roman emperors in Greece were widespread. Their focus was the living emperor, yet they soon came to be addressed to the whole of the Sebastoi, a cultic 'ensemble' including also the past emperors and the other living or dead members of the imperial family. In the present paper I shall discuss the main evidence on priests, festivals and sanctuaries for the emperors from the cities of mainland Greece (province of Achaia). The evidence shows that the emperors were often worshipped in combination with traditional gods. although the text from Gythium does not mention the koinon of the Eleutherolakones, it refers three times to the ethnos of the Eleutherolakones (ll. 9-10, 19-22). 120 The koina Asias, for example, which were organized by the koinon of Asia, were celebrated in at least two cities every year; cf.
R. Di Cesare, F. Longo, S. Privitera (eds.), Dromoi. Studi sul mondo antico offerti a Emanuele Greco dagli allievi della Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene, Atene – Paestum, 2016
Annuario della Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene, 2019
The present article deals with a dedication to Septimius Severus, Caracalla and Iulia Domna inscr... more The present article deals with a dedication to Septimius Severus, Caracalla and Iulia Domna inscribed on one altar that was erected at Philippi by a “federation” of five communities designated as Πενταπολεῖται (CIPh II.1, N. 24). The presence at the end of the text of the Greek term θυσία (= sacrifice) singles out this inscription among the known dedications, both imperial and non-imperial. My hypothesis is that this particular formula is drawn from (or inspired by) the festive calendar of the Roman colony, which would have been the model followed by the dedicants while offering a sacrifice to the reigning emperor.
F. Beutler, Th. Pantzer (ed.), Sprachen – Schriftkulturen – Identitäten der Antike. Beiträge des XV. Internationalen Kongresses für Griechische und Lateinische Epigraphik, Wien 28. August bis 1. September 2017: Einzelvorträge, Wiener Beiträge zur Alten Geschichte online (WBAGon) 1, Wien, 2019
Emiliano A r e n a Una nuova evidenza di sigle "demotiche" e di synkletos dalla Sicilia tardoelle... more Emiliano A r e n a Una nuova evidenza di sigle "demotiche" e di synkletos dalla Sicilia tardoellenistica: SEG LIX.1102 e la storia di Kale Akte François B é r a r d Les carrières des sous-officiers de l'armée romaine : derrière la diversité des parcours l'affirmation d'une forte identité militaire
This paper offers an overview of an ongoing research project on priesthoods in Roman Athens, whos... more This paper offers an overview of an ongoing research project on priesthoods in Roman Athens, whose first purpose is to realise a prosopography of the Athenian cult personnel during the Roman imperial period (c. 27 BC-267 AD). Despite a growing interest in the last years on the social aspects of Greek (and Roman) religion and specifically on priesthoods as is also shown by the publication of several collective volumes on the latter subject, systematic investigations on the cult personnel of single poleis are still lacking. As regards Athens, in particular, while there are studies on specific priesthoods such as the Eleusinian priesthoods or the priests of Asklepios, to date there is no comprehensive investigation on the Athenian cult personnel. Furthermore, while different aspects connected with priesthood have been studied for Classical and Hellenistic Athens, the Roman imperial period has been left largely ‘in the shadows’. Having this in mind, I have begun a research on Athenian cult personnel during the Roman imperial period. Since any such investigation must be based on a systematic collection of the epigraphic evidence on the individual holders of the different priesthoods, my first aim is to realise a prosopography of all religious functionaries, both male and female, of Athenian cults (that is to say of cults performed in Athens) from Augustus up to the 3rd c. AD (ca. AD 267). The prosopography is to be followed in due time by a synthesis on the religious, social, and cultural aspects of priesthood in Roman Athens. The prosopographic catalogue, collecting the relevant epigraphic and literary testimonies, will provide for each priest the main data (name, chronology, status, other charges, bibliography) and a thorough commentary on his family relations and on his priestly activity and public career.
