BMCR 2009.04.10: Liddel on Smith, The Archaeology and Epigraphy of Hellenistic and Roman

Philip J. Smith, The Archaeology and Epigraphy of Hellenistic and Roman
Megaris, Greece. BAR International Series; 1762.  Oxford:  John and
Erica Hedges Ltd., 2008.  Pp. xii, 276.  ISBN 9781407302126.  L53.00
(pb).

Reviewed by Peter Liddel, University of Manchester
([email protected])
Word count:  1192 words
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P. J. Smith identifies three important gaps in the modern scholarship
on the ancient Megarid: (a) the absence of any serious study of
Megarian inscriptions since that of Dittenberger in IG VII of 1892; (b)
the very preliminary nature of published topographical surveys (the
1972 work of Sakellariou and Pharaklas is said to be 'not very thorough
because of circumstances in Greece at the time' (1)); (c) the tendency
of modern historical studies of Megara to concentrate on the period to
the end of the fourth century BC. This useful study of the topography,
archaeology and institutions of the Hellenistic and Roman Megarid goes
some way in addressing gap (b).

The publication, based on a McGill dissertation of 2000, is divided
into five chapters. Chapter 1 is a short survey of the geography and
geology of the Megarid. Chapter 2 is of a catalogue of 47 known
Megarian sites. Some of these (like Megara, Aegosthena and Pagai) are
well-known, but most of them are obscure rural fortifications or tower
sites. The catalogue, which lies at the scholarly heart of this study,
is clearly organised, giving the modern name of the site, its location,
a bibliography, a report of visible remains and their dating, and an
overview of the ceramic material and inscriptions at each site. There
follows in each case a discussion of their identification (many of them
are impossible to locate with certainty: an Appendix and series of maps
are dedicated to the identification of Nisaia and Minoa (153-66) and
another to the identification of Ereneia (167-72)). This is followed by
a brief discussion of the settlement patterns from the Neolithic to the
Roman period. Smith identifies two sudden increases in the number of
sites: a lesser one in the Middle Helladic period and one in the
Classical period. He observes that the Hellenistic period saw a slight
increase in the number of sites from 42 to 43 (80); the Roman period
saw a substantial drop, but most of the lost sites were military
installations no longer needed under the Romans (2). There is a short
note on the main roadways, signalling and defence systems in the
Megarid, and Smith draws the conclusion that, in the fourth century,
the whole Megarid was well served with interstate lines of
communication (92).

Chapter 3 consists of a summary of ancient Megarian history. Smith
emphasises Megarian 'would-be neutrality' (105) and commercialism,
suggesting that the city of Megara in the archaic period exported clay
cultic figurines to its colonies 'as a religious connection to the cult
centre' (98). Chapter 4 draws on epigraphical texts to survey the
Hellenistic and Roman political and religious institutions of Megara
and to sketch the relations she enjoyed with other states in the same
period. This chapter performs several useful services. The overview of
Roman and Hellenistic magistracies is unprecedented in its level of
detail; Smith also proposes a reconstruction of the Megarian cultic
calendar on the basis of comparative evidence from Megarian colonies
and other Doric states (143: it is a great shame that the process of
typesetting has mangled the transliteration of Greek at this point) and
makes a good case for the Apollo as the most important deity to
residents of the Megarid. The collection of data on Megarian interstate
relations from the beginning of the Hellenistic period is also unique
and leads to some interesting points on the impact of Megarian
commercialism on its diplomatic habits. A survey of honorific decrees
(unfortunately Smith fails to discuss Urban's controversial redating of
Megarian proxeny decrees to the era of Demetrius Poliorcetes[[1]]) and
the evidence for Megarian dikastai as interstate arbitrators leads
Smith to suggest that the Megarians were 'perhaps the first nation in
history' to pursue a 'policy' of neutrality (129). One wonders,
however, whether neutrality was really a passive reaction to larger
external pressures rather than a substantive policy. The section on the
Roman period highlights changes and continuities in Megarian political
and religious institutions; Smith offers the idea that Megara's
position as a commercial centre and route hub allowed her to maintain
the level of prosperity that is suggested by the evidence for frequent
dedications of honorific statues (which are usefully catalogued at
146-7) in the first four centuries of the Imperial period (133).

