BMCR 2009.03.43, Catherine Grandjean, Le Pe/loponne\se d'Epaminondas

Catherine Grandjean (ed.), Le Pe/loponne\se d'Epaminondas a\ Hadrien:
Colloque de Tours, 6-7 octobre 2005. E/tudes, 21.  Pessac:  Ausonius,
2008.  Pp. 424.  ISBN 9782910023898.  EUR 35.00.

Reviewed by R. Malcolm Errington, Philipps-Universitaet Marburg
([email protected])
Word count:  1513 words
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Catherine Grandjean has united in this book the 19 papers given at an
international conference held at Tours in October 2005. Most of the
papers are in French, but six are in English. As is usual with such
publications, extensive footnotes have been added by the authors and
the editors provide a useful composite bibliography and invaluable
indices. The chief aim of the conference, which is addressed with
varying intensity by the individual authors, was to explore the extent
to which the complaints of ancient authors, above all Polybius, Strabo
and Plutarch, about Greece having suffered a decline of some kind
during the Hellenistic and early Imperial periods, are justified or at
least supported by the archaeological and epigraphic evidence. The
specific focus on the Peloponnese reflects in the first instance the
interests of the participants, but also results from the certainly
correct perception that Greek history in the Hellenistic and Roman
periods remains largely regional, just as before. One of the most
useful implicit conclusions of the book is that within the Peloponnese,
local or regional variation, resulting from geographical position,
traditional social structure, or the regionally changing overall
political situation, remained characteristic, despite the pressures
towards political unification from the Achaean League or the Roman
provincial system.

The book is divided into two major sections, the first concerning the
Peloponnese as a whole (8 papers), the second (11 papers) concerning
specific regions. As with all such publications, this is inevitably
rather a mixed bag--or, put positively, there is something for
everybody!--despite the editorial efforts to provide a structure. It
begins with an extremely critical essay by John Bintliff on the mainly
disappointing results of survey archaeology for a larger historical
picture. He emphasizes the methodological differences of the various
surveys, making comparison virtually impossible, and particularly
recommends his own Thespian project (which does not help the
Peloponnese much). But is this really the future of field survey, when
a project runs for 27 years before the final results begin to be
published? Graham Shipley's investigation of the "Macedonian
Peloponnese" is equally critical of the historical viability of the
results of field survey. Perceived change shows strong regional
variations--hardly surprisingly, coastal regions have more
archaeologically perceptible contact with the rest of Greece than
inland areas--and many factors other than Macedonian influence may have
played a part, although Macedonian garrisons certainly affected the
inter-relationship of rivalling elite groups in the cities.

Athanasios Rizakis and Yannis Touratsoglou offer a survey of the
Peloponnesian economy in the Hellenistic period, emphasizing the
central importance of regional production for regional consumption.
Major building operations were increasingly dependent on external
gift-financing and coinage was either used for payments to mercenaries
or served merely regional or local purposes. Only Korinth retained some
"international" importance. A numismatic aspect of the same phenomenon
is addressed by Christoph Boehringer, who draws attention to the fact
that a great many Peloponnesian coins--Achaian triobols--belong to the
first century and were issued as Roman military currency. Jennifer
Warren suggests that the unified Achaian bronze coinage was issued fora
relatively short period around the time of the Third Macedonian War
and speculates about a coinage decree giving the design and fixing
quotas for each city. A minor point: the Sestos decree for Menas (OGIS
339) is concerned with civic pride in the city's issuing its own bronze
coins for its own use (so L.Robert), not  with "publicity for the
city's emblem"(p.65).

Christoph Chandezon offers a useful survey of the written sources for
pastoral activity in the Peloponnese and draws attention to the grants
of epinomia in Laconia and eastern Arkadia, relating them to pastoral
activity in the mountainous inter-city border areas (the exchatiai),
where neighborhood disputes had traditionally been common. He sees no
evidence for an increase in extensive transhumance in the early
Imperial period, as postulated by S. Alcock. Christine Hoe+t-van
Cauwenberghe surveys the relationship of female members of the
Julio-Claudian House, especially Livia, with the Peloponnese, whereby
the well-known Laconian contexts (Iulius Eurykles and the Gytheion
inscriptions) are the real subject. She emphasizes correctly the
dynastic aspects of the honors recorded at Gytheion, though this is
hardly new, and a more general Peloponnesian context is not available.
Sophia Zoumbaki surveys Latin personal names in the Peloponnese with
the aim of finding aspects of "romanisation", but apart from having
major dating problems with much of her material Zoumbaki merely sees
lots of special cases and sensibly prefers to put two factors in the
foreground: the interaction with the Roman colonies in the area and
simple fashion, rather than any deep-seated conscious or unconscious
adaptation of Latin ways.