RECENSIONI la volontà di creare uno stato territoriale esteso dominato da un governo centrale, qu... more RECENSIONI la volontà di creare uno stato territoriale esteso dominato da un governo centrale, quello ecatomnide, così che il processo urbano di età ellenistica deve essere letto come frutto di tale intento e non tanto dell'autodeterminazione dei singoli centri.
At the beginning of the first century BC Athens was an independent city bound to Rome through a f... more At the beginning of the first century BC Athens was an independent city bound to Rome through a friendship alliance. By the end of the first century AD the city had been incorporated into the Roman province of Achaea. Along with Athenian independence perished the notion of Greek self-rule. The rest of Achaea was ruled by the governor of Macedonia already since 146 BC, but the numerous defections of Greek cities during the first century BC show that Roman rule was not yet viewed as inevitable.
In spite of the definitive loss of self-rule this was not a period of decline. Attica and the Peloponnese were special regions because of their legacy as cultural and religious centres of the Mediterranean. Supported by this legacy communities and individuals engaged actively with the increasing presence of Roman rule and its representatives. The archaeological and epigraphic records attest to the continued economic vitality of the region: buildings, statues, and lavish tombs were still being constructed. There is hence need to counterbalance the traditional discourses of weakness on Roman Greece, and to highlight how acts of remembering were employed as resources in this complex political situation.
The legacy of Greece defined Greek and Roman responses to the changing relationship. Both parties looked to the past in shaping their interactions, but how this was done varied widely. Sulla fashioned himself after the tyrant-slayers Harmodius and Aristogeiton, while Athenian ephebes evoked the sea-battles of the Persian Wars to fashion their valour. This interdisciplinary volume traces strategies of remembering in city building, funerary culture, festival and association, honorific practices, Greek literature, and political ideology. The variety of these strategies attests to the vitality of the region. In times of transition the past cannot be ignored: actors use what came before, in diverse and complex ways, in order to build the present.
A lecture by prof. Stathis Stiros (University of Patras, Dept. of Civil Engineering) about earthq... more A lecture by prof. Stathis Stiros (University of Patras, Dept. of Civil Engineering) about earthquakes and the destruction of ancient Roman towns of Greece. The lecture is hosted by the Roman Seminar and will be in Greek with English powerpoint Follow the link https://upatras-gr.zoom.us/j/92026488318?pwd=OHFVTlJXNmZnTnhybEpUWUZ5MDgwdz09 meeting ID: 920 2648 8318 passcode: 885268
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
We are happy to announce the 2017 - 2018 program of lectures
The Org... more Dear Colleagues and Friends, We are happy to announce the 2017 - 2018 program of lectures The Organizing Committee Roman Seminar
Slaving States
That Athens and Rome needed huge amounts of slaves to function is well known, and... more Slaving States
That Athens and Rome needed huge amounts of slaves to function is well known, and their numbers and lives have been the subject of renewed interest in recent years. Much less study has been devoted to their external supply: to the polities that furnished Greek and Roman traders with slaves for work in the mines and on plantations. The evidence is patchy to non- existent, of course. This talk will proceed by analogy, introducing the slaving society of Dahomey, and then showing how the evidence from certain Gallic tribes, and, perhaps, the Odyrissian kingdom, follows similar patterns, and the kinds of evidence that might be used to tease them out.
Dear colleagues and friends,
Please take note of the programme of lectures 2018-2019 of the Roman... more Dear colleagues and friends, Please take note of the programme of lectures 2018-2019 of the Roman Seminar.
