Athens and Rome: Public Inscriptions and Monuments in the Athenian Asty between Sulla and Antony

Abstract

The article examines the activity of the Athenian institutions in the years between the city’s involvement in the events of the First Mithridatic war (88-86 BCE) and the visits of Antony to the city (42-38 BCE). It deals particularly with the changes occurred in the forms of expression of the traditional political vitality of the city. A focus to the increased care for public honours – especially for honours bestowed on Roman men and women – is the occasion to analyse the renovated aspects of the Agora and the Acropolis, where new monuments were set up and old or damaged buildings underwent restorations. Epigraphic evidences about the works undertaken in the precinct of the Asklepieion - on the southern slopes of the Acropolis - give information about the efforts made by wealthy private citizens and priests to revitalize the ritual activities in the site decades before the extensive restorations of the Augustan age. Texts dealing with political constitutions and judicial regulations will also be discussed in order to evaluate the possible existence of new lawcourts’ districts in the city.