Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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A BIAA Online Lecture by Bradley Jordan.

This lecture investigates how civic decrees—resolutions taken by the core administrative bodies of Greek-speaking communities, the ‘demos’ (people) and ‘boule’ (council)—operated as part of a dialogue between communities in the province of Asia and the Roman state during the Late Republic. It asks what role these decrees played in negotiating the relationship with the Roman state and its representatives through examining how poleis engaged with individual Romans honorifically, analysing different strategies employed by cities, and interrogating the effectiveness of these attempts in forging ongoing, useful relationships with the elite Romans and the Roman state. Consequently, it explores how the language of these decrees came to define local views of and engagement with the Roman ‘empire’ in Asia.

Find out more via the BIAA website: biaa.ac.uk/events/civic-patrons-and-common-benefactors-the-language-of-honour-in-roman-asia-during-the-late-republic