Η διασπορά των κοινοτήτων Ρωμαίων και Ιταλών στη ρωμαϊκή
οικουμένη: Διάχυση, οργάνωση και διείσδυ... more Η διασπορά των κοινοτήτων Ρωμαίων και Ιταλών στη ρωμαϊκή οικουμένη: Διάχυση, οργάνωση και διείσδυση στις τοπικές κοινωνίες
Σε φιλολογικές πηγές (από τον 3ο αι. π.Χ.) και σε επιγραφικά κείμενα (από τον 2ο αι. π.Χ. και εξής) εμφανίζονται ομάδες ανθρώπων που προσδιορίζονται ως Ῥωμαῖοι/cives Romani ή Ἰταλικοί/Italici, προσδιορισμοί που συχνά συνοδεύονται από όρους, όπως consistentes, qui consistunt/negotiantur/morantur, κατοικοῦντες, παρεπιδημοῦντες, πραγματευόμενοι κ.α. Οι κοινότητες αυτές μαρτυρούνται σε όλο το ρωμαϊκό κόσμο, από το Δούναβη ως τη βόρεια Αφρική κι από την Ιβηρική χερσόνησο και τη Βρετανία μέχρι τη Συρία, ενώ δεν λείπουν ενδείξεις της παρουσίας τους κι ακόμη βαθύτερα στην Ανατολή καθώς και πέρα από τα βόρεια σύνορα του ρωμαϊκού κράτους.
Ο ρυθμός εξάπλωσης αυτών των κοινοτήτων, η πιθανότητα εσωτερικής τους οργάνωσης, οι βασικές οικονομικές τους δραστηριότητες, οι τρόποι με τους οποίους προσπαθούν να ενταχθούν ή να διακριθούν στις κοινωνίες που τους φιλοξενούν, θα πρέπει να διερευνηθούν ξεχωριστά για κάθε περιοχή λαμβάνοντας υπ’ όψιν τις κατά τόπους ιδιαιτερότητες και αξιοποιώντας τα διαθέσιμα γραπτά και αρχαιολογικά τεκμήρια. Είναι ωστόσο γενική η διαπίστωση ότι υπήρξε πολύ σημαντικός ο ρόλος των κοινοτήτων αυτών στην κοινωνική και οικονομική ζωή, ακόμη και στη διαμόρφωση μιας νέας φυσιογνωμίας, των περιοχών όπου εγκαταστάθηκαν μόνιμα ή παροδικά, καθώς επρόκειτο για ένα τεράστιο ανθρώπινο δυναμικό που μετακινήθηκε γεμάτο ενθουσιασμό για αναζήτηση του κέρδους, με την σχετική ασφάλεια που παρείχε η σύνδεση με τη Ρώμη μέσα στην «παγκοσμιοποιημένη» οικονομική πραγματικότητα της ύστερης ελληνιστικής και της ρωμαϊκής εποχής.
“Reconsidering the Evidence for Female Athletics in late Hellenistic and Roman Greece”
November ... more “Reconsidering the Evidence for Female Athletics in late Hellenistic and Roman Greece”
November 29, 2018, 7 p.m. The Netherlands Institute at Athens, Library (Makri 11, Athens)
Abstract
This talk will discuss the epigraphic and literary evidence for women’s membership in palaistrai and gymnasia, as well as their victories in the games of the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods in the Greek world. It will become evident that, in spite of the small number of inscriptions and literary references that survive on the topic, we can accept that athleticism and its venues were not an all-male sphere as previously thought, but one where young women athletes participated in and competed at local and Panhellenic festivals.
Maritime connections play an important role in the commercial development of the Mediterranean Se... more Maritime connections play an important role in the commercial development of the Mediterranean Sea during the Roman period. After Pompey’s triumph over piracy and the installation of the pax romana, seaborne commerce begins to increase and harbours, whether integrated in the urbanism of the town or located at some distance from it, is the factor that ensures the communication towards the sea. Excavations have shown the architectural evolution development of Ostia, the harbour of Rome, in the Imperial period, but what happens to more modest sites in other parts of the Empire? The Aegean Sea offers a very welcoming geography and many coastal and insular sites for natural harbours: how has growing commerce affected the architecture and the urbanism of the harbours of the Aegean area in the Roman period? This is the question that we will attempt to answer, basing our observations on some important harbours of the Aegean Sea.