Part II, entitled Regional Approaches, begins with Nadine Deshours'
survey of the function of religion to help provide a civic identity at
the new city community of Messene. In particular, the strong presence
of Asklepios in his specifically Messenian manifestation, apparently
not (primarily) as a god of healing, in the second  century BC, when
major investments in the building program were made, suggests that
particular efforts were being made to assert a specifically Messenian
civic identity, just at the time when the city was incorporated into
the Achaian League. The importance of the Asklepieion continued into
the Roman period, when it became the Messenian location for the ruler
cult. Religion was thus at Messene no empty shell, but an important
structural aspect of civic identity. Nino Luraghi discusses the
epigraphical material related to Saithaidas Caelianus and Pausanias's
attitude to the self-representation of local elites in the second
century AD, while Pierre Froehlich draws attention to the unparalleled
number of intramural family tombs in Hellenistic Messene, which he
relates to the lack of a real old heroic tradition in Messene. The
major families of the ruling oligarchs chose to monumentalize their
familial qualities through such self-representation within the urban
environment  that they controlled, and indeed emphasized their own
innate superiority by the aristocratic understatement of inscribing
only individual names and not the long accounts of personal
achievements that we know from the democratically organized cities in
the Hellenistic period. Froehlich also offers several reconstituted,
inevitably rather speculative, stemmata of  Messenian families,
including that of the sculptor Damophon. Le/opold Migeotte examines the
organization of the "eight-obol eisphora", the levy on property raised
for Rome around 70 B.C. He notes that the inscriptions  that inform us
about this also reveal the sophisticated  complexity of the social and
fiscal structure of Messene at this time and illustrate in particular
the central importance of the council and its secretary; the levy as a
proportion of capital (1.33%) can be paralleled at Athens. He also
includes a useful detailed table of the accounts of the levy.

Three papers concern Elis. Sophie Minon relates the decline of the
local dialect to the increasing exposure to outside influence,
beginning with the Macedonians under Philip II and ending with the
incorporation of Elis into the Achaean League at the beginning of the
second century BC, after which the dialect was no longer written. James
Roy's survey of settlement and economic change in the late Hellenistic
and early Roman periods suffers, as he willingly admits, from lack of
good evidence. The Olympic Games had their ups and downs, but in
general continued to be popular and well-attended throughout, but
otherwise Elis seems to have remained merely a reasonably prosperous
agricultural area. Frank Wojan discusses Pausanias's reference
(6.24.10) to a dilapidated temple at Elis, which also served the ruler
cult. He sees, however, no deeper meaning in this report--neither a
criticism of the ruler cult nor of the Eleans--other than a simple
statement of what Pausanias saw. This seems likely to be correct.

Three papers on Laconia follow.  Jean-Christophe Couvenhes offers an
important critical and largely convincing account of the evidence for
the alleged "mercenary market" at Tainaron in the last third of the
fourth century B.C. Couvenhes argues that Tainaron was no more than a
strategically situated Spartan naval base, also used as a military
assembly point, where under Alexander for specific reasons Harpalos and
Leosthenes left already hired groups of mercenaries for short periods.
The evidence, which Couvenhes cites and translates, will not bear the
standard interpretation as a major hiring market. One may perhaps add
that the very remoteness of Tainaron, which was only easily accessible
by sea, will have added to its attractiveness for the Spartans as a
rallying point for such rough characters: the waiting mercenaries, at a
loose end, had no major settlement in the area where they could
rampage. Laure Thromas shows how widespread the Athena cult was in
Laconia and emphasizes the suitability of the warlike Athena
Chalkioikos for militaristic Sparta. Jean-Sebastien Balzat explores the
relationship of the family of Eurykles to the koinon of the
Eleutherolaconians, and with Bowersock relates the name of the
Eleutherolaconians to a grant by a grateful Octavian for support in the
Actium campaign; Eurykles' especially close relationship with the
koinon is illustrated by the expression of kedemonia.

This useful volume ends with a short paper drawing attention to a
neglected rock sanctuary of Artemis near Phlious and a summary of the
papers by Jean Andreau.