Chapter 5 offers some important conclusions: importantly, Smith
observes that the number of inhabited settlements in the Megarid
remained unchanged at 15 between the Classical and Hellenistic periods
(149). As Smith points out much earlier (2), the number of attested
settlements and/or cemeteries increased from 15 to 20 between the
Hellenistic and the Roman periods. Such a conclusion militates against
the literary impression of a decline in the vitality of Hellenistic and
Roman Greece: in the case of Megara, it may be the case that the
infrequency with which Megarian affairs postdating Alexander are
mentioned in the literary sources is an upshot of her neutrality rather
than her decline. The pattern should also be compared with the results
of recent archaeological surveys that have pointed to an overall drop
in the number of attested rural settlements in the later Hellenistic
period whilst recognising regional deviations.[[2]] Caution, of course
is necessary, as the sample from Megara is very small. An appendix
reproduces the texts of inscriptions cited, but Smith offers no new
readings and does not appear to have autopsied the material.

The main scholarly contribution of this work is the catalogue of sites;
the account of political and religious offices and the considerations
of the honorific epigraphy of Megara are also welcome. The maps which
illustrate these sites must be among the most detailed ever published
for the Megarid. This is a book based on careful scholarship;[[3]] the
topographical surveys draw on previous studies and personal autopsy
were carried out by Smith in 1996. However, in many senses, this is a
preliminary publication: the scanty nature of the evidence leads Smith
to remind us of the many difficulties in reconstructing Megarian
history (he is cautious about his own reconstruction of the Megarian
calendar, given that Megara, Aegosthena and Pagai may have used
separate calendars and the possibility that the Megarians did not give
names to some or all of their months (150)). One therefore eagerly
awaits further work on the ancient Megarid, in particular that of
Adrian Robu at the Universite/ de Neucha^tel (on the relations between
Megara and its colonies) and ongoing archaeological publication. The
inscriptions of ancient Megara still await a modern edition. Some of
Smith's broader conclusions need reworking: in particular, his ideas
about the Megarian 'policy' of neutrality ('much like Switzerland'
(150)) would benefit from reconsideration in the light of recent
scholarship on the nature of Greek interstate relations. Smith's
collection of material for the Megarid as a whole also offers a
potential case-study for thinking about the ways in which Greek
communities functioned in clusters other than the polis. The data
collected in this publication requires integration in the broader
picture of epigraphical and documentary habits and settlement patterns
in Hellenistic and Roman central Greece. It should also be said that
the standard of production frequently disappoints in terms of
formatting, transliteration, typography, and reproduction of
photographs.


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Notes:


1.   R. Urban, Wachstum und Krise des achaeischen Bundes.
Quellenstudien zur Entwicklung des Bundes von 280 bis 222 v. Chr.,
Weisbaden, 1979, 66-70.

2.   See Shipley, G., 'Between Macedonia and Rome: Political Landscapes
and Social Change in Southern Greece in the Early Hellenistic Period'
ABSA 100, (2005) 315-330, at 328-30 and Oliver, G., War, Food, and
Politics in Early Hellenistic Athens, Oxford, 2007, 108-9.

3.   One item of relevant bibliography not mentioned is Lohmann's
survey of shepherds' precincts in the Megarid: H. Lohmann, 'Antike
Hirten in Westkleinasien und der Megaris: Zur Archaeologie der
mediterranen Weidewirtschaft', 63-88 in Walter Eder and Karl-Joachim
Hoelkeskamp (eds.), Volk und Verfassung im vorhellenistischen
Griechenland, Beitraege auf dem Symposium zu Ehren von Karl-Wilhelm
Welwei in Bochum, 1.-2. Maerz 1996, Stuttgart, 1997.