Sono lieta di vedere conclusa la stesura di questo volume dal titolo Roma e le poleis. L'interven... more Sono lieta di vedere conclusa la stesura di questo volume dal titolo Roma e le poleis. L'intervento di Roma nelle controversie territoriali tra le comunità greche di Grecia e d'Asia Minore nel secondo secolo a.C.: le testimonianze epigrafiche, in cui il mio allievo Francesco Camia ha scelto di illustrare un gruppo di documenti concreti e circoscritti, relativi all'intervento di Roma nelle controversie territoriali sorte tra città greche di Grecia e d'Asia Minore nel corso del II secolo a.C. Lo studio è nato come tesi di specializzazione discussa presso la Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene e sono grata al Direttore Emanuele Greco per averlo voluto includere nella collana Tripodes.
The Italian Archaeological School at Athens is pleased to host the book launch of:
"What's Ne... more The Italian Archaeological School at Athens is pleased to host the book launch of:
"What's New in Roman Greece?. Recent Work on the Greek Mainland and the Island in the Roman Period". Eds. V. DI NAPOLI, F. CAMIA, V. EVANGELIDIS, D. GRIGOROPOULOS, D. ROGERS, S. VLIZOS. Meletemata 80 (2019).
This event is organized by the Roman Seminar Research Group and the National Hellenic Research Foundations (EIE).
It will be presented by: S. KREMYDI, V. DI NAPOLI, K. WINTHER-JACOBSEN and P. KARANASTASI.
Monday, 3 June 2019, 'Doro Levi Lecture Hall', 7.00 p.m.
In: What's New in Roman Greece? Recent Work on the Greek Mainland and the Islands in the Roman Period, edited by V. di Napoli, F. Camia, V. Evangelidis, D. Grigoropoulos, D. Rogers & S. Vlizos, pp. xiii-xxviii. Athens: NHRF, 2018
Meeting, Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza Università di Roma, 15-17 dicembre 2021... more Meeting, Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza Università di Roma, 15-17 dicembre 2021 da remoto: Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/nvq-bnij-eqm
This volume explores the conception and utilization of the Greek past in the Roman province of Ac... more This volume explores the conception and utilization of the Greek past in the Roman province of Achaea in the 2nd century CE, and the reception of the artistic, cultural, and intellectual outputs of this century in later periods. Achaea, usually defined by international scholars as “old Greece”, was the only Roman province located entirely within the confines of the Modern Greek state, as the other five (Macedonia, Epirus, Thracia, Asia, and Creta-Cyrenaica) spill over into neighboring countries, or in the case of the latter, across the Mediterranean Sea. In many ways, Achaea in the 2nd century CE witnessed a second Golden Age, one based on collective historical nostalgia under Roman protection and innovation. As this century has produced the highest percentage of archaeological and literary material from the Roman period in the province under consideration, the time is ripe to position it more firmly in the academic discourse of studies of the Roman Empire.
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Books by Francesco Camia
In spite of the definitive loss of self-rule this was not a period of decline. Attica and the Peloponnese were special regions because of their legacy as cultural and religious centres of the Mediterranean. Supported by this legacy communities and individuals engaged actively with the increasing presence of Roman rule and its representatives. The archaeological and epigraphic records attest to the continued economic vitality of the region: buildings, statues, and lavish tombs were still being constructed. There is hence need to counterbalance the traditional discourses of weakness on Roman Greece, and to highlight how acts of remembering were employed as resources in this complex political situation.
The legacy of Greece defined Greek and Roman responses to the changing relationship. Both parties looked to the past in shaping their interactions, but how this was done varied widely. Sulla fashioned himself after the tyrant-slayers Harmodius and Aristogeiton, while Athenian ephebes evoked the sea-battles of the Persian Wars to fashion their valour. This interdisciplinary volume traces strategies of remembering in city building, funerary culture, festival and association, honorific practices, Greek literature, and political ideology. The variety of these strategies attests to the vitality of the region. In times of transition the past cannot be ignored: actors use what came before, in diverse and complex ways, in order to build the present.
Available open access at: https://www.sidestone.com/books/strategies-of-remembering-in-greece-under-rome-100-bc-100-ad
Papers by Francesco Camia
Claudio e Nerone – discendevano direttamente da lui (in quanto rispettivamente figlio, fratello e nipote di Germanico) ed ebbero loro stessi ogni interesse a perpetuarne il ricordo. Ancora al tempo di Severo Alessandro, del resto, almeno presso gli accampamenti militari il suo dies natalis era festeggiato con una supplicatio, caso isolato in un contesto che vedeva festeggiamenti solo per Divi e Divae e per le ricorrenze legate all’imperatore vivente.
