Greece in the Roman era

'''Greece in the Roman era''' ({{langx|el|Έλλάς}}, {{langx|la|Graecia}}) refers to the period of [[ancient Greece]] (roughly the territory of the modern nation-state of [[Greece]]) as well as that of the [[Greeks|Greek people]] and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically, from the [[Roman Republic]]'s [[Achaean War|conquest of mainland Greece]] in 146 BC until the division of the [[Roman Empire]] in [[late antiquity]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Austin|first=M.M.|title=The Hellenistic world from Alexander to the Roman conquest : a selection of ancient sources in translation|date=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-82860-4|oclc=813628501}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Waterfield|first=Robin|title=Taken at the flood: the Roman conquest of Greece|isbn=978-0-19-876747-3|oclc=972308960|year=2014}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=Until the Roman Conquest, 272–146|date=2014|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9780755694549.ch-012|work=A Short History of Ancient Greece|publisher=I.B.Tauris|doi=10.5040/9780755694549.ch-012 |isbn=978-1-78076-593-8|access-date=2021-07-11|url-access=subscription}}</ref> It covers the periods when Greece was dominated first by the [[Roman Republic]] and then by the [[Roman Empire]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Finlay|first1= George|last2=Fanshawe Tozer|first2=Harry|title=A history of Greece, from its conquest by the Romans to the present time B.C. 146 to A.D. 1864|publisher=Hansebooks|location=Norderstedt|date=2017|isbn=978-3-337-11847-1|oclc=1189729109}}</ref>

[[File:Putz123.jpg|thumb|The provincial subdivision of Roman Greece]] The Roman Republic had been steadily gaining control of [[mainland Greece]] in the [[Macedonian Wars]] with the [[Fourth Macedonian War]] ending in 148 BC with the final defeat of Macedonia. Two years later the Roman era began with the [[Ancient Corinth|Corinthian]] defeat in the [[Battle of Corinth (146 BC)|Battle of Corinth]] in 146 BC.

The Roman era of Greek history continued with Emperor [[Constantine the Great]]'s adoption of [[Byzantium]] as ''Nova Roma'', the capital city of the [[Roman Empire]]; in 330 AD, the city was renamed [[Constantinople]]. After the death of [[Theodosius I]] in 395 AD, the Roman Empire split into the [[Western Roman Empire|Western]] and the [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern Roman Empire]] (known historiographically as the Byzantine Empire), the latter of which had a thriving Greco-Roman culture.

Greeks still see the Roman period of occupation as a negative period between the city state period and the [[Eastern Roman Empire]].{{sfn|Kouremenos|2019|pp=37-38}}

==Conquest of Greece== [[File:Second Roman–Macedonian War-en.svg|thumb|right|300px|The Roman conquest of Ancient Greece in the 2nd century BC]] Rome came into contact with Greek political culture first in [[Magna Graecia]], the Greek colonies in Southern Italy and Sicily{{sfn|Ferguson|2013}} and following Rome's victory in the [[Pyrrhic War]] in 275 BC, most of the cities of southern Italy came under Rome's indirect control.{{sfn|Lane Fox|2005|p=307}}

The Roman Republic had been steadily gaining control of [[mainland Greece]] by repeatedly defeating the [[Kingdom of Macedon]] in a series of conflicts known as the [[Macedonian Wars]]. In the [[Second Macedonian War]] the [[Achaean League]] allied with Rome against Macedonia in 197 BC.<ref>{{cite web |title = Achaea |website = The Latin Library |url = https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/historians/notes/achaea.html |publisher = The Latin Library |access-date = 28 February 2026}}</ref> Macedonia came under full Roman control when its king [[Perseus of Macedon|Perseus]] was defeated in the [[Third Macedonian War]] by the Roman [[Aemilius Paullus]] at [[Pydna]] in 168 BC, with the Romans initially dividing the region into [[four smaller republics]].{{sfn|Nigdelis|2007|p=51}}

The republics collapsed when a Macedonian royal pretender, [[Andriscus]], took power and the [[Fourth Macedonian War]] commenced, which ended at the [[Battle of Pydna (148 BC)|Battle of Pydna]] in 148 BC with a Roman victory, which Rome used to make [[Macedonia (Roman province)|Macedonia]] a [[Roman province]]<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Andriscus|volume=1|page=975}}</ref> with a permanent [[Roman garrison]].{{sfn|Nigdelis|2007|p=53}} The [[Greek peninsula]] fell to the [[Roman Republic]] after the [[Battle of Corinth (146 BC)|Fall of Corinth]].<ref name=romanhist>[https://romanhistory.org/provincias/provincia-achaea Provincia Achaea], [https://romanhistory.org romanhistory.org]</ref> Meanwhile, southern Greece also came under Roman [[hegemony]]. [[File:Sack of Corinth by Thomas Allom 1870.jpg|thumb|The Sack of Corinth by [[Thomas Allom]], ca. 1870.]]

