AgoraXV 272 Honours for the prytany treasurer of Leontis

Honours for the prytany treasurer of Leontis

Agora XV 272 Date: mid-1st century BC

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-lios son of Hero[des]^[1] [M]anios (son of [M]anios)^[2] Aithalidai: [Epi]thetes son of Antikrates (5)[Kephis]odoros (son of [Kephis]odoros) [Arte]mon (son of [Arte]mon) -s (son of -s) Potamos: - son of -es

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(10) Cholleidai: Zenon (son of Zenon) Philomelos son of Eumelos Apollodoros son of Boethos Manius Braccius^[2] (15)Kettos: Agathokles son of Ergochares

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uninscribed space Ph- [deme]: Ai-

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References:

Agora XV 272 (Translated text) (PHI)

IG II² 1754 (PHI)

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Base or post?

Inscription type: Decree (Council)?

Findspot: Athens ("on the Koile Road") (EM 9643)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is part of a catalogue of prytaneis of Leontis from a post-Sullan prytany decree (see SEG 28.95 with notes). [2] Manius Braccius of Cholleidai (l. 14) was a Roman citizen, indicated by the fact that he is named with the Roman tria nomina: a praenomen (personal name; in this case, Manius) followed by a nomen (family name; Braccius), with an optional cognomen (additional personal name; absent in this case). This contrasts with the normal Greek naming system used for the other prytaneis: personal name followed by patronymic. Men with the tria nomina first appear in Attic inscriptions in the mid-first century BC (S. G. Byrne in D. Jordan and J. Traill, Lettered Attica, 2003, 10). This inscription is one of the earliest examples, along with SEG 53.187, Agora XV 280, l. 10, and IG II² 1716, ll. 128–130. Before this, Athenian inscriptions used the Greek naming system for Romans (i.e. praenomen + father's praenomen; see AIUK 2 (BSA), no. 8). The two systems coexisted until the mid-first century AD, making it difficult to tell whether individuals like Manios son of Manios in l. 2 were Roman citizens who had received Athenian citizenship or native Athenians whose parents had chosen to give them Latin personal names (cf. IG II³ 4, 275), although the fact that Manios' own father also bore a Latin name may increase the probability that he was of Roman origin. Manius/Manios is a very rare name in Latin and Greek; the two men are presumably connected somehow, but the nature of the link is unclear.

Although Manius Braccius was a Roman citizen, his appearance in this list shows that he had also received Athenian citizenship and was actively exercising it. His funerary monument (IG II² 7803) also presents him as simultaneously Roman and Athenian. Athenians were occasionally awarded Roman citizenship from the age of Augustus (e.g. Antipatros of Phlya in 16 BC, see AIUK 2 (BSA) pp. 21–22), but this did not become common until the 40s AD under Claudius. Before this, Roman citizens in Athens are most likely to be Romans or their freedmen who been granted Athenian citizenship. In a speech of 56 BC, Cicero claims that Romans who assumed the citizenship of another community legally forfeited their Roman citizenship, but he also notes that this rule was widely unknown and that many Romans had taken up Athenian citizenship in particular (Cic. Balb. 28–30, cf. Nep. Att. 3.1). Athenian citizens with Latin names, who might therefore be Romans or other Italians, are attested epigraphically from ca. 150 BC onwards, appearing as citizen ephebes from 123/2 BC (IG II² 1006+1031+2485, iii l. 132, iv ll. 107, 116–17, 122–23) and occasionally in religious roles (e.g. IG II² 1938, ll. 37, 40). However, their numbers increased significantly after the Sullan Sack in 86 BC. Byrne finds that Romans form less than 1% of attested Athenians before 86 BC, but ca. 5–10% of prytaneis, tribesmen, genos members, and citizen ephebes in the period from 86 BC to the mid-first century AD (Byrne 2003, 12–19, with list; cf. S.Follet, in C.Müller, C.Hasenohr, Les Italiens dans le monde Grec, 2002, 79-88). This is also the period in which prytaneis with Latin names - who might or might not be of Roman origin - begin to appear (there is only one earlier prytanis with a Latin name: Gaios of Azenia in Agora XV 226, l. 45, ca. 155 BC). However, despite the large numbers on Roman councillors, only one Roman is attested as a prytany treasurer (Marcus Fulvius -os in Agora XV 301) and Romans remained rare in the highest magistracies: the archonships, hoplite generalship, and heraldship of the Areopagos (Byrne 2003, 9). Two probable Romans appear as archons in 56/5 BC and perhaps 59/8 BC (Quintus and Lucius/Leukios, IG II² 1716, ll. 120, 135; 1717, ll. 1–2) and two more as thesmothetai in 56/5 BC and ca. 8 BC (IG II² 1717, l. 13; 1722, ll. 9, 12). According to Cassius Dio 54.7.2, Augustus banned the Athenians from "making anyone a citizen for money," which might have led to a decline in Romans receiving Athenian citizenship thereafter, but it is unclear exactly what Dio means or how long this ban lasted. 1st century AD sources provide little evidence for or against grants of citizenship (high-profile cases like IG II³ 4, 130 and 559 may not be representative). In the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, grants of Athenian citizenship to Romans and others seem to have been common (e.g. IG II³ 629).

Added: 24 Sep 2023
Updated: 24 Sep 2023
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