In spite of the definitive loss of self-rule this was not a period of decline. Attica and the Peloponnese were special regions because of their legacy as cultural and religious centres of the Mediterranean. Supported by this legacy communities and individuals engaged actively with the increasing presence of Roman rule and its representatives. The archaeological and epigraphic records attest to the continued economic vitality of the region: buildings, statues, and lavish tombs were still being constructed. There is hence need to counterbalance the traditional discourses of weakness on Roman Greece, and to highlight how acts of remembering were employed as resources in this complex political situation.
The legacy of Greece defined Greek and Roman responses to the changing relationship. Both parties looked to the past in shaping their interactions, but how this was done varied widely. Sulla fashioned himself after the tyrant-slayers Harmodius and Aristogeiton, while Athenian ephebes evoked the sea-battles of the Persian Wars to fashion their valour. This interdisciplinary volume traces strategies of remembering in city building, funerary culture, festival and association, honorific practices, Greek literature, and political ideology. The variety of these strategies attests to the vitality of the region. In times of transition the past cannot be ignored: actors use what came before, in diverse and complex ways, in order to build the present.
Available open access at: https://www.sidestone.com/books/strategies-of-remembering-in-greece-under-rome-100-bc-100-ad
Claudio e Nerone – discendevano direttamente da lui (in quanto rispettivamente figlio, fratello e nipote di Germanico) ed ebbero loro stessi ogni interesse a perpetuarne il ricordo. Ancora al tempo di Severo Alessandro, del resto, almeno presso gli accampamenti militari il suo dies natalis era festeggiato con una supplicatio, caso isolato in un contesto che vedeva festeggiamenti solo per Divi e Divae e per le ricorrenze legate all’imperatore vivente.
In spite of the definitive loss of self-rule this was not a period of decline. Attica and the Peloponnese were special regions because of their legacy as cultural and religious centres of the Mediterranean. Supported by this legacy communities and individuals engaged actively with the increasing presence of Roman rule and its representatives. The archaeological and epigraphic records attest to the continued economic vitality of the region: buildings, statues, and lavish tombs were still being constructed. There is hence need to counterbalance the traditional discourses of weakness on Roman Greece, and to highlight how acts of remembering were employed as resources in this complex political situation.
The legacy of Greece defined Greek and Roman responses to the changing relationship. Both parties looked to the past in shaping their interactions, but how this was done varied widely. Sulla fashioned himself after the tyrant-slayers Harmodius and Aristogeiton, while Athenian ephebes evoked the sea-battles of the Persian Wars to fashion their valour. This interdisciplinary volume traces strategies of remembering in city building, funerary culture, festival and association, honorific practices, Greek literature, and political ideology. The variety of these strategies attests to the vitality of the region. In times of transition the past cannot be ignored: actors use what came before, in diverse and complex ways, in order to build the present.
Available open access at: https://www.sidestone.com/books/strategies-of-remembering-in-greece-under-rome-100-bc-100-ad
The lecture is hosted by the Roman Seminar and will be in Greek with English powerpoint
Follow the link https://upatras-gr.zoom.us/j/92026488318?pwd=OHFVTlJXNmZnTnhybEpUWUZ5MDgwdz09
meeting ID: 920 2648 8318
passcode: 885268
We are happy to announce the 2017 - 2018 program of lectures
The Organizing Committee
Roman Seminar
That Athens and Rome needed huge amounts of slaves to function is well known, and their numbers and lives have been the subject of renewed interest in recent years. Much less study has been devoted to their external supply: to the polities that furnished Greek and Roman traders with slaves for work in the mines and on plantations. The evidence is patchy to non- existent, of course. This talk will proceed by analogy, introducing the slaving society of Dahomey, and then showing how the evidence from certain Gallic tribes, and, perhaps, the Odyrissian kingdom, follows similar patterns, and the kinds of evidence that might be used to tease them out.
