Afree city(Latin:civitas libera, urbs liberae condicionis;Greek:ἐλευθέρα καὶ αὐτόνομος πόλις)[1]was a self-governed city during theHellenisticandRoman Imperialeras. The status was given by the king or emperor, who nevertheless supervised the city's affairs through hisepistatesorcurator(Greek:epimeletes) respectively. Several autonomous cities had also the right to issue civic coinage bearing the name of the city.
History
editExamples of free cities includeAmphipolis,which after 357 BC remained permanently a free and autonomous city inside theMacedonian kingdom;[2]and probably alsoCassandreiaandPhilippi.
UnderSeleucidrule, numerous cities enjoyed autonomy and issued coins; some of them, likeSeleuciaandTarsuscontinued to be free cities, even after the Roman conquest byPompey.Nicopoliswas also constituted a free city by Augustus, its founder.[3]Thessalonicaafter thebattle of Philippi,was made a free city in 42 BC, when it had sided with the victors.[4]Athens,a free city with its own laws, appealed toHadrianto devise new laws which he modelled on those given byDracoandSolon.[5]
Autonomi[6]or ratherAutonomoiwas the name given by the Greeks to those states which were governed by their own laws, and were not subject to any foreign power.[7]This name was also given to those cities subject to the Romans, which were permitted to enjoy their own laws, and elect their own magistrates.[8]This permission was regarded as a great privilege, and mark of honour; and it is accordingly found recorded on coins and medals (e.g. Metropolis of the Antiochians autonomous).[9]
References
edit- ^IG II² 3301-ἡ πόλις Παλέων τῆς Κεφαληνίας ἐλευθέρα καὶ αὐτόνομος διὰ ἐπιμελητοῦPale city (of Paleans) (modernPaliki) on Kefalonia honoursTrajan.
- ^Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, Guy Thompson Griffith, and Frank William Walbank. A History of Macedonia: Volume II: 550-336 B.C. Clarendon Press, 1979, Page 351,ISBN0-19-814814-3
- ^The Greek city from Alexander to Justinian ByArnold Hugh Martin Jones.p. 129 (1940)
- ^The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians By George Gillanders Findlay Page 10ISBN1-4372-9209-7(2008)
- ^Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire By Frank Frost AbbottPage 412ISBN1-4067-3900-6(2007)
- ^
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Smith, William,ed. (1870).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.London: John Murray.{{cite encyclopedia}}:Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^(Thuc. v. 18, 27; Xen. Hell. v. 1. § 31.)
- ^(Omnes suis legibus et judiciis usae autonomian adeptae, revixerunt.Cicero.Ad Atticum.vi. 2)
- ^Ezechiel Spanheim.Dissertationes de praestantia et usu numismatum. p. 789. Amst. 1671.)
- Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire By Mary T BoatwrightISBN0-691-09493-4
See also
edit- Panhellenion
- Free imperial cityof the German Holy Roman Empire
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