OLIVER, JAMES H., Civic Status in Roman Athens: Cicero, "Pro Balbo" 12.30 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:1 (1981:Spring) p.83 Civic Status in Roman Athens: Cicero, Pro Balbo 12.30 tJames H. Oliver I N THE MOST IMPRESSIVE WAY he could for Romans Cicero expressed his criticism of the way politically unaware fellow­ citizens of his audience were behaving in accepting Athenian ci tizenshi p: ... vidi egomet nonnullos imperitos homines, nostros civis, Athenis in numero iudicum atque Areopagitarum, certa tribu, certo numero, cum ignorarent, si illam civitatem essent adepti, hanc se perdidisse, nisi postliminio reciperassent (Pro Balbo 12.30). In this period politically sophisticated Romans like his friend At­ ticus would never have accepted Athenian citizenship because they knew the rule against dual citizenship apart from the Roman and municipal, as well as the archaic Roman law about postliminium; 1 but new citizens from Campania and other places followed a wide­ spread Hellenistic custom of welcoming citizenship in the foreign communities where they worked and largely resided. The terms are in numero iudicum atque Areopagitarum, se­ condly certa tribu, thirdly certo numero. The problem is to define precisely what these three terms suggested to Romans of 56 B.C. and then to define the Athenian realities which the Latin terms translated. 1. In numero iudicum atque Areopagitarum Two generations later a Roman might have thought at once of the destinating centuries first revealed to us by the Tabula Hebana,2 1 On the legal question involved the reader will find a good account by F. de Visscher, "La dualite des droits de cite et la 'mutatio civitatis'," Studi in onore di Pietro De Francisci I (Milan 1954) 39-62. On the right of subsequent return see H. Kreller, RE 22 (1953) 868-73 s.v. "Postliminium." 2 J. H. Oliver and R. E. A. Palmer, "Text of the Tabula Hebana," AJP 75 (1954) 225-49, conveniently available also in V. Ehrenberg and A. H. M. Jones, Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius no. 94a. The fifty here pertinent lines are given also by L. R. Taylor, Roman Voting Assemblies (Ann Arbor 1966) 159-63. Further discussion and 83 OLIVER, JAMES H., Civic Status in Roman Athens: Cicero, "Pro Balbo" 12.30 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:1 (1981:Spring) p.83 84 CIVIC STATUS IN ROMAN ATHENS which consisted of senatores et equites omnium decuriarum, quae iudicior(um) publicor(um) caussa constitutae sunt erun [t] (line 8) or senatores itemq(ue) equites omnium decuria[rum, quae iudil ciorum publi]corum gratia constitutae sunt erunt (11-12). Even in Cicero's day every Roman would think of judicial knights and senators at Rome as the men with an important and privileged position, the kind who took precedence, occupying front seats in the theatre, etc., the first men in the state. A reality at Athens certainly existed, but the iudices are not at all well known. IG IF 1732 and 1733 contain catalogues of four brzJ18Arrrai blKaCTr1]piwv, but who were empaneled in juries and for what sort of cases we do not know. Apparently the old courts of the classical period no longer continued, and the poor were no longer attracted by the offer of pay. It would seem that in Cicero's time a select list of jurors shared distinctions with the Areopagites, but it is unknown whether this was true at all times in the last sixty or seventy years before 21 B.C. 3 or whether the influence of this or a similar conservative group fluctuated during the ideological shifts which occurred from the Mithradatic period down to the settle­ ment made by Athens under the pressure of Augustus. Between 10615 B.C. (IG IF 1011.42) and 101/0 B.C. (IG IF 1028) the cosmete ceased to give his report ev reP blKaCTr1]picp and began to make it before the council. 4 In the second half of 8918 Athenion in his attack on the Romans in the speech reconstructed by Posidonius called for an end to the Roman senate's interference in the way Athenians governed themselves, and he complained of temples closed, gymnasia in decay, the theatre devoid of assemblies, the jury-courts silent, the Pnyx taken from the People.s The senate had not really done all that, but the Romans created a timocratic atmo­ sphere at Athens,6 before and after. A revolution occurred. 7 After Sulla's restoration of controls a democratic revival of some sort seems to have coincided with the arrival of Brutus and Cassius in 44 B.C. but did not long outlast the Battle of Philippi.8 There were bibliography by D. Flach, "Destinatio und nominatio im friihen Prinzipat," Chiron 6 (1976) 193-203. 3 See J. H. Oliver, "From Gennitai to Curiales," Hesperia 49 (1980) 30-56 on pp. 43-48. 4 W. S. Ferguson, Athenian Tribal Cycles (Cambridge [Mass.] 1932) 147-55. 5 W. S. Ferguson, Hellenistic Athens (London 1911) 440-44. 6 S. Accame, 11 dominio romano in Grecia dalla Guerra Acaica ad Augusto (Rome 1946) 163-74. 7 E. Badian, "Rome, Athens and Mithridates," AJAH 1 (1976) 105-28. 