Please take note of the programme of lectures 2018-2019 of the Roman Seminar.
The Organizing Committee
οικουμένη: Διάχυση, οργάνωση και διείσδυση στις τοπικές κοινωνίες
Σε φιλολογικές πηγές (από τον 3ο αι. π.Χ.) και σε επιγραφικά κείμενα
(από τον 2ο αι. π.Χ. και εξής) εμφανίζονται ομάδες ανθρώπων που
προσδιορίζονται ως Ῥωμαῖοι/cives Romani ή Ἰταλικοί/Italici,
προσδιορισμοί που συχνά συνοδεύονται από όρους, όπως consistentes,
qui consistunt/negotiantur/morantur, κατοικοῦντες, παρεπιδημοῦντες,
πραγματευόμενοι κ.α. Οι κοινότητες αυτές μαρτυρούνται σε όλο το
ρωμαϊκό κόσμο, από το Δούναβη ως τη βόρεια Αφρική κι από την
Ιβηρική χερσόνησο και τη Βρετανία μέχρι τη Συρία, ενώ δεν λείπουν
ενδείξεις της παρουσίας τους κι ακόμη βαθύτερα στην Ανατολή καθώς και πέρα από τα βόρεια σύνορα του ρωμαϊκού κράτους.
Ο ρυθμός εξάπλωσης αυτών των κοινοτήτων, η πιθανότητα εσωτερικής τους οργάνωσης, οι βασικές οικονομικές τους δραστηριότητες, οι τρόποι με τους οποίους προσπαθούν να ενταχθούν ή να διακριθούν στις κοινωνίες που τους φιλοξενούν, θα πρέπει να διερευνηθούν ξεχωριστά για κάθε περιοχή λαμβάνοντας υπ’ όψιν τις κατά τόπους ιδιαιτερότητες και αξιοποιώντας τα διαθέσιμα γραπτά και αρχαιολογικά τεκμήρια. Είναι ωστόσο γενική η διαπίστωση ότι υπήρξε πολύ σημαντικός ο ρόλος των κοινοτήτων αυτών στην κοινωνική και οικονομική ζωή, ακόμη και στη διαμόρφωση μιας νέας φυσιογνωμίας, των περιοχών όπου εγκαταστάθηκαν μόνιμα ή παροδικά, καθώς επρόκειτο για ένα τεράστιο ανθρώπινο δυναμικό που μετακινήθηκε γεμάτο ενθουσιασμό για αναζήτηση του κέρδους, με την σχετική ασφάλεια που παρείχε η σύνδεση με τη Ρώμη μέσα στην «παγκοσμιοποιημένη» οικονομική πραγματικότητα της ύστερης ελληνιστικής και της ρωμαϊκής εποχής.
November 29, 2018, 7 p.m.
The Netherlands Institute at Athens, Library (Makri 11, Athens)
Abstract
This talk will discuss the epigraphic and literary evidence for women’s membership in palaistrai and gymnasia, as well as their victories in the games of the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods in the Greek world. It will become evident that, in spite of the small number of inscriptions and literary references that survive on the topic, we can accept that athleticism and its venues were not an all-male sphere as previously thought, but one where young women athletes participated in and competed at local and Panhellenic festivals.
"What's New in Roman Greece?. Recent Work on the Greek Mainland and the Island in the Roman Period". Eds. V. DI NAPOLI, F. CAMIA, V. EVANGELIDIS, D. GRIGOROPOULOS, D. ROGERS, S. VLIZOS. Meletemata 80 (2019).
This event is organized by the Roman Seminar Research Group and the National Hellenic Research Foundations (EIE).
It will be presented by: S. KREMYDI, V. DI NAPOLI, K. WINTHER-JACOBSEN and P. KARANASTASI.
Monday, 3 June 2019, 'Doro Levi Lecture Hall', 7.00 p.m.
da remoto:
Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/nvq-bnij-eqm