==Roman Republic== After the Achaean League collapsed a commission of the [[Roman Senate]] reorganized Greece as a Roman dependency{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} although scholars disagree on whether or not Achaia was formally incorporated into the [[province of Macedonia]] following this defeat,{{sfn|Vanderspoel|2010|p=256}} but intermittent interventions in Achaian affairs by the governors are attested.{{sfn|Papazoglou|1979|p=311}} Some key Greek ''[[polis|poleis]]'' such as [[Athens under Roman rule|Athens]] and Sparta remained as [[Free city (classical antiquity)|free cities]], which were partly autonomous and avoided direct Roman taxation, and other cities enjoyed local self-government.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} Rome did transfer government from more democratic parties to more propertied classes, who had an interest in links with Rome.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} Rome insisted on dissolving the leagues between cities and restricted direct trade between the Greek cities.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}}

Little land was confiscated, although there was a land tax.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} There were disputes about property rights after the Roman invasion, although the historian Polybius was charged by the Roman Senate with mediating many of them. But Greece was generally such a quiet province that the Romans allowed the cities to form leagues again.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}}

The [[Via Egnatia]] was built in the second century BC to aid the fast movement of troops between the Adriatic and the Aegean.{{sfn|Nigdelis|2007|p=54}}

In 88 BC in the [[First Mithridatic War]], Athens and other Greek city-states [[Siege of Athens and Piraeus (87–86 BC)|revolted]] against Rome.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} Part of the resentment towards Rome was due to the suppression of democracy.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} The revolt was suppressed by General [[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/siege_athens_87_bc.html |title= The Siege of Athens (Autumn del 87 BC-Summer 86 BC)|access-date=8 January 2011 |publisher=HistoryofWar.org }}</ref> although the military campaign inflicted great economic harm on Central Greece.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}}

Piracy was an issue for the islands and coastal areas due to the lack of a strong fleet in Greek waters, and while [[Pompey's campaign against the pirates]] the fact that many of the pirates were resettled in Achaea shows the depopulation that they had brought about.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}}

Greece largely sided with Pompey in the [[Caesar's civil war|civil war]] with [[Julius Caesar]] and supplied him with his fleet.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} It was the scene of the decisive [[Battle of Pharsalus]] in [[Caesar's civil war]] in 48 BC that marked Caeser's defeat of [[Pompey]] and the [[end of the Roman Republic]]. In the [[Liberators' civil war|war]] following the [[assassination of Caeser]] Greece largely backed the assassins.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} After the [[Second Triumvirate]] won the [[Battle of Philippi]] in 42 BC, [[Augustus|Octavius]] and [[Mark Antony]] divided the Republic's lands with Antony taking the east, including Greece, and at times using [[Roman Athens|Athens]] as his base.{{sfn|Holland|2004|p=369}} During the Roman civil wars, Greece was physically and economically devastated by the financial demands of supporting Mark Antony{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} until [[Augustus]] organised grain supplies{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} and the created the province of [[Achaea (province)|Achaea]], in 27 BC.<ref name=romanhist />

The definitive Roman occupation of the Greek world was established after the [[Battle of Actium]] (31 BC), in which [[Augustus]] defeated [[Cleopatra VII]], the [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Greek Ptolemaic]] queen of Egypt, and the Roman general [[Mark Antony]],{{sfn|Ferguson|2013}} and afterwards conquered [[Alexandria]] (30 BC), the last great city of [[Hellenistic Egypt]].{{citation needed|date=May 2026}}

With the establishment of direct trade routes between Italy and the Levant, Greece became less prosperous.{{sfn|Bourchier|1911}} and added to the devastation cause by the military campaigns, Rome's intital conquest of Greece damaged the [[Economy of ancient Greece|economy]], but it readily recovered under Roman administration in the postwar period.{{cn|date=February 2026}} Moreover, the [[Greek cities in Asia Minor]] recovered from the Roman conquest more rapidly than the cities of peninsular Greece, which had been much damaged in the war with Sulla.{{cn|date=February 2026}}

