BMCR 2009.04.57: Fear on Bekker-Nielsen, Urban Life and Local Politics in Roman Bithynia: The Small World of Dion Chrysostomos.

Tonnes Bekker-Nielsen, Urban Life and Local Politics in Roman Bithynia:
The Small World of Dion Chrysostomos. Black Sea Studies, 7.  Aarhus:
Aarhus University Press, 2008.  Pp. 211.  ISBN 9788779343504.  $40.00.


Reviewed by A. T. Fear, University of Manchester
([email protected])
Word count:  1163 words
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Full Text (http://www.pontos.dk/publications/books/black-sea-studies-7)


This volume perhaps slightly belies its title. A reader seeking a
full-length discussion of the world of Dio Chrysostom centred on the
writer himself will be disappointed, as in-depth discussion of Dio is
to be found in only one of its nine chapters. The author also concedes
that much of Bithynia has a sparse archaeological record and that his
monograph will centre on three towns: Nicomedia, Nicaea, and Prusa. The
chronological span of the book is also surprising: it begins before
Rome's acquisition of Bithynia (ch. 2 "Before the Romans") and extends
to late antiquity (ch. 8 "The Bithynian Cities under the Later
Empire").

However, if we are not offered a monograph focussed on Dio and his
times, we are given much by way of compensation. The book provides an
excellent introduction to the study of municipal life and politics in
the Roman World. Bekker-Nielsen provides a series of chapters which
introduce the nature of the politics found in the Roman East and the
nature of the sources which provide our insights into this small, but
intense world. The starting point in this discussion is that of rivalry
within and between cities and the potential power of "informal"
politics. The stage is well set, but it is surprising that no reference
is made, even in passing, to the work of Dio's near contemporary
Plutarch, the Precepts of Statecraft, which deals precisely with
municipal Imperial politics in the Greek East of the Empire.

Chapter Five is a discussion of the political institutions of both
Bithynia itself and how these local arrangements were integrated into
the running of the empire as a whole. Here Bekker-Nielsen is inclined
to be more sceptical than many about the role played by the Provincial
Council in this regard, arguing that the view for heavy engagement by
the Council in these matters is based mainly on argumenta ex silentio.
Chapter Six deals with the "Political Class" of the province. Here
Bekker-Nielsen argues that the assumption made by many other writers
that the ruling class in Bithynian cities in the early Imperial period
had a high-element of Italo-Roman immigrants, whom he curiously styles
kulaks, in its composition is unlikely and that we should rather see
continuity from the past combined with a parochial indifference to the
possibilities of having an Imperial career. This seems a highly
plausible position. A description of the various levels of politics,
local (municipal), regional (provincial), and Imperial (empire-wide) is
given and usefully illustrated by specific individuals whose careers
have survived for us recorded on epigraphy.

Dio's life and local career is covered by a discussion of his
"municipal" orations, for which a chronology (differing a little from
that given by C.P. Jones in his Roman World of Dio Chrysostom,
Cambridge, Ma., 1978) is provided in an appendix, though without a
presentation of arguments as to how this chronology was constructed. It
is a shame that some analysis of Dio's Orations on Kingship is not
given, as the views of a provincial intellectual on what constituted an
ideal ruler would have fitted well with the discussion of the relations
of local and imperial politics found in chapter five. It is argued that
Dio's conversion to a philosopher's life may have been a
rationalisation of the cold reality that he would never be able to
attain wealth on the scale of the Imperial elite at Rome. We are told
that "it would not be unlike Dion to transform the tale of his failure
at Rome into a narrative of divine inspiration at Delphi". This
statement, and others similar to it, assume that the reader is already
familiar with Dio's works and perhaps a little more by way of a
character sketch at the beginning of this chapter would have been
helpful to orientate readers without this prior depth of knowledge. Dio
is seen, to some degree, as a supporter of the common man, but much of
this argument is based on the hostility of other aristocrats to him and
his aloofness from the machinery of civic politics on his retrun from
exile. However, both these factors could be explained by tensions
internal to the aristocracy of Prusa and the weakness of Dio's
political powerbase after his return from exile rather than any
democratic sympathies on his part. Surprisingly little is made of
Oration 46 and the social tensions it reveals in the social fabric of
Prusa, and a more detailed discussion of the possible reasons for the
trouble which led to the temporary suspension of Prusa's assembly would
have been valuable. Dio's quarrels and his relations with Roman
officials, notably the Younger Pliny, and officialdom are dealt with
ably. Enoch Powell once remarked that "all political careers end in
failure" and Bekker-Nielsen believes this to be true of Dio,
constructing an intriguing argument that Dio's Euboean oration is in
fact Dio's political testament to the world.

In a substantial chapter on the late empire, Bekker-Nielsen argues that
practical considerations rather than political rivalry led Nicaea,
disastrously as events proved, to support Pescennius Niger rather than
Septimius Severus in the Roman Civil War at the end of the second
century AD. The arguments adduced are a valuable contribution to the
history of the period; nevertheless, given the intense rivalry between
the two cities, it is hard to see Nicaea being overly reluctant to take
the opposite side to that supported by its hated rival in any quarrel.
The chronological sequence of the chapter is a little curious with the
discussion of crisis of the third century following the account of
Bithynia in the late third and fourth centuries. Given the prominence
of Nicomedia as an imperial capital in this later period it is equally
surprising that the crisis period is covered in greater depth.

The book ends with a discussion of theories of how to interpret
political life in the Empire. Bekker-Nielsen is harsh on Paul Veyne,
but his criticisms of Veyne's model of politics on the grounds that it
is undermined by social mobility within the Roman aristocracy is not
overly convincing. There is also an odd assertion that neither wealth
per se nor association with "celebrities" played an important role
within the battle for status. Neither of these seems correct.
Bekker-Nielsen asserts that aristocratic (and one assumes by extension,
Imperial) friendships with gladiators and the like were not entered
into for the status they conveyed, but fails to provide an alternative
reason for this behaviour which is surely necessary. However, his
notion, developing the approach of Honneth (Kampf um Anerkennung,
Frankfurt, 1992) that Roman municipal politics was centred around a
"struggle for recognition" is a convincing and valuable addition to be
debate in this area.

In sum, this book delivers both more and less than the reader of its
title may imagine. However, it is a valuable contribution to the debate
over the nature of provincial political life in the Roman Empire and
would make an excellent starting point for courses on this subject.



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