8 According to Accame (supra n.6) 175-77. OLIVER, JAMES H., Civic Status in Roman Athens: Cicero, "Pro Balbo" 12.30 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:1 (1981:Spring) p.83 JAMES H. OLIVER 85 other swings of the pendulum but not of permanent importance in the general development toward the stability established in 21 B.C. 9 These changes to and from moderate republicanism affected the courts as well as other parts of the system, but we are not in a position to say precisely how. The existence of a privileged group consisting of iudices atque Areopagitae, however, speaks for itself. When one searches for later evidence of a group of privileged citizens at Athens, one finds it in the second half of the second century after Christ. The so-called Eleusinian Endowment ca A.D. 16210 treats as specially privileged citizens those of POVAW7:lKr, d~ia, which apparently means those of Areopagitic status, to whom are added various other dignitaries, male and female. By this date the Athenian honestiores, if one can describe them thus, were primarily Areopagites but were by no means exclusively Areopagites; the others, however, were no longer described as jurors, whether the jurors had ceased to exist or had been displaced or crowded by other persons of privilege not grouped under a separate label. Whether the Athenian courts mentioned by Marcus Aurelius in the 'letter' of a famous inscription 11 operated with jurors we do not know surely, and if they did, whether they still belonged to the honestiores. The most important evidence comes in the Great Catalogue from the Eleusinion at Athens, which Geagan dates attractively in 190/1, the panegyriarchy of Commodus. 12 The catalogue, when complete, is thought to have held ca 700 names (all masculine) grouped by tribes, each tribal panel labeled 'EpeXBelbor; 'Apeonayel­ raz, KeKponibor; 'Apeonayerral, etc. Though the tribal panels are not subdivided by a second label into Areopagites and non-Areo­ pagites, there is a sign of some distinction within each tribal panel. This is significant because ca 700 is too large a number to repre­ sent the real Areopagites alone.!3 Column V, headed KeKponibor; 9 The crucial date at Athens was 21 rather than 27 B.C. in respect to the way the Athenian constitution was to function under the principate (supra n.3). 10 Hesperia 21 (1952) 381-99, especially 382 lines 43f. 11 Hesperia Supp!. 13 (1970) no. 1 and RevPhil 53 (1979) 29-43. 12 The text is published by D. J. Geagan, The Athenian Constitution after Sulla (Hesperia Supp!. 12 [1967]) 163-86, but for the date and a mature analysis see his restudy in ZPE 33 (1979) 93-115. Further comments by J. H. Oliver will be found in Hesperia 49 (1980) 54f n.59. 13 Since the Areopagus was recruited from ex-archons, there would have been 270 new Areopagites at the most in thirty years. While a few of these would have been archons in their thirties, most of them were perhaps in their forties and fifties. With the high death rate of antiquity many would have died within thirty years of their archonships. It is hard to OLIVER, JAMES H., Civic Status in Roman Athens: Cicero, "Pro Balbo" 12.30 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:1 (1981:Spring) p.83 86 CIVIC STATUS IN ROMAN ATHENS 'ApeonayeiTUl, begins with the name 0 Kpa(Tl(JTo~) KA(avc5lO~) B1'fpaTlav6~. One expects the Areopagite who has a Roman predi­ cate of rank to head the list, but in Column II the three 'Areopa­ gites' or associate Areopagites with Roman predicates of rank come lower down in the group as the ninth, tenth, and eleventh names in the register of the tribe [Pandionis]. The distinction is clear: the first eight names of the tribe [Pandionis] are those of genuine Areopagites, while a new list of those with Areopagitic status begins with the ninth name. Where a Roman predicate of rank is missing, there is no way for a modern reader to tell how many in any panel are genuine Areopagites and how many are honorary associates or potential Areopagites waiting for archon­ ships. The ancient Athenians would often have recognized the names of ex-archons. 14 2. Certa tribu The audience addressed by Cicero were not to think that he was talking about mere courtesies. The Athenians did not limit them­ selves in the case of these Italians to honors like front seats in the theatre. The Italians were actually enrolled in Athenian tribes. What the tribe meant to a Roman may be examined in L. R. Tay­ lor's splendid book, The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic (1960). The reality at Athens, too well known for a description here, meant enrollment in deme and tribe. There were at this pe­ riod twelve tribes, ten Cleisthenean and two post-Cleisthenean (Ptolemais and Attalis). 3. Certo numero The scholiast on a line of Persius (5.73) remarked, "At Rome it was the custom that all who on manumission became Roman citizens should receive public grain of Roman citizens in their number" (or "public grain in a group of Roman citizens with an identifying number"), Romae autem erat consuetudo, ut omnes qui ex manumissione cives Romani {iebant, in numero civium Romanorum frumentum publicum acciperent (ed. Leo). Cicero's believe that the Areopagus ever had more than about 300 members. The membership may have been normally less. 14 The man who had the list engraved attached no importance to distinguishing more sharply the genuine Areopagites from those of merely Areopagitic status. A long-time priest at the altar, he himself was probably not a genuine Areopagite but enjoyed the status. OLIVER, JAMES H., Civic Status in Roman Athens: Cicero, "Pro Balbo" 12.30 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:1 (1981:Spring) p.83 JAMES H. OLIVER 87 certo numero, accordingly, refers to the assignment of an Italian to a precise section of the list of those eligible for frumentationes, the subject of an excellent new book by G. Rickman, The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome (Oxford 1980). Just how one got on the list in 56 B.C. is not clear, but the list of those with a right to public grains was considerably smaller than the list of Roman citizens. Admission to the list was closely connected with domicile at Rome, and the phrase certo numero amounted to a climax in Cicero's triad. Cicero implies: "These fellow-citizens of ours had not only accepted privileges and full citizenship at Athens but had estab­ lished their domicile in Attica after a mutatio civitatis." While at Rome frumentationes were limited to grain until the third century after Christ, distributions in Greece were offered in various types of food and drink. For the Julio-Claudian period the Epaminondas inscription at Acraephia 15 illustrates the variety, though Epaminondas in his magnificent gesture did not limit him­ self to citizens of Acraephia but included foreigners, resident aliens, and even slaves. One might draw a distinction between private munificence on a single or repeated occasion such as prescribed in the Eleusinian Endowment or implied by the banquets of Claudius Atticus (Philostr. VS 2.3) and the kind of distributions fixed by order of the city such as are called Ix n6Aew~ in the Athenian de­ crees in honor of Eubiotus Leurus16 around A.D. 230. The reality at Athens was doubtless less than the climactic phrase certo numero suggested to Cicero's audience. As far as we can tell, there is no evidence of a list other than that of members of a deme or members of privileged groups. By substituting numero for a word like vico Cicero achieved a climax without much distortion because origi­ nally the Cleisthenean deme and the Roman numerus represented neighborhoods. 17 In conclusion we translate the Latin sentence of Cicero roughly as follows: "I myself have seen at Athens some unaware persons, fellow-citizens of ours, in the group of jurors and Areopagites, with assignment to a definite tribe, to a definite section of public food recipients, in ignorance that while they had obtained the citizenship there, they had lost the citizenship here, unless they had lS GRBS 12 (1971) 221-36. 16 ZPE 38 (1980) 107-14. 17 The notion of modern commentators (J. S. Reid [Cambridge 1890] 74 and many others) that certo numero had something to do with the dicast tickets of the classical period is an absurd non-explanation; reference to numbered dicast tickets, even if they still existed in the Roman period, would have offered no climax-who would have cared? OLIVER, JAMES H., Civic Status in Roman Athens: Cicero, "Pro Balbo" 12.30 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:1 (1981:Spring) p.83 88 CIVIC STATUS IN ROMAN ATHENS recovered it by right of subsequent return." The English rendering weakens the implications of the pregnant Latin. The existence of a group at Athens known as 'jurors and Areo­ pagites' is in accord with the suggestion in Hesperia 49 (1980) 44 n.23 that the idea of the destinating centuries in the Tabula Hebana, which preselected candidates for consulship and praetor­ ship, may have come from the Athenian experience of Augustus and others in 21-19 B.C. 1S The direction in which the Areopagitic status was moving may be illuminated by comparing the catalogue from the Eleusinion with the Roman senate of A.D. 476-483. 19 The most striking dif­ ference is the dominance of the Cleisthenean (and post-Cleisthe­ nean) tribes upon the system at Athens and the total absence of tribes at Rome. Athens has not moved as far from the classical tradition as Rome has from the old Republic. That is hardly sur­ prising around A.D. 190. The similarities are much more signifi­ cant, first that they both contain names of true senators (illustres)20 and genuine Areopagites but also the names of members of the senatorial and Areopagitic orders who were not eligible to vote in the corporations, and secondly that neither list contained names of women. Both lists are those of the aristocracy as represented in choice places up front at public celebrations. There were appar­ ently 300 to 600 of these senators, and they show that the prestige of the senate lasted until Odoacer, who sought to attract and who relied on the aristocracy, as Commodus did at Athens. BALTIMORE, MARYLAND November, I980 18 It is conceivable that the Athenian iudices here coupled with the Areopagites were a standing court for public cases drawn like the iudices whom Flamininus prescribed for Thessaly (Livy 34.51.6, a censu maxime et senatum et iudices legit). The writer will not speculate on this. Traces of iudices with official functions elsewhere are noted by J. Toulou­ makos, Historia 18 (1969) 407-21. 19 See A. Chastagnol, "Les inscriptions des gradins senatoriaux du Colisee," Akte des IV. Intern. Kongr. fur gr. und lat. Epigraphik (Vienna 1964) 63-71; and Le Senat romain so us Ie regne d'Odoacre: Recherches sur l' epigraphie du Colisee au ve sieele (Antiquitas III.3 [Bonn 1961]). 20 The spectabiles and elarissimi of praetorian rank-these last might have been children of ten or fifteen years, after the age for praetorship had been lowered-had been made to accept second-row seats with their paedagogues from the third century on. They were chil­ dren from families of illustres (Chastagnol, Senat 47f). The names of those who belonged to the Areopagitic order but could not vote were not necessarily those of children of the real Areopagites, in 190. At least no indication of such paternity has been pointed out.