==Early Roman Empire== {{History of Greece}}

{{see also|Greco-Roman relations in classical antiquity}} [[File:View_of_the_Roman_Agora_from_Polygnotou_Street_in_Plaka_on_July_1,_2020.jpg|thumb|The Roman Agora of Athens]]

Life in Greece continued under the Roman Empire much the same as it had previously. [[Culture of ancient Rome|Roman culture]] was highly influenced by the Greeks; as [[Horace]] said, ''Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit'' ("Captive Greece captured her rude conqueror").<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Horace|title=Horace – Wikiquote|website=en.wikiquote.org|language=en|access-date=2018-04-27}}</ref> Roman society even claimed to share a cultural lineage with Greece, as exemplified by Virgil's [[Epic poetry|epic]], the ''[[Aeneid]]'', which details their [[founding myth]] of how the Roman people descended from the [[Troy|Trojan]] [[Aeneas]] of [[Homer]]ic lore. Authors such as [[Seneca the Younger]] and [[Ovid]] wrote using Greek styles. Some Roman nobles regarded the Greeks as backwards and petty, but many others embraced [[Greek literature]] and [[Ancient Greek philosophy|philosophy]]. The Greek language became a favorite of the educated and elite in Rome, such as [[Scipio Africanus]], who tended to study [[philosophy]] and regarded Greek culture and science as an example to be followed.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

As an empire, Rome invested resources and rebuilt the cities of Roman Greece, and established Corinth as the capital city of the province of Achaea,{{sfn|Ferguson|2013a}} and Athens prospered as a cultural hub of philosophy, education and knowledge.{{citation needed|date=May 2026}}

The [[Roman Emperor]] [[Nero]] visited Greece in 66 AD, and performed at the [[Ancient Olympic Games]], despite the rules against non-Greek participation. He was honoured with a victory in every contest, and in the following year, he proclaimed the freedom of the Greeks at the [[Isthmian Games]] in Corinth, just as [[Titus Quinctius Flamininus|Flamininus]] had over 200 years previously.<ref>On the proclamation of the freedom of the Greeks see {{harvnb|Ursin|2019|pp=181-186}}.</ref>

[[File:Hadrian and Antinoos.jpg|thumb|Emperor Hadrian and his Greek favorite [[Antinous]] by [[Bartolomeo Pinelli]], ca. 1810.]] Many temples and public buildings were built in Greece by emperors and wealthy Roman nobility, especially in Athens. [[Julius Caesar]] began construction of the [[Roman Agora|Roman agora]] in Athens, which was finished by [[Augustus]]. The main gate, the [[Gate of Athena Archegetis]], was dedicated to the patron goddess of Athens, [[Athena]]. The [[Odeon of Agrippa|Agrippeia]] was built in the centre of the [[Ancient Agora of Athens]] by [[Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa]]. Emperor [[Hadrian]] was a [[philhellenism|philhellene]] who before he became emperor had served as [[eponymous archon]] of Athens. He saw himself as an heir to [[Pericles]] and made many contributions to Athens. He built the [[Library of Hadrian]] in the city and completed the construction of the [[Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens|Temple of Olympian Zeus]], some 638 years after its construction had been started by Athenian tyrants but ended because of the belief that building on such a scale would cause [[hubris]]. The Athenians built the [[Arch of Hadrian (Athens)|Arch of Hadrian]] to honor Emperor Hadrian.{{citation needed|date=May 2026}}

The [[Pax Romana]] was the longest period of peace in Greek history, and Greece became a major crossroads of maritime trade between Rome and the Greek-speaking eastern half of the empire. The [[Koine Greek|Greek language]] served as a ''[[lingua franca]]'' in the eastern provinces and in [[Roman Italy|Italy]], and many Greek intellectuals such as [[Galen]] would perform their work in [[Rome]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}} [[File:V&A - Raphael, St Paul Preaching in Athens (1515).jpg|thumb|Saint Paul preaching in Athens by [[Raphael]], ca 1515]] During this time, Greece and much of the rest of the Roman east came under the influence of [[Early Christianity]]. The apostle [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] [[Tarsus (city)|of Tarsus]] preached in [[Philippi]], Corinth and Athens, and [[Thessaloniki|Thessalonica]] soon became one of the most highly Christianized areas of the empire.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

==Later Roman Empire== {{Further|Byzantine Greece}} [[File:Constantine Directing the Building of Constantinople (tapestry) - 1623-1625.jpg|thumb|Tapestry depicting Constantine founding the city of Constantinople, ca. 1623-1625.]] During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Greece was divided into provinces including [[Achaea (Roman province)|Achaea]], [[Macedonia (Roman province)|Macedonia]], [[Epirus]] and [[Thracia|Thrace]]. During the reign of [[Diocletian]] in the late 3rd century, [[Diocese of Moesiae|Moesia]] was organized as a [[Roman diocese|diocese]], and was ruled by [[Galerius]]. Under Constantine (who professed Christianity) Greece was part of the [[prefecture]]s of Macedonia and Thrace. [[Theodosius I|Theodosius]] divided the prefecture of Macedonia into the provinces of [[Crete and Cyrenaica|Creta]], [[Achaia (Roman province)|Achaea]], [[Macedonia (Roman province)|Thessalia]], [[Epirus (Roman province)|Epirus Vetus]], [[Macedonia (Roman province)|Epirus Nova]], and Macedonia. The [[Aegean islands]] formed the province of [[Islands (Roman province)|Insulae]] in the [[Diocese of Asia]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}} [[File:Alaric_entering_Athens.jpg|thumb|Alaric entering Athens by [[Allan Stewart (artist)|Allan Stewart]], ca. 1915.]] Greece faced invasions from the [[Heruli]], [[Goths]], and [[Vandals]] during the reign of [[Theodosius I]]. [[Stilicho]], who pretended he was a regent for [[Arcadius]], evacuated Thessaly when the [[Visigoths]] invaded in the late 4th century. Arcadius' chief advisor [[Eutropius (consul 399)|Eutropius]] allowed [[Alaric I|Alaric]] to enter Greece, and he looted Athens, Corinth and the [[Peloponnese]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}} Stilicho eventually drove him out around 397 AD and Alaric was made ''[[magister militum]]'' in [[Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum|Illyricum]]. Eventually, Alaric and the Goths migrated to Italy, sacked Rome in 410, and built the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] in [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]], which lasted until 711 with the [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania|advent of the Arabs]].

Greece remained part of and became the center of the remaining relatively cohesive and robust eastern half of the Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire (now historiographically referred to as the [[Byzantine Empire]]), for nearly a thousand more years after the [[Fall of Rome]], the city which once conquered it.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}} [[File:The Roman Empire, AD 395.png|thumb|The Roman Empire in 395]] Contrary to outdated visions of [[late antiquity]], the Greek peninsula was most likely one of the most prosperous regions of the Roman Empire.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}} Older scenarios of poverty, depopulation, barbarian destruction, and civil decay have been revised in light of recent archaeological discoveries.<ref name="corinth">Rothaus, p. 10. "The question of the continuity of civic institutions and the nature of the ''polis'' in the late antique and early Byzantine world have become a vexed question, for a variety of reasons. Students of this subject continue to contend with scholars of earlier periods who adhere to a much-outdated vision of late antiquity as a decadent decline into impoverished fragmentation. The cities of late-antique Greece displayed a marked degree of continuity. Scenarios of barbarian destruction, civic decay, and manorialization simply do not fit. In fact, the city as an institution appears to have prospered in Greece during this period. It was not until the end of the 6th century (and maybe not even then) that the dissolution of the city became a problem in Greece. If the early 6th century ''Syndekmos'' of Hierocles is taken at face value, late-antique Greece was highly urbanized and contained approximately eighty cities. This extreme prosperity is born out by recent archaeological surveys in the Aegean. For late-antique Greece, a paradigm of prosperity and transformation is more accurate and useful than a paradigm of decline and fall."</ref> In fact, the [[polis]], as an institution, appears to have remained prosperous until at least the 6th century, despite the so-called 'decline and fall' in the west. Contemporary texts such as Hierocles' ''Syndekmos'' affirm that late antique Greece was highly urbanised and contained approximately eighty cities.<ref name="corinth" /> This view of broad prosperity is widely accepted today, and it is assumed between the 4th and 7th centuries AD, Greece continued as one of the most economically active regions in the eastern [[Mediterranean]].<ref name="corinth" />

The Roman emperor [[Heraclius]] in the early 7th century changed the empire’s official language from Latin to Greek. As the eastern half of the Mediterranean had always been predominantly Greek, the eastern (and thus the continuing) part of the Roman Empire gradually became Hellenized following the [[Historiography of the fall of the Western Roman Empire|fall of the Latin western empire]]. Over the course of the following centuries, mainland Greece was mainly contested between the Roman and Bulgarian Empires, and suffered from invasions by Slavic tribes and Normans. Crete and Cyprus were contested between the Romans and Arabs and were later taken by the Crusaders who, following the [[Sack of Constantinople]] in 1204, established the [[Latin Empire]] in Greece. The Romans retook Constantinople and re-established control in most of the Greek peninsula, although Epirus would remain an independent splinter state until the early 14th century when Roman control was re-established. As civil strife continued to beset the late-Byzantine empire, the Serbian Empire took the opportunity to conquer most of mainland Greece, while a resurgent Bulgarian Empire invaded from the north. In the century that followed, the [[Ottoman Empire]] would establish its dominance in the region, annexing all three empires and finishing its conquest of Greece with the fall of the Morea in 1460.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== * {{cite journal | last = Bernhardt | first = Rainer | title = Der Status des 146 v. Chr. unterworfenen Teils Griechenlands bis zur Einrichtung der Provinz Achaia |trans-title=The status of the part of Greece subjugated in 146 BC until the establishment of the province of Achaia| language = German | journal = Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte | volume = 26 | issue = 1 | year = 1977 | pages = 62–73 | jstor = 4435542 }} * Boardman, John ''The Oxford History of Greece & the Hellenistic World 2nd Edition'' [[Oxford University Press]], 1988. {{ISBN|0-19-280137-6}} * {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Greece|first=James David |last=Bourchier|year=1911}} * {{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/260307/Hellenistic-Age/26546/The-coming-of-Rome-225-133 |title=Hellenistic Age: The coming of Rome 225-133|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|year=2013|access-date=14 March 2026|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121220154224/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/260307/Hellenistic-Age/26546/The-coming-of-Rome-225-133|archive-date=20 December 2012|first=John |last=Ferguson }} * {{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/260307/Hellenistic-Age/26547/The-Greek-world-under-the-Roman-Empire|title=Hellenistic Age: The Greek world under the Roman Empire|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|year=2013a|access-date=14 March 2026|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121220112813/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/260307/Hellenistic-Age/26547/The-Greek-world-under-the-Roman-Empire|archive-date=20 December 2012|first=John |last=Ferguson }} * Francis, Jane E. and Anna Kouremenos ''Roman Crete: New Perspectives''. Oxford: Oxbow, 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-78570-095-8}} * {{cite journal |last=Kouremenos|first=Anna |title=PΩΜΑΙΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ ≠ Roman Occupation: (Mis)perceptions of the Roman Period in Greece |journal=Greece & Rome |series=Second Series|volume=66|issue=1 |date=April 2019 |pages=37–60 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |jstor=26782314 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26782314}} * {{Cite book |last=Holland |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Holland (author)|title=[[Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic]] |publisher=Abacus |year=2004 |isbn=0-349-11563-X |location=London}} * Kouremenos, Anna ''The Province of Achaea in the 2nd Century CE: The Past Present''. London and New York: Routledge, 2022. {{ISBN|1032014857}} * {{cite book|last=Lane Fox|first=Robin |year=2005|title=The Classical World|publisher=Penguin Books|ISBN =0-14-102141-1}} * {{cite book |last=Nigdelis|first=Pandelis|url=https://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/HistoryOfMacedonia/Downloads/History%20Of%20Macedonia_EN-03.pdf|title=History of Macedonia|chapter=III. Roman Macedonia (168 BC - AD 284)|year=2007|publisher=[[Museum for the Macedonian Struggle (Thessaloniki)]]}} * {{cite journal |last1=Papazoglou |first1=F. |title=Quelques aspects de l'histoire de la province de Macédoine |journal=ANRW |date=1979 |volume=ii.7.1 |pages=302–369}} *Rothaus, Richard M. ''Corinth: The First City of Greece''. Brill, 2000. {{ISBN|90-04-10922-6}} * {{Cite book|last=Ursin|first=Frank|title=Freiheit, Herrschaft, Widerstand. Griechische Erinnerungskultur in der Hohen Kaiserzeit (1.-3. Jahrhundert n. Chr.)|trans-title=Freedom, rule, resistance. The Greek culture of remembrance in the High Imperial Period (1st-3rd century AD)|publisher=Steiner|location=Stuttgart|year=2019|isbn=978-3-515-12163-7}} * {{cite book |last1=Vanderspoel |first1=John |editor1-last=Roisman |editor1-first=Joseph |editor2-last=Worthington |editor2-first=Ian |title=A companion to ancient Macedonia |date=2010 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |location=Chichester, West Sussex, U.K. |isbn=978-1-405-17936-2 |chapter=''Provincia Macedonia'' |pages=251–275}}

== External links ==

* [http://www.civilization.org.uk/greece/roman-and-later-greece/ Roman Greece paying full attention to the archaeological evidence]

[[Category:Greece in the Roman era| ]]